Buying Stuff
How to get the most miles for the buck you are going to spend anyway.
First, if I can't make a deal for a cash discount, I always use a credit card that gives me frequent flyer miles whenever I can. Next, I receive extra miles for using the services below. And sometimes, using gift certificates, I can triple dip. (See the GiftCertificates.com section to see how this can works.)
Shop On Line
Never go directly to a store's on line shopping web site. Always check to see if that store is listed with one of the on line shopping portals below. The portal gives miles, and you usually are offered the same price.Find the best portal
Cash Back Portals
Airline Shopping Portals
Hotel and Amtrak Shopping Portals
Other Miles Earning Shopping Portals. Some of these often give the best deals. Don't miss reading about them.
- RewardsDB.com . Andrew Cram's outstanding cross reference table, looking more like a fully fledged searchable database these days.
- FrequentFlier Mile Search . Another promising new cross reference system from FrequentFlier.com. Search by merchant or category.
- WebFlyer Mileage Mall Search . Search by mall, merchant, or category. Powered by evreward.
- Cash back portals often have minimums you must earn before they will give you your money.
- Cash back portals often charge a fee to give you your money.
- Both cash back and miles portals will often delay crediting payment or miles for up to several months to accommodate merchants' return period. None will pay you until they are paid.
- Some of the cash back programs also show coupon codes for discounts from the merchant. These offers usually are not listed on the cross reference website I list above. Serious shoppers must check with each cash back program to find these discounts.
- Cash back portals often have referral programs by which you can earn money for referring people who then actually purchase something through the portal, at no cost to the person referred.
- For any type of portal, you must first log in to get credit, then click to the merchant via the links within the portal, and then complete your order before going to any other website. Don't shop elsewhere until you have completed your order.
- BigCrumbs
- Often the best rebate rates, plus rebates for your purchases at E-bay.
- All payments via PayPal.
- Payments monthly, automatically.
- No minimum for payment. 2% fee, to a maximum of $1 per payment. That's 2% of what they owe you, not 2% of purchase prices. Maximum $10,000 per payment.
- You can shop by store or category.
- Special Offers page.
- A very good referral system. Prior to April 2, 2010, BigCrumbs offered two membership types: CrumbSaver and CrumbEarner. These two membership types had different cash back and referral commission structures. However, on April 2, 2010, BigCrumbs consolidated its program into one membership type. All members now earn the same high cash back rates, plus referral commissions on those whom they directly refer, as well as members referred by their direct referrals.
- When you sign up for this program, please enter pgary in the Referrer box near the bottom of the page. This will help me at no cost to you. Thanks.
- Shop at Home
- Frequently the best rebate rate.
- $5 bonus for joining.
- $20 minimum to receive payment.
- 50 cent fee for payment.
- Payments quarterly by check, automatically.
- $5 per person you refer who makes a purchase within 30 days of the date of the referral.
- You can shop by store, category, or specific product.
- When you sign up for this program, please enter 1737.pgary.website@earthlink.net in the box near the bottom of the page requesting the email address of the person who referred you. This will help me at no cost to you. Thanks.
- Mr. Rebates
- $2.50 bonus for joining.
- $25 minimum to receive payment.
- No fee for payment that I can see.
- Payments monthly by check or PayPal, when you request it.
- Referral program.
- You can shop by store, category, or specific product.
- Please use this link to sign up. Also, please be sure that 1737.pgary.website@earthlink.net appears in the Referral Email Address box near the bottom of the form. This will help me at no cost to you. Thanks.
- MSN Live Search Cashback
- $5 minimum for payment.
- Cash back is held for 60 days in case you return the item.
- Payments issued approximately 14 days after request.
- No referral program.
- Click on the How This Works link, then on the Frequently Asked Questions link to see how the system works.
- FatWallet
- $10 minimum for payment by check; no minimum via PayPal.
- Payments weekly, when you request them.
- You can shop by store, category, or specific product.
- No referral program.
- TreasureTrooper.com.
- If you are participating in this program for its many free cash offers, be sure to check its Cash Shopping page to see if your merchant is listed there. Often the offer is competitive with other portals.
- You may read about TreasureTrooper.com on my Click for Miles, Money, and Good Causes page in the Click for Money section.
- Great Canadian Rebates
- For Canadian shoppers only.
- Referral program.
- $3 minimum for payout.
- Cash Back Rebates are paid every two months by cheque or can be directly deposited into your PayPal account.
"Once you've logged in to the mall via the airline's website, you need to make sure to start and finish shopping in the same window if you wish to collect miles. If you open another window to comparison shop, or go to another site and then come back, you may lose your connection with the mileage mall and forfeit your chance to earn miles. When in doubt, re-enter the online store through the airline's site before adding items to your shopping cart, so you can be certain that your frequent flier number was captured and you'll be eligible for miles."
American Airlines
- Special offer: Download American Airline's shopping toolbar and use it once by June 30, 2010, to earn 500 miles. Then earn 1 mile/3 Yahoo searches in the toolbar, up to 100 miles per month. What an easy way to keep your miles alive!
- AAdvantage eShopping mall.
- Sign up by May 31, 2010, and register a credit card to earn 500 miles. New members only.
- Also register your credit or debit cards to earn miles for shopping at selected offline retailers and catalogs. This appears to be a good double dip opportunity. Here are the lists of these retailers:
- Bonus page.
- GiftCertificates.com is one of the merchants listed here. Incredibly, you can buy a gift certificate from GiftCertificates.com for American Airlines here, thus providing a wonderful opportunity to triple dip. See my writeup above on how to do this.
- Retail and Gifts page. If my link to this doesn't work, go to www.aa.com, then in the left menu hover over AAdvantage > Partners & Mileage Programs, and click on Retail and Gifts.
- AAdvantage eShopping mall Canada.
- Also check to see if your vendor is in the Skymall program described below
- GiftCertificates.com is listed as one of Delta's vendors. See my writeup above on how to use these certificates to triple dip on miles.
- Delta's website lists other shopping offers and bonuses:
- Also check to see if your vendor is in the Skymall program described below
- "Shop at any ShopOnePass merchant and use your Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit card to earn twice the miles when you link from continental.com to your favorite merchant." This offer appears at the top of the page you get. No expiration date appears. Please tell me when this offer disappears. Thanks.
- GiftCertificates.com is listed as one of Continental's vendors. See my writeup above on how to use these certificates to triple dip on miles.
- Also check to see if your vendor is in the Skymall program described below
- Before shopping here between April 29 and June 30, 2010, be sure to register for the U.S. Airways 50% bonus offer.
- Preferred members of the U.S. Airways miles program are U.S. Airways.offered a bonus for purchases:
- Silver Preferred - 25%
- Gold Preferred - 50%
- Platinum Preferred - 75%
- Chairman’s Preferred - 100%
Alaska Airlines
This is a much improved portal over Alaska's old one via milesmall. GiftCertificates.com is listed as one of its vendors. See my writeup above on how to use these certificates to triple dip on miles.
- Bonus miles for some merchants. No expiration date mentioned. Still available February 21, 2010.
Hawaiian Airlines
Be sure to click on all five links in the menu just above the search box. For example, the XtraMiles Partners link brings you to a huge number of merchants in Hawaii offering miles for purchases when you use your Hawaiian Airlines® Visa® Card. (You can read about that card on my Credit Cards > Annual Fee Cards page.)
- It appears that SkyMall is running this portal for Midwest. SkyMall is listed as one of the portal's merchants.
British Airways
QANTAS.
Qantas offers miles through conversion of points from a range of competing bank credit card programs, each of which has separate bonus partners. Andrew Cram's excellent Frequent Flyer Resources has a page with a table listing the bonus partners for Qantas, ANZ Rewards Visa, Woolworths Ezyrewards Mastercard & Eftpos, Citibank Credit Cards, Westpac Altitude Cards as well as Flybuys, which can be redeemed for flights.
Here is some info on Woolworths ezbanking debit card:
Grupo Taca.
This program offers numerous opportunities to transfer Puntos from other shopping programs in Latin America to miles.
All Nippon Airways.
Programs both in the U.S. and in Japan. Also, starting July 1, 2004, you will be able to exchange miles and points between the airline and internet shopping site operator Rakuten Inc. Read the details here. Thanks to Gary Leff from View from the Wing for this information. Note: On February 9, 2005, a reader sent me this link to info on the deal. Alas, it is in Japanese, so I can't read it to verify that this is what it is. He says a bit of a translation to English can be found here.
EgyptAir. Click on Our Partners in the left menu.
The ChoicePrivileges Mall offers Choice Hotels points for purchases. Points convert to miles on many airlines. GiftCertificates.com is one of the merchants listed here. See my writeup below on how to use these certificates to triple dip on miles. You may read about the ChoicePrivileges program in the Points to Miles, esp. Hotels, section of my Other Programs I Like page.
