Love My Skymiles Dining

Despite the title, this is not a love note about airline food. 

Anyone with a frequent flyer account with an airline gets a barrage of ongoing emails on both how to both earn and spend miles/points. 50% of the time, they're trying to get you to sign up for their branded credit card, which can be pretty lucrative for earning miles/points, IF you use it enough to be able to swallow the annual fee.

I'm not a road warrior like some I know.  Despite my wife's disdain for my travel, it's relatively reasonable.  I will, however, this year earn Gold Medallion Status on Delta, so I guess I travel more than most Americans.

I have to admit, though, that I AM one to try to earn as many miles as I can in the Skymiles program.  Sure, most of the time it doesn't earn you Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQM) if you're not earning them flying with Delta (or a Delta partner), but when dreaming of flying first class to Europe on miles, it just can't hurt to put as many miles in that account as possible.

I saw the other day that I reached what I think is a pretty impressive milestone - I have earned, in 2010 YTD, just shy of 11,000 Skymiles through the Skymiles Dining Program.  All I did was register my credit and debit cards with the program, and then eat out, paying with a registered card.  Easy Peasy (as my daughters would say).

Whenever I visit a city, traveling for business or leisure, I look up (using their handy-dandy iPhone/iPod app) local participating restaurants, and try to visit at least one.  There are also several in the local area around my home that I convince the fam to visit with me on occassion as well.

In general, these aren't 5-Star establishments, but often small, individually-owned places with good food and decent value.  Yes, I've visited some that I probably would not return to, but have also visited others that I can't wait to go back.  The experiences are usually unique, and seeking out these places is both rewarding from a Skymiles perspective as well as from a "get you off the beaten path" perspective.

The program is administered by Rewards Network, and they have other branded programs as well, like Upromise (for college savings), Hilton and Southwest Airlines, depending on where you want your rewards to go.

If you eat out, you should consider finding a dining program that pays you back.  It's worth the time.