Our tagline here at Frequent Miler is “Earn miles without flying”. We’re always sharing different ways to do that, but I thought it would be useful to collate a list of all the different ways in which you can earn free miles. In addition to sharing ways to earn miles without flying, this post also shares how to earn hotel points without staying.
Many of these you’ll likely be familiar with, but I’d be willing to bet there are quite partnerships that hotel and airline loyalty programs have which have flown under the radar. That was certainly the case for me anyway. For example, when doing research for this resource I discovered that you can redeem Safeway Just For U rewards for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles even if you don’t live in Alaska. I hadn’t realized there are several energy companies offering bonus miles with airline programs, nor that taking the Heathrow Express train into London can earn you Avios points. You can find details about all those partnerships – and more than 60 others – below.
1) Signup Bonuses
This is one of the easiest ways to earn a substantial number of points. When applying for a new credit card you can often earn 50,000+ miles or points in return for spending $x,xxx within 3 months.
We maintain a list of the highest offers available on all credit cards on our Best Offers page.
2) Credit Card Spend
In addition to earning points and miles through signup bonuses, you can earn miles and points through putting spend on those cards.
Most cards offer bonus categories of some kind (e.g. the Amex Gold card offers 4x Membership Rewards on grocery and restaurant spending), so those can help you rack up points even more quickly.
3) Shopping Portals
When buying items online, you should always click through to a retailer from a shopping portal, otherwise you’re leaving points, miles or cashback on the table. The best way to compare rates across shopping portals is to use Cashback Monitor.
4) Shopping Portal Bonuses
Not only do shopping portals offer rewards as standard for your shopping, but many airline shopping portals frequently offer bonus miles/points when hitting certain spending thresholds (e.g. Earn 2,500 bonus miles when spending $500) or by installing their browser button (e.g. Install browser button & use it to spend $25 to earn 1,000 bonus miles).
5) Card-Linked Portal Features
There are several shopping portals that, in addition to their online offerings, have a card-linked feature for in-store purchases. The way those work is that you link your payment card(s) on the portal’s website, activate offers (where applicable) and then use your payment card(s) to pay for items. They’re usually only valid for in-store purchases, but there are some occasional online options depending on the portal. Those payments are tracked by the portal and you earn points/miles accordingly.
One of the particularly useful features when it comes to the Alaska and United shopping portals is that in-store spending counts towards spending thresholds when those portals are offering bonus miles for spending $x amount.
Here are links to all of the portals offering card-linked features:
6) SimplyMiles
While the programs listed above are a hybrid of an online shopping portal with a card-linked feature, there’s a different program called SimplyMiles which only has card-linked offers.
SimplyMiles earns American Airlines AAdvantage miles which can be redeemed for award flights as well as Loyalty Points towards American Airlines status. You can only enroll Mastercards with SimplyMiles – Visa, American Express and Discover cards aren’t eligible – which limits the usefulness of the program to an extent. However, you can stack SimplyMiles offers with Citi Offers and Chase Offers that are loaded to Mastercard credit cards.
Many SimplyMiles offers are valid for both online purchases as well as in-store, so those can stack nicely with shopping portals.
7) Dining Programs
Most airline and hotel loyalty programs have a dining program run by Rewards Network. This is another card-linked offer program where you link payment card(s) and earn points/miles when using those cards to pay for meals at participating restaurants.
These programs normally offer bonus miles/points for your first transaction (often with the requirement that you spend $25+ and write a short review afterwards). You then earn an increasing number of points per dollar the more frequently you pay with a linked card.
Seeing as the dining programs are all run by Rewards Network, you can only earn rewards with one program at a time. If you link a credit card with one program and then add it to another program, it’ll be removed as a payment card from that initial program.
