7 Easy Ways to Earn Frequent Flyer Miles Without Flying
Want to travel more? Did you know you can earn airline miles without leaving home? You can earn millions of frequent flyer miles without flying or getting on an airplane.
That's how I've been able to fly First Class on Lufthansa, First Class on Cathay Pacific, and in the First Class Apartment on Etihad.
Simply from earning airline miles the easy way - without flying. It's another easy and quick way to earn unlimited miles and points.
Knowing how to earn lots of miles without flying can help you take that dream vacation sooner. Here are 7 easy ways to earn frequent flyer miles without flying.
This post was originally published on January 1, 2017, and was updated on April 16, 2020.
7 Easy Ways to Earn Frequent Flyer Miles Without Flying
There are many ways to earn frequent flyer miles. Earning airline miles, like life, should be simple. That's why I've compiled this list of 7 easy ways to earn frequent flyer miles without flying.
Here are just a few things you can do to earn frequent flyer miles without traveling. Most of these things you might already be doing.
1. Credit Card Sign-up Bonuses
Let's start with the biggest bang for your buck: travel rewards credit card sign-up bonuses. You can earn frequent flyer miles without flying with credit card sign-up bonuses.
Airline credit card bonuses are the quickest way to earn the most airline miles. Card bonuses range from 25,000 to 100,000 miles for each credit card.
Yep, you could earn up to 100,000 frequent flyer miles from a single credit card. That's enough miles for several roundtrip tickets to Hawaii. We've used airline miles for years of free trips to Hawaii.
Hawaii not on your bucket list? How about Belize or the Caribbean? Fly free with the one sign-up bonus from an airline credit card!
Learn more, find and compare current offers on airline credit cards.
The airline miles are deposited into your account after you meet the minimum spending requirements which vary depending on the card. Here are 7 unusual ways to meet minimum spending requirements.
Pro-tip: The most important thing to remember. Pay off your balance each month. If you can't pay your balance in full, you should not apply for new credit cards.
Paying interests on your purchases costs more than the miles you'll earn. If you need a little breathing room, consider getting a balance transfer card.
Pro-tip: You don't have to get an airline card to earn frequent flyer miles. Points earned with bank cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, and The Platinum Card® from American Express transfer to airlines.
You can even transfer points from business cards like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card,Capital One Venture X Business, and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
These are all the Chase cards that earn points you can transfer to airline and hotel partners.
You can also convert hotel points from hotel rewards cards like Hilton Honors American Express Card, IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card , the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card, and The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card into frequent flyer miles.
2. Restaurants
Dining, ordering take out, or getting food delivery is a fast, relatively inexpensive way to earn frequent flyers miles without flying. It's one of my favorite ways to earn thousands of airline miles!
You can earn up to 5 miles per dollar spent when dining out. No coupons or codes are needed. It's as simple as swiping your credit card.
The beauty of this program is that it's totally easy.
Create a free dining account with the airline you want to earn miles for, link your credit card, and pay with the linked card. Simple as that.
No coupons, codes, or vouchers required. No weird having to explain yourself. It's all handled on the backend by computers. So no embarrassing bits. You'll always save face.
Some airlines are offering thousands of bonus miles:
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Dining
- American Airlines AAdvantage Dining
- Delta SkyMiles Dining
- JetBlue TrueBlue Dining
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining
- Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Dining
- United Airlines MileagePlus Dining
Be sure to read the complete guide to earning miles with airline dining programs including hacks to maximize the number of miles you earn.
Pro-tip: Split the bill into two charges. Paying each "bill" separately, even if using the same card, counts as two dines vs one dine.
3. Online Shopping
Have you been missing out on thousands of airline miles?
You might be if you haven't been using the airline shopping portals for your online shopping purchases.
Depending on your purchase, you can earn up to 30 miles for every dollar you spend. During special promotions like Mother's Day, Back to School, Cyber Monday, or the holidays, the airlines offer extra miles, often several thousands of miles.
Now if that's not enough to get your shopping on, I don't know what is.
Airline Shopping Portals:
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping
- American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping
- Delta SkyMiles Shopping
- JetBlue TrueBlue Shopping
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping
- Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Online Mall
- United Airlines MileagePlus Shopping
Pro-tip: You might be tempted to use your United℠ Explorer Card, Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, or Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®. But don't pay with your airline credit card when shopping through an airline shopping portal. If you return an item, you'll lose your miles!
Bank rewards cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card, Chase Freedom Unlimited®, Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, Ink Business Cash® Credit Card also have a shopping portal where you can earn extra points.
4. Surveys
You can earn extra miles each month for completing online surveys.
