Sorry, I can't figure out how to categorize these without making my index to the left too large. But some of the easiest ways to accumulate miles are on this page. For example, all of your credit cards should be registered with an iDine® program, and some of the surveys are very easy ways to earn free miles. And be sure to read the very last entry on this page.

• How best to use the program
• Specific offers

Change in program for 2008: Each program has a link to a page that describes the changes, but in general you will earn

• 1 mile/$1 spent if you don't do any of the below.
• 3 miles/$1 spent if you elect to receive emails from the program. Everyone should do this.
• 5 miles/$1 spent if you elect to receive emails from the program and you have 12 or more qualified transactions in the calendar year. That's probably 12 dines before you earn the extra miles; that is, it is probably not retroactive, though this is far from clear. If you earned top status in 2007, you need only sign up for emails from the program to earn these miles throughout 2008.
• Be sure you have enough dines within one program to qualify for the maximum miles.
• Consider buying gift certificates at your favorite iDine® restaurant before the deadline in order to get 10 miles per $1 you will spend after the deadline.

Register up to five credit cards with one of the airlines' iDine® programs listed below. When you charge a meal to one of those cards at any of the 9,500 (and growing) restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, you receive up to 5 miles per dollar spent. You are already paying for this program through the price of the meal when you dine at any iDine® restaurant. So you should register the card you use to pay for meals with one of the programs below in order to get your money's worth from the restaurant.

Cautions:

• Restaurants on the iDine® program come and go very rapidly. Always check the list just before you go to the restaurant. Also, some restaurants are listed on only some of the airlines' iDine® programs. Always check the specific list of restaurants for the airline program for which you plan to earn iDine® miles.
• This FlyerTalk post cautions that an iDine® restaurant that accepts all credit cards may give iDine® miles for only some of them. Be sure you know which credit cards are listed on the iDine® posting of the restaurant.

SmarterTravel has a pretty good article on the iDine® program.

There is a forum on FlyerTalk dedicated to iDine®.

Some restaurants within chains of restaurants offer iDine® miles, while others within that same chain do not. Denny's and Lyons come to mind. This is possible because many chain restaurants are independently owned franchises and can offer whatever bonuses they like. Many of these restaurants issue gift certificates valid for all restaurants in the chain, even those which do not offer iDine® miles. Purchase of gift certificates on your registered credit card qualify for the iDine® miles. So do the obvious.

A special example of the above is a few TGI Fridays in New York City. Some are iDine® restaurants, but do not offer the usual Gold Points. This thread on FlyerTalk discusses how to get both.

Special note: iDine® sends out special offers for bonus miles, but only to those registered for a participating airline's program. Since I am not registered for all of the programs I list, I do not receive all of the offers. So I depend on you to tell me about them. Please send me a copy and paste of any iDine® offers you receive that I have not already listed (or just forward it with a note - no attachments, please, for security reasons).

Many airline iDine® programs are offering special bonuses. A reader who posts as Cornroaster on FlyerTalk posted an excellent summary on how to "game" these bonuses. I copy the post below with a slight amount of editing to make it relevant to current offers. It might be worthwhile to follow the thread to see if others add ideas.

Now we get to the ways to "game" iDine®.

1. When you register a credit card with any of the iDine® programs, make sure you establish a password and profile with the program. This automatically takes you to "middke tier" status, resulting in 3 miles per dollar per dine instead of only 1 mile per dollar. BE AWARE THAT A CARD ISSUED WITH AN AIRLINE FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAM AFFILIATION IS NOT AUTOMATICALLY ENROLLED IN THE IDINE® PROGRAM FOR THE AIRLINE. You still have to register the card with the iDine® site.

2. You can only register a credit card with one dining program. However, there are a number of no-annual fee credit cards you can apply for (such as Gold Points, Hilton, and Priority Club among others) which also will give you points, so you can double dip if you want to keep miles/points active in several programs.

3. Right now, all iDine® (Rewards Network) require is 12 charges in a calendar year to qualify for elite status for 5 miles per dollar plus the 5 mile bonus. There are ways to get to the 12 charges more quickly. Many restaurants allow multiple charges during a month up to a total of $600.00. If you and your husband are going to have a drink before dinner, stop at the bar, order separately, and each of you pay for your drink separately utilizing your own charge card. Then, when you are seated for dinner, ask for separate checks if the restaurant will allow it. Thus, with dinner and drinks for the two of you, you can have four separate charges of the 12 needed to reach elite status.

4. Hunt for some cheap places to eat occasionally where you can accumulate small charges until you reach elite status. For example, there is a burger and custard stand near our home that currently is on iDine®. My wife and I go there for a burger and each order separately and pay with a charge. Then, we go back for an ice cream cone for dessert. At $5 for the burger, fries and soda and $2 for the cone, we rack up 4 qualifying charges for about $14. There is another place where we can get breakfast (again with separate checks) for about $5 each.

5. Talk friends into going out to dinner with you who aren't into miles and points. Quite often, you will be able to get them to let you pay with your credit card and they will give you cash for their portion of the bill. This is great if you pay your credit card bill in full each month and don't pay interest charges. This will also work very well towards accumulating the $150 per month needed for some of the bonuses. If you have an upscale restaurant in your area, you may be able to get close to (or exceed) the $150 total to qualify for the 1500 mile bonus with only one meal.