Here’s a list of all the different dining programs:
8) e-Rewards
e-Rewards is a company that offers points when you complete surveys. Those points can be redeemed for rewards including gift cards, magazine subscriptions and, more pertinently for this post, points and miles for most major airlines and hotel loyalty programs.
e-Rewards doesn’t always accept proactive applications for their program, so keep an eye on your emails because loyalty programs will sometimes send invitations to join e-Rewards which often include an opportunity to earn bonus miles/points after completing your first survey. If you join e-Rewards after receiving an invitation from an airline or hotel company, you’re not stuck redeeming your survey rewards with them – you can still use your rewards for any redemption option.
9) MileagePlus X (MPX)
MileagePlus X (also known as MPX) is an app owned by United Airlines. It has a number of features including links to their shopping portal and dining programs. A unique feature of the app is that you can buy gift cards for a wide range of retailers and restaurants, earning MileagePlus miles in return.
Another interesting element to their gift card-buying feature is that coding for the retailer/restaurant is often passed on. That means that if, for example, you buy a Domino’s gift card in the MPX app, you can earn bonus points by paying with a card that earns more for dining purchases.
While it can be nice earning miles on these purchases, you might do better buying gift cards at a discount elsewhere, such as from grocery stores when they’re running promotions, Raise, etc. Using that Domino’s example, at the time of creating this post MPX is offering 10x miles per dollar for Domino’s gift cards. However, Domino’s gift cards are frequently available for 20% off (e.g. Raise, Costco and more), so giving up a 20% discount to earn 10x means you’d effectively be buying MileagePlus miles for 2cpp (cents per point).
10) Car Rentals
Most airline and hotel loyalty programs have partnerships with car rental companies that offer bonus points/miles when renting a car.
11) Airbnb Stays
Airbnb sadly isn’t available on shopping portals, but they do have a partnership with a few airline loyalty programs which allows you to earn bonus miles when making Airbnb reservations:
12) Airbnb Experiences
In addition to the ability to earn Avios points when booking Airbnb stays, you can also earn Avios when booking Airbnb Experiences.
13) VRBO
Airbnb isn’t the only vacation rental company with whom you can earn airline miles. VRBO is another as they have a partnerships with United; they used to also have a partnership with British Airways, but that appears to have ended.
14) Ticketmaster
If you ever buy concert tickets from Ticketmaster, one option you have is to earn cashback by clicking through from a shopping portal. That includes Rakuten where you can earn American Express Membership Rewards instead of cashback which can in turn be transferred to select airline and hotel programs.
Although there aren’t any airline shopping portals that include Ticketmaster, Delta has a separate partnership that allows you to earn SkyMiles when buying tickets on Ticketmaster.
15) Lyft
Lyft has partnerships with Alaska Airlines, Delta and Hilton which allow you to earn miles or points on every ride with them. It’s sadly no longer possible to stack earnings, so you have to pick one earning partner rather than being able to earn with all three.
16) Uber
If you prefer riding with Uber rather than Lyft, you can earn Marriott Bonvoy points on every ride with Uber Premium rides in the US. That includes Uber XL, Uber Black, Uber SUV and Uber Comfort.
17) Uber Eats
That Marriott partnership extends to Uber Eats orders too. You can earn 2x points on all Uber Eats orders and 6x points on Uber Eats orders when staying at Marriott properties.
18) Grubhub
Uber Eats has Marriott, while Grubhub has IHG – to an extent. You can earn IHG One Rewards points when ordering from Grubhub, but sadly your earnings are limited to when you’re staying at IHG properties.
19) Rover
Rover is a site where you can book pet sitters, dog walkers, etc. There are often Amex Offers and Citi Offers that can save you money when paying for services on Rover, plus SimplyMiles sometimes has a card-linked offer.
In addition to those savings and earning opportunities, both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines have partnerships with Rover that earn you bonus miles when making bookings.
20) Shell Fuel Rewards
Fuel Rewards is Shell’s loyalty program which can provide savings when filling up with gas. As an alternative to getting savings on gas, you can instead earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when filling up.
