Mileage Whore

Miles are vital to my kind of travel.  In the last 7 years I have bought very few international tickets.  Detroit, my closest airport, is a Delta hub; therefore, I do everything to build my Delta miles.  Though hardly my favorite airline, they control the bulk of traffic in and out of Detroit so I am a member of their frequent flier program.

There are several ways to build miles.  First, every time I fly Delta I get miles for the flight, but this is not the bulk of my miles.  I have a Delta American Express credit card which is free the first year you have it.  After that it’s 95$ a year but I more than make up for that with my free tickets, and it allows me a free checked bag and priority boarding.  Every dollar you spend is worth an air mile. Remember, even 5$ at McDonalds is 5 air miles. I put absolutely everything on my card and I do pay my bill off every month.  My gym membership, car and home insurance, and cable bill are all automatically billed on the card.

  But there are more ways to earn miles with the card.  Delta, as do other airline cards, has a sky miles shopping site.  Almost every retailer you can think of is listed there. Let’s say you need some basic drugstore items—toothpaste, suntan lotion, razors, and dental floss.  At the skymiles  site, type in drugstore or even the items you want and an appropriate list will appear.  Currently drugstore.com is listed and it’s giving you 6 miles for every dollar you spend and if you spend 25$ the shipping is free.  Also note that you will not pay tax as you do in your state AND they often have things on sale.  You also don’t spend a dime on gas.  The result?  If, for example, your order totals up as 35$, you will get 35 miles from your credit card bill, an extra 210 miles from skymiles for a total of 245 miles.  You may have spent less than you normally would for these items too. 

Perhaps you have a fondness for a few more expensive cosmetics carried only at higher end department stores.  I confess to loving Estee Lauder’s stay in place make-up and a particular Shiseido lipstick.  Together these items cost 60$--I know, ridiculous—but again the current rate is 6 miles per dollar.  Nordstroms has free shipping so I net 60 plus 360 miles for a total of 410 air miles.  Again, no driving although I do pay state tax.  These are items I would have bought anyway for the exact same price.  There are very few things other than groceries that I can’t buy through skymiles.  If it’s clothing and you want to try it on like I do, go ahead and go to the store and try it on.  Just go home and make your purchase through skymiles.

There are other ways to build miles too.  Dining for miles is another Delta program.  You simply sign up for free and every time you eat at one of their linked restaurants, you get miles.  The more you eat out at their restaurants, the higher the mileage rate gets.  I am currently getting 3 miles per dollar spent so if I have a 25$ bill, I get 25 $ from my credit card plus an additional 75 miles through the program.  I do not eat at these restaurants just because they have miles, I go only if I like the place or it’s been recommended.  I have been pleasantly surprised when visiting cities in both the U.S. and Canada to find that I ate at a participating restaurant without knowing it until my dining for miles account acknowledged it.  Note:  if you’re eating with friends and splitting the bill, ask if anyone is paying with cash.  If they don’t mind and it works for you, pay their portion too for more miles and keep the cash for another situation.

Yet other options exist.  I belong, for free, to a program called E Miles Earning Opportunity.  They offer a variety of things that help you get miles.  Once you have 500 miles you simply deposit them through their site into your air mile account.  Typically, you get 5 miles for simply looking at a quick pitch for something and answering 3 or 4 multiple choice questions.  For instance, you could get 5 miles for listening to a 30 second pitch from Doctors Without Borders.  You could get another 100 miles if you give 20$.  For me, this is an organization I would give to anyway so I end up with miles and a tax deduction.  Another pitch might be for something like Groupon.  Sign up, no monetary obligation, and your receive 25 miles.  Find you don’t like it?  Unsubscribe, but you still keep those 25 miles.

Yet another free program I belong to is called E Rewards.  This program asks you to fill out surveys.  They could be about anything—buying a car, shopping for house wares, experiences with financial companies.  Really, anything.  They tell you how long a survey will take but I never find they take that long.  They ask you questions to see if you qualify.  Typically, if you answer yes to someone in your family working in a particular industry they mention, you will not get to do the survey.  They also seem to be looking for the household decision maker.  If you don’t qualify, they usually give you .25$ for answering a few questions and anywhere from 6 to 8$ or more for completing the survey.  At 50$ you qualify for 500 air miles which they will deposit into your airline account.

With some effort, you can joint the fly for free game.