The Marriott Rewards Mall offers Marriott Rewards points for purchases. Points convert to miles on many airlines. GiftCertificates.com is one of the merchants listed here. See my writeup below on how to use these certificates to triple dip on miles. You may read about the Marriott Rewards program in the Points to Miles, esp. Hotels, section of my Other Programs I Like page.
Intercontinental Hotel's Priority Club offers the Priority Club Rewards Shopping Mall. Most merchants offer 2 to 6 points per $1 spent, and a few offer more. Priority Club points convert to miles on many airlines. You may read about the Priority Club program in the Points to Miles, esp. Hotels, section of my Other Programs I Like page.
Hilton Hotels features the HHonors Earnings Mall. I see offers from 3 to 15 points per $1 spent.
Wyndham Hotel's Wyndham Rewards has a shop online page featuring a few familiar merchants. The program offers only 1 point/$1 spent. You could do better most anywhere else.
- Amtrak's Earn Points for Purchases page lists some additional merchants offering Amtrak points for purchases.
The SkyMall program lists a large number of merchants listed nowhere else. It is much more than the offerings you see in the magazine onboard your flight.
All of the Miles for Clicking programs, described in the Click for Miles, Money, and Good Causes section of this web site offer points for shopping. MyPoints is particularly good.
Here is a way to earn miles in two and possibly three places for one purchase. It is also a way to receive the most miles for your purchase for some vendors.
- Find GiftCertificates.com on a shopping portal that offers miles. Andrew Cram's RewardsDB.com maintains a pretty good list of these portals, so I will no longer maintain a list here. Often the miles you earn here will exceed the miles you would receive by shopping directly through a portal.
- Buy a gift certificate for yourself from them for the vendor from which you want to buy something. (This Flyertalk thread indicates there is now a $2 charge for electronic certificates, so this process will no longer be cost effective for small denomination certificates.)
- Find that vendor on a portal that offers miles and buy, using your gift certificate. (A reader tell me that there is no reason why this portal can't be the same one through which you bought the gift certificate.) It is possible, but not a sure bet, that you will receive miles from the portal, also.
- And of course, use your mileage producing credit card to make the purchase.
- If you go though the right shopping portal, you can buy gift certificates for varioius hotel chains. Log into your favorite miles or points producing portal listing GiftCertificates.com, buy a gift certificate for a hotel stay at one of these properties, then use it for a stay. Earn miles or points for buying the certificate, using your credit card to do so, and for the stay itself.
Often Skymall has airline miles offers, and sometimes these offers are better than those of any other portal offering miles of use to you. And Skymall may be the only portal offering miles for the retailer of interest. So if you know which retailer from whom you want to buy a specific product, be sure to see if it is a SkyMall retailer. Then add the airline offers below to your list of portals for comparison.
Note that the Skymall catalog that is in the pocket in front of your airline seat always lists the name of the retailer. However, there are many more retailers in SkyMall than are listed in that catalog.
Get-Coupon-Code.com, RewardsDB and Ev'reward maintain a list of SkyMall offers. Between them and me, we might have all of them. But please tell me about any you know about not listed below. Please provide the link to the offer. Thanks.
- First use your favorite skymall airline link below, then, at the checkout page, try entering one or more of these codes for a possible further discount. If that doesn't work and the discount is worth more than than the miles you would get, just place your order directly at www.skymall.com and try for the discount again.
- MCQ19 for free standard delivery.
- A search on "Skymall coupon code" yields many promising results.
- Southwest Airlines
- American Airlines.
- Continental Airlines.
Special offers:- I have an email from Continental Airlines dated July 16, 2004, that says
"Now earn 15 miles for every dollar spent with SkyMall by simply using the convenient SkyMall/OnePass Onboard Order Form while flying on Continental Airlines. It's the rewarding way to make those hard-to-find items your own. Just ask your flight attendant for an order form on your next flight. Offer valid only while onboard via the SkyMall/OnePass Onboard Order Form."
If you are flying on a Continental flight, no doubt this offer will be announced if it is still in effect. If it is not announced, please ask and then tell me what you find out. (I fly Continental as little as possible.) Thanks.
- I have an email from Continental Airlines dated July 16, 2004, that says
- Delta Airlines.
- U.S. Airways.
- Special offer: 10 miles/$1 spent through June 30, 2010. Shop through the page you get.
- Before shopping here between April 29 and June 30, 2010, be sure to register for the U.S. Airways 50% bonus offer.
- This U.S. Airways website page offers 5 miles/$1 spent instead of the usual 3 miles, apparently by shopping through the U.S. Airways shopping portal. Strange. Please tell me when this changes. Thanks.
