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Telephone Offers
The major U.S. long distance telephone companies no longer offer miles for signing up for their services. It was great while it lasted. There are a very low cost dial around services for your long distance needs. I used for years PowerNet Global for this purpose. I now use them for my regular long distance and local toll service at very low prices. I have been paying them less than 3.9 cents a minute for long distance within the U.S., in-state, and local toll calls. This includes all taxes and fees. To sign up with PowerNet Global, call toll free (866) 329-7280, and please tell them I referred you. Call (866) 329-7280 and mention Customer Referral Number TMC7500098. This shouldn't cost you anything, and will give me a tiny credit. Thanks. If you are using another long distance carrier for the miles, make it clear that you want a dial around service, and that you do not want to change long distance carriers. It is also possible to do the same thing with phone cards. These are often cheaper than a dial around service, but they require that you pay a minimum amount before you make a call, can run out of money in the middle of your phone call, and sometimes have a monthly minimum usage fee, surcharges, expiration dates and periodic maintenance fees. I leave it to you to read the small print. Cards that I or others recommend:
I am looking for a site that lists most or all of the cheap cards. The ones on AB Tolls seem expensive. Please write to me if you know of such a site. Thanks.
Here is a very complete San Francisco Chronicle article on how to make inexpensive calls internationally.
For comparison of expenses for phone service that does not offer miles, you can find excellent telephone deals with no miles offered at AB Tolls.
One I used for interim service (while waiting for a good mileage producing offer) was Enhanced Communications Group, found on that site. I had good telephone connections and no problems with this company. I am currently using PowerNet Global:
They initially quoted me 1 cent higher than what you have posted, but
after I gave them your account # for referral and told them what you
were getting 3.9/2.9, they matched it. (I'm in IL).
Telephone companies often will offer miles or dollar discounts for allowing them to bill your credit card directly, and/or to send you email. But they are always happy to encourage you to sign up for these services for free "as a convenience to you". So don't sign up for these services until you first ask if you can get something for doing so. I mention these offers as I know about them, and would appreciate it if you would tell me about any you know about. Thanks.
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| IT&E (Guam and CNMI) and Continental Airlines |
IT&E (Guam and CNMI) offers 5 Continental Airlines/$1 spent on its residential long distance, wireless PCS, Press2Talk advanced walkie-talkie, wireless broadband, Talaya DSL and Talaya-Internet accounts.
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| Primus Mileage Offers |
Canadian readers may click here to read about the standard mileage offers of Primus. Last I looked they were offering Air Canada Aeroplan miles for telephone, wireless, and internet services.
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| Japan Airlines Telephone Offers |
Japan Airlines has several telephone offers for long distance and international calls. Services in the Japan, the U.S., and British Colombia were included last I looked. Read about them here.
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| Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles Telephone Offers |
Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles program has several telephone offers with companies I have never heard of (so they are probably in Asia).
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| KLM Telephone Offers |
KLM Flying Dutchman miles program has long distance offers which depend on the European country in which you reside. For info, go to KLM's home page, choose your country and language, click on Flying Dutchman in the left menu, then on the read more link in the Partners paragraph on the main page, same again in the Finance and Telecom paragraph, then do the obvious.
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Cell Phone and Wireless Offers - DomesticCaution: You may be able to find lower rates for the same phone services offered below, so low in fact that the miles are not worth the extra money. Here is an excellent article from the San Francisco Chronicle on buying a cell phone. Worth a read before you accept any of the offers below. HowardForums is an amazing forum for people as obsessed with Cell Phones as I am with miles. Tower location and coverage reported by users (by zip code) can be found at the very useful website www.cellreception.com
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| Nextel/Sprint and United, Continental, Northwest, Alaska, and Hawaiian, Airlines, and AirTran, and U.S. Airways, and ChoicePrivileges |
Nextel/Sprint offers up to 5,000 United Airlines miles via the Mileage Plus Wireless Store. Nextel/Sprint offers up to 5,000 Continental Airlines miles plus 10 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the OnePass Wireless Store. Nextel/Sprint offers up to 5,000 Alaska Airlines miles for new wireless service or contract extension via the Mileage Plan Wireless Store. Nextel/Sprint offers 5,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles for new or extended contracts plus 10 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the Hawaiian Airlines Wireless website. Nextel/Sprint offers 3,500 U.S. Airways miles plus 5 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the Dividend Miles Wireless website. Nextel/Sprint offers 3 AirTran A+ Rewards Credits for activating a new phone or extending your contract via the A+ Rewards Wireless Store website. Nextel/Sprint offers up to 5,000 ChoicePrivileges points via the ChoicePrivileges Wireless Store. Caution. Consider this note from a reader: "I called one of the Nextel numbers in your list, rather than the Northwest number. I wanted the cheapest phone and the cheapest plan. The plan that Nextel offered to me was $4 a month cheaper than the cheapest Nextel plan via the Northwest site. If I had taken the extra 1000 miles it would have cost me an additional $48 a year."
