Points for Business Travelers is a series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

We’ve talked about goals, loyalty programs, credit cards, and shopping portals. You may think we are running out of ways to earn points, but that’s not the case! Today’s topic is dining and other partner programs.

Dining Programs

I heard about dining portals for the first time a couple of years ago. But I didn’t do anything about it because it all sounded so complicated! However, just like with shopping portals, it turns out that it’s simple to sign up. As far as getting points from it—you decide how much effort you’re willing to put in.

Basically, the way it works is that you sign up for your rewards program’s dining program (like Aadvantage Dining or Rapid Rewards Dining, for example). Part of the sign-up process is that you enter the credit cards you most often use. Not so that they will be charged, but so that when you eat at a restaurant that is part of the program and use the credit card, you are automatically given points. Then you can look up restaurants in your area and areas you are traveling to that are part of the program, and get points every time you dine! The entire process took me ten minutes to set up. Best case, you go out of your way to eat at participating restaurants and get lots of points. Worst case, you don’t pay any attention to places that participate, but end up getting points here and there. You will usually get an email afterward giving you the opportunity to get even more points by writing a short review.

For example, I signed up and then a few weeks later went to Biga on the Banks in San Antonio (highly recommend!!). I had no idea they were in the Aadvantage Dining program until I got an email from the program asking how the dinner was.  I then wrote a review, and got bonus points! It was so easy and took almost no time.

Partner Programs

Another easy way to get points is by taking advantage of partner programs. Most loyalty programs have partner programs. To participate, simply make sure that your account numbers are entered into all of your loyalty programs. For example, Hertz has my Rapid Rewards number, and I get RR points (in addition to my Gold Club points) for every rental. Hilton has my Aadvantage number, and I get Aadvantage points with every stay. Again, it just takes a few minutes to set up, and once it’s all set up you get points automatically.

You can also get extra points by clicking on partner links to make reservations. For example, if I get to the Hertz site from a link on the Rapid Rewards site I get extra points. However, this doesn’t work for everyone because many business travelers have to use their company’s travel agent. For those of you who make your own reservations, though, this is just another simple way to maximize your points!

For both dining and partner programs there are often promotions to get bonus points. Watch out for those and you will earn your way to a vacation even faster!

Readers, any other advice on using dining and partner programs for points?

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Points for Business Travelers is a new series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

We’ve talked about goals, loyalty programs, and credit cards (plus a quick call out for email lists). Now it’s time for something pretty simple: shopping portals. Before I started trying to maximize points, I had no idea shopping portals existed. And I didn’t start using them until, well, last month.

Basically, the way they work is that instead of going straight to OldNavy.com or BabiesRUs.com (two of my most recent purchases) you get to those sites through your airline’s shopping portal. Then you get 2, 3, or more points per dollar spent. (And of course if you purchase it on your points-accruing credit card that’s even more!) Simply sign up on your loyalty program’s website. Pretty much every site I want to purchase from (except for Amazon! Darn them.) is on there.

Another way shopping portals are awesome—there are often bonus points. For example, I recently sent flowers to my grandmother and got an extra 2500 Rapid Rewards points. When we filed our taxes, we accessed Turbo Tax through the portal and got an extra 1000 points. I am looking to go to Chicago again in the next few months, and that is already half of the lowest Wanna Get Away fare for a one-way ticket. You’ll often get emails about these bonus opportunities, or you can just check the portal.

One thing to watch for—I have heard (but not actually witnessed) that sometimes when you go through the shopping portal the price is not always the same, for example a 20% off sale is not reflected. So just do a quick double check with the original site if you’re worried about that.

Oh and try not to think about the points you could have gotten in the past. Once I started using the Rapid Rewards shopping portal I realized that I could have gotten something like 5,000 points if I had done my Christmas shopping through the portals. Oh well. Live and learn!

Readers, do you use a shopping portal? What is the biggest amount of bonus points you’ve ever gotten for a purchase?

Southwest has a promotion through May 15^th that gets you double points AND double tier qualifying points. I like this promo—it’s easy and a good deal. All you have to do is register here, then travel anywhere in the country by the May 15^th end date. Love things that are this simple! It’s also a great way to get to that next Rapid Rewards tier since Southwest points add up so quickly.