21) Marathon/Arco
If you ever fill up with gas at Marathon and/or Arco gas stations, be sure to register with their Make It Count Rewards loyalty program and link your account with either Southwest or Wyndham.
22) American Airlines / Hyatt
A few years ago, American Airlines and Hyatt partnered with each other to offer reciprocal benefits and earning opportunities when linking your accounts.
On the earning side of things, American Airlines AAdvantage members can earn miles and Loyalty Points when staying at Hyatt properties. World of Hyatt members with elite status can also earn bonus points when flying with American Airlines.
23) Marriott / Emirates
Similar to the American Airlines/Hyatt partnership, Marriott and Emirates have teamed up to offer reciprocal earnings. Marriott Bonvoy members with Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador status can earn bonus points when flying with Emirates, while Emirates Skywards members with Silver, Gold or Platinum status earn bonus miles when staying with Marriott.
24) Ordering Flowers
Flower delivery services are all available on shopping portals, but many airline and hotel loyalty programs have additional partnerships with companies like 1-800 Flowers and FTD that can earn you even higher returns by using a specific promo code.
For example, Southwest and Alaska Airlines partner with 1-800 Flowers, United partners with 1-800 Flowers, FTD and Teleflora, Delta partners with FTD and Best Western partners with Teleflora.
25) Buy Points/Miles
Airline and hotel loyalty programs sell miles/points year-round, usually via Points.com. Then every month or two they offer a discount or bonus when buying them which, depending on the airline or hotel chain, can represent good value. This can be useful for paying for flights/stays outright, or to just top up your balances if you have a specific award redemption in mind.
26) Turo
At the start of 2022, Delta announced that it was partnering with Turo which allows you to earn SkyMiles. If you’re not familiar with Turo, it’s like Airbnb for cars and has the potential to be a win-win for both sides. Car owners rent out their vehicles which earns them money and the renters get a rental car which can be cheaper than renting via traditional car rental companies.
Another benefit to Turo is that you know exactly what car you’re getting which is great if there’s a specific make and/or model you’re looking to rent.
When paying for Turo rentals, keep an eye out for Amex Offers as they sometimes run deals like ‘Spend $150 on Turo & get $30 back’.
27) Viator
Viator is a site where you can book activities all around the world. It’s available on most shopping portals, with rates often being as high as 12%-20%.
For occasions when portal rates aren’t as high, there are a couple of other booking options that are worth being aware of. Wyndham has an activities and experiences section on their website where you can earn 10x Wyndham Rewards points when booking activities and that’s powered by Viator.
IHG has a similar feature giving 1,000 bonus points when booking activities, also powered by Viator. IHG can therefore be a good option when booking activities that are particularly cheap.
28) New Member Bonus
Loyalty programs often give bonus miles/points when joining their program for the first time. The bonuses aren’t particularly substantial, but can provide a nice boost to your balance when you’re just starting out with a program. The bonuses are sometimes awarded just for registering, while others award bonus miles/points on your first flight/stay.
Programs that sometimes or always offer these new member bonuses include Marriott, Hilton, Emirates, Aegean, IHG, Choice, Sonesta and more.
29) Transfer Bonuses
If you’ve earned miles without flying by collecting transferable points like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, Capital One miles, etc., you can sometimes boost those balances when transferring those points to travel partners thanks to occasional transfer bonuses.
These transferable currencies tend to offer 1-3 transfer bonuses each month, rotating the eligible loyalty programs and percentage bonuses. You might see a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic one month, 40% to British Airways Avios the next, 40% to Hilton and 25% to Avianca LifeMiles the following month, etc. We always publish posts about new transfer bonuses, plus you can always find a list of current transfer bonuses on this page.
