Kinglobjaw's Blog

Because I fly only with US Airways, does it mean I only carry a Dividend Miles account? Of course not, and folks should learn to do the same.

You have to be on the lookout for various partner promos from the other airlines. Sometimes they’ll let you earn miles so easily and quickly and you’d be crazy not to. And I’m not talking about flying here! Take a look at a section of an email from Northwest that I got this morning.

Dear Mark,

Never shopped WorldPerks Mall before? Now’s a perfect time to try!
Savvy WorldPerks members know they can earn miles every day by shopping WorldPerks Mall. Now, you’re in the know! Plus, through March 31, 2009, make a purchase on WorldPerks Mall from Ann Taylor®, Lands’End®, homedepot.com, or more than 200 other favorite online stores, and you’ll earn 1,000 Bonus Miles in addition to the miles you always earn. Shopping the Mall is easy, fun and habit-forming. You’ll see.

Register today for this one-time offer.
 

1,000 miles for one (any) purchase. That’s great! The cheapest way to nail this is to buy an iTune for 0.99 cents. That will earn you 2 miles + 1,000 bonus miles. Full details on the promotion can be found here.

Some may ask if keeping a 1,000 miles is good for anything if you’re not going to fly with that airline?

Well, for starters, that 1,000  miles would normally cost you $50 + tax if bought directly from that airline. Also, you can be sure there will be other promos in the future to get you to try new products or the airline credit card will carry a no free promotion where you can score a huge 20,000+ mile welcome bonus. If you earn E-Rewards you can usually transfer to your frequent flyer account to get more miles. Last but not least, you can try redeeming those miles for a magazine delivered to your home free of charge. Subscriptions for certain magazines start from only 600 miles in cost.

I’ve been doing this with a couple of frequent flyer programs just to score enough miles that I will keep as emergency miles. I already have 50,000 miles with United and will have about 35,000 miles with the merged Delta frequent flyer program. I”m also going for American Airlines since I already have about 8,000 miles in my AAdvantage account. I’m also thinking of signing up for the BMI program since they have low redemptions levels for UK and Channel flights. All these are not from flying, but from partner promotions and no annual fee credit card offers from the airlines.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark