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Hey there, you’re reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.
This is the thirteenth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.
Dining programs are the set-it-and-forget-it of the miles world. Sign up all your credit cards for a dining program.
I suggest signing up all your credit cards with various dining programs and going about your daily routine. Eventually you’ll probably eat at a restaurant that participates in the dining program, and you’ll notice a small mileage credit to your applicable account.
Not only will you get free miles for something you were doing anyway, but you’ll keep your valuable miles from expiring. Most loyalty programs have an expiration clause that says if you have no account activity for 12 or 18 months your miles disappear. But any activity resets the clock, so earning 30 miles from dining out could preserve 300,000.
Let’s go through the steps of exploiting dining programs.
First sign up all your cards with a dining program. The two best reasons to choose a particular program are that you have miles that are about to expire in a particular program or you value one airline’s miles the highest.
If you have miles that are about to expire from inactivity in, say, your American Airlines account, you should sign up for American’s dining program.
If mile expiration is not a concern for you, just sign up for the program whose miles you value the highest. Below I’ve linked to the dining program of the five US-based frequent flier programs I told you to sign up for in Post 2.
If you click multiple links, you will notice that all five programs are run by the same company, Rewards Network. Unfortunately this means you can’t sign up the same card multiple times and get a bonus in every program for the same dine. If you sign up your card again and again, Rewards Network will only credit the bonus miles from your dine to the most recent account you linked to your card.
Once you’ve signed up, you can take a look at participating restaurants. I don’t do that because I don’t want to be influenced by an extra 3 miles per dollar for dining, which is only about a 5% rebate. I prefer to exploit the dining programs passively by simply being pleasantly surprised when a few bonus miles post from the program.
Link all your cards. Now every time you go to a participating restaurant or bar, no matter which card‘s bonus you’re clearing you’re using, you’ll get your 3 miles per dollar bonus.
That’s all there is to dining programs. Set it and forget it. Link all your cards to one program and see a few extra miles trickle in here and there.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
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Addendum: Delta miles don’t expire. Otherwise all good advice.
I do not use any of the RN mileage programs, but rather use the their idine version for straight cash back. At 5% rebate initially, then 10% once >$250 spend in anniv year, then 15% once > $750 spend in anniv year it blows away the miles versions.
This is a great way to keep miles balances active without much effort. I did end up checking the restaurants in my area that earn miles and there is only one listing – Burger King. So unless I’m traveling, I’m not going to bother signing up anytime soon.
In my area, KFC is on the list. Embarrassingly I eat there frequently.
If KFC were on my list instead of BK, then I’d probably sign up. 😉
“Unfortunately this means you can’t sign up the same card multiple times and get a bonus in every program for the same dine. ”
So, if for some reason you’re trying to reach a minimum spend for a promo, you can’t split the bill and use multiple cards?
You can split the bill and get credit for each card that pays part of the bill. I meant you can’t sign up your Sapphire Preferred in five programs, pay the whole bill with it, and get bonus miles in five programs. You’d only get the bonus miles in the last program where you signed up the card in my example.
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