6. Remember, try to pay the small charges on programs that you don't have status on, and pay the big charges with the program where you have status to get the maximum number of miles.

7. Be careful to be sure the restaurant you are going to offers miles on the day you are going there. Some restaurants don't offer miles on Friday or Saturday, so if you are going there on one of those nights, stop in during the week before and buy a gift certificate, using your charge to pay for the certificate. This can change a non-qualifying Saturday meal into a qualifying purchase on Tuesday or Wednesday. Also, not all restaurants are registered with all iDine® programs, so be sure to check the listings for the program you want to credit the miles to.

8. If you are at the end of the month and don't have enough charged to qualify for a bonus, buy a gift certificate this month for the difference and use it next month. Also, if you are going for a bonus similar to one requiring eight qualifying dines of at least $25 each, you can convert one $120 charge into four gift certificate charges of $30 each. One meal that would not qualify for the bonus is suddenly converted into a meal that earns 1000 bonus miles.

9. Finally, keep an eye on the forums for bonuses.

Good luck, and build up those miles. My wife and I have gotten over 70,000 combined miles in the last 4 years on American, British Airways, Delta, Northwest and United.

Although many restaurants restrict you to one iDine® visit a month, if you register different credit cards with different airlines iDine® programs, you can use each credit card once in the same month at such restaurants and still get the miles for each visit. This has been verified several times by folks posting on the various forums discussing frequent flyer miles. No, iDine® won't let you register the same credit card with more than one airline. You can't double dip.

Be sure to create an online profile for each of your iDine® accounts. I and others have noticed that this allows you unlimited iDine® visits to restaurants that otherwise restrict you to one visit per month.

Owners of restaurants interested in participating in the iDine® programs should click here.

The following programs are operated by Rewards Network (formerly iDine®)

Delta Airlines Skymiles Dining
Special offers.

• Mouthfull of Miles Bonus
  • Join SkyMiles Dining and create your online profile. Then you have 45 days to spend just $25 on the program. Then receive 1,000 bonus miles.
  • Expires December 31, 2010.
• All Double, No Trouble Bonus
  • Dine at any participating restaurants, bars or clubs on any Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday beginning March 1 through June 30, 2010.
  • Then submit a survey about the dine within 30 days of each dine.
  • Earn double miles for the dine.
• To understand the various levels of membership -VIP, Online Member, and Member, from the home page click on HOW IT WORKS near the top of the page, then on Membership Chart in the What You'll Get box. Attaining VIP status is highly recommended.

American Airlines AAdvantage Dining
Special offers

• New Member Bonus.
  1. Enroll in the AAdvantage Dining program and provide a valid email address.
  2. Dine within 30 days of joining and spend $25 or more at a single visit to any restaurant, bar or club on the program.
  3. Receive 1,000 miles.
  4. Probably expires November 30, 2010.
• All Double, No Trouble Bonus
  1. Dine at any participating restaurants, bars or clubs on any Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday beginning March 1 through June 30, 2010.
  2. Then submit a survey about the dine within 30 days of each dine.
  3. Earn double miles for the dine.
• To understand the various levels of membership -VIP, Online Member, and Member, from the home page click on HOW IT WORKS near the top of the page, then on Membership Chart in the What You'll Get box. Attaining VIP status is highly recommended.

U.S. Airways Dividend Miles Dining
Special offers:

Usually the opportunity is offered to earn more pseudo-cash after you click on the email you receive. Always look near the bottom of the page you get and click on any "earn more" link you see. Also, there are often easy credit opportunities listed in the "Earn Now" section of your e-rewards homepage. Check there often. I will not list these opportunities here.

Caution: Joining through an airline invitation will probably cause your redemption opportunities to be restricted to that airline. But it may increase redemption opportunity to once per quarter, rather than once per year. Read this Flyertalk discussion for the latest on this.

Joining the program is by invitation only. Here is how you can get an invitation:

• You may join through this Delta Airlines page.
• You may join through this Alaska Airlines page.
• You may join through this Priority Club page.
• Check the website of your airline to see if it is offering an invitation. If it does, please tell me about it, including, if possible, the URL of the airline's page that makes the offer. Thanks.

E-rewards now has a European wesbite. Residents of the United Kingdom, Nederland, France, Deutschland, and Belgique may join via this invitation from British Midlands Airways. I do not know if joining via this invitation will restrict you to BMI awards.

• On May 22, 2009, a reader commented:

  "You had a remark on your website that you were unsure if the restrictions were the same in the UK as in the USA - they are.

  If you join through, say, BMI then you can only use the accrued points for BMI miles and no other airline; obviously you can use these also for Hilton etc and the other normal non-travel related transfers.

I have found customer service for this program to be particularly good. If surveys screw up part way through, or expected credit is not given, the problem is usually remedied within a day of polite complaint.

Special Caution: The redemption rules have changed. You now have 30 days after the end of your "Membership Year" to redeem all of your credit for that year. Your Membership Year depends on the quarter in which you initially joined. That date can be found near the top of your on-line account statement. Also, rewards have a restriction of one reward per so many months. For example, last I looked, the Hilton HHonors award could be chosen only once every 90 days, and the Northwest Airlines miles award only once per year. This implies that the best use of these awards requires waiting until you have enough credit in your account to get the largest size award for each category, so long as that waiting does not cause any of your credit to expire.

