Perhaps your life has slowed down a bit and you are not jet setting as much as you used to. Maybe you have given up on your frequent flyer miles program thinking, "I'll never fly enough to earn a free flight." This is a mistake! There are plenty of ways to earn frequent flyer miles without actually flying on a plane.
Get a credit card that earns miles. There are a variety of credits cards on the market that accumulate frequent flyer miles, either for a specific airline or for any airline using a "points per dollar" grid. On credit cards that earn miles for a specific airline only, you earn one point per dollar spent on general merchandise and three points per dollar spent on that airline's tickets. On credit cards that earn points toward any airline, you generally only earn one point per dollar spent, but you have much wider redemption choices.
Shop through your preferred airline's website. Many airlines have teamed up with online merchants to offer frequent flyer miles for shopping at these merchants. If you are going to buy an Aunt a birthday present anyway, why not do it online with a preferred merchant using your frequent flyer number? Merchants offer anywhere from one to 25 points or more per dollar spent at their websites.
Rent a car using your airline frequent flyer number. Most major car rental companies will allow you to earn frequent flyer miles provided you give your number at the time of booking.
Enroll in hotel loyalty programs. Most major hotel chains have frequent guest programs, for which you can earn future nights in hotels or frequent flyer miles. The benefit of earning air miles instead of hotel points is that you can join multiple hotel plans but choose to earn frequent flyer miles toward only one airline.
Look for points programs online. Many websites offer frequent flyer miles in exchange for viewing advertising or responding to personally tailored marketing messages. An example of this is E-Miles (see resources below).
Be on the lookout for points specials offered by the airlines. Sometimes you can obtain points for refinancing a home, joining a movie rental club, subscribing to long distance service or eating out at certain restaurants.
Purchase extra miles. If you are only short a few hundred miles from getting that free plane ticket, most frequent flyer programs will allow you to purchase the needed miles for a nominal per mile cost. Your ticket isn't totally free, but the overall cost will be drastically reduced.
