How to Earn Airline Miles Without Flying

Airline Dining Programs

Want to earn miles and discover new restaurants at the same time?

Many airlines have a dining program that gives you points for eating at participating restaurants.

You simply join their dining program with your frequent flyer number and register a credit card. Then when you eat at one of the restaurants, just pay with your credit card on the account and you will earn miles.

Every time you go out to eat, dine at one of the participating restaurants. It is also a great chance to try out new places on future date nights or dinner with friends.

Here are some quick links to sign up for the programs:

Airline Shopping Portals

Airlines also have online shopping portals that let you to earn points with participating online retailers.

Most of us already shop online, so make your purchases worth something extra. Instead of visiting the retailer's site directly, visit the airline's online portal first and click through the portal to visit the retailer's site. There is a good chance your store is on there. You will get extra miles per every dollar spent.

Tip: Before buying anything, always check your card's (or airline's) shopping portal to see if your store (or a similar one) is on it. For example, one of American Airline's partners is RiteAid. So if you need stuff from the drugstore, why not shop at RiteAid online by clicking through AAdvantage eShopping first and earn miles?

Here are popular online shopping portals from airlines to check the next time you make a purchase:

Credit card issuers also offer online shopping portals. We will talk about the different credit card travel programs in the upcoming lessons. In the meantime, here are some links for their portals too.

Chase: Chase Ultimate Rewards
Citi: Citi ThankYou

If you've joined more than one airline or credit card program, the portals may offer different bonuses for the same retailer. So check to see which one gives more bonus miles.

Take Online Surveys

This is another easy way to get airline miles without doing much.

If you're just watching TV, why not spend your time during the commercials taking surveys and earning some miles. Here are some links for online survey sites that gives you miles.

e-Miles: has partners including American, United, Southwest, Alaska, and Frontier
OpinionMilesClub: earn United MileagePlus miles
eRewards: has a lot of airline partners including JetBlue, United, and American

You won't earn tons of miles, but you'll still be doing something productive during those commercials.

Key Takeaways

Sign up for your favorite airlines' dining programs. Every time you eat out, eat at one of their participating restaurants.
Every time you need to buy something, check out your favorite airlines' shopping portal.
In your spare time, you can take surveys to earn miles.

Now you understand the basics of how airline miles work and some ways to earn them. Tomorrow we will start getting more into the heart of the course. We'll start talking about how to best use travel rewards cards to earn miles.

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