Register Gift Cards With Airline Dining Programs!!!

It is well known that airline dining programs are a great way to earn extra miles.  At the risk of oversimplifying, you sign up for the program, then register (and thereby link) any credit cards you may be using to dine; then when you go to a participating restaurant and use a linked credit card, you get extra miles – often 2, 3, 4 or even 5 miles per dollar spent on the meal.

This may be small potatoes (pun intended) but did you know that credit card-branded gift cards can be registered and earn miles exactly the same way?  I received an email from Delta advising me of this, and I presume the policy is the same with the other airline dining programs. (update: same letters have been received from US Airways Dining Program and AAdvantage Dining Program).  Plus, if you received more than one point or mile from your purchase of the gift card, then your earning of miles from the card in a dining program will be even greater.

So, you know all those Visa and Mastercard gift cards you’ve been buying to meet your spend requirements? Yeah, the ones that you are trying to use a lot because you have a love-hate relationship with gift cards?  Well, go register them and then go out for dinner!

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