There Is Still One Card That Earns Bonus Points On PPDG Purchases!

CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Card Earns 2X On PPDG Purchases

PayPal Digital Gifts (PPDG) is a big area of spend for many people in this hobby, or at least it used to be.  They sell reduced priced gift cards on eBay as well as on their own site.  In the past you were able to earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points on these purchases but that dried up around a year ago.  Until now there didn’t seem to be a card that coded as a bonus on these purchases.  I can confirm that the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card earns 2x on PPDG purchases.

Details

When the news first broke that PPDG no longer coded as 5X for Ultimate Rewards I was devastated.  It was one of the things I miss most in this hobby.  I compiled a list of options to replace using your Ink+ or Chase Ink Cash card for these purchases.  None of those options earned bonuses on the purchase though.  They were just the best options for non bonused spend.  It looks like there is now an option out there.

As you may know my wife and I recently applied for the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card.  While working on the minimum spend requirement for our welcome offers I made a couple of purchases with PPDG on eBay. When I saw our statements I saw some bonus miles appear that I couldn’t account for.  First on my statement and then on hers.  It was hard to decipher what purchases the bonus miles applied to on mine but it was easy to see on hers.

Here is her mileage update on her American Airlines account.  It actually gives more detail than on the Citi website or her credit card statement.

Here is the corresponding purchase on her statement.

And here is the info from my American Airlines account.  I couldn’t quite piece together what equaled the 260 until I knew for sure PPDG was coding as a bonus.  It looks like Microsoft purchases from Xbox Live also count just in case you were wondering ;).

Conclusion

I know 2X is not as good as 5X but it is twice as good as 1X.  You can already earn 2X on this purchase with the American Express Blue Business Plus card but Membership Rewards points only go so far for American flyers.  This is a decent way to rack up American Airlines miles for anyone who is into reselling merchandise or gift cards.

Both purchases were made on eBay using PayPal for the purchase.  I would assume it codes as a bonus on PPDG direct purchases too. If you are often in need of American Airlines miles this could be a way to pad your accounts.  The welcome offer recently dropped on the business card from 70,000 miles to 60,000 miles (with a lot more spend).  Hopefully you were able to get the card before the offer dropped.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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