Business Programs

• Business travel programs
• Business meetings
• Offering miles to customers
• Accepting credit cards
• Other programs for businesses

• American Airlines BusinessExtrAA
• Delta Airlines SkyBonus, and SmarterTravel's comments on the program.
• Continental Airlines RewardOne.
• United Airlines Perks Plus
• Southwest Airlines SWABIZ.
• Alaska Airlines EasyBiz
• America West Airlines Corporate AWArds
• Air Tran a2b
• Midwest Airlines Best Care Business.
• Hawaiian Airlines Preferred Affiliate Program
• Frontier Airlines Business Travel Program

• British Airways On Business
• Virgin Atlantic Flyingco
• Alitalia Alicorporate
• Lufthansa PartnerPlusBenefit. Best I can tell, this seems to be a program for businesses not in North America.
• Air France Voyageur Rewards. Click on Frequent flyer programs in the left menu and select Voyageur Rewards.
• SAS SAS Payback.
• Iberia Plus Empresa.
• Finnair Corporate Solutions. After you get to your country, click on the Corporate tab.
• Virgin Express Virgin Express for companies
• BMI highflyers
• Hi Fly (Portugal) Corporate Flyer. Click on Collective Cards.
• Olympic Airlines The Icarus Corporate Flyer Program.
• Air Moldova Corporate Member.
• Air Malta KManager.

• Aeromexico Corporate Club Premier.
• Aerolineas Argentinas Corporate Plan.
• LAN LANCORPORATE.
• AeroSur (Bolivia) Club AeroSur Corporations.
• Aires (Colombia) Plan 15x1.
• Qantas QBizLink.com

• Hilton eAdvantage
• Starwood Preferred Business and Preferred Planner.
• Amtrak Guest Rewards for Business.
  • I have an email from Amtrak that promises 1,500 bonus points for enrolling by March 31, 2010 using code MAR10. Of course, as usual with Amtrak, the link on the email does not go to a page that mentions this bonus.

Low-Rate Zone Fares For incentive travel of 10 or more, we will guarantee economical fares from different geographical zones of departure to your destination. Domestic zone-fare discounts range from 40% to 70% off full, unrestricted Coach rates. Zone fares require no Saturday-night stay, so they're ideal for mid-week meetings. Zone fares are valid for travel originating in the United States or Canada for meetings in North America, Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific.

I believe most airlines have similar programs. If you find one, please tell me about it. Thanks. I no one tells me about one, I will assume no one read and cared about this section, anyway.

Starwood Hotels' Preferred Planner program offers points for holding business meetings on their properties. Click on the Terms and Conditions link to get the details.

Hyatt Hotel's Meeting Dividends program offers points for holding business meetings on their properties. Click on the Terms and Conditions link to get the details.

Marriott Hotels Rewarding Events offer up to 50,000 points for each group, event or meeting, plus 10 Elite nights toward your Silver, Gold or Platinum Elite status for each qualified group or event.

• Double points offer for each qualifying meeting of at least 50 cumulative room nights by March 31, 2010. 2% discount for 100 room nights.

• American Airlines orderAAmiles.
• United Airlines Reward Miles.
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Partner Miles.
• Delta Airlines SkyMiles Incentives.
• Northwest Airlines Become a Partner. (For large businesses wanting a multiple year commitment.) Apparently this program has been transformed into a Delta Airlines program.
• Midwest Airlines Business Miles.
• Frontier Airlines Company Miles.
• Air Canada AeroNotes.
• Lufthansa Several programs, I think. Ask.
• Priority Club Rewards Incentive Program
• AirIncentives. Sells miles from 6 U.S. Airlines. Caution: This program is run by Points.com, so it is probably very expensive.

• Vantage Card Services. This appears to be a really good place to start, as the website offers lots of information on accepting credit cards. Vantage says that benefits of its program include
  • Earn Vantage Points for accepting credit cards. Vantage Points are redeemable for great rewards from distinguished program partners like: American Airlines, Marriott, Hyatt, Staples, The Home Depot, Starbucks Coffee and more.
  • Direct bank Interchange pass through (no non qualified surcharges).
  • A true month-to-month agreement without any early termination penalties.
• United Bank Card. Offers a free terminal.
• Merchant Accounts Express
• Paynet Systems
• Accept the American Express Card. This offer is direct from American Express.

Digitized Logos offers a massive selection of promotional items (over 1,000,000) with your company logo on them, for use as gifts to customers and prospective customers, employees, convention booth handouts, etc. The promotional items include name brand clothing, writing instruments, food, calendars, clocks and watches, diaries and notepads, holiday/greeting cards, drinkware, badges, and stickers, tote bags (which I particularly appreciate at conventions), jewelry, luggage, tools, electronics, and much, much more. The company offers artwork services, rush order (24 hour) service on thousands of items, business gift packaging and fulfillment, and custom merchandise. I have an email from them that indicates a low price guarantee, though I can't find this on their website.

TR Cutler, Inc., a public relations firm for the manufacturing sector, offers 25,000 American Airlines miles at the conclusion of each 90 day Manufacturing Media PR Blitz program.

Kinko's and FedEx: Earn 500 American Airlines miles for your first order of $100 or more using File, Print FedEx Kinko's, which seems to be a system designed for businesses for printing stuff in bulk. Details.

