[Edit: I've moved! If you're interested in up-to-date info on free travel, check out Free Travel in Your Twenties]
My favorite post! Not as much saving the best for last as it was riding my motivation for this post to carry me through all the ones prior... And sorry for the delay!
These tips definitely take more time and work than credit card sign-ups, but they make up for it with one thing - they're free. They're a great way to earn points if you can't/don't want to apply for credit cards, or they can be a good supplement to whatever your spending habits are. They also provide a much needed points fix if you're anything like me (points are like crack, only more addicting) and waiting 3-6 months between credit cards without seeing your accounts grow is excruciatingly painful!
TopGuest
This is one of my favorites. Step 1 - create accounts on FourSquare and TopGuest. Step 2 - when you're out and about, check in on FourSquare at partner locations (hotels and airports). Step 3 - watch the points roll in! A few things to note... You only get points for one check-in per program per day. You can also use Facebook instead of FourSquare if you prefer, but if you're like me and are nauseatingly sick of peoples' spam messages in your news feed, I'd recommend sticking to FourSquare and not adding any friends. There is an option to not share the update with friends, but I haven't tested it to see if you still get the points that way - use at your own risk! (And let me know what you find out!)
Here's why I like this program so much. If you happen to work downtown Minneapolis, each day you could earn 150 points - 50 Priority Club points for Intercontinental/Holiday Inn/Crowne Plaza hotels, 50 Best Western Rewards for Best Western hotels, and 50 HHonors points for DoubleTree/Hampton Inn hotels. If you're patient and consistent, a few minutes a day can result in several free hotel nights throughout the year!
There are other partners available as well, including a few that aren't listed on the TopGuest website. Starwood hotels offer Starwood Preferred Guest points for checking in as well, but only when you're actually staying at the hotel - you're required to link your SPG account and points do not post for check-ins if you're not paying for a room. Another partner is United Airlines - 50 points per day for checking in at airports where United flies (i.e. MSP).
One last thing to be aware of is that TopGuest closely monitors for fraudulent check-ins. Before reading their terms and conditions, I went a little trigger happy with my check-ins and ended up receiving a suspicious activity warning email! I've modified my check-in strategy significantly, and thankfully haven't received any additional warnings in the weeks since then. Here are the relevant rules I'd suggest following:
...You represent and warrant that you are actually at a location by sharing
a check-in at a place with Topguest. Topguest reserves the right
to refuse to give rewards for checkins that Topguest, at its sole
discretion, determines to be fraudulent or otherwise inauthentic....
...Topguest flags check-ins based on a number of tests. These include
looking for check-ins that are unreasonably frequent, impossible to make
based on velocity, the friends with which the users shared their
check-ins, and whether a user is checking into a venue that is not known
to exist at the address where the venue was created...
Hawaiian Airlines Toolbar
This one is pretty simple. Register for a Hawaiian Miles account here. Go here and install the toolbar. Use the toolbar to do your day to day searching and you'll earn miles! It's not a ton - one mile per three searches (using the search toolbar and clicking on a link in the search results). And not all searches count - sites like Wikipedia and imdb don't count (perhaps sites that clearly don't lead to sales?? Just a guess), nor do repetitive searches. But it's free and easy, and I'm averaging fifteen or so miles per day with little effort. Perhaps someday that will add up to a free trip to Hawaii... I've had it for a few weeks now and it seems safe/stable, although it doesn't work with Google Chrome. It also has features like extra miles with specific sites, but I tend to ignore those in favor of sites like TopCashBack. There is a 5,000 mile per month limit, but seeing as that's 500 searches per day, I don't think you'll have any issues there!
Audience Rewards
The main point of this program is actually to earn points towards Broadway Tickets in New York, but they partner with several sites that award points on partner programs for answering trivia questions. The partners with trivia are Starwood Preferred Guest, Delta, US Airways, and Best Buy (which can be transferred to travel partners like US Airways). Sign up for Audience Rewards here. Connect your partner accounts under the Edit Profile - Select Point Earning Preferences/Add New Partner section. To earn US Airways miles, make sure US Airways is selected under your earning preferences, then go to Partner Points - U.S. Airways Dividend Miles and answer the questions. Although I haven't tested it, I've read in numerous places your earning preference always has to match the partner site you're on. So if you've answered the US Airways questions and now want to answer the Delta questions, you need to first change your earning preference to Delta in order to earn the miles. The questions seem to change sporadically (every few weeks it seems), you can only answer 20 questions per day, and answers can often be found here or here by scrolling down to find the latest trivia update (although finding the answers yourself can be a great use for the Hawaiian Airlines toolbar!). Another example of earning small miles, but again, they all add up. Plus it's a great way to keep your miles from expiring!
Surveys and Such
There are several sites that let you earn travel rewards for doing things like completing surveys and viewing offers. The first is MyPoints. 5,200 points transfers to 2,500 United Mileage Plus miles. It's slow going, but there are typically 2-3 emails per day that give points just for viewing free offers, as well as MaxPoints options that sometimes only require providing an email address. Surveys offer points as well - typically 10 for attempting them, and more if you qualify for the full survey. Personally, I value my time more than MyPoints, so I aim for the Other/Do not know options in hopes of not qualifying. If you're considering signing up, feel free to use the generic link above or, if you're feeling generous, send me your name/email address and I'll send you a referral!
eMiles is another option for earning through surveys and offers. When you first sign up, you have to decide which program you want your eMiles to count towards - one of the various points and miles programs or Amazon gift cards. eMiles can be redeemed in 500 mile increments. Your earning preference can't be changed, but you can always cancel your account and start a new one (be aware your miles will be lost). I would suggest US Airways in preparation for the US Airways Grand Slam (more to come on that in a future post).
eRewards is very similar to eMiles, except that this one is invite only. I managed to find an invite in my spam email account from a year or so ago - they typically come from signing up with partner programs. Sorry I'm not much help here - if you're hoping to join eRewards, hopefully you'll have a little more luck turning something up on Google!
The last one I've been using is SwagBucks (referral link). My daily routine consists of the daily poll, clicking through the NOSO offers, running SwagBucks TV in the background, and performing 1-2 searches (roughly 30 SwagBucks per day). While SwagBucks don't transfer directly to points or miles, their is an option to redeem 300 SwagBucks for a Travelocity gift card - $25 off a 2+ night reservation costing $150 or more. Not the greatest deal in the world, but it's one of the quickest/easiest rewards I've found.
Other Offers:
These tend to come and go. You can go here for a decent list of offers, but keep in mind awards are changing constantly so the list is almost constantly out of date. Always be sure to check the terms and conditions to make sure you qualify. Below are just a few of the free ones I've come across recently.
Liberty Mutual insurance quote - 500 AmericanAirlines miles
Sentry Insurance quote - 1500 US Airways miles (requires a phone call)
ShareBuilder first trade - 2500 US Airways miles (technically not free, sorry!)
Virgin America Facebook Yearbook - 1000 Elevate miles
I've seen miles offered for Lasik screenings, free sample distributors, surveys directly from airlines/hotels, bank accounts, shipping with FedEx, liking airline/hotel facebook pages... I'm convinced that whatever you're planning on doing online, there are ways to earn miles for doing it!!
If you happen to come across any other ways to earn free miles, feel free to post them in the comments below!
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