30) Amex Offers
When logged in to your American Express account, scroll down and you’ll see a section with many Amex Offers available. These are offers that can reward you in a couple of different ways when spending at participating retailers. One offer type is a statement credit (e.g. Spend $250 at Lowe’s & get $50 back), while the other awards bonus points for similar spending (e.g. Spend $250 at Lowe’s & get 5,000 Membership Rewards). There are also sometimes big spending bonus opportunities available that are valid for spending anywhere (e.g. Spend $7,500 & earn 15,000 bonus points) that are separate to signup bonuses.
Most Amex Offers awarding large chunks of bonus points can be found on Membership Rewards-earning cards, but you’ll sometimes find these earning opportunities on co-branded cards like Marriott, Hilton and Delta.
31) Milestone Rewards
In recent years we’ve seen several hotel and airline loyalty programs introduce some form of Milestone Rewards – benefits, perks and awards that you receive when earning enough elite night credits or status points.
In some cases – such as with Hilton Honors and IHG One Rewards – those rewards can only be earned when actually staying with them. However, there are some exceptions where you can earn Milestone Rewards without flying or staying.
A primary example is Hyatt. They offer Milestone Rewards for every 10 elite night credits you earn starting from 20 nights. Those rewards include free night certificates, bonus points, a $100 gift card, suite upgrade awards and more. While the most common way to earn those Milestone Rewards is to stay at Hyatt properties, you can potentially earn all of those without ever stepping foot in a Hyatt property.
That’s thanks to the ability to earn elite night credits through putting spend on Hyatt credit cards. The personal World of Hyatt credit card offers 5 elite night credits as standard every year, then 2 elite night credits for every $5,000 spent on the card. The business version of the card meanwhile offers 5 elite night credits for every $10,000 spent on the card.
The American Airlines AAdvantage program is also offering something similar with Loyalty Points. Different benefits can be earned at certain thresholds, with bonus miles being an option for one of the higher tiers and the ability to earn those Loyalty Points through all kinds of non-flight activity.
Delta offers something similar with their Choice Benefits that can be earned through credit card spending.
32) Free Night Certificates
Numerous hotel credit cards offer some kind of free night certificate at renewal each year. Some can be used at any property, others can be used at properties in certain categories, while others can be redeemed for a night at a property costing up to a certain number of points, with some of those allowing you to top them up with points for more expensive stays.
It’s sometimes possible to earn free night certificates when applying for a credit card too. One option that’s always available is the Hilton Aspire card which comes with a free night certificate valid at any property worldwide both at application and renewal. We also sometimes see Hyatt, Marriott and IHG credit cards giving one or more free night certificates as part of their welcome offers.
33) Big Spend Bonuses
I already mentioned that some Milestone Rewards can be earned through putting a lot of spend on eligible credit cards. There are other big spend bonuses that can earn you rewards that aren’t specifically Milestone Rewards.
For example, the Hilton Surpass, Aspire and Business cards all offer the opportunity to earn a free night certificate when hitting certain spending thresholds on those cards. The IHG One Rewards Premier Business card offers a free night certificate with enough spend, while the personal version of that card offers bonus points with enough spend.
34) Credit Card Referrals
Several banks offer rewards when referring friends and family to credit cards. This can earn you a substantial number of points/miles for even just one referral. For example, American Express might offer you 30,000 Membership Rewards when referring someone which is enough for a one-way business class ticket to Europe booked via Iberia when there’s an Avios transfer bonus from Amex. Chase meanwhile might offer 20,000 Ultimate Rewards for referring somebody which is enough points for up to five free nights when transferred to Hyatt (off-peak category 1 award).
35) MyPoints Signup Bonus
The MyPoints shopping portal offers a range of bonuses when joining. One of those options is the ability to earn up to 1,750 United MileagePlus miles – 250 miles just for signing up and then an additional 1,500 miles when spending $50 via the portal in your first 30 days.
36) MyPoints Redemption
Although it’s primarily a shopping portal, MyPoints offers other earning opportunities like receipt scanning, survey completing, game playing and more.
Those points can be redeemed in a number of ways. You can cash out via PayPal and redeem for Mastercard and third party gift cards (including Delta and American Airlines gift cards). Another option you have is that you can redeem MyPoints for United MileagePlus miles.