It's not a lot of miles, maybe several hundred a month. But it could be worth it if you have free time. Especially if you're looking for another way to keep your airline miles from expiring. Or if you need a few miles for an award ticket without having to buy airline miles.
Online Survey Sites:
- Alaska Airlines The Opinion Terminal
- American Airlines through e-Rewards or Miles for Opinions
- JetBlue Points for Surveys
- Southwest through e-Rewards or Rewards for Opinions
- Spirit Miles for Thoughts
Pro-tip: Use separate email accounts for each frequent flyer account. This way you can earn miles for several airlines instead of just one.
5. Charitable Donations
Do something good for others and get a few miles in the process. Here are some of the ways you can earn airline miles by donating to charity.
- Up to 1 million miles per year for donations to the National Foundation for Cancer Research: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines
- Up to 600,000 American Airlines miles per year when you donate to Stand Up to Cancer
Pro-tip: Use your airline credit card to earn miles through Kiva. Kiva is a micro-lending platform that lets you fund small loans with your credit card. New to Kiva? Get $25 to lend when you use my invite code.
6. Reserve a Rental Car
You can earn frequent flyer miles without flying when you reserve a rental car.
Most airlines offer 500 miles for every rental car reservation:
- Alaska Airlines
- American Airlines
- Delta
- Southwest
- United Airlines
Pro-tip: Sometimes you can combine this with $5 car rentals.
7. Pay Taxes
If you're stuck paying Uncle Sam instead of getting a tax return or pay estimated taxes, consider using your airline-branded credit card to pay your tax bill and earn miles.
You'll pay a fee of up to 1.99% when using a credit or debit card.
This is a great way to complete the minimum spending of new travel rewards cards.
Pro-tip: If your tax bill is small, it might not be worth paying the fee to pay by credit card. Unless you have to meet minimum spending on a new credit card.
Conclusion
Knowing how to earn frequent flyer miles without flying means traveling now instead of later.
Flying First Class instead of coach. Or being able to take lots of trips a year instead of once every couple of years.
These seven easy travel hacks help you earn thousands of miles so you can bring the whole family.
From credit card bonuses, going to restaurants, online shopping, completing surveys, donating to charity, reserving a rental car, and paying your taxes you can earn millions of frequent flyer miles a year.
Remember to check out the ultimate guide to earning Southwest points without flying.
What's your favorite easy way to earn frequent flyer miles without flying?
Pin this to your travel tips, travel hacks, vacation or travel board:
Comment, tweet, or share this post.
Get the best credit card bonuses.
Follow us on Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube
Got a question? Or want help, suggestions, travel tips, learn how to travel for free, find out about travel deals, and maximize your miles and points? Use the subscription box below to sign-up and get post updates by email.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I do my best to earn as many miles as possible, and this is a big help. I've always thought it was silly that flying seemed to be the only way to earn miles.
Whhhaaat!??? i never knew you could do this! Thank you so much for this post! I am going to start this asap! Sharing on FB!
What great tips! For those who fly a lot, those frequent flyer miles can really come in handy. It's great to know other ways to accumulate them other than booking flights.
With a goal of more travel on my bucket list, this is great information to have. I really love the opportunity to earn travel miles with charitable donations, that's right up my alley!
These are great ideas to help motivate budget-savvy travelers to book their next trip. I wouldn't have thought to pay taxes in order to get frequent flyer miles@
These are really great tips, especially for people who are on a budget and can't currently afford to travel but are trying to save up miles to be able to travel. I have a 25-year-old who has big travel dreams but is currently paying off lots of student loans. I"m going to share this post with her, thank you!
This is pretty cool - I didn't know there were this many ways to earn miles. I'm going to look into it - maybe I'll make it through my bucket list a little faster!
My friends suggested to get air miles through my credit card. I pay for every single thing on my credit card, and then just turn around and pay it right off!
Lots of way to earn those miles - and love that its not by having an airline card. Like, by just shopping online (all about that!) or doing online surveys you can easily rack up those points!
Great ideas! I have a credit card that will earn miles. I've never used them before because it takes a lot to get a free flight.
Wow, lots of great ways to earn miles, I knew of some but didn't know you could earn miles from doing surveys or shopping online, this is great to know and will have to keep an eye out.
ooo I had no idea! What a fantastic way to build them up, plus I would earn a lot more this way as I don't fly as much as I would like! Thanks for the tips
This is perfect timing! I was just talking to my husband about getting a credit card where you can earn frequent flyer miles. I never knew you could earn them through restaurants though! Thanks for the tips!
