Donate to disaster relief, get a frequent flyer bonus

If you’re fortunate enough to count yourself among the South Floridians who are able to contribute to relief from hurricanes Irma and Harvey, consider a way that also generates frequent-flyer miles for you.

American Airlines and United Airlines are offering bonuses to members of their frequent-flyer programs. Specifically, American through Sept. 24 promises 10 bonus miles for every dollar donated, with a minimum $25 donation. That’s 250 bonus miles in return for giving $25. To get the deal, you must go to AA.com and click on “Support the Red Cross.” Or go directly to bit.ly/AAgive.

United is offering a one-time mileage bonus in return for giving at least $50 through its Crowdrise page at Crowdrise.com/ UnitedRelief. If you donate up to $99, you’ll receive 250 bonus miles. Bigger donations bring more miles — $100 to $249 brings 500 bonus miles; $250 and up earns 1,000 bonus miles.

Giving the thrifty way: If you prefer to give away some of your languishing frequent-flyer miles to help disaster relief efforts, you can do so through Southwest, American, Delta and United airlines and possibly others. Examples: American and United airlines require donating at least 1,000 miles (to the Red Cross); Southwest Airlines has a 2,000-mile minimum. Log into your frequent-flyer account to make the transfer.

Is Whole Foods cheap now? Now that Amazon with great fanfare recently acquired famously expensive Whole Foods, the question is whether the chain now is safe for those watching their budgets, especially fans of Aldi and Trader Joe’s.

Answer: “The average shopper will barely notice any savings in their weekly grocery bill at least in the short run,” deemed the consumer site Mouseprint.org after making three trips to a Boston-area Whole Foods. Elsewhere, a New York Times reporter bought five items — eggs, a bag of avocados, bananas, butter and almond butter — at a Whole Foods store before and after the Amazon takeover. The second price tab, $24.04, was about $4 lower. Not a screaming deal, in other words, especially if you don’t want to pay $6.99 for avocados anyway, but it’s something.

While “you can’t call it Whole Paycheck anymore,” according to Seattle Times reporter Bethany Jean Clement, her price comparisons for 13 items at competing stores found “not much difference among all the stores, with prices on some basics a little higher, and some a little lower, at each one.”

Cutting Corners appears on Sundays in Community News. Have a tip? Email cutcorner@aol.com.