Earn Miles Through Booking Hotels on Rocket Miles or PointsHound

                       
Update: Pointshound and United broke up. You can't United miles throuh them any more :(

If you have some hotel stays coming up and are looking for a way to earn miles beyond the general bonuses that you can earn with hotel programs check out the websites, Rocket Miles and PointsHound.                                                                                    
These new websites allow you to book hotels in certain cities that will allow you to earn miles in your participating airline partner, in our case United. There are some good reviews out on both RocketMiles and PointsHound and their value. It never hurts to check to see what rates you might be able to find and the potential extra United miles you can earn by simply going through these different portals.

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Day 21: Buy Through GILT.COM & Blog Giveaway

Gilt.com is a flash sale website that offer high end products for up to 60% the retail price. The website offers a wide range of options from food to clothes to kitchenware.

United and Gilt have paired-up to offer miles for new members of Gilt. Members who sign-up here will earn 1,500 MilagePlus miles after your first purchase of $50 or more. In addition, you will earn 5 miles per $1 on all purchases for the first 6 months after registration.

Gilt charges different amount for shipping depending on the speed of delivery:

I would most likely use Gilt for that gift for the hard to ship for person. The items listed on Gilt tend to be quirky. The kind I love for weddings and birthdays.

Here are the Promotional Terms:

1. This offer is only valid for new Gilt Groupe members who registered through this program. Transactions on Gilt Groupe’s affiliate website jetsetter.com are excluded
from this offer. 

2. A member can earn the 1,500 bonus award miles for their first transaction with Gilt 
Groupe. Registration with Gilt Groupe is required to earn this bonus. 

3. Initial transaction must meet a $50 minimum product value (exclusive of taxes and/or 
shipping and handling fees) in order to qualify for the 1,500 bonus mile offer. 

4. A member can earn 5 award miles per one U.S. dollar for any transaction with Gilt 
Groupe in the first 6 months after registration. Registration with Gilt Groupe is required
to earn award miles FOR SHOPPING with Gilt Groupe.
 
5. This offer is only valid for new Gilt Groupe members who registered through this program 

6. This offer is not limited to members who received this email, however program 
registration  with Gilt Groupe at is required. Registration can be closed at anytime 
without notice. 

7. This offer is not combinable with other offers. 

8. Offer subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply. 

9. All MileagePlus terms and conditions apply. 

10. MileagePlus MEMBERS will receive the acquisition offer (1,500 points at first purchase) 
one time only. 
 
11. Gift card purchases are excluded from receiving the 1,500 bonus award miles and any
points for ongoing spend. 

12. Miles accrued, awards, and benefits issued are subject to change and are subject to the 
rules of the United MileagePlus program. 

13. Please allow 6-8 weeks for miles to post to your account. 

14. United may change the MileagePlus program including, but not limited to, rules, 
regulations, travel awards and special offers or terminate the MileagePlus program at any 
time and without notice. 

15. Bonus award miles, award miles and any other miles earned through non-flight activity 
do not count or qualify for Premier® status unless expressly stated otherwise. United and 
its subsidiaries, affiliates and agents are not responsible for any products and services of 
other participating companies and partners.

If you reached this point of the post, I am giving away a copy of By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changes the Way Millions Shop, by the two female cofounders of Gilt, Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson. I just finished the book myself and it was amazing. The book talks about the history behind creating GILT, but also provides great advice on how to work with friends, start a business from scratch and the dangers of working nonstop over the long term.

To enter this contest, simply leave a comment letting us know your favorite item you have purchased on GILT.com. If you never purchased anything from GILT, let me know what one item you want to purchase from the site.

Contest ends on Tuesday at 8 pm. Good Luck!!!

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Earn Miles By Transferring From Hotel Points - Not A Good Value

Now I put a disclaimer in the title of this post because I think that you, usually, lose most of your value of points when you transfer them from hotel programs to airline programs. But, in an effort to disclose ALL of the different ways to earn miles I wanted to quickly talk about why I don't think it's the best way to earn some miles. Now, as always, your miles and goals may differ from mine or others. So if you find that you are short of an award and may not use those Wyndham points you have sitting around and they are better transferred to United for an award you have...then it might be worth considering. I did just that last year to top off my United account and use Wyndham points I never was going to use.

But the thing is...most of the time there is little value in transferring from hotel to airline because the ratio is often not very good. For example SPG points to United miles transfer at a 2:1 ratio...so you lose half of your value right away...despite a 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 you transfer. But, SPG does have some options with other partners that are at a 1:1 that might be an option, but as I said...just be very careful to think of the earned value of those hotel points and if they are better held for hotel uses, rather than airline uses.

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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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Recap: Ways to Earn United Miles

Since we are past the half way point of our month long series on earning United miles, I though a post summarizing the ways discussed already was in order. The links below take you to that day's article.

Day 1: Flying

Day 2: Insurance

Day 3: e-Miles

Day 4: Buy / Transfer Miles

Day 5: Exchange Gift Cards

Day 6: Shopping Portals

Day 7: Tickets to Shows

Day 8:  Social Media

Day 9:  Credit Cards

Day 10: Mortgages

Day 11: Hotel Stays

Day 12: Super Shuttle

Day 13: Buy Wine

Day 14: Amtrak

Day 15: Renting Cars

Day 16: Peapod

Day 17: Eating Out

Day 18: Electricity Bills

I hope this series has helped you to see that there are many ways to earn United/Airline miles.

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Earn Miles Through Your Electricity Bill?

Are you a resident of Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas?? There might be an opportunity for you to earn some United miles by switching your electricity provider.

United has a partnership with Energy Plus for residents of CT, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, PA, OH and TX to earn miles for switching their electricity provide.

Customers that switch their provide earn 5,000 miles after their second month as a customer. In addition, customers earn 2 miles for every $1 spent on the suppy side of your electricity bill. MileagePlus card members earn 3 miles for every $1 spent.

I am confused about two parts of this. First, I am not completely sure that the extra mile earn for being a MileagePlus card member isn't the 1 mile per $1 earn with the card anyway.  Second, the landing page for this offer states that "as a special offer, MileagePlus credit card embers automatically earn an additional bonus," but it doesn't finish the sentence. One can only assume its 7,500 miles as the graphic next to it says, "up to 7,500 Award Miles." Take a screen shot of the offer page if you decide to participate in this offer.

To further complicate things, according to this flyertalk page, residents in some states might be able to earn even more bonus miles for signing up.

Residents in Texas have a second option to earn miles: Reliant.

The offer for Reliant members is 15,000 miles for signing up and then an additional 500 miles per month for 24 months for a total of 27,000 miles.

I don't pay for electricity (love paying a flat fee each month, reason why my bedroom is always at 60 degrees), so I don't have a way to test this offer out. In the FlyerTalk thread above there has been mixed reaction to the cost of switching providers. Some say the cost is the same or less than their current providers. Others have indicated massive, 200 or 300% increases in the costs. A quick search online shows similar results. All I can say is that participating in this promotion is a gamble, but sometimes you win at gambling and other times you lose....


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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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