How to Earn Frequent Flyer Miles Without Flying

Even if you don’t travel, there are plenty of ways to earn travel points from the comfort of your living room couch.

Successful travelers know that most of our Travel Points are earned through non-travel activities anyway. Many of us don’t maximize those revenues like we should because we don’t have time to think about the extra clicks needed to double down daily.

Here are four new approaches to the old ways of earning miles from home.

Maximize your online shopping rewards

You can always earn points on purchases, and one of the best ways to do this is through shopping portals where you can double-dip on everything delivered to your door. Plus, you can use your most profitable credit card for all your supermarket spending.

Shopping portals often offer purchase bonuses. For example, you can earn an additional 500 points for every $100 you spend, or an increase of 3 to 10 points for every dollar you spend at a particular store. Make sure you are aware of what bonuses are offered by each of your card issuers.

Earn dining points with local delivery

You also have several ways to support local restaurants by earning points and getting a night off from cooking.

Lunch mile programs have changed their models to highlight restaurant partners for takeout and delivery. If you’ve never participated in the Lunch Miles program, now is the time to give it a try. And you can even get a check-in bonus of 1,000 points (or more) on your first meal (depending on which airline you choose). How well this program will work for you will probably depend on where you live.

Your credit cards are also likely to come on board with some extra takeout and delivery meals. Here are some examples:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve Card: Free DashPass membership provides free shipping on qualifying DoorDash orders (usually $9.99 per month; must be activated by December 31, 2024)
• Platinum Card® by American Express: Cardholders can earn up to $200 in Uber Cash annually for rides and meals in the US.
• American Express® Gold Card: Earn up to $10 per month on checkout at participating partner restaurants including Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Boxed and participating Shake Shack locations (registration required). Plus, you can earn 4 points for every dollar spent on takeout, delivery, and restaurant meals.

Special offers and credit card benefits

We’re seeing a lot of credit card specials these days, so be sure to check what your issuer has to offer and keep an eye out for special offer emails.

Some special offers recently include:

• The Platinum Card from American Express offers 100,000 points if you spend $6,000 within the first six months.
• Get $750 cash back after you spend $7,500 in your first three months on an Ink Business Unlimited® credit card.
• The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card offers a $200 bonus after you spend $750 on purchases within the first three months of opening an account.

Take part in online surveys

The program, which has always been around, is to conduct airline miles surveys to earn a small amount of points so that your miles don’t burn out.

While it will certainly take you a long time to earn enough points for an Emirates First Class ticket, taking surveys is a great alternative to hours of scrolling through your Instagram feed. American Miles for Opinions and United Opinion Miles Club are two good options.

bottom line

Now that you know how to earn travel miles from the comfort of your home, take a few easy steps to maximize your rewards earnings. It won’t cost you anything other than a little time and research, and in some cases one click to get ahead.

Stephanie Zito is a professional traveler, humanitarian and credit card points collector. She shares insightful travel tips she has learned first-hand from over 20 years of traveling around the world as a backpacker, expat and premium traveler in over 125 countries on all seven continents.