- Alaska Airlines
- Midwest Airlines
- On February 21, 2010, the standard offer was 10 miles/$1 spent. Please tell me when this excellent offer changes. Thanks.
- AirTran
- As of February 21, 2010, my link above takes you to the standard offer of 1/2 credit/$100 spent. This link takes you to an offer of 1/4 credit/$50 spent.
- United Airlines
- Marriott
- See my writeup below on how to use GiftCertificates.com to triple dip on miles.
- The Best Western listing also gives an obvious and straightforward triple dip opportunity - AirMilesMart, credit card, and hotel points. Hmm. I wonder if you can pay for the room with a gift certificate...
- Interestingly, though AirMilesMart says you get 1 point/$1 spent at GiftCertificates.com, the terms and conditions say you can't get points for gift certificates. I haven't tested this.
The points are convertible one for one into the miles of Delta Airlines, U.S. Airways, and into Starwood Starpoints. Minimum conversion amount is only 500 points, which is quite impressive. They are also convertible into $25, $50, and $100 gift certificates at a list of familiar stores at the rate of 1 cent per point.
Apparently the points do not expire. I have had points in my account since 5/29/2002.
Be sure to check out their Trial Offers section. Free miles for trying things, getting quotes, etc.
- Thanks Again has added an online mall.
- Special offer through December 31, 2010, for those enrolled for U. S. Airways miles (and maybe other programs, though I haven't seen these yet):
- Earn 500 bonus miles/points when you spend $250 or more (2 miles/points per dollar spent)
- Earn 1,500 bonus miles/points when you spend $500 or more (3 miles/points per dollar spent)
- Earn 4,000 bonus miles/points when you spend $1,000 or more (4 miles/points per dollar spent)
- If you seek U.S. Airways miles, then before shopping here between April 29 and June 30, 2010, be sure to register for the U.S. Airways 50% bonus offer.
- You must accrue at least 100 miles before Thanks Again sends a transfer over to an airline, and
- We ask that you allow 6-8 weeks for your miles to post to your United Mileage Plus account. It is usually faster than that, however.
- Each time you spend $200 with a participating merchant over a 60 day period, you'll get 200 bonus miles.
- If you can do at least 25 referrals, perhaps through your website, join the Thanks Again Affiliate Program to earn $1/referral and $0.25 for each referral done by your referrals. Minimum payout is $25.
Cautions:
- Thanks Again runs the Delta Airlines Skymiles Clothing Care program. If you join that program, you are automatically a Thanks Again member, and thus cannot join again for another bonus, if offered. However, if you join Thanks Again under another airline, you may still join the Delta Clothing Care program and get bonuses for both, if offered. You must use different credit cards and different login names to do this.
- If you are uncomfortable registering a credit card with this new program, consider registering a card with a very low credit limit, a Visa or Mastercard gift card with a very low balance on it, or even a single use card.
You may read about the Greenpoints program in the Points to Miles section of my Other Programs I Like page.
Newspaper and Magazine Subscriptions
Newspapers are now starting to offer miles for subscriptions, and you can buy both newspapers and magazines with miles, which could be a good use of orphan miles about to expire. I will list the offers I know about, but I rely on your with your local knowledge to tell me about the offers, especially from newspapers in your area. Links, phone numbers, and/or offer codes appreciated. Thanks.
Note: This Flyertalk thread discusses airline Wall Street Journal offers from airlines through December, 2005. It is probably more up to date than my listings below. I linked to page 3 of the thread. Previous pages are probably out of date. If someone would like to search out the specific links for the offers mentioned and send them to me, and if they involve miles, I would be inclined to specifically list them here.
