It Pays to Check Your Inbox Closely

All too often our email inboxes get overrun with junk, and we quickly move through the miscellanea clicking the delete key as fast as the email loads.

This can be a big mistake when it comes to taking advantage of Miles and Points deals.

As with any business with which you’ve established a relationship, when your activity – attending, purchasing, etc. – wanes, promotions appear to re-engage you and hopefully develop a habit of use.

This occurs in the Miles and Points world, and can lead to a nice influx of points or miles at a fairly low cost.

Here are two offers I received in the last few weeks.

Unfortunately, these are targeted – most likely because I haven’t been renting cars through United’s program or using United’s MileagePlus dining program in quite a while – so it’ll be hit or miss as to whether you have these exact offers available to you.

Earn 5,250 United miles on my next car rental

This is a pretty easy way to add a sizable number of United miles to my account.

As you can see, I’ll get 750 miles per rental, 1,500 bonus miles every time I book a mid-size or larger car via United.com and an extra 3,000 bonus miles with every rental through September 9th!

A quick look at Hertz’s reservation system…via United.com…shows I can get a one-day, local rental for $30-$40 and grab 5,250 United miles in the process.

Not a bad price, but not great either.  I’d definitely jump on earning those miles if I find a cheaper one-day rental deal.  Or maybe even take advantage of it a few times before the September 9th deadline hits.

Earn 1,000 United miles for dining out at 3 participating restaurants

Again, another very easy way to add to my MileagePlus balance.

My wife and I frequent a few nearby restaurants that just happen to participate in the MileagePlus Dining program. Which makes it easy to grab this bonus.

The other nice thing about this promotion is there is really no minimum spend at the restaurants to trigger the bonus points.  So, theoretically, I could go into a participating restaurant, order a Coke to fulfill the $1 spend requirement, pay with my registered credit card and after three Cokes I’ve got 1,000 United miles.  Easy.

Now, I’ll actually get the bonus miles by purchasing meals, but I wouldn’t necessarily have to.

So there you have it, just because I haven’t actively used these two options for earning United miles recently, I’m given lucrative proddings to re-engage and, from the business’ perspective, hope I make a habit of using them going forward.

Will I?  Maybe.  Or, maybe not, and in another six months or so I’ll see similar miles earning offers popping up in my inbox to lure me back again.

And, you can bet I’ll be watching my inbox closely for those chances to add some easy points or miles.