Earn Miles without Flying: Partner Programs (Cars, Surveys, Flowers, Wine, etc.)

There are many ways to earn miles without actually flying in a plane. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve earned the majority of my miles and points through partners such as shopping portals, dining rewards, and credit cards. There are many more partners available and I’ll describe some of them here.

What Programs are Available?

For a list of all airline partners, click on the links below. Sometimes there are bonus miles for signing up, so look out for promotions before joining.

• Hawaiian, American, United, Delta, Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier, Virgin America, Spirit

Hotels have partners as well, although I don’t participate with them.

• IHG, Hyatt, Club Carlson, Best Western, Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Choice, Wyndham

Book a Vacation or Cruise

Vacation packages and cruise packages are a good way to earn a chunk of miles if you intend to pay cash for your trip anyway. They sometimes offer discounts on the entire trip versus purchasing flights, hotels, cars, or cruises separately, although it’s always good to compare prices prior to booking. I rarely pay cash for flights or hotels and have yet to do a cruise, so I have never participated in this partner program.

Hotels

Many hotels allow you to earn frequent flyer miles instead of earning hotel reward points when paying in cash. I prefer not to do this because I like to earn Hyatt and IHG points as I stay with them often. I usually redeem hotel points when I travel anyway, so I wouldn’t consider doing this. I pay cash for cheap rates or if there’s a promotion to earn lots of points and the value of the points earned is worth the cash spent, like completing IHG’s current promotion “Accelerate” to earn up to 50,000 points.

Car Rentals

I rent cars through airline partners only if the cost of the car is cheaper or comparable to other car rental agencies. For example, I recently used the promotion below to earn ­­­2,250 miles for a rental that was cheaper than Hertz.com (even after my discount code) or other car rental agencies. If the price of the rental was higher, I would forgo the promotion because I prefer paying the least amount. Plus, I like to use my Barclaycard Arrival+ credit card to redeem points for travel, thus my car rentals are usually free.

Opinion Surveys

e-Rewards and e-Miles are two popular opinion survey companies. I signed up for both years ago and fill out surveys on occasion. When you first sign up, you answer questions about yourself to help match you with the right surveys. You’ll receive surveys by email or you can log in to your account. They cover an array of topics such as entertainment, food, medical, auto, or politics, and can last a couple minutes up to an hour. Rewards vary in each program, earning “dollars” in e-Rewards and “miles” in e-Miles. Once you accumulate enough points, you can redeem them for rewards. I wouldn’t spend much time on surveys as many of them are time consuming. It’s best to do when you have free time here and there, like waiting in line or during a commercial break.

Here are a few examples for redemptions. You can also redeem for fewer or more dollars/miles.

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Flowers

FTD and 1-800-Flowers offer various promotions throughout the year, generally 20-30 miles per dollar. If you’re ordering flowers online anyway, then this is a good option. I don’t recommend this program if you can go to Safeway or a local florist because a $100 bouquet online is far cheaper locally.

Wine

American Cellars Wine Club by Vinesse offers bonus miles for signing up and ordering at least two shipments of wine. For example, United’s current promotion is earn 5,000 bonus miles (2,000 on the first order and 3,000 on the second order), plus five miles per $1 USD spent. I did a similar offer with Delta a few years ago and earned 5,000 miles by spending around $150. The wine was pretty good and we gave away the extras as gifts.

Tips to Keep in Mind

• Some promotions may not offer good value, so compare prices before participating.

• Don’t participate in programs just to earn miles or points. You don’t want to end up with a bill for items you don’t need or a bill you can’t pay in full.

The Final Word…

Participating in partner programs can net you a lot of additional miles. While many are not lucrative up front, the points add up over time. I didn’t list every partner as there’s too many to go over and I personally haven’t experienced most of them, but it doesn’t hurt to check what’s available when you need to earn more points in a certain program.