Free Frequent Flyer Miles - Other Programs I LikeSorry, 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.
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| iDine and other dining programs and Many Airlines |
Caution: Rewards Network (iDine) lost the first round of a class action lawsuit. The judgment could spell the demise of the program. I would not count on long term bonuses to actually pay, since payment would be due months in the future. This FlyerTalk discussion should keep us up to date on the subject. Update: This press release indicates that the lawsuit was settled. Court approval is still pending. I have no idea how the settlement will affect the probability of survival of the rewards network. Note that the settled suit is for California, only. Rewards Network is a nationwide company. It remains to be seen if there will now be suits in other states. Change in program for 2008: Each program has a link to a page that describes the changes, but in general you will earn
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 7,500 (and growing) restaurants nationwide, you receive up to 10 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:
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. Hotels are now being added to the iDine program. You must book through the iDine site, then receive miles for the dollars you spend for the room. The few initial comments I have read are positive, but be sure you are getting the best price before booking a room through this program. Most or all of the iDine hotel programs are currently offering "double miles" on "Bonus Hotels", which is 10 miles per dollar spent. "Bonus Hotels" are specially marked on the airline's iDine or Rewards Network website. The deadlines for these offers keep getting extended. I note any better offers I know about below. Here is what one reader says about the iDine hotel program:
Like you, I use iDine quite a bit and have accumulated thousands of miles. However, there's one major problem with the iDine hotel program that I didn't see you mention. If you use iDine to book a hotel stay, you don't get frequent flyer miles - at least on Sheraton. This greatly reduces the value of the program. When you consider that you have to pay 100% in advance with no cancellation privileges, it's even worse. 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.
Gary Leff from View from the Wing tells me that 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.
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Surveys
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| Opinion Place and American Airlines | You can earn up to 150 American Airlines miles every 14 days for answering surveys at Opinion Place. Note: If you access this site via an AOL browser, you will be offered credit towards your AOL bill or your PayPal account as additional options. These may be of more value than the miles.
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| e-rewards |
The e-rewards program offers mega credit for doing surveys. Then you can use this pseudo-cash to buy from Delta, American, Continental, Northwest, and Air France/KLM Airlines, and U.S. Airways miles, possibly on Virgin Airlines (its logo appears on the front page, but no redemption offers are listed), Hilton HHonors points, or discounts from various merchants.
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:
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. 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.
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| Affluent-Dynamics and United Airlines | Affluent-Dynamics,LLC offers 3,000 United Airlines miles for completing a survey whenever they send you one. You must have an undisclosed level of affluence to join the program. The miles are mentioned on the page you get when you click on Affluent-Dynamics Panel of Individuals in the left menu of their website. The program is discussed at length in this Flyertalk thread.
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| TravellerPoll.com and American and United Airlines |
TravellerPoll.com is a new survey site promising 50 to 250 miles per survey on American or United Airlines, and possibly others in the future. You sign up and give them your info. If you fit their demographic requirements, they will send you surveys.
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| ThisSiteIsForReal and cash |
In spite of its suspicious name, ThisSiteIsForReal.com seems to be legit. If this turns out to be wrong, I will remove it from my website. The program offers cash for easy surveys (most take 3-5 minutes for $.25 -$2.00), trial offers, and purchases of such things as credit reports, credit cards, etc. I list it here for the free cash for doing surveys.
"I re-read your summary of cautions about ThisSiteIsForReal, based on BBB providing an unfavorable rating. What's really going on here is that BBB has an unethical approach to marketing. From first-hand experience I can tell you this is what happened: a couple of people sent complaints to BBB. BBB contacted ThisSiteIsForReal and told them that they need to purchase a membership in BBB in order to resolve the complaints through BBB's process. ThisSiteIsForReal refused to pay up, BBB refused to give them contact info so the complaints could be handled independently of BBB, and then posted the unfavorable listing. I manage BBB account and various other things for my employer, and also respond to BBB's attempts to extort money from my wife's small business." As with any program new to me, I intend to confine my interaction with this company to surveys and referrals. I do not intend to buy anything through them until I gain confidence that they will pay what they promise.