Your free EgyptAir card will get you a 20% discount on both domestic and international shipments, presumably from Egypt. (But the ad does not give this restriction. I would love to hear from someone trying this in the U.S.) For details, go to the EgyptAir website and click on Our Partners in the left menu.

Miles for Conference Calls: Forget about flying to an expensive business meeting. Just do a conference call, and use your miles for an international vacation instead. I list miles opportunities for conference calls in my Telephone section.

Trusted Translations offers American Airlines miles for its services. You must sign up for its premier program and buy translation services from them. To earn the first time 1,000 bonus miles, the minimum value of the translations must be $500. Premier clients will earn 1 mile/5 words translated. Read the details of the offer.

The A|Club loyalty program offers points for stays. Points vary with the chain. Alas, they are not available for Motel 6. Points are convertible to miles at various ratios on Delta and Singapore Airlines, U.S. and British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, and Quntas. Partner offers are promised soon.

Accor offers miles for stays at some of the Motel 6, Sofitel, Pulman, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Adagio, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap, Forumle 1, Studio 6, and Accor Thalassa properties worldwide. Best I can tell, all you have to do is show your frequent flyer card number at check-in, but ask to be sure. Eligible rates and countries vary with the airline program. Generally 150 - 500 miles per stay are offered.

• Non-Asian Airlines: Huge list, including American and Delta Airlines.
• Asia Pacific Airlines: Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Ansett, Thai Airways, and Air Calin.

Thayls and SNCF passengers are offered discounts on some stays at some Accor hotels.

• Thayls` discounts.
• SNCF discounts.

Alas, I have been unable to find miles offers for Accor's Motel 6 chain. However, clicking through the banner to the left gets all of them in your area of interest listed.

Priority Club's PointBreaks page lists opportunities to book award nights for only 5,000 points per night. Usually these are incredible deals, especially in places where the dollar is weak, like Europe. Always check this page before booking an award night.

Points can be earned by staying at InterContinental Hotels Group properties at the rate of 10 points/US$1 (or local currency equivalent) spent on eligible charges, acquiring and using its credit card (see the nice bonus offer on the Free Cards page of my Credit Card section), and via bonus offers, many of which are listed on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page. For stays, there is the option of earning miles instead of points. The number of miles varies by airline and hotel property.

Gold Crown members have the option of earning 250 miles per stay instead of points. Since 10 points are worth 2 miles, and $1 spent gets you 10 points, mileagewise your stay would have to cost over $125 to justify choosing points over miles.

Gold Crown Club lists other opportunities to earn points, as well as special discounts on rooms, on its Special Offers page.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

TripRewards is now called Wyndham Rewards. Info on the change.

Wyndham Rewards is the awards program for the Wyndham Hotel Group: AmeriHost Inn, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge, and Wingate Inn. You earn 10 points/$1 spent on qualifying room rates. You may also earn points at a large number of partners.

Points are convertible to Delta, Continental, or Air Canada miles at the ratio of 8,000 points/3,200 miles, 17,500 points/7,000 miles, or 30,000 points/12,000 miles. Points may also be used to acquire airline tickets directly, apparently on any airline. This may be a better use of points, if you have enough of them.

Points may also be used to acquire lots of other goodies, including, of course, hotel stays.

A Member’s Wyndham Rewards account can be terminated and all accrued points cancelled or forfeited if the Member has no account activity for a period of 18 consecutive months. Account activity is defined as the earning or redemption of Wyndham Rewards points. In addition, the earning of airline miles or rail points through Wyndham Rewards and the redemption of Wyndham Rewards points for airlines miles or rail points are included in the definition of activity.

Wyndham Rewards points expire 4 years after being posted to the Member’s account. Use them or lose them.

Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.

• Choice Privileges is the loyalty points program of Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion and MainStay Suites hotel in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Mexico, and Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn hotels throughout Canada. You may also earn points for acquiring and using its free credit card, which you may read about on my Free Cards page of my Credit Card section.

  Points expire on December 31, two years after the year in which they were deposited into your account.

  Points are convertible to miles on many airlines, or for free stays.
  Note:

  • If you seek Amtrak points, don't transfer Choice Privileges points directly into Amtrak, the conversion there is 32,000 Choice points yield 5,000 Amtrak points. Instead, transfer 25,000 Choice points into 5,000 Continental, then into 5,000 Amtrak.

  When staying at a Choice property, you may earn either 250 miles per stay (not per day), or 10 points/$1 spent. Since points convert at 1,000 miles for 5,000 points, the points are a better deal if you plan to accumulate 10,000 of them (remember that they expire), and if your stay will cost over $125.

  Note that you can earn mega-points by acquiring and using once Choice's free credit card. You may read about the card on the Free Cards page of my Credit Card section.

   

Note that it is possible that your Starpoints will expire. Be sure to use them or convert them to miles before this happens. From the terms and conditions of the program:

3.2. You will be considered an "Active Member" so long as (a) your Membership has not been cancelled (by you or us), and (b) you have had an Eligible Stay at a Participating Property within the previous 12 months, or (c) you have earned Starpoints by using a Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card during the previous 12 months. Starpoints resulting from transfers or earnings from Program affiliates do not count toward active status. Owners are not subject to the Eligible Stay requirement and will continue to be considered an Active Member as long as they own their Vacation Ownership interest and maintain their Starwood Vacation Ownership account in good standing.

