Okay, there is a pretty big catch with this deal, but I’m going to show you how it’s possible to get 7 points per dollar on all of your Amazon purchases.

Clicking through a shopping portal before doing your online shopping is one of the easiest and best ways to rack up a ton of miles and points. Most of the major airlines and some hotels have dedicated shopping portals that will reward you with multiple points per dollar just for starting your shopping on the site.

I usually check a site called Cashbackmonitor before buying anything online. You just type in the name of the store you’re going to be shopping at, and it will tell you the best payouts for that store.

For a relatively short period of time between the end of 2016 and March of 2018, it was possible to get 3x JetBlue TrueBlue points for every dollar spent on Amazon, just by clicking on a link on JetBlue’s website. This was in addition to any credit card points you would also earn. It was a surprising but beneficial partnership for many people, myself included, that enabled you to basically earn free points for purchases you were going to make anyway.

Amazon has historically been a difficult place to earn points consistently, mainly because they don’t need to incentivize people to shop there. Although it’s possible to receive some cashback on very limited categories, as you can see in this screenshot from Cashbackmonitor, miles and points earning at Amazon is non existent. Except for the one way that I’m going to tell you about!

Although JetBlue eliminated the ability to earn TrueBlue points while shopping at Amazon from home, they still do allow you to earn 3x points per dollar at Amazon another way.

The catch is that you need to be on a JetBlue flight while you’re shopping.

I understand this will not be useful for many, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you do fly JetBlue, or if you have any flights in the future.

You can see the terms and conditions here, but one nice thing about these points is that most regular purchases qualify, whereas many popular categories are excluded when you use cashback portals.

Just be sure you have a Trueblue account, and that you log into the JetBlue Fly-fi with those credentials before you navigate to Amazon to make your purchases.

So, while those 3 points per dollar are available only when you are on a JetBlue flight, the other 4 points per dollar are possible every time you buy from Amazon.

The way I do it is with the American Express Gold card. The earning structure on the card gives you 4 Membership Rewards (MR) points per dollar at grocery stores. Most of the bigger name grocery stores have become major brokers in 3rd party giftcards, and Amazon is usually one of the choices.

So, you are not necessarily getting the 4 MR points per dollar at the time of your Amazon purchase, but rather at the time you buy the giftcard, providing you purchase it at a grocery store. JetBlue doesn’t care how you pay for your Amazon purchase in-flight, so use the giftcard, and you will be earning a total of 7 points per dollar.

4 Membership Rewards points for the purchase of the Amazon gift card with your Amex Gold at a grocery store, and 3 JetBlue TrueBlue points on the actual Amazon inflight purchase.

It’s worth noting that it’s not a good idea to go overboard purchasing huge amounts of gift cards of any type with your Amex cards. Amex has been known to shut people down, and close accounts, for abuse of the rewards program. In moderation is usually fine. I’ll throw in a couple hundred dollars of Amazon gift cards when I buy groceries, and I’ve never had a problem.

Final Thoughts:

This won’t be for everybody, but not every deal is. For anyone that flies JetBlue on occasion, and also tends to shop at Amazon, it’s worth holding off, especially large purchases, and then making them during your flight. If you use a gift card bought with the American Express Gold card at a supermarket, it’s possible to get 7 points per dollar on your Amazon purchases.

I value Membership Rewards points at 1.25 cents each (the cash equivalent if you have a Schwab Amex Platinum). JetBlue points have a semi-fixed value of around 1.4 cents each, so that’s a return of more than 9% on your Amazon purchases, which is a very solid return!

Please note: the Amex referral links are my personal referral links. If you use my link and are approved, I will get a small bonus in the form of points. Thanks!