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| AT&T and United, Northwest, Alaska, Hawaiian, and Continental Airlines, and AirTran, and U.S. Airways, and ChoicePrivileges |
AT&T offers up to 5,000 Continental Airlines miles plus 10 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the OnePass Wireless Store.
AT&T offers up to 5,000 Alaska Airlines miles for new wireless service or contract extension via the Mileage Plan Wireless Store. AT&T offers 5,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles for new or extended contracts plus 10 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the Hawaiian Airlines Wireless website. AT&T offers 3,500 U.S. Airways miles plus 5 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the Dividend Miles Wireless website. AT&T offers 3 AirTran A+ Rewards Credits for activating a new phone or extending your contract via the A+ Rewards Wireless Store website. AT&T offers up to 5,000 ChoicePrivileges points via the ChoicePrivileges Wireless Store.
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| T-Mobile and American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, Hawaiian, Alaska, and KLM Airlines, AirTran, and U.S. Airways, and Priority Club and Choice Privileges |
T-Mobile offers both cell phone and Internet Access (Hot Spot) services, so I list its offers on both this page and my Internet Access page.
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| Verizon and United, Northwest, Continental, Alaska, and Hawaiian Airlines, AirTran, and U.S. Airways, ChoicePrivileges and Greenpoints |
Click on the banner to the left to see Verizon's fees for accounts that do not earn miles.
Verizon offers up to 5,000 United Airlines miles via the Mileage Plus Wireless Store. Verizon offers 3,500 U.S. Aiways miles plus 5 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the Dividend Miles Wireless website.
Verizon offers up to 5,000 Continental Airlines miles plus 10 miles/$1 spent on accessories via the OnePass Wireless Store. Verizon offers 5,000 Alaska Airlines miles for new wireless service or contract extension via the Mileage Plan Wireless Store. Verizon offers 5,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles for new wireless service or contract extension via Hawaiian Airlines Wireless. Verizon offers 3 AirTran A+ Rewards Credits for activating a new phone via the A+ Rewards Wireless Store website. Verizon offers up to 5,000 ChoicePrivileges points via the ChoicePrivileges Wireless Store. Verizon offers 20,000 Greenpoints for using its services. You may read about the S&H Greenpoints program in the Points to Miles section of my Other Programs I Like page.
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| Alltel Wireless and United Airlines and ChoicePrivileges |
Alltel Wireless offers up to 5,000 United Airlines miles via the Mileage Plus Wireless Store. Alltel offers up to 5,000 ChoicePrivileges points for contract renewal via the ChoicePrivileges Wireless Store.
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| U.S. Cellular and United Airlines |
U.S. Cellular offers up to 5,000 United Airlines miles via the Mileage Plus Wireless Store.
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| Qwest and Frontier Airlines |
Qwest offers 5,000 Frontier Airlines miles for signing up for its wireless service, plus bonus miles for signing up for more than one Qwest product.
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| GCI and Alaska Airlines for Alaskans |
For residents of Alaska GCI has several offers for local, long distance, and cellular telephone service, and internet access, and cable TV, all of which produce Alaska Airlines miles. Read about them here. Click on "Product Details" to see the miles offers. They have a combination offer that offers 10,000 miles.
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| Metrocall and Continental Airlines |
Metrocall offers 1,000 Continental Airlines miles for signing up with its Advanced 2Way Messaging and Wireless E-mail system and remaining with it for 30 days, and another 500 miles for remaining with it for six months. Or call (877) 295-0474.
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| GuamCell and SiapanCell (Guam) and Continental Airlines |
GuamCell and SiapanCell (Guam) offer a 2,500 Continental Airlines miles sign-up bonus and 3 Continental Airlines/$1 spent on its residential long distance, wireless, walkie-talkie, and internet accounts. Continental Airline's partner offer section also describes the offer.
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| IT&E (Guam and CNMI) and Continental Airlines |
IT&E (Guam and CNMI) offers 5 Continental Airlines/$1 spent on its residential long distance, wireless PCS, Press2Talk advanced walkie-talkie, wireless broadband, Talaya DSL and Talaya-Internet accounts. Continental Airline's partner offer section also describes the offer.
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| KDDI Mobile and All Nippon Airways (ANA) |
KDDI Mobile offers an unspecified number of All Nippon Airways miles for signing up for its mobile phone service in the continuous U.S. and Hawaii, excluding Alaska.
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| BlackBerry and American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, and Air Canada Airlines |
Buy a BlackBerry® smartphone online with any of the nation’s major service providers and enter your American Airlines AAdvantage® number during checkout to earn 4,000 American Airlines miles with new service or a renewed contract. Details. I leave it to you to read them.
I know little about cell phones, since I don't own one. But I suspect that Blackberry has become so ubiquitous that it may be available with a miles bonus from some or all of the airlines wireless stores mentioned above.
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| MyPoints Wireless Store |
MyPoints will offers 2,000 points for various cellular services. You may read about the MyPoints program on my Click for Miles, Money, and Good Causes page.
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| Primus Wireless and Air Miles |
Canadian readers may click here to read about the standard mileage offers of Primus. Last I looked they were offering Air Miles for telephone, wireless, and internet services.
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| Bell (Canada) and Air Canada's Aeroplan |
Bell (Canada) offers Air Canada Aeroplan miles for certain cell phone and cell phone + Blackberry plans.
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| Lufthansa |
Lufthansa has several wireless offers which earn Lufthansa miles.
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Cell Phone Rental and Roaming for International TravelTwo good articles on this subject:
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| American Airlines - PlanetFone Free Telephone Offer |
Holders of the Citi Platinum Select American Airlines AAdvantage World MasterCard are offered a rent free international cellular phone from PlanetFone for one month for travel outside of the U.S. except in Japan or Korea. Other charges apply, including charges for use and a $20 return fee. Read the terms and conditions thoroughly, and be very certain that you are aware of the calling rates and all of the fees that you will pay. I have no experience with this, but the calling rates seem very high to me. I am sure I would be able to do better with a local phone card purchased in the country I am visiting. But if you just have to have that constant cell phone connection (you probably aren't on vacation).
You may read about the credit card on the Annual Fee Cards page in my Credit Card section.
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| Delta Airlines and Call in Europe |
Call in Europe says "save up to 70% on calls with your cellphone abroad or allow Call in Europe to deliver the equipment you need before your trip". It offers 1,000 miles + 2/miles outbound minute. If that link doesn't work try this one.
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| Marriott Rewards Cell Phone Rental |
Marriott Rewards has cell phone rental offers for people who travel in the UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, Belgium, and Indonesia. Details here.
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| TravelingConnect and many airlines and points programs |
TravelingConnect says
"You can earn up to 10 awards per minute when you are travelling abroad and making mobile phone calls on the networks of the participating mobile operators. In India and Hong Kong you can also earn awards for incoming calls!Miles and points are available from Northwest and Delta Airlines, Priority Club, Hilton, Marriott, Air France, Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Qatar Airways, Ukraine International Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, TAP Portugal, Royal Brunei Airlines, Oman Air, Gulf Air, AeroSvit Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines.