3.3. If you do not remain an Active Member, we will close your Membership account and all Starpoints in the account shall be forfeited without notice.

You must enroll in the program before you can acquire points. Look on my Registrations and Other Bonus page to see if there is an enrollment bonus.

Points can be earned by staying at Marriott Hotels, acquiring and using its credit card (see the nice bonus offer on the Free Cards page of my Credit Card section), and via bonus offers, many of which are listed on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page.

An account may be closed at Marriott's discretion if no points are accrued during a 24-month period. All points in the account will be forfeited at that time.

The free Hilton HHonors program can be most useful to seekers of miles, even if you do not ever intend to stay at a Hilton property. There are several reasons for this:

First, if miles in an airline frequent flyer mile program are about to expire, you may transfer them to the Hilton program. Conversion rate is one mile gets you one Hilton HHonors point. Then you can use your Hilton points to buy miles on many airlines, or to buy Amtrak points which are convertible to miles on Continental (max 25,000 per year). You can read about the Amtrak program below. Conversion rate is 10,000 Hilton HHonors points gets you 1,500 or 1,000 or 850 miles (depending on the airline) or 1,500 Amtrak points. Yes, you lose a bunch of miles in the exchange, but this is better than losing all of them through expiration.

As of July 1, there will be a $25 service fee on all mileage transfers out of your Midwest Miles account to Hilton.

Second, there are lots of ways to earn Hilton HHonors points by staying at its hotels, and by other means that can be quite lucrative. For example, you can get an easy minimum of 20,000 points by applying for both of the free, no annual fee Hilton credit cards, described in the Credit Card section of this web site. That's at least 3,000 or 2,000 miles . I regularly obtain points from my use of the e-rewards program I describe on my Miles for Clicking page of this web site. Others convert MyPoints to Hilton points (though I prefer United Airlines miles or the free merchandise cards). MyPoints is described on my Click for Miles, Money, and Good Causes page of this web site. Check out this extensive list of ways to earn more Hilton HHonors points other than by staying in Hilton Hotels.

I list this program on this web site because the points convert to miles, and they are held by a business that seems to be more financially stable that most of the airlines. But those who actually stay at Hilton properties say the points are more value when used to buy stays in Hilton's high priced rooms. Some of the Hilton resorts seem to be especially favored.

I list special Hilton HHonors point offers on my Registrations and Other Bonuses - Miles and Points Programs page.

Special cautions:

• If you don't earn points on your HHonors account in any 12 consecutive months, your points could be lost. See items 12 and 13 of the General section of the Terms and Conditions page. However, it is easy to earn point via the e-rewards or MyPoints programs described on my Miles for Clicking page.
• The list of airlines, especially U.S. Airlines, from which you can obtain miles via Hilton changes frequently. Airlines come and go.

• Earn 20 Gold Points per dollar/euro at Regent Hotels & Resorts, Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts, and Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts.
• Earn 15 Gold Points per dollar/euro at Country Inns & Suites By Carlson or Park Inn.
• Receive 500 bonus points when you book your stay online at goldpointsplus.com or any of its hotel brand Web sites.

Be sure to check my Registration and Other Bonuses page for bonuses for this program.

You may instead receive 250 miles on the above airlines, or 1/2 Southwest Airlines credit per check in. You must choose points or miles when you check in, so do the math.

Read the terms and conditions. Note that

• Members who do not have any stay activity within a 12-month consecutive period will be removed from the program and all accrued points will be forfeited.
• Points earned will be issued as of the date of check-in and will expire 24 months from the check-in date.

Look for bonus offers in the Points to Miles section of my Registrations and Other Bonuses page.

• If you choose points, earn 5 Gold Passport points/eligible $1 spent at Hyatt. Platinum members earn a 15% point bonus and Diamond members a 30% point bonus. Points may also be earned by doing business with Hyatt's partners: Stays at AmeriSuites, Hawthorn Suites, and Summerfield Suites earn either 3 points/$1 spent or 300 miles per stay. Car rentals from Avis and Sixt Rent-A-Car earn 300 bonus points for each qualifying rental.
• If you choose miles, Earn 500 miles per stay at your chose of a large number of airlines when you present your frequent flyer account number at check-in. Note that this is per stay, not per night.

You may combine your Gold Passport points with any Gold Passport member to redeem an award. Apparently there is no charge or loss of points for doing this.

A member's Hyatt Gold Passport membership may be discontinued at Hyatt Gold Passport's discretion if a member does not record Hyatt Gold Passport points or Airline miles activity during any consecutive 12-month period. All Hyatt Gold Passport points in the account will be forfeited at that time.

Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.

Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.

Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.

Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.

• Members with 3 qualified stays or 6 qualified nights in any calendar year will be automatically upgraded to LoewsFirst Gold for that year, which provides 1.5 times the number of miles above and other goodies.
• Members with 10 qualified stays or 15 qualified nights in any calendar year will be automatically upgraded to LoewsFirst Platinum for that year, which provides 2 times the number of miles above and still more goodies.

Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.

This post on FlyerTalk tells you how to get 500 points for receiving your statements online. Since I am not a member of the RediCard program, I cannot verify this offer or tell you when it expires.

Red Roof Inns are Accor Hotels properties, as are Motel 6's and other inexpensive lodgings worldwide. If find a similar program for other Accor properties, where the points convert to airline miles, please tell me about it. A Motel 6 points program would be really nice.

