Kyliebaby3

Just out of curiosity, does anyone use United's Mileage Plus dining program or their Mileage Plus Mall? American Airlines has the exact same programs in place, but I, for whatever reason, use United. Incidentally, you can shop in either mall, but you can't be registered for both of their dining programs since they use the same rewards network to track your earning.

In my opinion, the dining one is a no-brainer since it's free and they keep track of everything after you register your debit or credit cards with them. I also like how you could potentially earn miles without even knowing the restaurant is a member of the program, if you're out of town, for example. But with the mall, you have to be a little more cognizant of what you're doing and log-in with your mileage number and then click through to the online sites to get credit for shopping. Still, it's a great opportunity to earn more miles if you're going to be shopping online anyway.

Last year, I earned almost 10,000 miles in the dining program alone, so I think it's a great way to improve your mileage account balance, and also avoid those pesky 18-month expiration limits some have set in place. Plus, you can double-dip a bit if you have an airline-affiliated debit or credit card (i.e. earn miles through the rewards program and also via your affiliated card that you've registered).

Anyone else like/dislike either of these programs, or do you use something else that's similiar and beneficial?

yk

The idine program isn't too useful for me in the Boston area. The places that participate aren't the ones I tend to go to (they're mostly BBQ joints or downscale places). The very few that I do patronize, tend to block out Sat night, which is usually the time we go out for meals. So on average, I think I get about 3-4 dines a year that will earn me miles via idine.

As I've mentioned on the other thread, I use the AA shopping mall for online shopping. I don't do much shopping anyway, but I do buy Peets coffee online once a week and I do it via the AA shopping link. I also shop perhaps quarterly via L'Occitane. I don't see Sephora on the AA shopping site, so I have to check out the other airlines and see if they offer Sephora. but that's pretty much it. I think it's useful for people who buy lots of things via Home Depot or Target or Zappos but I'm not one of them.

For United, one can also earn miles if you shop at Genuardi's supermarket. This was useful when I used to live in Philadelphia where there are Genuardi's. I mean, I need to go grocery shopping no matter what. For AA, they have a similar program but it's via TomThumb/Randall's. I got lots of AA miles via TomThumb when I was living in Dallas, but now I'm in Boston and I shop at Shaws which doesn't not have anything of this sort with any airlines, unfortunatley.

ms_go

I've registered for both, but I don't use either one extensively. We don't go out to eat that often, and there aren't too many options in our immediate area (far western Chicago burbs). And, I usually forget about Mileage Plus Mall--although I had to buy a new Dell laptop a few weeks ago and did remember, and the miles credited very quickly. I'm also registered for grocery miles through Dominick's, although I've all but stopped shopping there. I earn a handful of miles every year through these (and yes, I double dip, because my primary credit card earns Aadvantage miles), but it's a small percentage compared to flight miles.

Momliz

I am registered for Delta's equivalent - and have gotten quite a few miles through the program. Remembering to use the mall, as you say ms_go, is hard, but when I do, it's worthwhile.

thit_cho

I signed up for Mileage Plus Dining last year, and I earned a lot of miles last year. I live in Manhattan, and there are a lot of restaurants that participate. I also order in frequently, and I now only order from restaurants that participate (so I have switched to different Chinese, Japanese restaurants, etc.), which is the point of the restaurant joining the program. In this economy, I tend to patronize the restaurants where I get something back (ie, 5 miles per dollar -- last year it was 10, and I early nearly 40,000 miles with bonuses).

Kyliebaby3

Wow, thit_cho... that's pretty incredible considering that's enough for a R/T ticket. I agree with you and feel that if you're going to eat out anyway, it's worth it to be a bit more conscientious and dine at places that participate. I do the same thing, especially if I have a type of cuisine in mind. The Rewards Network's revamped website is really user-friendly, IMO, so it makes searching very simple by cuisine type, geographic area, etc... It sounds like we're lucky though and have more opportunities to do so. I definitely will be looking up restaurants in Manhattan before my trip in April.

I too use the grocery store miles, but on the west coast it's Vons/Pavilions with United. I've earned quite a few that way as well, and it's nice that they keep track of it for you and all you have to do is shop (and swipe your member card) like you would anyway.

Hmmmm, I wonder what else we're missing and not exploiting as a means to more miles?

thit_cho

Yeah, its great. I order in at least 3 or 4 times a week, sometimes alone, but usually with a friend, so that's 25 to 50 a shot, which times 5 is a nice slug of miles, but it was even better last year when I got 10 miles so long as I rated each restaurant (which took 2 seconds) w/i 30 days of dining.

I used my miles to book a trip on United to Australia this Christmas: I got around 40,000 miles from Mileage Plus Dining, 30,000 for getting the United Visa and then had 10,000 in charges, so my ticket to Australia, which would have been $2,700 was free (well, around $100 in fees and taxes).

And, I've already earned 4,500 miles this year on Mileage Plus Dining.

Kyliebaby3

thit_cho: You probably got the email and saw this, but figured I'd post it here for everyone else. Another Mileage Plus dining bonus for rating your experience; these are the best

Here's your opportunity to tell us what you think and earn Mileage Plus® bonus miles with the March Survey Bonus! Rating and reviewing restaurants has always been a great way to share valuable feedback with other members as well as restaurant owners. Now, not only do you get to help out other members, but you'll get something for yourself too. We are giving you 50 bonus miles for each qualifying survey you fill out after you dine. Here's how:

• Visit any participating restaurant, bar or club between 3/1/09 and 3/31/09 and spend at least $25.
• Log in to My Account Center within 30 days of your visit and fill out the survey for your dines.

It's the quickest way to add 50 bonus miles to each qualifying dine! You don't need to register and there's no limit to the amount of bonus miles you can earn!

RCL

The Mileage Plus Dining website this service maintains is very deceiving, in fact I would go so far as to say they're liars. It appears to allow prospective diners to view the comments made by other diners who have patronized the restaurants in the past. We recently dined at one of them that had quite a good user rating. We found the food to be fine but the prices to be quite high and they even had a minimum per person requirement that was never mentioned in the Mileage Plus Dining entry so I posted a comment to this effect. Low and behold my comment never made it to the website so I called rewardsnetwork.com and asked why my comment was not posted. She had to consult with her supervisor to get the answer. They don't post any comments unless they are positive or at least neutral (whatever that means). So the "ratings" are totally bogus. I won't be patronizing any of their establishments that I'm not already familiar with.