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Just because you’re stuck at home and can’t travel, that doesn’t mean you have to stop earning points and miles to use on future trips. Here are nine ways you can do so, all from the comfort of your couch. No traveling (or pants) required.

points and miles during quarantine
Earning points and miles while in quarantine is simple. Photo by Polina Zimmerman from Pexels

Earning Points and Miles During Quarantine

For some travelers, earning points and miles is necessary to keep their accounts active. Perhaps you want to take advantage of some of the best 100,000 points bonus credit card offers with the intention of earning the points/miles now so you can use them in the future. Regardless of your reasons, here are a few ways you can earn points and miles while in quarantine.

1. Pull out that travel-branded credit card.

If you’re not already, make sure you’re using that travel-branded credit card for all of your quarantine online shopping. Toilet paper? That’s at least a mile per $1 spent. Take out for dinner? Some cards will offer you double or even triple points or free delivery perks. Whatever you’re buying during quarantine, make sure you’re getting some points or miles for it.

Related: Best Credit Cards To Use For Amazon Purchases

2. Sign up for your loyalty program’s dining program.

Most airline loyalty programs have a dining program as well, which allows you to earn more miles or points every time you dine out (including ordering take out and delivery like these credit cards for eating at home). Keep in mind that you do have to sign up for the dining program separately, usually by setting up a credit card that will be linked to the program. Then when you make a purchase at the participating restaurant with your linked card, you’ll earn rewards.

Some of the best dining rewards programs allow you to earn sometimes up to quadruple miles on a dining purchase, so they’re well worth the time and effort it takes to sign up. You can find dining programs for all the major airlines, including Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

3. Make a donation.

But earning points or miles doesn’t need to be all about you. You can actually earn some bonus points and miles by making a donation to a COVID-19-related cause.

Many other loyalty programs give you points or miles when you make a charitable donation, so see what your preferred program offers.

Related: How You Can Help During the Coronavirus Pandemic

4. Take advantage of your loyalty program’s shopping portal.

If you’re going to be doing some online shopping during quarantine anyway, you might as well really maximize the number of miles or points you can get from it. If you’re normally not one to go through your loyalty program’s shopping portal, because it’s an extra step in the process, now’s the time to start making good use of that shopping portal.

Related: Best Rewards Portals

5. Take a look at your eligible bills.

Speaking of extra time, you might want to use some of that time to look into which bills you can pay with a credit card. You may be able to earn some extra miles or points that way, and relatively easily. You’ll just want to make sure, of course, that you pay off your travel credit card at the end of each month and that you don’t accrue a balance and the interest fees that come with it.

Related: Pay Bills With A Credit Card

6. Research available signup bonuses.

Similarly, you can start researching the available credit card bonus offers that are out there. They could result in some big points or miles accrual over the next several months. Signup or welcome bonuses are usually eligible for up to three months of spending (though some exceptions are being made due to COVID-19), so you’ll have time to reach your spending requirements. 

7. Research available conversion bonuses.

Likewise, if you’ve always wondered if you could get more value for your miles or points by converting them to another loyalty program, now’s the time to look into it. 

8. Purchase points or miles for later use.

If you know you’ll want to redeem points for later travel, see if one of your favorite loyalty programs is currently offering bonus points for points purchases made during the quarantine. For example, World of Hyatt is offering its members 30 percent more bonus points when they purchase at least 5,000 points through May 10, 2020. Plenty of other airline and hotel loyalty programs (American Airlines AAdvantage, Etihad Guest, KLM Flying Blue, and Hilton Honors are just a few) are offering similar deals. It’s a way for them to bring in some cash while travel is halted. 

Related: How To Earn Hyatt Status With Credit Card Spending

9. Gift points or miles for later use.

Likewise, many of the same programs are offering similar bonuses when you gift those points or miles to another individual. You may not know what your future travel plans hold. But if you know someone who will need them at a later date and whose income might be currently impacted by the coronavirus, you could consider gifting some points or miles to them and then reaping the bonus points or miles that follow. 

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