This reminds me—for the points newbies, pay attention to the emails that come from your loyalty programs. They often have information about bonus offers that are very simple to qualify for!

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

It’s easy for business travelers to get lots of points without doing much extra work. So far we’ve talked about setting goals and loyalty programs. This week the topic is credit cards.

Credit Cards

There are about one million credit cards available, all with different hooks. Cash back, bonus points, airline affiliations, charitable giving, and more. If you are looking for the easiest, fastest way to get points, the answer is credit card bonuses.

(Note: Before you start applying for credit cards, check your credit score and credit report. If you plan to utilize credit card sign-up bonuses as part of your strategy, make sure your report is accurate and your score is as high as it can be.)

The strategy. I’m not going to tell you which card to get—there are tons of blogs that do that already. What I will say is that you need to be strategic about it and look for the card that aligns with your goals. For example, if you are saving up points for an international first class trip, the Southwest Chase card is not for you (since Southwest does not fly internationally). But if you want the Companion Pass, it’s a great card! If most of your travel is in the car, you want a card that gives bonus points for gas. If you have lots of airline points, you may want to diversify—look into a card tied to a hotel, or get a non-specific card like the Chase Sapphire.

Sign up bonuses. Bonuses are the best way to easily get lots of points very quickly. They almost always have corresponding spend requirements, so watch those carefully. (I didn’t realize there was a minimum spend for my first reward card, and so didn’t get the bonus. So it does happen!) However, even if a spend sounds like a lot ($2k or $3k in a few months), it can be attainable if you plan for it. We have transferred all of our spending to credit cards—bills, groceries, gas, etc., so that we can maximize the number of points we get. With the Southwest Chase cards we had to spend $4k in 3 months, which we easily did. Read more of this article »

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

Last week I talked about setting goals. Once you know what you’re trying to gain, it’s much easier to map out a points strategy. This week, before I start talking about credit cards, challenges, and other strategies, I want to cover a few things about loyalty programs. For those of you who have been around for a while, you probably know most of this stuff. But anyone who is brand new to accruing points should read ahead.

The first step to maximizing points is, well, to sign up for them! Loyalty programs are available for all aspects of travel. Each time you fly, stay in a hotel, or rent a car you should get compensated by points or miles. The best way to know which ones to sign up for are the ones you use. It’s pretty simple: look back over your travel and see if there is a pattern for which brands you use the most, then sign up for those programs.  (If you’re new to business travel, look at the programs you think you’ll use the most.)

If possible, stick to one or two programs. This way your points are concentrated in a few locations instead of spread out over a bunch of different places.  In my case I almost always use Southwest and American for airlines, Hilton and SPG for hotels, and Hertz and Budget for car rentals. Obviously sometimes you have no control over who you use, but do your best.

(If you don’t have any say over what hotel you stay in, I’ve heard good things about the Hotels.com loyalty program. Any readers have any experience with it?)

Keep in mind that hotel rewards programs encompass all of their brands, so for example Hilton, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Conrad, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, and Waldorf Astoria all fall under the Hilton Hhonors program. It took me two years of frequent travel to realize this, and made it way easier to find Hilton Hhonors hotels that were located where I needed them and priced within my company’s budget.

If you are just now signing up for rewards programs, don’t be sad about the points you’ve missed in your past! While I knew to sign up for American Airline’s Aadvantage program right away, I didn’t know to sign up for hotel programs until I had been traveling for months. There’s nothing you can do, so just vow to get the most points you can moving forward.

Next installment: credit cards!!

(Also, check out Mommy Points’ Guide for Beginners if you haven’t already. It’s a very helpful overview!)

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Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

One of the perks of frequent business travel is accruing miles that you can use for fun trips. After all, what’s the point of being on the road all the time if you don’t get anything out of it? And of course, the more free trips the better! The problem is that traditional mileage runs and other points accruing techniques can take a lot of effort, add stress, or mean more time away from home. This series will focus on the easiest way for business travelers to get the largest amount of points and miles with the least amount of aggravation. I’ll cover a range of topics, including loyalty programs, credit cards, challenges, and other strategies.