I don't think I ever knew you could earn these without flying. Sounds pretty awesome, I'd have to increase my credit for the credit cards... or maybe I should stick with no credit cards. haha
We should have tons if we would have used it with food. I need to look for a card that does this. Thanks for the tips. Happy New Year.
More great ways to save money! I love it!
I used to be on the road about 175+ days a year, so I also maximized those credit card points as much as I could (shout out to Amex Membership Reward)! You have a great list here - a lot of people don't know you can connect your miles programs to rewards dining.
Wow, great tips!! I had no idea that you could earn flier miles without using a credit card that gave them as a bonus.
Oh my goodness, I had no idea! No such thing as too many miles.
I had no idea you could earn frequent flyer miles without flying! Your tips are fantastic! I am going to implement them for 2017 and see if I can rack up some free miles for a reward for myself in 2018. Thanks so much for these useful tips for the New Year! A great way to start saving.
Ooh I always eat out at restaurants but I never really see many schemes though? I might need to check that out!
I am always looking for ways to ear more rewards. I will have to try a few of these.
I am saving all my Frequent Flyer miles for my dream trip. Thanks for the great tips so I can earn even more.
Wow, those are some great ways to earn frequent flyer miles. I don't personally travel by plane but this is great for those that do.
I had no idea this was even possible - although I'm not sure why, I know all about rewards cards etc. I just never put two and two together! Will definitely need to try some of these this year - I am in major need of a vacation!
I did not realize you could earn frequent fly miles without flying. I am definitely going to put your tips in practice.
These simple hacks will lead to such awesome adventures. Thanks for sharing these great mile earning tips. Very creative ideas.
YES I love collecting points and miles. Literally doesn't get better. I can manage 1-2 free flights a year per person. These tips are super actionable.
These are great! There are so many ways to earn miles that I didn't realize before! (Luckily I am a flight attendant and get my miles - aka work)!
I love your note about not applying for credit cards if you can't pay off the bill every month. Such a key thing. This is so helpful and I'll be going over parts of it with my husband. We have trips coming up this year and next and cutting down flight costs would be awesome.
Great information. I honestly did not about this. I thought you had to fly to get those great miles. I wil make sure my husband and I look at this information and try to start really saving our miles. We are hoping for a nice family trip this year.
These are great tips, we love getting frequent flyer miles, not living close to family and having a large family makes this a must! Thanks so much for sharing.
wow, didn't know there were 7 ways to earn miles... I'll have to practice some of those more to earn more so I can go on vacation MORE : ) thanks for the heads up!
My husband and I have racked up a TON of miles with our Chase Sapphire Preferred card... we use it for EVERYTHING!
What a brilliant tips. I'm really glad that you shared this ideas. I've never thought this before.
That's great! I'm glad you can earn the points without having to fly. I might need to invest in a card like that, although I haven't flown sin the 90s.
These are some great tips , I never knew about this. I'll definitely try these.
Thanks for sharing.
These are such great ideas. Will definitely try to do some of them.
Thanks for sharing this info.. I need a better credit card with great cash back offers! I love free mileage
This is pretty amazing! It would be nice to earn miles in case you're planning to travel in the future! It would save you so much from buying tickets!
Sadly, but for the occasional sign-up bonus, the only one of these options that is regular option for us Australians is simply using your credit card to earn points.
I've earned the odd bonus from surveys, but the effort vs return is sadly so minimal!
Every one of these posts makes me wish we had more competition for cards/points here in Australia
These are all amazing options to earn frequent flyer miles. I'll definitely have to conduct a little more research to see if any of these options are available in Spain or Singapore. Your suggestions have definitely sparked some ideas. Let's hope these methods can be used elsewhere!
Such brilliant ideas! It's good to know that there are plenty of ways to add to those miles points. I rely on them to save big on my travels too!
What a great idea! i never know you could do this. I 've been trying to save up air miles for years. xx
You've put together some wonderful ideas for those who want to travel more but don't have the funds! It's great.
Great tips! I'm actually saving up my miles for my next trip. 🙂
I had NO idea this was an option! Thank you! We don't fly much, it's been years since we have, but this is a great way to save miles for when we finally do!
As long as you aren't letting your purchases that are earning you your miles affect how much you are spending, you can earn some great rewards. However, the credit card companies do tend to try to get you to "game" the system so that you will spend more to get to that next level.
I never knew there were so many ways to earn miles without actually flying! I am going to research these more, since we want to fly at the end of the year.
These are really great tips! As a frequent traveler myself, things like this really help. I personally get my miles now off of my credit card but I always love to know of other sources. Thanks for this!