| Newspaper | Award | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Wall Street Journal | 1000 Delta Airlines miles (with Delta Business Credit Card) |
Click |
| Wall Street Journal | 6 Delta Airlines miles/$1 spent | Click |
| Wall Street Journal | 20 Continental Airlines miles per $1 spent | Click |
| Wall Street Journal | 6 United Airlines miles/$1 spent | Click |
| Wall Street Journal | 1000 or 2000 Hilton HHonors points | Click |
| Wall Street Journal | 2 ClickMiles from ClickRewards per dollar spent | Click |
| Financial Times (U.S.) | 2,000 Hilton HHonors points | Click |
| N.Y. Times | 500 PhoneHog Minutes and 50% discount | PhoneHog home page. See my Telephone page, Long Distance section, for info on PhoneHog. |
| Washington National Post | 20 Continental Airlines miles per $1 spent | Click |
| USA Today | 1,500 American Airlines miles, plus 100 miles every 4 weeks. (For AA Elite members.) | Click |
| USA Today | 1,000 American Airlines miles, plus 100 miles every 4 weeks. (For the rest of us.) | Click |
| USA Today | 1,000 U.S. Airways miles plus 100 miles/4 weeks | Click |
| USA Today | 1,000 Hilton HHonors points plus 400 point/week 4900/year max | Click |
| USA Today e-Edition | 13,000 Hilton HHonors points | Click |
| USA Today | 1,000 Priority Club points, plus 300 points every 4 weeks | Click or (800) USA-0001 promo code 558 |
| USA Today e-Edition | 100 Priority Club points for trial, plus 400 points every 4 weeks | Click or (800) USA-0001 promo code 558 |
| San Francisco Chronicle | 5 or 10 United Airlines miles per dollar spent | Click |
| The Charlotte Observer | 2,100 U.S. Airways miles the first year | Click |
| Honolulu Star Bulletin | 2,500 or 1,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles | Click |
| FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHLAND | 5,000 Lufthansa miles,plus 1,000 miles/month. | Click |
| Frankfurter Rundschau | 12,000 Lufthansa miles for referral, 1000 for subscription. (Just refer your spouse?) German residents only. | Click |
| ASAHI Shimbun International Sat elite Edition | 1,000 All Nippon Airways miles plus 1,000 miles if a subscriber refers a new subscriber | Click |
You can earn or redeem United Airlines miles for purchase of newspapers though its Reader Miles program. Over 50 newspapers are claimed. On February 27, 2007, the newspapers included
- The Wall Street Journal
- Washington Post
- Chicago Tribune
- Denver Post
- Los Angeles Times
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Dallas Morning News (redeem only)
- Newsday
Continental Airlines offers a minimum of 200 miles per magazine subscription as of March 7, 2010.
Alaska Airlines's MileagePlan Shopping lists ValueMags.com as one of its vendors. 1,200 magazines are claimed. On June 15, 2004, they were offering 8 Alaska Airlines Miles per $1 spent.
Hawaiian Airlines's magazine mileage awards offer a minimum of 240 miles per paid subscription. A large number of magazines are offered.
MyBonusCenteroffers Delta Airlines miles for magazine subscriptions.
Rogers Magazine Service offers up to 1,350 Air Canada miles for purchase of magazine subscriptions.
The Priority Club online mall lists ValueMags and Magazines.com as two of its vendors. On April 25, 2005, ValueMags was offering 22 points per $1 spent, and Magazines.com was offering 24 points per $1 spent.
Hilton's online shopping portal offers Hilton HHonors points for magazine purchases.
Lufthansa has a large number of offers for subscribing to or referring others to magazines. The referral offers are particularly lucrative, and often do not require that you be a subscriber. Many are for German residents only.
Goldpoints offers 5,000 or 10,000 points for subscriptions to The Economist. My link is to the UK offer. Use the pulldown menu to find your country.
SN Brussels Airlines offers miles for subscriptions to The Economist for new subscribers resident in Continental Europe and the Middle East and Africa.
ACP Publishing offers 100 Qantas Frequent Flyer points for annual subscriptions less than A$80, and 200 Qantas Frequent Flyer points for annual subscriptions of A$80 and over, for a large number of magazines.
Varig's promotions page is beginning to list miles offers for magazine subscriptions. AMANHÃ MAGAZINE was listed on February 25, 2005.
Japan Airlines offers miles for subscriptions to a few magazines.
PhoneHog usually lists magazine offers on your Personal Page. Search on "magazine". You may read what PhoneHog has to do with miles on my Telephone page in the Long Distance section.
- Delta Airlines.
- American Airlines. (If that doesn't work, try this. And for the Wall Street Journal, post #10 in this thread on FlyerTalk says you can spend 1,200 American Airlines miles for a 3 month subscription by calling (888) 321-6247 and use code ESS.)
- United Airlines miles. (Newspapers only, via the Reader Miles program described above.)
- Hawaiian Airlines for newspapers, then click on the link Redeem for Newspapers. The offers vary by zip code. For my San Francisco Bay Area zip code, the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle were offered on November 13, 2008.
- Hawaiian Airlines for a few magazines and the Wall Street Journal.
- U.S. Airways.
- Midwest Airlines.
- Priority Club.
- Amtrak.
Milepoint allows redemption of miles on lots of airlines for magazines and the Wall Street Journal.