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Trains
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| Amtrak |
See the description of the Amtrak program in the Points for Miles section below.
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| SNCF (French railway) and American, United, and Continental Airlines |
SNCF is the high speed train in France(TGV). American, United, and Continental Airlines code share many of its trains out of Paris/Charles de Gaulle International Airport. Look on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page under each of these two airlines to find what is offered for riding these trains. Miles are always offered, and sometimes there are bonus offers. Last I looked, United was offering free train travel.
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| Deutsche Bahn (German Railway) and American Airlines |
Deutsche Bahn is the German Railway system. American Airlines code shares many of its trains to and from Frankfurt and various locations in Germany. Look on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page under this airline to find what is offered for riding these trains.
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| Thalys (French - Belgium Railway) and American Airlines |
American Airlines code shares with Thalys Rail service between Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport and Brussels, Belgium Midi Rail Station. Look on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page under this airline to find what is offered for riding these trains.
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Business Programs
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| Airline Programs for Small Businesses Travel |
Many airlines have programs designed for small businesses travel. (Large business can make their own negotiated deals.) These programs typically provide points for the business buying the ticket which are convertible to airline tickets and/or other travel goodies, while still allowing employees to earn miles for themselves while traveling at company cost. The links to programs I know about so far are listed below. Please let me know of any other similar programs you find.
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| Business Meetings |
Marriott offers 25,000 bonus points for booking meetings at one of most of its properties and paying with an American Express card June 1 through September 30, 2008. You must register first. The terms and conditions and frequently asked questions are extensive. Be sure to read and understand all of them.
American Airlines offers serious group discounts for people traveling to your business meeting from different locations: Low-Rate Zone FaresNote that these fares are discounted off of full fares, so they won't look so good against the lowest fare available on American's website. Be sure to compare. 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.
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| TR Cutler and American Airlines |
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.
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| FedEx Kinko's and American Airlines and EgyptAir |
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.
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| 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.
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| Trusted Translations and American Airlines |
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.
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| DigitizedLogos.com and American Airlines |
DigitizedLogos.com offers 1,000 American Airlines miles plus 1 mile/$1 spent on its embroidered and screen printed corporate apparel and promotional products (t-shirts, pens, mugs, clocks, planners, calendars, badges, magnets, etc.)
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| MerchantRates.com and Delta Airlines |
MerchantRates.com helps businesses accept credit cards, and offers Delta Airlines miles and other travel goodies to the business for doing so. Read the description of their incentives program. The link to a listing of the awards is at the bottom of the page.
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| Business can buy miles for incentives |
Businesses and organizations can buy miles from many airlines, and then use those miles for customer promotions, employee recognition, sales programs, fund raising, or whatever. This, of course, is the source of most of the offers on this web site. I do not plan to follow all of the offers for such programs, since most of them are privately negotiated. But if I find an offer of interest, I will list it here. Please let me know of any you find.
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Points to Miles
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| S&H greenpoints |
The S&H greenpoints shopping portal has resumed offering miles as rewards again. 11,900 Greenpoints gets you 500 miles on Alaska or Delta Airlines. (Search rewards for "miles".) For comparison shopping, 1 mile costs 23.8 points. Most of the merchants seem to be offering 20 points per dollar spent, which gets you only 0.84 mile per dollar spent. The list of merchants is large and familiar. Posting of points and rewarding of miles has been reliable in the past. This company has been around for a long time. Your parents probably remember S&H Green Stamps at their grocery store. (And in fact, you still can earn greenpoints at some grocery stores.)
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.
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| Amtrak |
Amtrak strikes again!. Without any prior warning, Amtrak has posted in its terms and conditions for points to miles transfers the following:
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:They did this sort of thing before, by cancelling transfers of points to United Airlines miles without warning. So they may change the program again without warning. This program is not to be trusted. Use or move your points out whenever possible. As of July 1, 2008, there will be a $25 service fee on all mileage transfers out of your Midwest Miles account to Hilton or Amtrak. 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."There is a somewhat unsympathetic flyertalk discussion on this subject. I conclude that those who ride the train are proud of this and have no sympathy for those who don't. This is not an all bad thing. Amtrak Guest Rewards is a useful points program for those who travel on Amtrak.
