Most people don't have jobs that require a ton of travel and, as such, probably think that frequent flyer miles are not available to them in any quantity that would allow them to do anything worthwhile. That could not be farther from the truth. There are A LOT of ways to earn frequent flyer miles without flying and if you do a little digging, you can, over time, earn enough for a pretty sweet vacation.
Before I tell you how to earn some points, let me start by saying that you can sign up for any airline's frequent flier program without flying on that airline. I'm a member of Hawaiian's program and have never stepped foot on a Hawaiian Airlines plane. I joined several years ago (prior to the implementation of some of the rules that are in place today) so that I could transfer points from one airline to another. The two airlines weren't connected in any partnership but both were connected to Hawaiian - so I had to run my points through that program. That's neither here nor there - but in case you were wondering why I was a member of a program that I'd never flown on. These programs cost nothing to join and you can do it on the airline's website. If I were getting started collecting miles, I'd join the big domestic carrier programs: United, Delta, Northwest, Continental, and USAirways. Now you're ready to start ringing up some miles in those programs you just joined!
Look Through the Offers - First stop: Free Frequent Flyer Miles. This guy monitors all the goings on in the frequent flyer miles game so that you don't have to. As you'll see on his site, you can get points for doing a LOT of different things - getting a credit card, applying for a home equity loan, changing long distance carriers, shopping online, etc. What you may not have known, however, is that the same airline might publish five or six versions of the same offer. On his site right now, there are SIX different offers for the United Visa Signature card. The best one is for 25,000 miles for signing up. The worst one is for 15,000 miles for signing up. You want to make sure that you're getting the best offer possible - so don't do anything until you've looked through the offers and gotten the best one available!
Take a Survey - Once upon a time, during the dot com boom, there were sites that would give you money, points, prizes, almost anything you could think of for doing things like browsing sites or taking surveys. Almost all of them died in the bust but there are a few that remain and one, in particular, that I use. The site is E-Rewards and here's how it works:- Sign up for an E-Rewards account
- Answer some questions about yourself - your type of work, your interests, etc.
- Get surveys in your email
- Fill out surveys and earn E-Rewards currency
- Once you have $25 in E-Rewards currency, exchange for airline miles
It's a slow way to earn miles - but it takes almost no effort. They even give you credit for surveys that you don't qualify for (you answer the first few questions, they realize you're not the right demographic, etc.). I probably pick up between 3000 and 5000 miles each year using this site. FYI - if you want the most invitations, make sure to indicate that you are the 'Decision Maker' on all questions that they ask about your role in buying decisions, etc. They are interested in getting the opinion of people doing the buying - so that's the key there.
Sign Up for the Promotions - I am sure that we all have to fly at some point for one thing or another even if we don't have a travel job. Britney and I fly to Little Rock at least 3 times per year for family visits, etc. and I'm sure you do the same. I'm also sure that you are probably earning frequent flyer miles for your occasional trips. If you're not, you probably stopped reading this post a while ago because you have no interest in getting something free and spending less money. That's all well and good (getting the miles for your flights) - but if you travel 3 times per year, your miles are growing very slowly. You probably did not even know that airlines run promotions all the time to try and encourage specific behaviors - travel on certain routes or days, heavier use of their website for booking tickets, etc. Next time you are planning travel, before you book the ticket, go to MileMaven.com and enter the route you're flying. This site will show you all the promotions that are in effect for that route (assuming there are some). We're headed to Little Rock this weekend and right now there are 9 promotions for the Charlotte to Little Rock route. We'll be earning 2500 EXTRA miles because I registered for the promotion on the airline we're flying. People - this stuff is easy if you know where to look!!A Final Note on Credit Cards - I'll be honest with you. Most of my non-flying miles have come from signing up for credit cards. The big point offers are for annual fee cards - so there's a trade off to consider there. There are several good offers out there now for big flyer point rewards and no annual fee for the first year. I love those since I always cancel when the annual fee comes due! One thing to keep in mind about credit cards - signing up for them, cancelling them, etc. all have an impact (albeit a small one) on your credit score. If you're looking to buy a house or a car in the next year, you probably don't want to start flipping credit cards. If, however, you're not planning on any major purchases in the near future, you can ring up miles REALLY fast using credit cards. Check out the details on freefrequentflyermiles.com (the first site I listed in this post). You'll see that some of these cards can be signed up for and cancelled every 2-3 months. Doing this can net you 100,000 miles in one year's time if you time things correctly. He's got the details on his site - how to do it, what cards allow it, etc. If you want a ton of miles and want to go to Europe and don't care about the small dings in your credit score, it's an interesting proposition.
Happy travels!
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