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| TravelSim and many airlines and points programs |
TravelSim offers 1 mile or point/per minute you are calling or receiving a call using its TravelSim card on your cell phone. Miles or points are offered for Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, Air France/KLM, Thai Air, Brussels Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Brunei, TAP, and Ukraine International Airlines. (Thanks to View from the Wing for this information.)
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| Japan Airlines Cell Phone Rental |
Japan Airlines has a cell phone rental service for people who travel to and from Japan. Details here.
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| Asiana Airlines Cell Phone Rental |
Asiana Airlines has a cell phone rental service for people who travel to Korea. Details here.
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| Sim Airways Sim card (cellular line) and American Airlines |
Sim Airways offers American Airlines miles for purchase and use of its Sim card (cellular line) for cell phone connections in 60 countries. They advertise "only" 39 cents/minute call back to the U.S. Wow! You can usually do the same from a public phone with a local phone card for considerably less than 5 cents/minute. Best deals tend to be in or near train stations.
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| KLM, Air France, and Hilton and cell phone services | When you are traveling abroad and making mobile phone calls on the T-Mobile network in the UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the Mobistar network in Belgium and the Indosat network in Indonesia,
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| SN Brussels Airline and cell phone services |
SN Brussels Airline offers 7 miles per minute when you are traveling abroad and making mobile phone calls on the T-Mobile network in the UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the Wind network in Italy, the Mobistar network in Belgium and the Turkcell network in Turkey. In Asia: the True Move network in Thailand, the Indosat network in Indonesia and the Mobilink network in Pakistan. In Africa: the MobiNil network in Egypt and the Djezzy network in Algeria. Follow the directions on the offer. Register, then switch your phone.
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| Cellhire and Air France |
Cellhire offers 2,000 Air France miles for the first use of one of its rental phones plus 1 Mile per €1 invoiced in calls. The offer is described on Air France's U.S. website. Hover over Frequent Flyers, then Frequency Plus, then click on Earn Miles. Then click on Other Partners, and scroll down to the Cellhire offer.
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| GSM Wireless Phone service and British Airways |
One of the British Airways miles earning services of GSM Wireless Phone Service described above is rental of cell phones for travelers.
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Calling Cards, Charge and PrepaidHere are some calling cards that earn miles. However, you might find better deals in my paragraph on non-mileage producing calling cards above. Also, read this article on phone cards and this article by Ed Perkins on calling cards for calling from outside the U.S. to the U.S.
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| 1-800-Prepaid and many airlines |
1-800-Prepaid offers miles on many airlines for buying their prepaid telephone cards. Rates seem to vary between 10 and 33 cents a minute, depending on the airline you choose. (Expensive.) Click on the airline to see the rate. Note that there is an exorbitant extra fee to deliver the card to you.
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| Global One and many airlines |
Global OneClassic members will receive a welcome bonus of up to 3,000 miles from Mexicana Airlines when they activate their card, depending on how much they spend. Frecuenta Gold or Silver Status Members will receive a welcome bonus of up to 4,000 miles when they activate their card, depending on how much they spend. Both will receive 5 miles for every dollar spent. Info here.
Global One and Grupo Taca have an arrangement by which you can earn miles for the latter using the former's calling card. The only information I have on this is what I found on Grupo Taca's web site. I have found no link or information on how to sign up for the offer. Global One offers miles on many other non-U.S. airlines for buying their prepaid telephone cards.
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| Air New Zealand Calling Card |
Air New Zealand has a calling card for residents of New Zealand for calling home from almost anywhere in the world. It earns 5 Airpoints for every dollar spent, as long as you make a minimum of $25 of calls in a statement month. (Presumably that's NZ$.)
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| Other Calling Card Offers? |
Please let me know of any other prepaid calling card offers that provide miles. Thanks.
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TeleconferencingYou can save travel expenses by teleconferencing instead, and at the same time earn miles for use when you really do have to meet face to face.
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| AccuTalk.net and American Airlines |
AccuTalk.net offers 1 American Airlines mile/$1 spent on its teleconferencing services.
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| ConferenceCall.com and American and United Airlines |
ConferenceCall.com offers a points program, where points are convertible to American and United Airlines miles and other goodies.
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