If you buy Amtrak tickets on line, you can sometimes get 500 MyPoints for doing so by accessing the Amtrak web site through the MyPoints portal. You can read about the excellent MyPoints program in my Miles for Clicking page of this web site. 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.
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| Hilton HHonors Program |
Special note: If you have not yet signed up for the Hilton HHonors program and belive that you will be staying at an Hilton property, be sure to look at the Hilton listings on my Registrations and Other Bonuses - Miles and Points Programs page to see if there is a bonus offer for registering via referral.
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 or Midwest Airlines (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 or Amtrak. 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:
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| Starwood Hotels |
The Starwood Hotels Starpoints programs offers points staying at its hotels, using its excellent credit card (my favorite - see the Free Cards page of my Credit Card section), and doing other things, many of which are listed on my Registrations and Other Bonuses page. Starpoints can be converted to airline miles rate of 1 Starpoint to 1 airline mile on most major airline carriers (except United and Continental Airlines, which get a terrible 1 mile for 2 points ratio). Plus, when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints earned at Starwood properties or through its partners (such as the excellent Starwood American Express credit card), you are offered an additional 5,000 airline miles. The minimum number of Starpoints for transfer to miles is 2,500, 1,500, or none, depending on how many times you have stayed at one of their hotels. Starpoints can also be used to obtain other goodies, such as free stays at Starwood properties. Here is Starwood's description of the Starpoints program.
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.
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| Marriott Rewards |
Marriott Rewards is a program from Marriott Hotels which allows accumulation of points convertible to miles of many airlines, at various conversion ratios, depending on how many points you are converting. The miles award chart is listed here. Marriott points also can be used to acquire free stays and other goodies. (Look at the menu to the left.)
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.
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| Priority Club -InterContinental Hotels Group |
You can help me at no cost to yourself by reserving your stays at any Intercontinental Hotels Group property (InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites) by clicking on any of the banners to the left. Because of Intercontinental's low cost guarantee, you should be able to get the best rates through my link.Thanks.
To find listings of all properties at the location of interest, click on the first banner (Intercontinental Hotels), search on the location, then check the boxes to the left to see all of the other properties there. Priority Club is a program from InterContinental Hotels Group (Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Candlewood Suites, and StayBridge Suites), which allows accumulation of points convertible to miles large number of airlines. Points also can be used to acquire free stays. You can also use points for free airline tickets, which seems like a better deal than converting to miles if you plan to acquire lots of points (for staying at the hotel group's properties, for example). Points to do not expire, so I plan to keep mine with Priority Club until I need them, since the survival of InterContinental Hotels Group seems more likely than that of most airlines. 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.
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| Carlson Hotels GoldpointsPlus |
Carlson Hotels' GoldpointsPlus program offers points for stays at its properties (Radisson, Regent, Park Plaza, Country Inns and Suites, and Park Inn).
Be sure to check my Registration and Other Bonuses page for bonuses for this program.
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| Best Western Gold Crown Club |
You can help me at no cost to yourself by reserving your stays at any Best Western property by clicking on the banner to the left. Because of Best Western's low cost guarantee, you should be able to get the best rates through my link. Thanks.
The Gold Crown Club is the loyalty points program of the Best Western Hotel Chain. You earn 10 points per $1 spent at their properties. 5,000 points get you 1,000 miles on a choice of several airlines, or for free stays or other goodies. To avoid expiration of points, stay at a Best Western property at least once in any 12 month period. 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 $125 to justify choosing points over miles. Gold Crown Club lists other opportunities to earn points, as well as special discounts on rooms, on its Special Offers page.
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| Choice Privileges and Ea$yChoice |
Choice Hotels has two loyalty programs.
