If you’re looking for a way to earn airline miles without flying, signing up for a dining program is probably your best bet. In case you’re not familiar with these programs, I’ll provide some information about them, as well as links to their respective websites. You’ll also find out what benefits you’ll receive by signing up and how much you can earn in the long run.
The best thing about a dining program is it’s truly a set-it-and-forget-it type of thing. Sure, there are ways to maximize your earnings that I’ll touch opon, but this is more just a starter (or reminder) for everyone on all the different programs that are out there.
To sign up for any of these dining programs, you’ll first need to be a member of their frequent flyer program. Here’s a link to our post about how to sign up for each one, if you haven’t already done so.
AAdvantage Dining
This is the dining program for American Airlines: https://www.aadvantagedining.com
After joining, new members will earn 500 AAdvantage miles by spending over $25 with a linked credit or debit card in your first 30 days and reviewing your experience within 30 days of your visit.
For ongoing visits:
- Basic members earn 1 mile per 2 dollars spent
- Select members who elect to receive emails from AAdvantage Dining earn 3 miles per dollar spent
- VIP members (who have 12 qualified visits in a calendar year and receive emails) earn 5 miles per dollar starting with the 12th visit.
Mileage Plan Dining
This is the dining program for Alaska Airlines: https://mileageplan.rewardsnetwork.com
After joining, new members will earn 500 Mileage Plan miles by spending over $30 with a linked credit or debit card in your first 30 days and reviewing your experience within 30 days of your visit.
For ongoing visits:
- Basic members earn 1 mile per 2 dollars spent
- Select members who elect to receive emails from the Mileage Plan Dining program earn 3 miles per dollar spent
- VIP members (who have 12 qualified visits in a calendar year and receive emails) earn 5 miles per dollar starting with the 12th visit.
SkyMiles Dining
This is the dining program for Delta Airlines: https://skymilesdining.com
After joining, new members will earn 500 SkyMiles by spending over $30 at any participating restaurant, paying with a registered card within 30 days of signing up and you must complete an online review of each restaurant within 30 days of the visit.
For future visits:
- Basic members earn 1 mile per 2 dollars spent
- Select members who elect to receive emails from SkyMiles Dining earn 3 miles per dollar spent
- VIP members (who have 12 qualified visits in a calendar year and receive emails) earn 5 miles per dollar starting with the 12th visit.
TrueBlue Dining
This is the dining program for JetBlue: https://truebluedining.com
After joining, new members will earn 500 miles if they spend over $25 with a linked credit or debit card at a participating location in the first 30 days.
For ongoing visits:
- Members earn 1 point per dollar spent
- Members who elect to receive emails from TrueBlue Dining earn 3 points per $1 spent at a participating location.
Rapid Rewards Dining
This is the dining program for Southwest Airlines: https://www.rapidrewardsdining.com
After joining, new members will earn 500 Rapid Rewards points by spending over $25 with a linked credit or debit card in your first 30 days, opting in for emails and reviewing your experience within 30 days of your visit.
On subsequent visits:
- Earn 1 point per 2 dollars spent when you don’t opt-in to receive emails.
- Earn 3 points per dollar when you sign up for email notifications from Rapid Rewards dining.
- 500 bonus points the first time you reach 1,500 points from Dining and reviewing your experiences
- 300 bonus points every time you earn another 1,000 points
- 10 bonus points every time you complete an online review
Free Spirit Dining
This is the dining program for Spirit Airlines: https://www.freespiritdining.com
After joining, new members will earn 500 Spirit bonus miles by spending over $30 with a linked credit or debit card in your first 30 days and reviewing your experience within 30 days of your visit.
For ongoing dines:
- Members earn 1 mile per 2 dollars spent
- Online members who elect to receive emails from Free Spirit Dining earn 3 miles per dollar spent
- VIP members (who have 12 qualified visits in a calendar year and receive emails) earn 5 miles per dollar starting with the 12th visit.