Delta, American, and other airlines allow redemption of miles for a subscription of the Wall Street Journal. (800) 961-8702 (from an old post on FlyerTalk. The offer code is VNF. 64 issues for 1,000 miles. This number is for Delta Airlines, but they can handle other airlines or can give you the number for them. Another old post on FlyerTalk said that the number for American Airlines is (800) 961-8669. If these numbers don't work, try 800-250-3525. You may have to call these numbers several times until you get what you want. Please tell me whether or not any of these numbers still work. There is not enough time in my life to personally check them out.
Starwood StarPoints allows redemption of points for a Wall Street Journal subscription. Note: A reader tells me you can receive a year for 8,750 points if you call them, instead of the 9,450 point listed on their web site.
Hilton HHonors allows redemption of points for a Wall Street Journal subscription.
Many of Lufthansa's magazine and newspaper offers allow you to redeem miles for subscriptions.
MyPoints. MyPoints offers free business magazines from FreeBizMag, and offers MyPoints for doing so. (Earn Points > Quick List by Merchant > FreeBisMag). Occasionally I am offered a free Wall Street Journal Subscription after signing up for business magazines. You may read about the MyPoints program on my Miles for Clicking page.
An old post on FlyerTalk said "Sign up for a trade magazine (he was referring to freebizmag.com) and use 1,300 FF miles to get 3 months of the WSJ. They accept most major airlines, but no Alaskan Air". On June 7, 2007, a reader told me this still works for United Airlines miles. Please tell me if this still works.
A very old post on FlyerTalk lists the following phone numbers for redeeming miles for magazines. Please tell me which numbers still work. There is not enough time in my life to try them all. (Note: On September 10, 2004, a helpful reader told me that they all still work.)
- Alaska Mileage Plan: 800-861-1470
- American Express Mileage Rewards: 800-297-3276
- America West FlightFund: 800-961-8505
- American AAdvantage: 800-961-8669
- British Airways Executive Club: 800-586-9309
- Continental OnePass: 800-961-8697
- Delta SkyMiles: 800-961-8702
- United Mileage Plus: 800-961-8723
Automobile Purchase and Services
When I bought my Subaru Forester in 1999, I found many programs that offered mega-miles for buying through their referral services and for obtaining a loan for that purchase. However, none of them gave me a price that close enough to the lowest price I could find to make them worthwhile. Maybe you can be more lucky. Or perhaps you could negotiate a lower price or lower loan rate by offering to give up the miles. In April, 2002, a sales manager for a VW dealer told me that the 10,000 miles offered by the United Airlines program cost her $400. Wow! So offer $400 less to forgo the miles. See my section on Value of Miles to see why the 10,000 miles are nowhere near worth $400.When I purchased the VW, I was able to put a substantial part of the price on my mileage producing credit card. I asked to do this after I negotiated the price, of course.
Please tell me about any particularly good miles producing auto buying, loan, or services programs you find. Thanks.
Note: Automobile loans and insurance offers can be found on my Finance page.
You can usually find the programs through the web site of your favorite airline. Look for the partners of its frequent flyer program. Here are the programs I know of:
- DealerMiles. This one is a new voucher program for miles at any of nine major airlines for buying a car, and sometimes for buying automobile service. Miles offered seem to vary with the dealer.
- 2,000 SN Brussels Airlines miles for test driving a new Saab 9-3, 9-5 or convertible at your local Belgian Saab dealership, and 18,000 miles for purchasing it. No expiration date mentioned. Please tell me if the offer changes or disappears. Thanks.
- All Nippon Airways has programs that offer miles for buying and selling cars in Japan, and parking them at airports in Japan.
In addition, save 2 cents per liter instantly using the no annual fee Citi PETRO-POINTS Mastercard to pay for that gasoline. See the Free Cards page of my Credit Card section to read more about this card.
See my Registrations page for more ways to earn PETRO-POINTS.
Asiana and SK
Mobil Guam/Saipan and Continental Airlines
Grocery Stores
Grocery store chains are now starting to offer miles for purchases. I think the trend started with Safeway/Vons, which, sadly, cancelled the program. I will list the offers I know about, but I rely on your with your local knowledge to tell me about the offers from stores in your area. Thanks.
Greenpoints can be converted to miles on various airlines. See the Points to Miles section of my Other Programs I Like page for details.
- Here is the Flyertalk Discussion on this offer.
- Join Netflix for the first time at $8.99 a month and earn 2,000 United Airlines miles after your first month as a paying member.
- Mileage Plus® Visa® cardholders who pay with their Mileage Plus Visa are offered an additional 2,000 miles after your first month as a new member, for a total of 4,000 miles. See the Annual Fee cards page of my Credit Card section to read about the current offers for a United Airlines Mileage Plus Visa card. Often they are free of an annual fee for 1 year and offer large numbers of up front miles for first use.
