Final Results: How Many United Miles Did I Earn In August?

In July, I wrote about 31 Ways To Earn United Miles. In August, I wanted to challenge myself to earn as many United miles as possible.

I made four rules that I had to follow:

   1) Spend the least amount of non-justified money ie money I wouldn't spend anyway

   2) Everything has to be ethical - would my grandfather be embarrassed by what I am doing?

   3) Can only apply for one new credit card that earns United miles

   4) Only miles earned in August and credited by September 30th count

Now the big question: how did I do?

Drum roll please . . .

My goal was to earn 75,000, so I am very pleased with earning 78,000+ miles.

Here is how I did it:

First, I applied and was approved for the Chase Ink Bold.

After spending $5,000, I would earn 50,000 Ultimate Reward Points, which can be transferred to United MileagePlus at 1:1 ratio. I earned 56, 558 points from the credit card.

Here is a breakdown of how the points were earned:

The other 22, 443 miles in a variety of other ways

The graphic shows I earned 22,734. That number includes 280 miles earned from Opinion Miles Club (see here) and some points earned from my United Credit Card.

Here are the ways I earned the other miles:

Here is how I earned the other 22,000+ miles:

  760 - Opinion Miles Club
  500 - eMile
1500 - Marriott Gift Cards (expired)
 186 -  Purchase on my MileagePlus Shopping Mall
1932 - Chase United Credit Card Purchases
1150 - ScoreBig
5000 - Purchases on my Chase Sapphire - Transfer from Ultimate Rewards
1120 - Dining Rewards
5670 - Purchase from Shoes.com
2500 - Vinessee Wine Purchase
2000 - eRewards Surveys

Now the question, how much money was wasted?

Here are the items that I paid money for and the amount of money I deem wasted:

Marriott Gift Cards - spent $1 on shipping
Kiehl's (MP Shopping Mall) - nothing
Scorebig - $10 (the extra cost of money)
Vinessee - $10 (the wine was only worth $5 a bottle)
Shoes.com - nothing, needed both pairs
Chase Ink Bold - $31.60 - 8 VRs @ $3.95 each
-------------------------
Total: $52.60 wasted


Conclusion:

78,000 miles with $52.60 wasted is amazing.

My little experiment goes to show that anyone can earn miles with a little bit of effort. Yes, 80% of my points came from credit cards. However, I didn't really purchase anything, except VRs, that I didn't need. For those wondering, I use the wine for the anniversary party and gifts.

Overall, the amount of ways you can earn miles/points is numerous. The only thing standing in your way is you.

Did you participate in my challenge? How did you do?

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 Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints! Have a question for me? E-mail me at jd@doitforthepoints.com

Earn Miles with Surveys

Earlier this month, I wrote about how you can earn United miles taking surveys through eRewards. Another way to earn miles taking surveys is Opinion Miles Club.

Opinion Miles Club is offering 600 miles for those who sign-up, create their profile and complete a survey. I received the email below alerting me to the offer, so check your email to see if you were sent the same offer:

If you did not receive the offer via email, don't worry. You can go here to find the same offer.

Its important to clink the learn more button to access the 600 mile offer. You should land on a page like this:

If you clink the website button, you will be taken to the 300 mile offer landing page:

From what I have read, completing your first survey is a PIA (Pain in the Ass). However, those who have completed the first survey have indicated that they have received the promised miles into their MileagePlus account within a week.

600 miles won't get you an award ticket to anywhere. However, I hope you are seeing with this series that completing offers like this one can make that dream trip a reality.

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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

Way to Earn Miles: Through Social Media via Bckstgr

If you are an avid social media user like I am you are always looking for an easy way to combine your social interactions with a way to actually earn real value. Previously there was a connection through FourSquare that would allow you to earn United miles every time you checked into an airport in your area that United flew out of. But that was shut down last summer.

Register. Earn. Redeem. Get exclusive products & incredible experiences.

Instantly earn United MileagePlus®award miles when you engage participating brands via social media – then use them for once-in-a-lifetime experience and lifestyle rewards.

SIGN UP TODAY!

Now the easiest way to earn United miles through social media is through the company, Bckstgr. If you sign up through the site and then link your social media accounts they will send you notifications when companies they partner with are offering opportunities to gain miles through simple actions with social media. Previously they have had offers that added up to a total of 1,500 points. Not a huge amount, but still adds up! Right now the product is still in it's beta testing phase so the opportunities to earn miles are few and far between. But it never hurts to sign up.

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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 Miles Through: Shopping Portals

One of the easiest and really pain free ways to earn miles on United, without the obvious of flying, is to take advantage of online shopping portals. Do you need to buy some new clothes for work? Some new electronics? Or just some random items that you know you will need to purchase soon?

Well you should make your way over to the MileagePlus shopping portal site. If you create an account and tie it to your United MileagePlus account it is very easy to get started. After you register you can search for the appropriate store by interest area (i.e. electronics, mens clothing, flowers, etc.). Once you find a set of stores that will have what you need look to see what their earning rate is. Each store will give you a points per dollar amount for your purchase. They will also have a set of fine print that will tell you what you can and can't earn points on (i.e. giftcards are almost always excluded). Make sure you will earn points for your purchase and when you have found the retailer you are the most comfortable with (the one that's offering the biggest points per dollar for me) click through to shop on their site.

Around different holidays (everything from Thanksgiving to Mothers/Fathers Day) watch for specials at different retailers. They will consistently offer a large points per mile bonus around these holidays so if you can hold off on your purchase till a holiday...wait and see what you might be able to take advantage of!

The important step here is clicking through to the site from the United shopping mall page. This allows the shopping mall to track your spending so it knows how many points to award you down the line. If you simply go to the retailer's site and don't log in, you will not receive the spending bonus!!!

The great thing about shopping portals is that that don't cost any extra money out of your pocket. You will still get those same items that you were going to go to the brick and mortar retail store for, but you will earn a points bonus on top of your purchase...just for clicking an extra button! That's great bang for your buck and it only take a small change in your buying habits.

Happy Shopping!



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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