【2016/2】Thanks to reader Yurt for the heads-up: these two newspaper links have now been removed from the AA portal. We hope AA will still honor the miles for previous subscribers. Many cashback shopping portals offer promotions where newspaper subscriptions earn miles. Today, an article from Doctor of Credit highlighted Presidents Day deals on two Dow Jones financial newspapers, WSJ and Barrons. For just $1, you can subscribe for 12 weeks, either digital or print, while the rewards offered by various portals are worth far more than $1. In effect, you can spend $1 to buy a large number of points or miles.
Contents [Hide]
Cashback Monitor links
Wall Street Journal: Link Barrons: LinkTerms of the $1 promotion
Both newspapers require that you have not been a subscriber to either paper within the past 180 days in order to qualify for the $1/12-week price. However, that requirement is unrelated to earning portal cashback or miles, so as long as you create a new account and can see the $1 price, you should be fine. The price shown in the AA portal was incorrect: the price on the WSJ website is $1 for 12 weeks, not $1 per week.
Earning miles
Some of the best options are 1,300 AA AAdvantage miles and 1,200 UA MileagePlus miles, if you have a Chase UA card. In addition, WSJ can earn 1,100 Alaska Mileage Plan miles or Southwest Rapid Rewards points. If you subscribe to both newspapers, you can get 2,600 AA AAdvantage miles or 2,400 UA MileagePlus miles.
How to subscribe
The easiest method is to click the Cashback Monitor links above, log in to the portal, and then click through the shopping link. We recommend the digital-only version to save paper. Since both newspapers are owned by Dow Jones, the account can be shared, so once you create an account for the first one, you can use it to subscribe to both papers. Of course, you can also create multiple accounts. It should be fine to earn all of the UA and AA miles this way. We are less certain about subscribing to the same newspaper multiple times through the same airline portal.
Summary
This is an extremely good deal. If you open two Dow Jones accounts, then for $4 you can buy quite a few UA and AA miles. Just be sure to set a reminder on your calendar. We suggest canceling after 10 weeks to avoid being charged the regular rate, which is much more expensive. Have you ever “bought” airline miles this way? Share your thoughts in the comments.