37) Instacart
There are a number of ways to save on Instacart orders, from having Instacart+ (a benefit you can receive for free for a limited time via some credit cards and airline partnerships) to statement credits on Instacart purchases to discounted Instacart gift cards to shopping portal earnings and more.
In addition to all that, Instacart has a partnership with Delta which offers bonus SkyMiles on all your purchases.
38) Starbucks
Delta has a number of partnerships with other companies we’ve already covered above, from Airbnb to Ticketmaster to Lyft to Instacart. Another of their partners is Starbucks which began in 2022.
You can earn double Stars on days you fly with Delta and earn SkyMiles on all your Starbucks purchases after linking your accounts.
39) Rent
Although some landlords accept payment by credit card, those that do usually charge a credit card fee that makes it not worth paying with a card unless you’re working on the minimum spend requirement of a new credit card’s welcome offer.
An exception is the Bilt credit card which allows you to pay your rent with no fee while simultaneously earning points that can be transferred to travel partners including Hyatt and American Airlines.
40) Bask Bank
Bask Bank has a savings account that doesn’t pay interest on your money. Instead, you earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Something important to note is that even though you often earn a corresponding number of Loyalty Points as miles with American Airlines retail partners, that’s not the case with the Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account. You don’t earn any Loyalty Points at all with Bask Bank other than occasional promotions where they offer Loyalty Points as an incentive for opening an account.
41) Rocketmiles
Rocketmiles is a hotel-booking site that has, among others, more than 30 different travel partners. When booking a hotel stay you earn miles/points in your chosen program, with Rocketmiles often running promotions giving 10,000 bonus miles/points for your first reservation.
It’s worth noting that Rocketmiles works as an OTA (Online Travel Agency) which means that booking hotel stays through them won’t earn you points with the hotel’s loyalty program. It also means you won’t be eligible for status benefits, receive elite night credits, etc., so you’ll need to weigh up whether the bonus miles/points on offer are worth forgoing the benefits from booking directly with the hotel chain.
42) Bakkt
Bakkt is an app that can help you manage crypto and loyalty programs. While I don’t find any use for it, I do have an account with them because in the past they’ve offered – and continue to offer – promotions for linking your Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards accounts.
43) Rocket Mortgage
Are you applying for a new mortgage or refinancing? The most important thing is to get the best rate when including fees. If Rocket Mortgage happens to be your best option or close to it, you can earn bonus United miles or Spirit points.
44) Guaranteed Rate
In addition to partnering with Rocket Mortgage, United also has a relationship with Guaranteed Rate that offers bonus United miles when applying for a new mortgage or refinancing.
45) Carrs/Safeway
Carrs and Safeway are two grocery store chains owned by Albertsons which use the Just For U program. Members of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan can link their accounts in order to redeem Just For U Rewards for Mileage Plan miles rather than for savings on gas or groceries.
This is meant to be for people who shop at Carrs and Safeway stores in Alaska, but it’s available for anyone. See this guide for more details about how to convert your Just For U Rewards to Alaska miles.
46) Citi Checking Accounts
Citi sometimes offers customers the ability to earn bonus American Airlines AAdvantage miles when opening a checking account and completing required activities.
This can be a great way to earn a large chunk of AA miles, but be aware that with these checking bonuses you’ll receive a 1099 which you don’t get with credit card welcome offers.
47) Villas of Distinction
United has a partnership with Villas of Distinction which awards 3 miles per dollar spent on stays.
48) Cruises
Many airlines and hotel programs have a white-labeled portal where you can book cruises and earn miles/points. As always with these kinds of things, it’s worth comparing prices with other travel sites as you might be able to get the same cruise at a cheaper price elsewhere while also earning cashback/rewards via a shopping portal.