- You must register first. If that link doesn't work, try this one.
- In case the above offer disappears, the latest offer I have seen advertised gives 3,000 miles. You must register first.
- I used this service in 2008. I was quite pleased with it. My 4,000 United miles posted without hassle. My movie was returned via postage paid U.S. Mail and was always credited to my account within one day of my putting it in the mailbox in time for same day pickup. The next available movie on my list was immediately shipped, arriving again in one day. Every action - mailing and receipt - was documented with an email to me. Cancellation of the service was straightforward and online.
NetFlix also offers
- 1,500 American Airlines miles through the AAdvantage shopping portal for plans starting at $8.99.month, for less than 0.6 cent/mile.
- Special offer: 2,000 miles, for less than 0.5 cent/mile. You must register first. Please tell me when this offer disappears.
- 2,500 Delta Airlines miles for plans from $8.99/month, for 0.3596 cent per mile.
- Special offer: 3,000 miles, for less than 0.3 cent/mile. You must register first. Please tell me when this offer disappears.
- 1,500 U.S. Airways miles for plans from $8.99/month, for less than 0.6 cent per mile. Before accepting this offer between April 29 and June 30, 2010, be sure to register for the U.S. Airways 50% bonus offer.
- 1,000 Continental Airlines miles though Continental's shopping portal. At $9.99, that's less than a so-so 1 cent a mile.
- Use your Continental Airlines Chase credit or debit card to earn twice the miles. Details.
- 1 AirTran A+ Rewards credit for a new paid subscription.
- Priority Club
- 3,000 Priority Club points for a new paid subscription.
- 675 Priority Club points when you sign up for Netflix through the Priority Club mall.
- 625 Marriott Rewards points when you sign up for Netflix through the Marriott Rewards mall. Miles wise, this is a terrible deal, but some folks want Marriott points for hotel stays.
Zip.ca offers 350 American Airlines miles for signing up for its free trial. Zip.ca is Canada's version of Netflix, a movie-by-mail rental service.
- Caution: Although Bose is a listed merchant on Skymall, the terms and conditions of the Skymall pages usually specifically exclude Bose from the offer.
- 2 American Airlines miles/$1 spent
- Special offer: 1,200 American Airlines miles for purchase of a Quiet Comfort 15 headphone.
- Special offer: 5 miles/$1 spent. Please tell me when this offer disappears. Thanks.
- Earn 1200 miles on Bose® QC®15 headphones.
- 2 United Airlines miles/$1 spent
- Special offer: 7,500 miles.
United Airlines offers up to 5,000 miles for activating new satellite TV service from Dish Network. Look in the left menu for the link to the offer. "Up to" is defined at the bottom of the page you get.
Continental Airlines offers 5,000 miles for activating new satellite TV service from Dish Network or Direct TV. Look in the left menu for the link to the offer.
Alaska Airlines offers 5,000 miles for activating new satellite TV service from Dish Network or Direct TV. Look in the left menu for the link to the offers.
U.S. Airways offers 3,500 miles for activating new satellite TV service from Dish Network or Direct TV. Look in the left menu for the link to the offers.
- Special Offer: 5,000 miles for DISH TV. Expires June 30, 2010.
Hawaiian Airlines offers 5,000 miles for activating new satellite TV service from Direct TV. Look in the left menu for the link to the offer.
AirTran offers 3 A+ Rewards Credits for activating new satellite TV service from Dish Network. Look in the left menu for the link to the offer.
Quest offers 5,000 Frontier Airlines miles for activating new satellite TV service from DIRECTV.
Priority Club offers 25,000 points for signing up with DIRECT TV.
Choice Privileges offers 5,000 points for activating new satellite TV service from DIRECT TV or Dish Network. Look in the left menu for the link to the offer.
Sirius Satellite Radio offers 2,500 American Airlines miles for for subscribing to its services.
- For comparison, AAA members are offered discounts for Serius Satellite services. Ask if you can get both the discount and the miles.
- Also for comparison, check Sirius' home page
for prices without discounts or miles.
e-counters.com offers 1 Delta Airlines mile/$1 spent (after rounding down to the nearest $100) on installed countertops.
Home Hardware, Home Building Centre, Home Hardware Building Centre and Home Furniture offers 1 Air Canada mile/$2 spent.
Special bonuses. If my link doesn't work, use the one on the page you get from the Miles4DryCleaning Program link above.
- Each time you spend $200 with a participating dry cleaner over a two calendar month period, you'll earn 200 bonus miles.
