Earn Miles by Eating Out

Would you like to earn up to 7 miles per dollar simply eating at your favorite restaurants  Sounds to good to be true, huh? Its not! Dining Rewards is probably the easiest points earning secret out there.

United participates with a program called Dining Rewards.

Here is a step by step guide to earning MileagePlus miles from your favorite restaurants:

1) Register for the program

2) Register all your debit / credit cards - I have kicked myself one, two, three times now for not registering a new credit card and leaving points on the table.

3 Search for restaurants in your area

4) Dine out and use your registered credit or debit card. You will get points based upon the amount charged to your credit card card, including tax and tip

5) A few days after eating out, an email will arrive asking you to take a survey based upon your dining
experience. You must take this survey to get points. The survey is no longer than 10 questions long.

6) Sit back and wait for your points to hit your accounts. Sometimes it has taken 3 weeks for points to hit my account.

Repeat steps 4 - 6 again, and again, and again.

Basic members earn 3 miles per dollar spent including tax and tip.

The beauty of this program is that you are earning points for doing something what you are already doing. Chris and I are big fans of this program and will tailor where we eat to earn points. On a few occasions, the deciding factor between 2 restaurants (one participating in dining rewards and one that does not), the one that does participate wins out.

Earning the big points:

If you eat 12 times at restaurants participating in the program, within a calender year,you earn VIP status. VIP status gives you 2 additional miles per dollar spent. If you hit VIP status, one earns 5 points per dollar. If you have the Chase Sapphire card (which gives you 2 points per dollar spent at restaurants), you earning a whopping 7 points per dollar for eating out.

Currently, United is offering a sign-up bonus for those who register through this site. For those who register through this site, spend $40 in 30 days at participating restaurants, and answer the follow-up surveys.

Many major airlines and hotels offer similar dining rewards:

Alaskan Airlines

American Airlines

Delta Airlines

Hilton

Priority Club

Southwest Airlines

US Airways

Dining Rewards, also has partnerships with these rewards GoodDining, eScrip, Best Buy Reward Zone, Upromise, Fuel Rewards, and American Express IDine.

Helpful Tips:

1. Register all of your debit and credit cards
2. Keep a watch of restaurants in your area that are partnering
3. Check your emails for bonus opportunities, you have to register to participate in the bonuses
4. Complete the surveys
5. Don't abuse the system - I have heard reports of people not getting points for swiping their card multiple times in a day at the same restaurant.

Dining Rewards won't make you point rich, but it will help increase your points balance. 

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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Is There An Opt Out Option, Bank of America?

I detailed here that one of the credit cards I recently applied for was the Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit card. The sign-up bonus was 25,000 miles after your first use. The miles sign-up bonus us great, but I really wanted $119 companion fare for an upcoming trip. I didn't get instant approval, but the card arrive a few days later.

Ever since, Bank of America has been mailing me stuff about the various features of their credit card. Most of the junk went straight to the shred pile until I received this insert below. What caught my attention was that I would receive "up to 5 miles per $1 spent at participating restaurants."

My initial reaction was cool, a feature I did not know about the card. That was until I turned over the flyer and read # 4: "Your Visa Card will be automatically enrolled in Mileage Plan Dining Rewards by Rewards Network and a Welcome Kit will be sent to your explaining your restaurant earning opportunities"

Really, your going to automatically enroll me? No choice? No opt-out?

Why am I making a big deal out of this, you might ask? Typically  Dining Rewards offers you a bonus to sign-up and spend a certain amount of money in your first 30 or 90 days. The bonus is typically only for new members. My gut tells me that there will be no bonus offer in my welcome kit.

I love Dining Rewards. I have written about it here and encourage people to sign-up for it. It takes minimal time, but has the potential for big rewards. Eat out, take a quick survey, earn miles/points.

What bothers me is the automatic sign-up for Dining Rewards! I could see this being a new trend with credit card companies, because it saves Dining Rewards money. Automatically signing people up reduces the need for spending extra miles on luring people to join with attractive sign-up bonuses. This is one time I hope I am wrong.....

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Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints!

 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Earning Points Doing My Favorite Activity - Eating Out

Would you like to earn up to 7 points per dollar simply eating at your favorite restaurants  Sounds to good to be true, huh? Its not! Dining Rewards is probably the easiest points earning secret out there.

Many major airlines and hotels offer dining rewards:

Alaskan Airlines

American Airlines

Delta Airlines

Hilton

Priority Club

Southwest Airlines

United Airlines

US Airways

Dining Rewards, also has partnerships with these rewards GoodDining, eScrip, Best Buy Reward Zone, Upromise, Fuel Rewards, and American Express IDine.

Each one of the links will take you to a different program. You are able to earn points from one program only.

Here is a step by step guide to earning points from your favorite restaurants:

1) Pick a hotel or airline that you would like to earn miles with

2) Register for the program

3) Register all your debit / credit cards - I have kicked myself one, two, three times now for not registering a new credit card and leaving points on the table.

4) Search for restaurants in your area

5) Dine out and use your registered credit or debit card. You will get points based upon the amount charged to your credit card card, including tax and tip

6) A few days after eating out, an email will arrive asking you to take a survey based upon your dining
experience. You must take this survey to get points. The survey is no longer than 10 questions long.

7) Sit back and wait for your points to hit your accounts. Sometimes it has taken 3 weeks for points to hit my account.

Repeat steps 4 - 7 again, and again, and again.

The beauty of this program is that you are earning points for doing something what you are already doing. Chris and I are big fans of this program and will tailor where we eat to earn points. On a few occasions, the deciding factor between 2 restaurants (one participating in dining rewards and one that does not), the one that does participate wins out.

Earning the big points:

If you eat 12 times at restaurants participating in the program, within a calender year,you earn VIP status. VIP status gives you more points per dollar. For example, Delta Dining Rewards offers 3 points per dollar for basic members. If you hit VIP status, one earns 5 points per dollar. If you have the Chase Sapphire card (which gives you 2 points per dollar spent at restaurants), you earning a whopping 7 points per dollar for eating out.

Helpful Tips:

1. Register all of your debit and credit cards
2. Keep a watch of restaurants in your area that are partnering
3. Check your emails for bonus opportunities, you have to register to participate in the bonuses
4. Complete the surveys
5. Don't abuse the system - I have heard reports of people not getting points for swiping their card multiple times in a day at the same restaurant.

Dining Rewards won't make you point rich, but it will help increase your points balance.