How To Earn Frequent Flyer Miles At Dinner

Summary

  • Major airlines offer dining programs with multiple levels of rewards based on membership.
  • Hotel dining programs like Caesars Rewards & Hilton Honors provide points per $1 spent.
  • Earn cashback or miles through online shopping portals like Rakuten and Dosh while dining out.

Earning frequent flyer miles while dining out is one of the easiest and most exciting ways. Unlike other lucrative ways of earning, dining at your favorite restaurants may be the simplest and most economical of all. Dining programs partner with restaurants to earn commission when members dine there and return a portion of their commission in the form of loyalty miles or points. This article explores six different dining programs in the US.

1

Airline dining programs

Major airlines in the US offer comprehensive dining programs

Major US airlines offer specific dining programs for members to earn award miles when dining. Some programs offer new member bonuses on their first purchase at a participating restaurant. Most airlines offer three levels of membership, and the number of award miles depends on the membership level.

AAdvantage dining

Image: AAdvantage Dining

  • Basic member: Typically earn 1x miles per $1 or $2 spent if you opt out of receiving emails.
  • Select member: Typically 3x miles per $1 spent if you opt in to receiving emails.
  • VIP member: Typically 5x miles per $1 spent if you opt in to receiving emails and have already completed 11 qualifying transactions in the calendar year. VIP Members start earning at the VIP level on their 12th qualified transaction.

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2

Hotel dining programs

Hotels offer award miles for dining out at participating restaurants

Caesars Rewards Dining

  • 1x Reward Credit per $1 spent
  • Registered Rewards Visa Card members: 4x Reward Credits per $1 spent

Hilton Honors Dining

  • Basic: 2x Hilton Honors points per $1 spent
  • Select: 5x Hilton Honors points per $1 spent
  • VIP: 8x Hilton Honors points per $1 spent
Hilton dining

Image: Hilton Honors Dining

Marriott Bonvoy Eat Around Town

  • Bonvoy elite status members (Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, or Ambassador Elite): 6x points per $1 spent.
  • Non-status Marriott Bonvoy members: 4x Marriott Bonvoy points per $1 spent.

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3

Financial Services programs

Chase Dining

Chase Sapphire, Freedom, and Ink card holders can earn points by using their cards through the Chase Dining portal. Chase Sapphire Reserve members can earn up to 10x points on prepaid orders through the Chase Dining site.

dining-rewards-guide

Photo: Chase

Bilt Dining

  • New York City
  • Boston
  • Atlanta
  • Dallas
  • Chicago

Members can enroll in the Bilt Dining program, add their payment method, and start earning reward points at select restaurants. You must be a Bilt Mastercard holder to get the maximum reward, up to 11x Bilt points per $1. Dining options are currently limited, with only a few major cities nationwide.

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Earn rewards as cash-back or in miles

Rakuten

Rakuten, a popular online shopping portal, offers the opportunity to earn rewards for dining out. Credit cards that earn Amex points can opt for American Express Membership Rewards instead of cash back on dining spending. Rakuten also offers $40 as a sign-up bonus.

Rakutan dining

Photo: Rakutan

  • Sign up for Rakuten through a referral link
  • Spend at least $40 on Rakuten Shopping Trips within 90 days of opening your account.

Dosh

The Dosh mobile app offers cash rewards on dining purchases. Members must load the cards they intend to purchase before selecting the restaurant. The AwardWallet blog suggests that rewards from most restaurants range between 3% and 5%.

Related

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5

Fuel companies

Shell Fuel Rewards

Numerous programs allow consumers to earn discounts on their fuel purchases. Shell Fuel Rewards offers a dining program where members receive a discount of 10 cents per gallon of fuel (up to 20 gallons) on every dine-out purchase of $50. That is 4% in savings ($2 for every $50) for those interested.

Shell rewards

Image: Shell Rewards

Shell Fuel Rewards lists some terms and conditions for the program.

  • Dine at our participating restaurants and pay with a linked Mastercard®, Visa®, Discover® or American Express® card.
  • Earn 10¢/gal for every $50 you spend across all participating restaurants, bars and clubs.
  • Rewards earned while dining out will post to your account within 10 days.
  • In order to earn Fuel Rewards® savings while dining out, be sure to opt in* to receive emails about our participating restaurants.
  • The Dining program is powered by Rewards Network®

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6

The Marketplace

A collection of retailers and restaurants

Hawaiian Airlines, while not having a specific dining program like other airlines, partners with a collection of retailers and restaurants to provide its members the opportunity to earn miles. Whether a small cafe or a full-fledged grocery store, the marketplace program gets you the extra miles you seek. According to Hawaiian Airlines,

“We’ve partnered with hundreds of stores, restaurants, and activity providers to allow you to earn HawaiianMiles even when you’re not traveling. You can use this site as your guide to racking up HawaiianMiles to put towards your next flight.”

Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A321neo (N202HA) at Portland International Airport.

Photo: Wenjie Zheng | Shutterstock

Members can start earning in four easy steps when using the Hawaiian Airlines® Mastercard® or Bankoh Hawaiian Airlines® Visa® Debit Card at any of the Buy & Fly partners.

  • Explore – Log in to search exclusive HawaiianMiles partner offers.
  • Activate – View offer details to activate select offers.
  • Spend – Shop or dine with your Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard® or Bankoh Hawaiian Airlines® Visa® Debit Card at participating partners — no coupons, vouchers or promo codes needed.
  • Earn – Miles are earned based on your purchase and offer details.

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