Best ways to earn airline miles

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You may already know that you can earn airline miles by flying with a specific airline. But did you know there are plenty of additional ways to earn airline miles that can be redeemed for (almost) free flights, upgrades and discounts on inflight purchases?

You can easily earn valuable miles with the right credit card, flying with partner airlines, online shopping and even dining at the right restaurants.

Therefore, even if you’re not a frequent flyer, it’s easy to earn airline miles. Keep reading to find out some of the best ways to earn miles.

Best ways to earn airline miles from credit cards

Credit cards can earn airline miles through both everyday spending and welcome offers.

If you are approved for an airline-branded credit card, you can earn airline miles for every dollar you spend, and the card will usually offer bonus miles for spending directly with the airline, as well as on travel generally. If you fly regularly, this can be an easy way to rack up plenty of airline miles that you could redeem for free or heavily discounted flights on the same airline.

Many cards also offer generous welcome bonuses to attract new and/or eligible customers. The welcome bonus will usually require a specified amount of spending within a set period (usually the first three months or six months of card membership).

Welcome bonuses significantly boost your airline miles account balance and get you to your next dream vacation sooner.

Here are some of the best welcome bonuses for airline-branded credit cards available right now:

Best ways to earn airline miles from transferring points

Transferable points can be even more valuable than airline miles because of how you can maximize them. American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase and Citi offer rewards credit cards with points you can transfer to numerous flight and hotel partners.

Transferable points can be especially valuable if you want to travel in a premium cabin for the smallest number of points and miles. Instead of being limited to a single airline (and its partners), you can keep your transferable credit card points in your credit card account until you are ready to use them and then choose the best program to transfer them to based on the flights you want to take and the number of airline miles each program is charging.

For example, say you want to book a Delta Air Lines flight to Europe. Since Delta SkyMiles uses dynamic pricing, you could be paying more than 100,000 miles round-trip in economy. If you only earned SkyMiles, you would be stuck with this choice. However, if you earned transferable points, you could transfer your credit card points to Delta’s partner airline, Virgin Atlantic, which charges as few as 20,000 miles round-trip for economy flights to Europe (including those same flights on Delta).

This flexibility is very valuable.

The best way to earn transferable points is with the right credit card. Here’s a look at some of TPG’s favorites:

Here are the most popular cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards points:

The information for the American Express Green Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Bilt Rewards

Bilt offers one credit card, the Bilt Mastercard® (see rates and fees). Cardmembers earn 1 Bilt Point per dollar spent on rent (on up to $100,000 per calendar year), 2 points per dollar spent on travel (airfare, hotels, cruises and rental cars) and 3 points per dollar spent on dining. You need to make at least five monthly transactions to earn points (see rewards and benefits). The Bilt Mastercard has no annual fee (see rates and fees).

TPG founder Brian Kelly is a Bilt adviser and investor.

Related: Bilt Rewards program: Guide to earning points on rent, dining and more

Capital One miles

Here are the cards that currently earn transferable Capital One miles:

The information for the Capital One Spark Miles Select has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Here are the cards that earn fully transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points:

However, if you have one of these cards, you can also combine your rewards from cash-back cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and the Chase Freedom Unlimited® into a single account, turning cash-back earnings into valuable Ultimate Rewards points.

Citi ThankYou Rewards

Citi ThankYou Rewards has 19 airline and hotel transfer partners. Currently, only a single card is available that offers transfers to all of these programs: the Citi Premier® Card (see rates and fees). Note that the Citi Prestige® Card is no longer available to new applicants.

The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Best ways to earn airline miles from frequent flying

When you fly with an airline that offers points and miles for flying with it, it is a good idea to join its loyalty program and add your number each time you fly.

The airline will award you miles for each eligible flight, which you can redeem for future flights or, depending on the program and airline, discounts on inflight purchases like Wi-Fi and beverages.

If you fly with a partner airline of American Airlines, you can add your AAdvantage loyalty number on that booking to earn AAdvantage miles, even though you’re not flying on American metal.

If you fly regularly, you may earn elite status in your program of choice, making your travel more convenient and comfortable with benefits like additional checked baggage, priority check-in and boarding, first-class upgrades, and lounge access.

Related: What are airline alliances, and who’s in them?

Best ways to earn airline miles from shopping portals

Shopping portals allow you to earn bonus points and miles for the online shopping you might be doing every day. You’re still purchasing the same items directly from the merchant, but because you started at the shopping portal, you’ll earn bonus points.

While some portals will only offer 1 point per dollar with many retailers, it’s not uncommon to see offers of 10 or more points per dollar for select retailers. If you have a large online purchase coming up, this can earn you a huge haul of rewards.

To earn airline miles from shopping portals:

Related: The beginners guide to airline shopping portals

Here are some popular airline shopping portals:

Best ways to earn airline miles from stacking deals

Combining shopping portals with a rewards credit card allows you to double dip, earning more miles for every purchase.

Also, look out for additional offers from airlines and credit card issuers. They may offer additional cash back or bonus miles when spending on a specified card with a particular retailer. This means you could triple-stack your points earning, getting you closer to your dream redemption, by first shopping through a shopping portal, then purchasing from a retailer with a bonus offer from a card issuer, and then paying with a points-earning credit card.

Related: TPG staffers stacked offers to save big on holiday shopping — here’s how you can, too

Best ways to earn airline miles from dining

Most airline loyalty programs offer a dining rewards program, allowing you to earn extra points or miles.

Before you can use a dining rewards program, you have to sign up for the program online and then register at least one credit or debit card with the program. Then, you’ll automatically earn rewards through the dining program when you use your card to pay for eligible charges at participating restaurants, bars and clubs.

Here are some of the best airline dining rewards programs:

Delta SkyMiles Dining

Free Spirit Dining

JetBlue TrueBlue Dining

Southwest Rapid Rewards Dining

United MileagePlus Dining

Don’t forget to pay with a card that earns bonus points for dining expenses.

Related: Airline and hotel dining rewards programs: Which is best for you?

Bottom line

There are many ways to earn airline miles, even if you are not a regular traveler.

While all the programs, cards, airlines and options can seem overwhelming, it is a good idea to start by considering which airline you want to focus on and joining its loyalty program. Then, you can start plotting ways to increase your rewards balance, one step at a time, by adding your loyalty number to flights operated by that airline or a partner airline.

Also, consider a credit card that either earns points and miles directly in that program or can be transferred into that program. You can also maximize your travel with shopping portals and by stacking offers.

See Bilt Mastercard rates and fees here. See Bilt Mastercard rewards and benefits here. See Delta Amex Gold rates and fees here.