But before starting to chase miles, you really have to figure out—what are your goals? Do you want status? Upgrades? Free vacations? Lounge access? For your family to go on trips with you? Your goals will really set the parameters for your overall strategy. In my case, I want my family to be able to come on some trips with me and free vacations most of all, then status and upgrades. This made the first step easy: the Southwest Companion Pass. This allows my husband and baby to fly with me for free on business trips where it makes sense, plus gives us a lot of options for low cost vacations. After taking advantage of the Chase Southwest credit card bonuses, flying a bit, and some strategic shopping, I have the Companion Pass until the end of 2014. Hooray! Now to figure out a strategy for the status goals…..

On that note, I will be co-hosting a Twitter chat this afternoon focused on accruing points and miles. It’s sponsored by TripIt (an awesome app!) and the other hosts are super cool: @earthXplorer, @LandLopers, and @ThePointsGuy. This is your chance to ask your points-related questions! Not only that, but we will be giving away TripIt prize packages to two lucky people that include a one-year subscription to TripIt Pro and a bunch of other goodies.

How to win? Make sure you are following me @RoadWarriorette and @TripIt, along with the other hosts. Then join us today, Thursday January 31 at 5pm EST/2pm PST and follow the hashtag #TripItChat and join in the conversation! Active participants who use the hashtag are eligible to win the prize pack. I’m honored to be in a group with these guys! Should be lots of fun.

Readers, what are your points and miles goals?

There is a bonus deal going on right now for Hilton HHonors points, the 1,000 Reason Promotion. Earn 1k extra points for every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday night you stay at a Hilton through Dec. 31. I don’t usually travel on the weekends, but I can definitely get some good use out of this for Thursday and Monday nights. Hooray extra points! Click here to sign up.

Now that I’m about to go back to work (and start traveling again) my mind has returned to maximizing my points and miles. Since I haven’t been able to travel for the last several months I have lots of ground to make up!

The first step for us is a new credit card. We have had the Citi Aadvantage card for six years. Overall we’ve been pretty happy with it, but due to American Airline’s continuing issues we think it’s a good idea to change to a non AA focused card. We’re considering three cards right now, and I am very interested in your input.

Amex Platinum. The benefits? Numerous. Access to lounges, $200 credit for incidental airline fees, membership in global entry, and 25,000 in points with $2000 spend in the first two months (among others). The cons are the hefty annual fee of $450, they’re not accepted everywhere, and the fact that you have to pay your bill in full every month. (We pay our bill in full every month, but it’s nice to know that you don’t have to if something crazy happens.)

Chase Sapphire Preferred. The benefits for this card are the double points on travel and dining, 40,000 points with a $3,000 spend in the first three months, it’s a Visa so it’s accepted virtually everywhere, and there is no annual fee the first year. The cons are the $95 annual fee after the first year (right now we pay $75), the high interest rate, and, well, it’s not the Amex Platinum so there’s no lounge access.

Chase Southwest Premier. This is the only airline-specific card we are considering. The benefits are the 25,000 points with $1,000 spend in the first three months, tier qualifying points, an anniversary bonus, and it’s a Visa so it’s accepted everywhere. The cons are the high APR (15.24% right now) and the $99 annual fee.

So, Readers, which card do you think is best? Do you think we should keep our Citi Aadvantage card around? Or are there other cards we should consider?

And speaking of travel rewards, don’t forget to enter our current contest! You could win two free nights from Country Inns & Suites!

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One year ago….

• TSA crossed the line….again.
• I fell in love with navy and discovered the awesoness of gel soles.
• On my journey to more miles, one strategy worked (a miles credit card) and one backfired (trying for a travel voucher).
• Movie streaming apps on my phone changed my life. No joke.
• The Top Five Travel Necessities: Things I Wear is still very true, and something I consult for packing all the time.

Two years ago…..

• I answered readers’ question about traveling to rainy destinations and plus-size travel outfits.
• The TSA announced some updates to its liquids carry-on rules.
• I got super excited about flats, boots, and travel wallets.
• Andi Fisher from Misadventures with Andi wrote a great post about healthy eating on the road.
• Readers voted, and decided the correct term is “rollaboard” instead of “rollerboard”.

Three years ago…..

• The Home Warrior and I had a fantastic trip to Napa.
• I wrote about the importance of sleep on the road.

