eRewards: The Turtle of Earning Miles/Points

eRewards is a site that pays you for taking surveys in miles/points. This is not an easy way to earn miles/points. It can take months just to earn 2,000 airline miles. Why bother you might ask? In the past, airlines have offered bonuses for transferring miles from partners like eRewards.

The first step is to register with e-Rewards. My recommendation is to search your email for e-Reward offers. Many times airlines and hotels will send emails inviting you to join e-Rewards and included in that email is sign-up bonus offers. A quick search of my email turned up offers from JetBlue, Southewest, and Priority Club in the past 60 days.

Jetblue:

Southwest

 Priority Club:

Also in my email account was an offer from United Airlines offering 250 miles for setting up your profiles and completing a survey in 3 months:

If you can't find an offer in your email box, United has the same offer available here.

After registering for e-Rewards, the next step is to fill out your profile. It is important to be honest in this step as it will determine what surveys are sent to you. If you stretch the truth in your profile, you might start noticing that you don't qualify for any surveys they sent you. There are 9 different sections that you need to fill out to complete your profile:

Here is a sample of the questions you will have to answer:

After filling out your profiles completely, sit back and wait for eRewards to email you invites to surveys. I typically get at least 5 invites a week. Each email looks something similar to this and lets you know the subject of the survey, the time commitment, and payout:

Click on the link within the email and you enter the landing page of the survey. This page will have the same information as the email except it also has the amount you will be paid for testing out of the survey. Being paid for testing out of the survey is one of my favorite parts of eRewards. They give you something for trying. That is why I always attempt to take surveys, nothing to lose.

After completing or testing out of surveys, your account is typically credited immediately; however, some surveys have taken a few days to credit. Once your account has at least $25 in it, you have the option to cash out in exchange for miles. Currently, eRewards allows you to transfer to the following airlines: Air France/KLM, AeroMexico, AirTran, Alaskan, AA, Emirates, Etihad, Fronteir, Hawaiian, Iberia, Jetblue, Southwest, Spirt, US Airways, United, Virgin America and Atlantic. Here is a list of all the partners:

As we have been talking about earning Mileage Plus miles this month, here are the redemption options for United:

After choosing your redemption level, you will be asked to enter your MileagePlus number and eRewards password. Typically, the miles will show up in your MileagePlus account within 3 weeks, but eRewards warns it could take 6-8 weeks. Therefore, this is not a way to transfer miles to your account for an immediate award purchase. Here is some important information about transferring miles to MileagePlus:

Overall, eRewards is a great way to earn a handful of miles. It's time consuming and the payout isn't huge. However, if United has another partner bonus like they did in December, it would be nice to be ready. A little bit of time now can payoff later. 

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Tapping Out - I'm Done with US Airways Grandslam Lite

I'm done! I'm finished! I am tapping out! I can't take it any more....

Yes, I am tapping out of what I dubbed here as US Airways Grandslam Lite.  As a quick refresher, one earns bonus points for completing purchases at particular merchants. The more purchases one makes, the more bonus points that one earns up to a 100% bonus.

On May 23, Mommy Points wrote that she decided against participating based upon the unclear rules. Even with the unclear rules, I decided to move forward. Participate now; argue about the details later. I even had a plan to maximize the twelve hits to get earn the 100% bonus:

Hits 1-6 - Dining Rewards

Hit 7 - SkyMall

Hit 8 & 9- FTD/1800 Flowers - Mother's Day Gifts

Hit 10 - Wine Insiders

Hit 11 - Dividend Storefront (Best Buy)

Hit 12 - Dividend Storefront (Kiehl's)

My intention was to spend no more than $100 on unnecessary expenses ie things I don't need.

Now 45 days into this promotion, I have only completed 3 dining reward stays. 3 visits to the local smoothie shops and now I don't know if it is worth the money to continue.  

I forgot to send flowers for Mother's Day and I don't really need anything from the SkyMall. With that, I am down three hits and a ton of points.

On top of that, I was planning on counting purchases at Staples, Best Buy and Kiehls that I needed to make anyway. However, when I compare what I could earn with the US Airways Storefront compared to other shopping portals, I don't think its worth it. For instance, I could earn 1 point at Staples, 2 points at Kiehl's and 1 point at Best Buy with the US Shopping Portal. However, at the Ultimate Reward Portal, I can earn 1 point at Best Buy, 2 points at Staples, and 4 points at Kiehl's.  Some might argue that with the 100% bonus, I might be better off making the purchases through the promotion. I would agree except that I value Ultimate Reward points more than US Airways points.

For these reasons, I have decided to tap out and call it quits on the US Airways Grandslam lite.

Best of luck to all those still participating! 

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