We’ve received a lot of emails from our readers about this subject so we thought we’d start a series of posts to highlight the reward earning options that don’t require you to travel. Earning Miles and Points without traveling is easier than you think, continue reading to find out how.

Airline Dining Programs
Airline dining programs work by allowing you to earn airline miles for every dollar you spend using a credit card or debit card that is registered with their program. First you enroll in a program, provide your credit or debit card details, select the restaurant where you’d like to dine, then start earning miles by using your registered credit or debit card.

Why Should You Sign up for an Airline Dining Program?
This is especially beneficial for our readers who aren’t road warriors but like to travel by redeeming Airline award tickets. For you road warriors it can be a great way to top off an account or keep miles from expiring. But we all have something in common, you gotta eat!

So Many Choices
There are many airline dining programs to choose from. You have your traditional mainline carriers such as American Airlines, Delta, United, and then low cost carriers like Southwest. The key to selecting the right dining program is personal preference.

A good choice when selecting a program is to choose an airline program where you are near an award level and have the extra miles from the dining program put you over the top. Another option is to a choose program for an airline that you don’t fly often but have miles in their program. This option will renew your airline miles expiration date and reduce the risk of your miles expiring. The most obvious reason to choose a dining program is if you are hub captive. Hub captive means that you live in a city where one airline has significant market share. For you Charlotte residents, your choice will pretty much be US Airways. The mile maximizing option is to find the program which you place the highest point value as an earning option. For example if I value a Delta airline mile at $.01 cents and an American Airline mile at $.014 cents the better option is to choose the American Airlines program since both programs earn airlines miles at the same rates.

Enrolling in an Airline Dining Program
If you are not already a member its easy to enroll, simply click on the link, enter your information, and begin dining.

Alaska Airlines – Mileage Plan Dining Partner
American Airlines – AAdvantage Dining
Continental – Sorry Continental fans its the only major US based airline without a program
Delta Airlines – Skymiles Dining
Southwest – Rapid Rewards Dining
United Airlines – United Mileage Plus Dining
US Airways – Dividend Miles Dining

Bottom Line
Using an Airlines Dining program to earn extra miles is a quick and easy way to earn awards without traveling, keep miles from expiring, or build up your point balance.