Today’s guest post is from a fellow Boarding Area blogger, Mommy Points. She writes about the quickest, easiest ways to maximize points—leading to fantastic vacations for her family without spending a dime. Thanks so much for the post!!

With Road Warriorette temporarily somewhat home-bound with her infant, I happily agreed to do a guest post so she could spend some extra time with her brand new family member.  I very clearly remember how busy those days with a newborn can be!  I do a fair amount of traveling myself, but my time away from home pales in comparison to my husband, who is a true Road Warrior.  Recently, he has been away from home at least part of the week every single week for months.  We have a two-year-old child, and I can tell you from first-hand experience how hard it is having a family separated frequently due to work obligations.

While clearly the main purpose of his business trips is because his work requires it, and having gainful employment is a necessity, what makes the trips much more tolerable for us are the miles and points he earns on the road.  Call it a consolation prize to sleeping alone, doing the bedtime routine alone, packing lunches alone, doing dishes alone, teaching a two year old how to effectively communicate with Daddy on the iPhone, etc.  When it became clear that his work travels weren’t slowing down anytime soon, we sat down and strategized how to maximize his time away so that we can reap some free vacation benefits of our own down the road by using the elite status and points he earned while away.

Here are some steps we went through when deciding how to maximize his mandatory travel for our own vacations:

• Look at the number of nights you are likely to have in hotels in a given year, and then go after hotel elite status accordingly.  For example, my husband will have well over 50 nights in a hotel for work in 2012, so we decided it made sense for him to obtain top tier status in both Hyatt and Starwood.  It is usually easier to qualify on stays vs nights, so he did 25 one-night stays at Hyatt hotels to re-qualify for Hyatt Diamond status by late April.  He is now almost done qualifying for Starwood Platinum status via a “Platinum Challenge”.  By doing this we will have our choice elite status with two hotel chains when we travel as a family.  Suite upgrades, free breakfasts, food and beverage amenities, free internet, etc. are now all ours free on family vacations as a direct result of his mandatory business travel.  The same principles hold true for airline status, as having elite status with an airline can result in first class upgrades and a more seamless travel experience when you vacation with your family.
• Pay attention to hotel promotions.  Virtually all of the major hotel chains run points promotions off and on throughout the year.  Assuming you have some flexibility in selecting your hotel chain while traveling, give some thought to who has the best points promotion going on at any given time.  Again to use my husband as an example, we knew he was going to have a cluster of Starwood Preferred Guest stays at some point in the year.  When SPG announced their “Better by the Night” promotion that allowed you to earn triple SPG points by having 15 nights or more in a three-month period, it made perfect sense to time his SPG stays within that three month period.  By doing so he is earning triple the number of SPG points than he would have by ignoring the available promotions.  Earlier this year when Club Carlson was offering up to 50,000 points for staying just one night at one of their hotels, we were sure to switch his business stays to Club Carlson hotels until he maxed out that promotion.  Those points were then used to stay at a hotel in London during the Olympics we would never have been able to afford otherwise.  We earn tens of thousands (or perhaps hundreds of thousands) of additional hotel points per year just by being strategic about promotions.  Along those same lines, register for every hotel promotion that may possibly be relevant for you, as you never know where your business travels may take you.
• Register your business cards for dining rewards programs.  Of course, don’t register your corporate cards for anything your boss would disapprove of, but there are many hotels and airlines that participate with the iDine Rewards program.  There is no charge for this program, and you can earn miles for meals on the road that you were going to eat anyway.  Like most road warriors, my husband eats out virtually every meal while away from home.  Some of the meals happen to be at restaurants where he earns miles for every dollar he spends.  He now has “VIP” status with the MileagePlus Dining program, so he earns 5 United Miles per dollar on those meals.  Since some of his meals involve paying for clients and coworkers, the number of points he can earn from this really add up quickly!  Once you register, it requires no additional work, so it is an easy way to earn some extra miles.

There are many more ways to squeeze the maximum points value from business trips, but those are a few of the strategies that have worked well for us.  Enjoying quality family time together in comfortable hotel suites, or on flights paid for with miles, really does take a bit of the sting out of having a husband who is gone so much during the week for work.  It isn’t as good as actually having him home to read stories at bedtime to my daughter, but it certainly helps!