Le Chic Geek
The ad for this deal strongly suggested a 1,500 mileage bonus for dining out on Valentine’s Day, but it is actually good for any dine of $30 or more within the first 30 days at one of the restaurants on United’s list:
If you haven’t signed for dining programs, I suggest you do in the program of your choice. Â This particular company earns 3 United Miles per dollar spent in restaurants within the program.
What’s great about these offers is that they will stack with your credit card earnings and any bonuses that go with them.
For example, Chase Sapphire Preferred will give you 2 miles per dollar on restaurant purchases. Â Combined with this, you would get 2 Ultimate Reward points plus 3 United Miles per dollar.
Different programs usually have a VIP status after dining a certain amount of time. Â American’s is 5 points per dollar after 12 restaurant visits.
This can really add up.  The DiscoverIt card currently has a 5% cashback bonus on restaurants.  Last time this promo happened, I had VIP status on my airline’s dining program too.  I was about to get 5% cashback plus 5 miles per dollar.  If you value miles at a penny, that’s like earning 10 cents for every dollar spent.  Since I maximized that using work events, I basically just earned 10 cents per dollar 😀
One thing you should be careful of is signing up for programs you do not currently earn miles in and forgetting about it. Â You can remove a card from a promotion. Â I recently realized I still had a credit card I rarely use attached to Delta from when I was loyal to Northwest. Â I haven’t been earning enough to do anything with those miles, so that was a waste.
And if you enjoy dining in hotels, don’t forget to register for Starwood’s program and see if you can stack those savings!
The fine print says you have to use a “MileagePlus credit card”, would my Chase Sapphire Preferred work?
Also, I have my Chase Sapphire Preferred linked to the Rapid Reward dining program, can I unlink it and link it to the MileagePlus dining program?
That’s a good question. I’m looking at that fine print and it doesn’t quite make sense to me (usually those cards named are auto-enrolled in this type of promotion). I received this promo and don’t have a MileagePlus card.
I can totally be wrong, but it’s my instinct to say that’s a mistake. I haven’t seen it in this type of promotion before, so I’m confused.
You can unlink cards and relink them to new dining programs. If you try to just link them to a new one, it will instruct you to unlink it.