Helpful Tips To Get Free Airline Miles
Pretty sure everyone who reads our blogs, or Seoul Searching has a desire to go to South Korea. Some might’ve already been and are planning to go again. Lindsay and I (Sammie) have been making our plans for our Seoul 2021 trip this entire year. Even with Covid, we have seen how well Korea has been able to handle the situation and so we are still hoping to make this trip happen.
But we are two working girls, who are just making ends meet. We try to put money aside, but sometimes life gets in the way. (Ex: my car broke down and I have to pay for a whole new engine.) So it’s frustrating when we can’t seem to save enough for the airfare and/or the hotel/AirB&B we want to stay in.
I thank my mom for pointing me in the direction of Frequent Flyer Miles (FFM). Essentially points towards free airfare and even free night stays. But the name probably makes you say:
“Remember how you were just saying you’re a broke beesh like us? Frequent flyer means you travel a lot. Of course they would reward you with some free points and stuff.”
Well here is where we blow your mind. You don’t need to travel to get FFM! In fact, most of our miles come from sitting comfortably on our couches while we watch K-dramas and pick out all the different places we want to go when we finally get there! Here is a list of several sites we use to get our miles while stuck in quarantine.
FYI: The sites we mention use United’s FFM program. We like them because they are part of Star Alliance which has 25 airlines attached to it. You can use your miles to book through United but you could actually be flying one of these other airlines. And same goes for the other way. We flew Air India and linked our United Mileage account and received miles for the flights. So, keep that in mind when choosing your mileage airline.
5. My Points
Signing up is super simple and not only can you get points for airlines but, also for hotels, food, gift cards, etc. This site has a lot of different ways to rack up points for miles. You can watch videos, take surveys, shop at your favorite websites or even find new sites. They also have daily goals that when you complete half you get bonus points and more when you finish all the daily goals you get even more bonus points. The surveys are great for points, and when they have bonus days they’re even better. And even if you don’t qualify for a survey, they will throw you a few points for making the attempt. And don’t forget to check in every day. Bonus points for logging in daily, weekly, and monthly! (Click here to sign up)
4. RocketMiles
This is site for people who do travel a bit more often, or know they have a trip coming up soon that they need to book a place to stay. We’ve used this for when we have events that in NYC that are going to run several days. (ex. K-con and AnimeNYC) You book your hotel using this site and once you complete the stay miles are sent to your FF account. And if you are spending more days than a usual stay you get bonus miles for booking those extra days. So if you’re planning to go to a concert not super close to where you live and want to book a room, this is a great site to help you get miles and a nice place to stay for the night. Click Here to sign up!
3. United Mileage Plus Dining
We’re sure during quarantine cooking at home has been fine, but you also want to enjoy some of that good old fashioned restaurant food. We’re with you on that. New Jersey has opened up outdoor seating, and so we have ventured out to get some delicious food from places we have missed.
But what is we told you that some of these places you can earn miles just for eating what you love? And what if we told you a lot of them tend to offer more than $1 per mile (the avg we’ve seen is 3 miles per $1)? Would that catch you fancy? If you have a credit or debit card all you need to do is register it to United Mileage Plus Dining and any restaurant that is a partner will automatically give you miles! The website tells also offers you a list of place in your area, or wherever you plan on going so you can find a place you love, or even a new favorite. We have found some great places we didn’t know existed near us with using this site. Click Here to sign up!
2. E-Rewards
Before you use this site you need to get a special code from your FFM company. (If they’re affiliated) This part was a bit of a pain in the but for us because we reached out to e-rewards who told us to reach out to United. We reached out to United who told us to reach out to e-rewards. Ugh! But When we told United we were told to reach out to them from e-rewards they handed over the info quickly.
Once you get in, you fill out some basic information about yourself. Different sections will pop up that will help them get a better idea of what kind of surveys they can give you that you will qualify for so you can get the full amount offered for the survey. These surveys usually range between $5.00 and $25.00 in value. And usually if you don’t qualify, e-rewards, will give you a small amount of change (like .25 -$1.00) to make up for the fact you couldn’t complete the survey. Once you reach $25.00, you can cash in that ‘money’ for miles. But, we warn you, you can only cash in once a month! So, if it’s early in the month, we suggest you wait it out to get more miles cashed in at the end of the month. Sign Up here!
1. United Mileage Plus Shopping
This is the one we use the absolute most when trying to get miles. During quarantine especially. They have been having crazy deals for getting free miles with your purchases. Ok, so, the reason we love this site is because it actually works with sites you normally online shop with. Sephora, CottonOn, Forever21 and so many more are associated! And all you have to do is go from the United shopping site, click the site you normally shop from, shop, buy and boom miles! The average is 1 mile per $1 spent. However some sites are more and they also do ‘bonus miles’ days on some sites. (ex. I once did some Christmas shopping on a site where is was 12 miles per $1 spent.)
And once you feel comfortable going outside, they also have an option to shop in-store and get miles. They apply your credit or debit card to deals. That’s if you feel ok giving them that information. Considering this is connected to United which is were we buy our flights anyway, we feel safe giving them our information and we have never had issues with this.
They also do ‘Bonus Miles Specials’ where if you spend a certain amount in a specific time frame you get bonus miles. It can range between 500 and 1500 bonus miles! Highly suggest shopping during these specials! Sign up here!
Now is the perfect time to start racking up the miles you guys! Take a seat, take some surveys, do some shopping and get yourself to Korea at a fraction of the cost! Let us know how many miles you can rack up! Hit us up on (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt) and let us know what you plan to use all those miles for!