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| La Quinta, Baymont or Woodfield Suites Returns program | If you often stay in La Quinta or Baymont Inns and Suites, or Woodfield Suites, their
Returns program will be of use to you. Earn 10 points/$1 spent at their Inns. Earn more if you achieve certain levels by staying lots of times within a year. 5,500 points convert to 1,000 miles on American, Delta, Continental, Northwest, or Midwest Airlines. 5,000 points convert to 2 Southwest Airlines credits.
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
Look for bonus offers in the Points to Miles section of my Registrations and Other Bonuses page.
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| Hyatt Gold Passport |
Join the Hyatt Gold Passport program and choose to earn either points or miles for stays at its properties.
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.
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| Wyndham Rewards (Formerly TripRewards) |
Note: If you plan to pay money for a room at a Wyndahm Hotel or Resort, please use my link to the left. It helps me at no cost to you. Thanks.
TripRewards is now called Wyndahm Rewards. Info on the change. Wyndahm 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.
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| Accor Hotels |
You can help me at no cost to yourself by reserving your stays at any Accor property by clicking on the banner to the left or here: here: Accorhotels.com home page
Accorhotels
Thayls and SNCF passengers are offered discounts on some stays at some Accor hotels. 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.
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| WORLDHOTELS |
WORLDHOTELS offers a straightforward minimum of 500 miles/stay at member hotels participating in the respective airline program in hundreds of locations worldwide on all rates unless explicitly noted otherwise in the rate description. Just show your frequent flyer card number at check-in. Twelve major international airlines serving every region of the world participate.
Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.
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| Omni Hotels |
Omni Hotels offers 500 miles/qualified stay at its hotels after you sign up for its Select Guest program. Miles can be earned from United, American, and Delta Airlines, and AMTRAK.
Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.
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| Fairmont Hotels |
Fairmont Hotels offers 500 miles/qualifying stay at its hotels after you enroll in its President's Club. Various status type benefits are awarded after certain numbers of stays/year. Miles can be earned from American, Alaska, Air Canada, and Emirates Airlines. A qualifying stay to earn airline miles is booked under one of the following rates: published rack, package and corporate. Examples of non-eligible stays to earn airline miles are discounted rates (AAA, CAA, AARP), meetings, conventions, groups and government rates.
Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.
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| Loews Hotels |
Lowes Hotels offers 500 American Express Membership Rewards Bonus Points or 500 American Airlines Miles or 500 Amtrak Points or 500 Midwest Airlines Miles per qualified stay at its hotels after you sign up for its LowesFirst program.
Be sure to read about special offers for this program in the Points to Miles Programs section of my Registration and Other Bonuses page.
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| Red Roof Inn RediCard | If you often stay in the inexpensive Red Roof Inns, the
RediCard will be of use to you. Earn 10 points/$1 spent at their Inns. 5,000 points convert to 1,000 Delta Airlines miles. (So that's 2 miles/$1 spent every time you spend $500 cumulative.) Read the terms and conditions. Points expire if no RediCard Preferred Member stay activity is recorded during a consecutive 14 month period, so this program is only for people who frequently stay in these Inns.
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.
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| Petro-Canada's PETRO-POINTS program | Petro-Canada's PETRO-POINTS program offers points convertible to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and other goodies.
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Energy
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| Energy Plus and Northwest or Continental Airlines |
Energy Plus offers New York residents Northwest or Continental Airlines miles:
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| SCANA Energy and Delta Airlines |
SCANA Energy offers Georgia residents one Delta Airlines mile per dollar paid on the natural gas portion of their bill. Details here, or call (877) GO SCANA.
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| Gexa Energy and American and Continental Airlines |
Gexa Energy offers some Texas residents 2,000 American or Continental Airlines miles for enrolling, 1,000 miles for electing the Auto Bill Pay Option, and 2 miles per dollar paid on electricity. Get details by going to Gexa's home page and clicking on Earn Airline Miles.
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.
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| Reliant Energy and American Airlines |
Reliant Energy offers American Airlines miles for its Reliant Energy Simple Solutions Flex Plan in the TXU Electric Delivery service territory.
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| Direct Energy and Continental Airlines |
Direct Energy offers Continental Airlines miles for its electricity service in the Dallas or Houston areas.
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| EnergyAustralia Energy and QANTAS |
Earn an unspecified number of thousands of QANTAS points when you take up selected residential market contracts with EnergyAustralia for the supply of gas and electricity, or electricity only. Plus, ask about extra points you can earn when paying your energy bill(s). Details, such as they are. Read them, then ask questions.
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| Gasoline |
Offers of miles for purchase of gasoline can be found on my Buying Stuff page in the Automobiles section.
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Other Miles Finding Websites
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| Other sites useful for finding free miles |
Milemaven and Frequent Flyer Bonuses do super jobs of finding bonuses for any route or airline you fly, or any hotel chain at which you stay. Always check these sites before you reserve a trip. Frequent Flyer Bonuses has a periodic newsletter.
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.
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Newsletters
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| Newsletters | There are a few excellent newsletters available, both of which are a source of information for this site.
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Discussion Forums
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| Discussion Forums on Frequent Flyer Miles |
The FlyerTalk Miles bulletin board is a the oldest forum on the subject, and has the most extensive posts on miles issues. But, it has a very large number of categories of subjects, and, although the individual threads have titles, the individual posts do not. It would take all day every day to read all new posts on all of the threads that might have miles info on them. I read the MilesBuzz and S.P.A.M. sections regularly, and post to them infrequently as pgary. If you find something of interest on one of the other threads, please tell me about it. Thanks. You may lurk or participate.
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.
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Charities
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| Charities, including Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort |
Several airlines and hotels are either offering miles for donations to charities and/or are providing you the opportunity to donate miles or points. (A cynic would ask why the airlines would not just give them the ticket, and would wonder if the receiver of the miles has to go through the same restrictions and hassles for actually getting a ticket as the rest of us.)
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.
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Miscellaneous Useful Programs and Websites
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| Frequent-flyer partner database |
Frequent-flyer partner database promises to maintain lists of partner airlines
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| Live Search Club and many airlines |
Live Search Club allows offers various games (word search, etc) you can play to earn points. Points are then convertible to airline miles up to 2,500 miles at a time on Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, and Midwest Airlines, and U.S. Airways. They are also convertible to other goodies.
There is a Flyertalk discussion on this program. Bottom line seems to be that it is worthwhile if you like games; else not.
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| IgoUgo and many airlines |
IgoUgo is a unique program wherein travelers submit journals on their travels. Others read these journals. You receive points for writing the journals, and for people reading them, and for the editors liking them. The points are convertible to American Airlines miles and other travel goodies.
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.
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| Viator and American, Delta, and United Airlines |
Viator, a company offering tours, airport parking, and airport shuttle services, offers 1 American, Delta or United Airlines, or U.S. Airways 1 mile/$1 spent. This in addition to the miles you would get for using your miles producing credit card to pay for the services. The name of the Credit Card holder listed on the payment details page must match the name on your Frequent Flyer account. The United Mileage Plus program and the US Airways Dividend Miles program require a minimum spend of USD$100 per transaction to qualify for miles.
I know nothing about this company, but its services appear to be quite extensive. They have some sort of low price guarantee.
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| Points.com and Many Airlines |
Points.com offers 100 or 200 miles from several airlines for joining its program for free. To find the offers, go to my Registrations and Other Bonuses page, click on the main page you get (important), then do a word search on "Points.com". Points.com is a last resort means of converting miles and points from one airline to another. Conversion always causes a huge loss of value.
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.
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| US Airways Golf Program |
US Airways has a Golf Program. Currently it offers miles for golf lessons, and discounts on many products.
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| HealthFusion and American Airlines |
Doctors and other health professionals will be interested in this free program. (So tell your doctor, who doesn't have time to read this site.) HealthFusion offers free, secure, on-line claims submissions and insurance eligibility inquires to many different insurers from health professionals and their employees, and offers American Airlines miles for each transaction.
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| The Funniest Forum Thread of All Time |
And finally, here is your reward for getting to the bottom of this page: The Funniest Forum Thread of All Time. Enjoy.
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