Here’s a list of the various different airline and hotel cruise sites:
49) Norton LifeLock
United partners with Norton LifeLock to offer bonus miles when signing up for their service. The return isn’t great though compared to other options. For example, Rakuten frequently offers 90% cashback or 90x Membership Rewards for LifeLock, so that’s a significantly better deal. You can check current LifeLock shopping portal rates here.
50) Jaguar
United has a number of unique partnerships, one of which is the ability to earn bonus MileagePlus miles when buying or leasing a car from Jaguar.
51) Energy Companies
Several airlines partner with energy companies around the country to offer bonus miles when switching to their energy company. While the bonus mile offers might be enticing, be sure to do the math to make sure you’re not paying for those extra miles in the form of higher energy rates.
Here are the different options you have:
- American Airlines
- Delta
- Energy Plus
- Georgia Natural Gas
- Grand Rapids Energy
- Illinois Energy
- Illinois Energy Solutions
- Ohio Natural Gas
- Find offers here (select the ‘Home’ tab)
- Southwest
- United (Thanks to Raylan for highlighting these United options)
- NRG
- Reliant
- Find offers here
52) Surveys
I mentioned e-Rewards earlier which is a company for whom you can complete surveys and earn points that can be converted to miles and points for many airline and hotel loyalty programs.
There are also numerous white-labeled survey programs where you can earn miles or points with individual loyalty programs. Here’s a list of all of them:
- American Airlines – Miles For Opinions
- Alaska Airlines – The Opinion Terminal
- Southwest – Rewards For Opinions
- JetBlue – jetOpinions
- Spirit – Points For Thoughts
- British Airways – Avios For Thoughts
- Hilton – Guest Opinion Rewards
53) Stand Up To Cancer
If you’d like to donate to Stand Up To Cancer, American Airlines is offering an incentive of 10x Advantage miles when donating $25+.
54) Vinesse Wine
There are many wine delivery companies out there, many of which appear on shopping portals. In addition to appearing on portals, Vinesse has a number of individual partnerships with airlines and hotel chains outside of their portals.
55) Laithwaites Wine
Vinesse isn’t the only wine company that partners with airlines. Laithwaites has a similar setup with both Alaska Airlines and Southwest. As with Vinesse, compare the bonuses offered below with those offered via shopping portals.
56) GCI (TV, phone, internet, etc.)
GCI is a communications company serving residents of Alaska. They have a partnership with Alaska Airlines which offers bonus Mileage Plan miles for every dollar you spend on their services.
At the time of publishing this, you can also earn 5,000 bonus miles when referring friends and family to GCI.
57) GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide is a site that seems to be similar to Viator where you can book activities around the world, with a focus being placed on tours. They have a landing page for a partnership with Alaska Airlines which gives bonus miles when booking tours.
GetYourGuide does appear on a few shopping portals, so be sure to compare rates to ensure you’re getting the best return. Also keep an eye on your Amex Offers because there was recently an offer giving a discount or statement credit on GetYourGuide bookings, although I don’t know if that was stackable with this Alaska partnership or shopping portal earnings.
58) SoFi Loans
Do you need to take out a student loan or refinance an existing one? Finding the best rate is the most important factor, but if SoFi happens to offer a competitive rate then take advantage of the fact that you can earn 1 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan mile for every $2 of your funded loan amount.
59) Harry & David
Here’s another individual partnership where you might get a better deal via a shopping portal, although that depends on how much you’re spending.
When ordering from Harry & David, shopping portals tend to offer cashback, miles or points based on how much you spend (e.g. 3x, 5%, etc.). Southwest’s partnership works differently by offering 1,000 bonus Rapid Rewards points on every order when using a promo code. For cheaper orders, getting a lump sum of 1,000 bonus points works out to be a better return; for more expensive orders, you might do better clicking through from a shopping portal.
60) Home Chef
The individual partnerships versus portal options continue. Home Chef appears on quite a few shopping portals, but a few airlines and hotel programs offer bonus miles or points by shopping via dedicated landing pages.