Greenpoints is entering the services market. They have introduced a dining program, offers from Verizon, and a program for aviators. I expect that list to grow.

S&H greenpoints offers a free Visa Credit card with a 10,000 point up front bonus, which you can read about in my Credit Card page of this web site.

S&H greenpoints allows you to give points to another Greenpoints member, apparently for free (Hint: I am a Greenpoints member...), and to donate points to selected charities.

S&H reserves the right to terminate any membership if that member has been inactive for a period of 24 consecutive months. A member shall be considered "Inactive" for such time as the member has not engaged in either any greenpoint earning or spending transaction. Upon termination of an inactive account, the accrued greenpoints will be cancelled.

Effective May 1st, 2008 the option to redeem Amtrak Guest Rewards points for airline miles, hotel points and experiential rewards will only be available to:

1. Members with current Amtrak Guest Rewards Select or Select Plus status, or
2. Cardholders of the Amtrak Guest Rewards® MasterCard® issued by Chase Bank with an Amtrak travel spend on the card of over $200 per calendar year.

Caution: From the terms and conditions of the program:

"Points earned under the Program will not expire as long as the Program continues and the Member purchases travel on Amtrak within a 3-year period and provides sufficient documentation of such travel to Amtrak within at least 30 days of the Member’s travel. Sufficient documentation includes the original ticket stub, the Member’s name, signature, and Membership Number."

Amtrak Guest Rewards is a useful points program for those who travel on Amtrak.

• Points are transferable to and from Continental Airlines at a 1:1 ratio, but only if you meet certain qualifications. To transfer from Continental to Amtrak, call Contintental's OnePass Service Center at 800-307-5000.
• Points are transferable to the Choice Privileges and Hilton HHonors rewards programs, but again only if you meet certain qualifications (see above). 5,000 Amtrak points get you 15,000 Choce Privileges points or 10,000 Hilton HHonors points. Then 5,000 Choice Privileges points get you 1,000 miles with Air Canada, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Mexicana, Northwest, or United Airlines, or US Airways. This results in a 5:3 transfer of points to miles to these airlines. Or You can redeem 5,000 Choice Privileges points for 2.0 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credits. This means 13,333 Amtrak points are worth 1 round trip on Southwest, which is a super deal. Alas, you qualify to redeem for Southwest Rapid Rewards credits only if you previously had a hotel stay since 1/1/06 or if you have used your Choice Privileges Visa card.
  • Note: I fully expect that these exchange ratios will change. I do not intend to make special effort to keep up with them, though I will post changes you tell me about. Always check current conditions before counting on any of this to work as I describe.
  • Caution: The Amtrak to Choice Privileges offer is constantly changing. Read this Webflyer article.
• Points must be transferred in chunks of 5,000, with a maxiumum of 25,000 points per calendar year, 50,000 if you have Select or Select Plus status.
• Points can be used to obtain Amtrak tickets and other goodies for various vendors, including other hotel chains but again the non-Amtrak tickets awards are available only if you meet certain qualifications (see above).

• Traveling on one of Amtrak's trains.
• Obtaining and using it's free credit card - one point per dollar spent, plus a good up front bonus usually. You may read about it in my Credit Card section on the Free Cards page.
• Staying in hotels.
• Buying stuff.

There's a standard 500 points bonus for signing up for Amtrak Guest Rewards if you take an Amtrak trip within 90 days of signup.

Amtrak lists it special deal for members of its Guest Rewards program here.

Caution: Amtrak is currently running a huge deficit, and is always asking Congress for more money, which it may not provide. Bankruptcy is possible, in which case you may loose any points in your account. I strongly suggest you convert points to miles or otherwise use them whenever you can.

• 10,000 points gets you 1,000 miles.
• 5 - 10 points/$1 spent at Petro-Canada stations on gasoline, car washes, repairs, snacks, drinks and most other items in its convenience stores.
• Collect 20 points per dollar on eligible convenience store and car wash purchases every day. Plus, you can collect double, triple, five times or more bonus Petro-Points on select items
• Collect 20% more Petro-Points when you register your Ontario CAA membership number to your Petro-Points account.
• 2,500 points are offered on this page for signing up for emails from the program.
• There is a no annual fee Citi PETRO-POINTS Mastercard that earns 10 PETRO-POINTS/$1 spent most anywhere, plus a 2 cent per liter discount on Petro-Canada gasoline. You may read about the card on the Free Cards page of my Credit Card section.
• It appears that you can convert SEARS CLUB POINTS to PETRO-POINTS.
• The PETRO-POINTS website has a bonus offers page. I will list good offers I know about on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page.
• On September 20, 2009, a reader wrote with great enthusiam:

  The PetroPoints scheme at Petro Canada has now become the best on the planet.

  Although they have dropped the points value for buying Gas(Only 5 points for Regular, 8 cents for Plus, 10 Points for Supreme) they have doubled the points in store, and radically increased the number of bonuses.

  Very few people apparently twin their cards, which I don’t understand, but am happy with, because at some point Sears would twig to this and change the scheme drastically

  And right now if you register at My-Petr-Points, you’ll get another 2500 Points

The company says you will save up to 15% on your electricity bill. It offers an all wind power option.

