How to collect miles for your daily activities

Earning frequent flyer miles doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. You can earn plenty of miles with everyday activities at home or at work, without expending a lot of energy. Here’s an example of a typical day in the life of a United Mileage Plus member who earns miles with ease.

Earning miles on a lazy Saturday

It’s Saturday morning and you’re craving omelets and orange juice, but the fridge is empty. You grab your shopping list, hop in the car, and head off to Safeway for some grocery shopping (Cost: $50, Miles: 25). On the way home, you notice that you’re low on gas, so you stop to fill up. You pay with your Mileage Plus Visa (Cost: $20, Miles: 20).

After your scrumptious breakfast, you log onto the Internet to make a few online purchases. You buy jeans and a T-shirt at Gap.com (Cost: $70, Miles: 210) and splurge on a pair of trousers at Banana Republic’s website (Cost: $90, Miles: 270); of course, you pay with your mileage-earning Visa. Out of the corner of your eye, you spot some bills piling up on your desk, so you log onto NetBank and pay them online (Miles: 500).

You’re about to log off when you glance at the calendar. It’s Mom’s birthday in a few days and you haven’t mailed a gift. You quickly find FTD.com and send her a pretty bouquet of flowers (Cost: $50, Miles: 500).

Enough with the errands! You flop onto the couch and pick up your copy of People Magazine (250 miles for subscribing) to get a quick fix of gossip. Feeling a little guilty about your indulgence, you switch to the San Francisco Chronicle (Cost: $50, Miles: 250) to catch up on local and world news.

An article in the travel section reminds you of your friend on the opposite coast you haven’t phoned in ages. You decide that today is the perfect day to call, glad that Sprint Long Distance (Cost: $5, Miles: 25) has low weekend rates.

Glancing over at the clock, you realize you’ve been gabbing away for over an hour. It’s time to get ready for dinner downtown with the gang. You’ve chosen the restaurant this weekend, making sure it was affiliated with Mileage Plus Dining by iDine (Cost: $100, Miles: 1,000).

Summary

Our mileage-savvy friend earned 3,050 miles in one day without doing anything out of the ordinary. If you pay attention to mile-earning opportunities from airline partners, you too can earn thousands of miles for the shopping, banking, reading, and eating you normally do in the course of a day.