We are still chipping away at the mileage we need! Last count, we were still working on more than 13,000 miles to reach our goal of 120,000.
This month, I earned miles by answering some marketing surveys. On United.com, there is a link to e-rewards.com. This can be found on the MileagePlus section, under “Earn Miles”. The first time you sign up, you will receive 250 miles as a bonus – but you must use that link!
The amount of information you have to disclose while answering these surveys may make some people uncomfortable. I chose not to reveal some information, but don’t just make up fake answers. The Flyer Talk forum is full of posters who say the stream of survey opportunities dried up when they consistently made up answers. They have “security” questions mixed in with the regular questions to make sure you aren’t just randomly clicking answers.
The typical survey experience has you answering some basic questions to determine if they want to give you a full survey. If not, you receive the consolation prize of $0.25 or something like that. If you do meet their desired demographic, you may complete the survey and earn $2.00-$7.00 in e-rewards. When you’ve collected a certain amount of money in your account, you can trade it in for all sorts of stuff, including miles.
This week I finally earned $25 in my account, and traded it in for 500 miles. It took about 3 weeks to earn it, answering about 5-7 full-length surveys, and perhaps 10 consolation prizes. Pretty easy!
However, that’s nothing compared to my credit card spend this month. Whew. It’s both exhilarating to see the miles racking up, and a weensy bit scary to know HOW EASY it was to spend $5k in one month! All we needed were some airline tickets, and boom, spending doubled!
Don’t forget – miles aren’t a good deal if you are carrying balances on your card. Make sure you are paying off your card as you go so you don’t accrue interest charges.
Beginning Balance as of 06/11/2013: 106,759
Airline Activity: 0
Non Airline Activity:
– E-REWARDS REDEMPTION 500
– Chase Explorer Card Purchases 5,029
– Chase Explorer United Purchases 1,051
Ending Balance as of 06/11/2013: 113,339
MILES TO GO: 6,661
Well, there’s no chance I’ll be picking up anothet CC spend bonus like that anytime soon! The remaining mileage will have to come from some other upcoming sources: our PointsHound booked stay is in 2 weeks, and our next flight is in a little over a month. Looks like it may be September before we reach 120,000 (or later!) With award fares possibly drying up before then, we may need to think about buying/transferring miles. Lame.
Courtney Hoyt 