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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Why I Joined Best Buy's Reward Zone

Yesterday, I signed up for a new loyalty program: Best Buy's Reward Zone.

I have never had a Reward Zone account, weird because I shop at Best Buy often. I think that the reason why I never got an account was that it once had a cost to be part of it. I don't know when they stopped charging for Reward Zone, but ever since the program has had a bad taste.

Something changed yesterday. I don't what, but I now have a loyalty program that I am earning points for.

The main point of the Reward Zone program is to give rewards for loyal customers. For every 250 points, one earns a $5 gift certificate to use at Best Buy. One earns 1 point for $1 spent at Best Buy or BestBuy.com.

To join, go here.

Now one can earn points by completing activities or answering polls on the Reward Zone Facebook page. In addition, one can earn Reward Zone points by answering Audience Reward questions. Weekly, one can earn 12 points by answering 6 questions right (2pts per correct answer).

What really got me to sign-up is their current offer, spent $10 or more in-store or online, earn 500 points: enough for a $10 reward coupon. All one has to do is to complete a purchase over $10 (after discounts), by March 23, in store or online and provide your Reward Zone Number. 500 Reward Zone points will be deposited into your account shortly thereafter. Of course, one should use this promotion online and go through a shopping portal to earn extra points.

Why am I writing about Reward Zone on a travel points blog, first free money is free money and simple free money is a no brainer. Second, Reward Zone points can be transferred into airline points through Points.com.

1,000 Reward Zone Points (as of 3/16/13) can be traded into:

170 Areoplan Miles
131 AAdvantage Miles
255 Asia Miles
139 Frontier Miles
255 Priority Club Points
131 United Mileage Plus Miles
237 US Airway Miles
124 Alaskan Airways Miles
200 Amtrak Miles
107 Virgin Atlantic Miles

While transferring Reward Zone points into miles won't earn you a ton of miles directly. Many times airlines have promotions that give you bonus miles when you complete partner activities ie US Airways GrandSlam RIP, Delta's New Member Bonus, or United's 25% Bonus.

Since Best Buy's Reward Zone is free, it can't hurt to sign up. Worst case, I transfer all the miles to an airline through Points.com.





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