Shopping online this holiday season? Read this first!

— -- With holiday shopping around the corner, it's time to address one of the recurring tragedies of the season. (No, not your Aunt Sadie's annual fruit cake). Today I'd like to address the calamity of those millions of bonus frequent flier miles that people forgo each year because they forget to buy from their favorite online merchants via links at the airlines' shopping mall websites.

Note that I said bonus frequent flier miles. No, I am not talking about the paltry one mile per dollar that many people earn by using their airline-affiliated credit cards. (I only emphasize this because when I talk about this to friends and sometimes total strangers, most of whom have no idea this is even possible, their eyes glaze over and they stop listening because their interior monologue is saying "Yeah, yeah, I already get miles with my credit card.")

No. We're talking four miles per dollar here. We're talking ten miles per dollar. Even more with some merchants.

I'm one of those sad cases. Before I got wise, I would simply go to Apple.com to buy a new $3,000 iMac or a $1,000 piece of furniture from Crate and Barrel's website. Not a smart move. Now I get bonus miles for virtually everything I buy.

Some merchants even let you earn miles by shopping in store or by phone rather than online. You just have to register your credit cards with the store via United's site.

Is there a catch? No. The price you pay for a new iMac via Apple's website is exactly the same as the price via the airlines' sites.

Hundreds of online merchants participate in these mileage offers. Here are some current deals from various merchants and airlines -- all were available as I wrote this but are subject to change:

Delta Airlines

• 2 miles/$1 at Crate and Barrel

• 2 miles/$1 at iTunes.com

• 4 miles/$1 at Drugstore.com

• 2 miles/$1 at Overstock.com

• 3,000 miles at ADT Home Security

• 300 miles at T-Mobile

United (Continental) Airlines

• 12 miles/$1 at 1-800-BASKETS.com

• 3 miles/$1 at Nordstrom

• 3 miles/$1 at Sephora

• 1 mile/$1 at Apple

• 2 miles/$1 at Avon

• 3,000 miles at ADT Home Security (conditions apply)

• 3 miles/$1 at Bluefly.com

American Airlines

• 4 miles/$1 at Old Navy

• 2 miles/$1 at Walmart

• 5 miles/$1 at Nordstrom

• 11 miles/$1 at Teleflora

• 4 miles/$1 at Drugstore.com

• 6 miles/$1 at The Body Shop

US Airways

• 4 miles/$1 at Drugstore.com

• 4 miles/$1 at Jos. A. Bank

• 2 miles/$1 at Old Navy

JetBlue

• 2 points/$1 at Nordstrom

• 1 point/$3 at Apple

• 1 point/$1 at Godiva

• 200 points/new or renewed pre-paid service at Verizon Wireless

Everyday purchases, not just holiday gifts, qualify for miles, too. Do you regularly buy your contacts from 1800Contacts.com? Why not get extra miles for every dollar spent? Are you a frequent buyer at Drugstore.com? Petmeds? If you buy via their site directly, you get no miles; get there via an airline shopping mall page and you might get as many as 10 miles per $1 spent when there's an extra bonus offer. And keep in mind that airline mall shopping is a painless way to keep your frequent flier miles from going stale, since each purchase, even a 99-cent song at iTunes.com, extends your miles' expiration date.