• United Airlines offer.
  • 3,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles as a special bonus after your 2nd month as an Energy Plus customer.
  • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your bill.
• American Airlines offer.
  • 10,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles as a special bonus after your 2nd month as an Energy Plus customer.
  • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your bill.
• U.S. Airways offer.
  • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
  • 3,000 Bonus Miles after your 2nd month of service. The Connecticut offer is now 10,000 miles.
• Delta Airlines offer.
  • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
  • 3,000 Bonus Miles after your 2nd month of service.
• Continental Airlines offer.
  • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
  • 3,000 Bonus Miles after your 2nd month of service.
  • Special offer for residents of New York:
    • 7,500 miles after the second month
    • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
    • 3 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill if you are a Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit Cardmember.
    • Current Energy Plus members who are Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit Cardmembers are not eligible for the bonus miles but will receive the increased mileage offer for every $1 spent on their monthly supply portion of the bill.
  • Special offers for residents of Connecticut or Texas:
    • 5,000 miles after the second month. Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit cardmembers automatically earn an additional 2,500 bonus miles for a total of 7,500 OnePass Miles.
    • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
    • 3 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill if you are a Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit Cardmember.
    • Current Energy Plus members who are Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit Cardmembers are not eligible for the bonus miles but will receive the increased mileage offer for every $1 spent on their monthly supply portion of the bill.
    • Connecticut
    • Texas
  • Marriott Rewards offer.
    • 2 points/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
    • 3,000 points after your 2nd month of service.
  • Priority Club offer.
    • 2 points/$1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill.
    • 3,000 points after your 2nd month of service.
  • Amtrak offer.
    • 3,000 Amtrak points as a special bonus after your 2nd month as an Energy Plus customer.
    • Special 10,000 point offer to residents of Connecticut.
    • 2 miles/$1 on the supply portion of your bill.
    • Note that New York residents seeking Amtrak points would probably be better off accepting the Continental Airlines offer above, but only if you meet certain Amtrak special requirements.
  On September 3, 2009, a reader wrote:

  "The rate they quote for us in Connecticut is 10.55c per KWh. That is much less than the rate CL&P charge, but not the least expensive. The best rate, which I currently use, offers 10.25c per KWh. I reckon changing to Energy Plus would 'cost' me about $2 per month. For that I would get the 3,000 bonus miles obviously but also get about 170 miles per month. So even on an ongoing basis after the bonus, I am still getting about 170 miles for $2, which is fine, as I use my miles for International travel. You may think this is marginal though.

  There are a number of negative blogs about this company from early 2008, but more recent comments appear to be better. The earlier comments state that 'they could never get a representative to answer a call'. I had no trouble and spoke with someone within 30 seconds of calling.

  Also, do not be pressured into registering by telephone if you have problems doing this through the web. You only get 2,000 bonus miles if you do this through an agent.

   

• Bonus offer: 1,000 Delta Airlines miles for signing up. Use promotion code SM17N3.

   

FlyerTalk has an excellent (very favorable) discussion on this program. Note the comment that you can buy Gexa's energy cheaper by not opting for the Continental Airlines program, but that you can still earn miles by paying with your credit card.

On April 27, 2006, a reader wrote

I did confirm that Auto bill pay for Gexa Energy residential accounts allow payment by Amex, Visa, and Mastercard with no fee. If you do not choose Auto bill pay and pay by phone or online, your credit card options (with $4.95 fee) are Visa, Mastercard, and Discover (No Amex). You cannot pay by mail with a credit card.

I just checked and Commercial accounts still allow credit card phone payments (Amex, MasterCard, and Visa) with no $4.95 fee. I tried to pay my residential bill using this method and they would not let me.

For more info, look at www.gexaenergy.com and choose either Commercial or Residential and then Bill Pay Options.

• 2,500 miles for enrolling
• 2,500 miles after six months on the plan
• 2,500 miles after 12 months on the plan Details. Read them.

• 5,000 miles for enrolling.
• 1 mile/$1 spent. Current members may also get this bonus. Details. Read them.

SmarterTravel's Mile Finder database has a really useful site to help you get all the miles you deserve when you travel. Use the pulldown menus to search on your airline, or on a large list of frequent flyer partners to see who offers miles for what you are doing.

SmarterTravel offers several very worthwhile weekly e-mail newsletters, including Mile Alert for miles deals, and Deal Alert, a super newsletter that lets you know about airline deals from your home airport and other useful travel deals and discounts. This latter newsletter has saved me lots of money.

Randy Peterson runs the informative Web Flyer web site which offers information some of which is not published in his newsletter. He has probably been an expert on frequent flyer miles longer than most anyone else. Check out his Frequently Asked Questions section. It is quite useful, though it can be quite a bit out of date. (He doesn't mention the Hilton credit cards when appropriate, for example. So don't believe him when he says something doesn't exist.) Also visit his NotiFlyer page. It occasionally lists offers before I post them on my web site.

Tim Winship has an informative site dedicated to frequent flyers called FrequentFlier.com. It, also, can be quite out of date in some of its sections, like the credit card section.

Rewards Canada is a useful site for Canadians who are frequent flyers. The webmaster posts regularly on The FrequentFlier Forum as superdawg. Rewards Canada has free newsletter very useful to Canadians. It also features a Frequent Flyer Bonuses page, a compilation of bonus offers for airline and hotel programs from around the world. This page links to a nice bonus by route feature.