These can stack with Amex Offers and Chase Offers for Home Chef, as well as discounted Home Chef gift cards.
61) Emergency Assistance Plus
Emergency Assistance Plus is a company that offers plans covering emergency medical evacuation among other services. They partner with a couple of airlines giving bonus points when enrolling, then more bonus points at renewal.
The great thing about this service is that there are a couple of potential stacking elements, although both are targeted. There’s sometimes an Emergency Assistance Plus Citi Offer giving a $65 statement credit back when spending $179+, while there’s also sometimes a SimplyMiles card-linked offer giving 1,200 bonus Advantage miles when spending $169+.
n.b. The landing pages for these offers don’t display the bonus points on offer very clearly. There are a number of scrolling images at the top of the page; one of those images shows how many bonus points you’ll earn.
62) ParkVia Airport Parking
This might have limited appeal as the US-based options I looked at had no availability, but ParkVia offers British Airways Avios when booking airport parking or airport hotel parking options around the world.
63) Heathrow Express
The Heathrow Express is arguably the best way to get from Heathrow Airport into the center of London. I’ve never actually taken this train myself because when flying back to the UK we either rent a car or my parents pick me up as they live relatively close by. However, we met up with friends in London this past summer and they took the Heathrow Express with their two teen children. It was reasonably priced, quick and gets you to London Paddington which then offers good connections to where you might need to get to next.
British Airways offers 5 Avios per £ when buying Heathrow Express tickets, so that’s a way to get rewarded when purchasing them. As the British grocery store Tesco would say, every little helps.
64) Do Good Points
Sun Country is based in Minnesota and they offer 250 points when making your first donation through Do Good Points.
65) Open Table
If you ever use Open Table to make restaurant reservations, you might as well do that via IHG’s website in order to earn up to 500 IHG One Rewards points.
66) Meetings, Events, Weddings, etc.
Most hotel chains offer bonus points to meeting planners, event organizers, wedding planners, etc. when booking meeting rooms at their hotels and/or rooms for attendees. Here are links to what’s offered by the different programs; I’ve included what the earnings are at the time of publishing this post, but be sure to check the pages linked to below in case those earning rates change over time or if the hotel chains run promotions offering bonus points:
- Hyatt – 1x per dollar + ability to earn status with enough qualifying meetings/events
- Marriott – 2x per dollar + 1 elite night credit for every 20 rooms booked
- Hilton – 1x per dollar
- IHG – 3x per dollar
- Wyndham – 1x per dollar
- Choice – 3x per dollar
- Radisson – 5x per dollar
- Best Western – 2x per dollar
- Sonesta – Earning rate unknown
- Accor – 2x per Euro
67) FIND Experiences
Suspended for a couple of years due to the pandemic, Hyatt’s FIND Experiences have since made a return. You can pay for FIND Experiences with either cash or World of Hyatt points; if paying for them with cash, you’ll earn 10x points per dollar as well as tier bonuses if you have status with Hyatt.
68) Lindblad Expeditions
A few years ago Hyatt partnered with Lindblad Expeditions which runs luxury cruises around the world including Antarctica, the Amazon, Galapagos and more. Their cruises can be pricey, so if you plan on booking with them it’d be worth doing so via their partnership with Hyatt. That way you can earn 5x points per dollar, elite night credits and a $250 onboard credit.
69) Better Mortgage
American Express has a partnership with Better Mortgage that can get you statement credits worth thousands of dollars when taking out a mortgage. As with other mortgage options, you’ll want to ensure you get the best rate, otherwise the extra amount you pay might exceed the statement credits you earn.
Thanks to Dina in the comments below for this suggestion.
70) RBN (Home Buying)
If everything goes well, this looks like it’s a great way to rack up points. When buying or selling a home, you can use RBN as your agent and earn American Express Membership Rewards. You earn 1 Membership Rewards point per dollar on both purchase and selling transactions. For example, if you use RBN as your agent when buying a $250,000 house, you’ll earn 250,000 Membership Rewards.