MileagePlus Dining
This is the dining program for United Airlines: https://dining.mileageplus.com
After joining and opting in to receive emails, new members will earn 500 miles by spending over $25 at any participating restaurant, paying with a registered card within 30 days of signing up and reviewing your dining experience. Plus, MileagePlus® members with Premier® status earn an additional 500 bonus miles, for a total of 1,000 bonus miles.
For ongoing spending at participating restaurants
- Basic members earn 1 mile per 2 dollars spent
- Select members who elect to receive emails from MileagePlus Dining earn 3 miles per dollar spent
- VIP members (who have 12 qualified visits in a calendar year and receive emails) earn 5 miles per dollar starting with the 12th visit.
Observations
If you’ve noticed, while there are subtle differences between programs, the offers are generally the same. Sign up, dine within 30 days, provide an email, maybe do a review and get your points.
Just looking at the bottom of each page, you’ll see that every program is administered by the same company, Rewards Network.
One downside of these dining programs is that they’re all managed by the same company. This means that you can only register a card with one of the programs. If you attempt to sign up a card with a second airline, it will automatically remove that card from the other profile. I tried doing this myself, but it didn’t work.
This also means participating restaurants and bars are almost identical for all of the programs. Depending on where you live, you might have great choices, or pickings can be rather slim. In Orlando, there are only a few places on the list that I visit. However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised when places we visit while on vacation earn us some extra miles.
Some tips:
- Don’t wait until the last minute to sign up or add a card to your profile. It can take several hours for a card to appear in the system and you don’t want to miss out on miles just because you were too lazy to update your information.
- While a location may be on the list, it might not be for all dates and times. A popular restaurant might not award bonus points on Fridays and Saturdays.
Final Thoughts
I view dining programs as found miles because there are not enough local places to make it worthwhile to devote extra time to maximize the program. If you’re going to sign up, it makes sense to provide your email to earn extra miles. You can just set your email program to send the message to a separate folder if you want, just don’t give a fake address because that will make you ineligible.
I know someone who had a coffee shop around the corner on the program and he’d charge a small amount to his cards so that he could get VIP status and earn extra points for any other times he visited a participating location.
Miles from Dining programs are a good way to keep frequent flyer programs from going inactive. However, they’re not a good way to do this at the last minute because the points can take a while to post to your account.
Right now, I have cards set up to earn either Alaska or Delta miles, but I might sign up for another program right before going to a location I know is on the list to pick up an easy extra 500 to 1,000 miles. Every little bit counts.
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10 comments
Rakuten has one as well, with 5%/5X (!), but only available on the iPhone app at the moment. I realize there are a bunch of non-airline programs on Rewards Network, but I think Rakuten is worth mentioning because:
(1) MR are transferable to SkyMiles (1:1), TrueBlue (5:4), and a ton of international airlines;
(2) Amex often has transfer bonuses; and
(3) 5 cents can buy 2-3 miles when there’s a sale, albeit with minimums (e.g. UA today = $1050/55,500 = $0.05/2.64 mi).
I don’t understand about Rakuten only working through the iPhone app. Is it like the MileagePlusX app where a gift card is generated?
Nah, it’s a regular Rewards Network program. But you can only join it, add cards, and find restaurants using the app. Almost like they want people to install, use, and keep their app.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with collecting, using, and selling data…
At one time some programs had more restaurant choices than others. eg Alaska’s program had more in Alaska.
Is this still true?
Where do you leave the online review?
After the visit posts to your account, you’ll receive a link from the dining program to leave a review.
does Hawaiian Air have a different orogram
It’s worth mentioning that Reward Network is also tied to some other non-airline programs like gas stations and the same rule applies if you register your credit card with them it takes it out of the program you had it registered with. Really dumb I think.
How do I dis-enroll from these programs and become eligible for a new enrollment bonus?
I’m not sure how to un-enroll. However, when you sign up for a new program the card is removed from the other program.