Gary Leff's View from the Wing is a blog (weblog) listing almost daily short comments on flying and travel, often mentioning miles offers. I read it frequently. Gary often passes on to me extremely useful comments on miles accumulation. His emphasis is on business travel and high class hotels, but he covers most everything about miles and good travel deals.

FrugalTravelGuy is a blog listing, well, frugal travel tips. It's author and I sometimes disagree on subjects about which he writes, so I supppose this is a good site for reading about a different point of view.

• Tim Winship writes the biweekly newsletter "The FrequentFlier Crier." Click here to subscribe.
• Randy Peterson writes "MilesLink". Click here to subscribe (free).
• SmarterTravel offers several very worthwhile weekly e-mail newsletters, including Mile Alert and Deal Alert, mentioned above.
• Frequent Flyer Bonuses does a good job of finding the most miles when you actually fly. It has a weekly newsletter.

• Gary Leff's View from the Wing, described above, has a newsletter that emails you the contents of his blog whenever he adds something to it.

• Rewards Canada has a free newsletter very useful to Canadians.

An intelligent ongoing discussion of frequent flyer miles issues can be found at the FrequentFlier Forum. It is a usually polite, often humorous, and usually on topic community of over 2,000 dedicated seekers of free miles. I read it daily, and post to it occasionally. You may lurk or participate.

Canadians will be interested in the Rewards Canada Frequent Flyer Forum.

Australians will be interested in The Australian Frequent Flyer Bulletin Board.

Also see my list of charities which allow you to simply click on a link for free to cause sponsors to donate money to them. It is found on my Click for Miles, Money, and Good Causes page.

• American Airlines. Earn miles for making donations. On Feburary 28, 2009, the charities included Miles For Kids In Need, Operation Hero, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, U.S. Fund For UNICEF, and United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO). Use the links below to read about each program.
• The Library Foundation of Los Angeles offers American Airlines miles for donations of $500 or more to its Young Literati program.
• The Dallas Zoo offers American Airlines miles for memberships of $125 or more.
• United Airlines. Donate miles to various charities. On April 17, 2006, the charities included Ronald McDonald House, Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, American Red Cross, AmeriCares, and Operation U.S.A.
• Delta Airlines. Donate miles to several charities via Delta's SkyWish program.
• U.S. Airways. Log in, then click on "Donate Miles", to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
• Continental Airlines. Donate miles to several charities.
• Frontier Airlines allows you to donate miles to the American Red Cross.
• Midwest Airlines allows you to donate miles to any of a large number of charities.
• Hawaiian Airlines.
  • Donate miles to various charities. At the end of the year, Hawaiian Airlines will match up to half a million miles to each participating charity. On March 8, 2009, the charities were American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu, Blood Bank of Hawaii, Friends of Hokule'a and Hawai'iloa, HUGS (Help, Understanding, and Group Support), National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, Shriners Hospital for Children of Honolulu, The Arc in Hawaii, and Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.
  • With a minimum pledge of $60, earn 10 HawaiianMiles for each dollar pledged to Hawaiian Public Radio. Include your 9-digit HawaiianMiles account number and offer thank you gift code S09CD301 on your pledge form to insure proper credit. Thank you gift details can be found by clicking on link in "Click here to view a list of thank you gifts" on the page you get from my link.
• Air Canada Aeroplan. Donate miles.
• Lufthansa. Donate miles to various charities.
• Cathay Pacific. Donate miles to various charities.
• El Al. Donate points to various charities. If necessary, click on NPOs in the left menu.
• Priority Club (InterContinental Hotels Group). Donate points to UNICEF, American Red Cross, and other charities.
• Starwood. UNICEF is one of several charities to which you can donate points. Log in to get the links to donate.
• Hilton Hotels allows you donate points to provide dollar contributions to various charities. Every 10,000 points equals a US$25 contribution.
• Choice Privileges. Donate your points to American Red Cross, Unicef or Armed Forces Relief Fund.
• Best Western Gold Crown Club allows you donate points to the Make A Wish Foundation.
• MyPoints allows you to donate points to the American Red Cross.
• S&H greenpoints allows you donate points to United Way and American Forests' Global ReLeaf program.
• American Express allows you to donate Membership Rewards points to the American Red Cross.

• On which you can use your miles for award flights, and
• On which you may credit your flight miles.

There is a Flyertalk discussion on this program. Bottom line seems to be that it is worthwhile if you like games; else not.

This is not an easy way to earn miles. But it is a really good program for those of us who travel and want to share information with others. (Yes, I have a few journals there - search on author "pgary".) It is a great resource for travel information.

I know nothing about this company, but its services appear to be quite extensive. They have some sort of low price guarantee.

Points.com offers miles from various airlines or points for various programs for upgrading membership to Gold for $49.95. (The membership and upgrade is otherwise mostly useless.) Start here, then log in, then click on "Choose a different Signup Bonus" under "Subscribe for a year" to see all of the bonuses offered. If you haven't yet joined Points.com, search on this page for "Points.com" to find all bonus offers for joining that I know about. There is no expiration date mentioned for the offer. Be sure it is still there before making the purchase. And please tell me about any offers of 5,000 or more miles. Thanks. Caution: Your credit card will be charged annually for this upgrade unless you cancel. So put it on your calendar.