Thanks to Lee in the comments for sharing this option, although they do note that their friend used RBN and it didn’t work out, so buyer (or seller) beware.
71) Audience Rewards
Audience Rewards is the Official Rewards Program of Broadway and the Arts. Their partnership with United enables you to earn bonus MileagePlus miles when booking theatre tickets to shows on Broadway.
72) 12Status
Residents of Washington State can register for free on 12Status.com. You’ll then earn 1 Delta SkyMile for every passing yard the Seahawks make during both the regular and post season. You’ll also get Main Cabin 1 boarding status from the start to the end of the Seahawks season.
Thanks to J S for the reminder about this opportunity.
73) Amazon
OK, so this entry can only be done while flying, but I feel it counts anyway as the points you earn aren’t as a result of flying itself.
When flying on JetBlue, you can earn 3x JetBlue points for every dollar spent at Amazon. You have to connect to Fly-Fi using your TrueBlue account login details and click on the Amazon banner ad to start shopping.
Thanks to EW for the reminder about this partnership.
Your Suggestions
Those are 65+ ways to earn miles without flying, but I’m sure there are even more earning opportunities out there not listed here. Do you know of any? If so, we’d love to hear them in the comments below.
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For #70 (RBN) this is an amazing program. The house needs to be over 500k, that would be the only issue. This program is stellar
Wow, thank you for taking the time to write all of that out! I found several new ways to earn points.
I would add that with Airbnb the Mileage X app is great. Not sure if you can stack it with Delta? It’s 2 miles/$ on the app (2.5 if you have a United CC), plus codes 3 points/$ with your Sapphire reserve. If you can stack with Delta that would be a possible total of 6.5 points&miles/$
How exactly would you book it to take best advantage?
The Mileage Plus X app is for United. It’s essentially buying gift cards through the app. You earn 2 United miles per dollar (2.5 if you have a United credit card). Then you use that gift card to pay for Airbnb.
I would add Vacation Clubs to the list. I have gotten a large amount of pints from Hilton and IHG vacation clubs.
There are many car dealers that have partnered with Amex and will allow you to pay entire purchase price with credit card, no extra fee. I’ve done this with a local dealer who has several locations and brands. Negotiate your best price, then pay w Amex.
12status.com one delta mile for each Seahawk passing yard. WA address required
Thanks! I’d heard about this in the past but forgotten all about it. I’ve added this to the list.
United also offers miles when signing up for the various energy providers.
Thanks – not sure how I missed that when researching this!
The downside is these don’t help with reaching Delta status levels. I was slightly short on miles and spotted a miles offer with Delta gift cards. But when I called to ask why no change in status, even the Delta rep thought it would work, but when she checked, was told only actual miles flown count.
I wish I knew about the TicketMaster – Delta partnership before buying Taylor Swift tickets…
Excellent quick reference.
This may be more of a redemption vs. earning option but if you have at least 1,000 OpenTable points, you can use those through kayak.com/dining rewards.
Really helpful to have these all listed in one place, and a little disappointing how many of the small-but-easy ones I’m missing out on.
I believe Amex will give you points if you get a mortgage through them.
There’s a real estate referral program that earns Amex points on the sale or purchase of a house. A friend tried to use it and . . . let’s just say that it didn’t work out.
https://www.joinrbn.com/
Interesting – I’d not heard of this. Are you able to share any details as to why it didn’t work out? It doesn’t have to be in-depth or include any personal details; I was just curious if it related to getting an incompetent agent or if the issue was related to them not actually awarding the Membership Rewards.
In the area, they had no agents in the program. They called around looking for an agent to join the program. Ran out of time. Needed someone.
Could have cashed in.
Thanks!
Looks like that’s via Better Mortgage. Thanks for the suggestion – I’ll get that added.
Wow!
Impressive.