Safeway

Alaska Residents Earn Frequent Flyer Miles on Groceries!

Set it and forget it. Earn Alaska Air miles at Safeway
Set it and forget it. Earn Alaska Air miles at Safeway.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Safeway have partnered to allow Alaska residents and visitors to earn frequent flyer miles shopping for groceries.

This is one of those “set it and forget it” deals.  You won’t earn a ton of miles, but rather can get a steady stream of miles that can keep your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan balance growing and active.

Alaska Airlines Shop & Fly — Here’s the Deal

If you are a Safeway or Carrs Club Card member, you can earn air miles when you grocery shop in the state of Alaska with your Safeway Club Card.

Once you enroll online at http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/Alaska-Air.page, you can earn 100 Mileage Plan miles for every $300 you spend on eligible purchases.  Carr’s shoppers can enroll here.

That’s not a ton of miles, but it is essentially free miles.

There are a few catches.  Your enrollment expires after one year, so you need to remember to enroll again annually.

Also, big ticket items are excluded from earning miles.  For example:

Beer, Wine, Spirits, Tobacco, Fuel, Milk, Prescriptions, Bus Passes, Fishing/Hunting Licenses, Postage Stamps, Money Orders, Lottery Tickets, Phone Cards, Gift Cards, and Sales Tax.  

This isn’t the motherlode of airline miles, but for the minimal effort required, it may be worthwhile for some readers.

An Easy Way Earn a Free Trip Just by Shopping for Groceries

Staples Now Sells Safeway Gift Cards
Staples Now Sells Safeway Gift Cards

According to the USDA, an average family of four spends upwards of $1000 per month on groceries.

What if you could save five percent of that cost?

Better yet, what if you could earn 60,000 frequent flyer miles each year just from your grocery spending?

Since I’ve never seen this mentioned elsewhere, I wanted point out that Staples.com is now selling Safeway gift cards.

If you purchase Safeway gift cards with an small business credit card that pays five times points on office supply store purchases, such as a Chase Ink card, you can accumulate five percent cash back or five times points for travel.

Staples.com sells two types of Safeway gift cards in several denominations up to $200 — emailed cards, and actual plastic gift cards.  There is a mailing fee of $2.00 per card for the plastic version.

I have been buying these cards for sometime, and have only encountered two Safeway cashiers that know how to use the emailed version of the gift cards.  So if you opt for the paper gift cards, be prepared to endure the wrath of shoppers standing in line behind you!

Did you know about this deal before reading this post?

Safeway Offers $15 Rebate on Purchase of $200 of MasterCard Gift Cards

Save $15 on Purchase of MasterCard Gift Card at Safeway
Save $15 on Purchase of MasterCard Gift Card at Safeway

Safeway stores are offering $15 off your next grocery purchase when you buy $200 worth of MasterCard gift cards now through September 15, 2015.

This deal may make sense if you need to make the minimum spend requirement on a new credit card, or if you have a credit card that earns bonus points for supermarket purchases.

MasterCard gift cards are hard to cash out, so think of as an opportunity to spread out your minimum spend requirement over several months.

This deal requires you to purchase two $100 gift cards.  Each gift card carries a $5.95 fee.

You will receive a coupon for $15 off your next Safeway purchase of $25 or more.

The coupon may have a near in expiration date, so you might want to buy the gift card first, and then proceed to do your grocery shopping while applying the $15 off coupon.

UPDATE:  MilestoMemories has offered a clarification below.  You really need to read the fine print before jumping on a deal.  His clarification means that this is not much of a deal!