Delta Airlines' SkyMiles Clothing Care is an exclusive group of dry cleaners that provides you one mile for every dollar spent. Just register a credit or debit card and use it to pay the bill at participating dry cleaners. It works like the iDine programs.
Continental Airlines' Signature Dry Cleaning Network offers 1 mile/$1 spent on a credit card registered with the program. Read the terms and conditions.
- RewardsDb maintains a list of these.
- Webflyer lists them within its Mileage Mall > Groceries & Specialty Foods page. Click on that page and do a word seach on "wine".
I intend to list non-portal offers, especially those offering bonus miles or points for signup.
Minimum price per bottle seems to be around $10 plus shipping. I have no idea if the prices are competitive. I refuse to learn to be a wine connoisseur - too expensive. I would never pay $10 for a bottle of wine. Bulk wine tastes fine to me.
Hartwick and Grove Wine Merchants offers 500 bonus United Airlines miles for joining the Hartwick & Grove Wine Club and 10 miles/$1 spent. You may have to click on the United Airlines link at the bottom of the page to see this offer.
Vinesse Wine Clubs offers miles or points for joining any of its wine clubs.
- U.S. Airways: 2,000 miles plus 5 miles/$1 spent with American Cellars Wine Club powered by Vinesse. Before accepting this offer between April 29 and June 30, 2010, be sure to register for the U.S. Airways 50% bonus offer.
- Alaska Airlines: 2,750 miles plus 5 miles/$1 spent with American Cellars Wine Club powered by Vinesse.
- Delta Airlines: 1,500 miles plus 100 or 200 miles/bottle purchased.
- Midwest Airlines: 2,000 miles plus 4 miles/$1 spent.
- Amtrak: 240 - 500 points plus 3 points/$1 spent. Amtrak points can be converted to Continental Airlines or Midwest Airways miles with some serious limitations. See the Points to Miles section of my Other Programs I Like page for details.
- Priority Club: Earn 3,500 points with first shipment from American Cellars Wine Club, plus 10 points/$1 spent.
- Best Western Gold Crown Club: Earn 500 points for EVERY enrollment and 20 points/$1 spent. Click on "read more" for details.
- Choice Privileges: Earn 1,000 points with your first American Cellars Wine Club shipment, plus 7 points/$1 spent on all wine club shipments and purchases.
Wine Enthusiast offers 5 Continental Airlines miles/$1 spent online.
Wine Insiders offers 1,000 U.S. Airways miles when you enroll in the California Wine Club, plus 4 miles/$1 spent on the program. Before accepting this offer between April 29 and June 30, 2010, be sure to register for the U.S. Airways 50% bonus offer.
Winsor Vinyards offers 250 Alaska Airlines miles per 6 bottle purchase.
The Hawaiian Wine Club offers 100 Hawaiian Airlines miles for each bottle in your Hawaiian Wine Club shipments.
- Special offer: 2,000 miles for first enrollment between June 9 and July 9, 2010.
800Wine.com offers 1/2 AirTran credit/$100 spent.
Barclay's Wine Experience, formerly Beverage Bistro offers Amtrak points for joining and purchases.
- Special offer: 1,500 points for the first shipment and 1,000 points for every shipment thereafter.
The British Airways Wine Club offers to residents of the U.K. or U.S. 1,000 miles for joining, plus 250 miles per case of wine purchased.
- 1 Alaska Airlines mile/$3 spent on the purchase of a kayak from them.
- 500 Alaska Airlines miles if you are a current Folding Kayak Adventures customer and you refer a friend who purchases a kayak.
"Now earn 15 miles for every dollar spent with SkyMall by simply using the convenient SkyMall/OnePass Onboard Order Form while flying on Continental Airlines. It's the rewarding way to make those hard-to-find items your own.If you are flying on a Continental flight, no doubt this offer will be announced if it is still in effect. If it is not announced, please ask and then tell me what you find out. (I fly Continental as little as possible.) Thanks.Just ask your flight attendant for an order form on your next flight.
Offer valid only while onboard via the SkyMall/OnePass Onboard Order Form."
You may read about MyPoints and what it has to do with miles on my Click for Miles, Money, and Good Causes page.
Since the program is free, and its cost is already built into the prices you would pay anyway, there is no reason to not join the program.
There is an ongoing discussion on the Fly buys program on The Australian Frequent Flyer Bulletin Board.
I am unable to evaluate this program, since its website is in a language I am unable to read. I know that KLM offers different numbers of miles on this and its own programs for its flights, so do the math before you decide which.