Get airline miles for dining via Rewards Network (nice sign-up bonuses!), and a TARGETED 500 mile SWA bonus (easy ~$7.50) for existing users!

A quick post today for those not familiar with Rewards Network dining programs. And a heads-up for existing users to be on the lookout for a nice/small targeted offer from SWA's dining program. Read on ...

This will be a fairly quick one. What caught my eye and drove me to post this is a targeted offer I just received via email (see below). As you will see, I can get a quick/easy 500 Southwest Airlines miles (typically worth roughly $7.50 when making a SWA reward booking) by dining out once this week. This was a targeted email offer, so check your email to see if you received it, if you're already signed up for the SWA Rapid Rewards dining program (run by Rewards Network).

I don't have too much time to describe the Rewards Network dining program(s) here right now. And, unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a very good detailed review anywhere (via a quick Google search). But my friend Shawn over at Miles to Memories did mention the program in THIS post a while back (a ways down the page/post). [Note: If anyone else knows of a good review of the program(s), please send me a link to post.]

In a nutshell, Rewards Network is the backbone for the "dining networks" used by many airlines and hotels (including, but not limited to, Alaska, SWA, AA, Delta, United, and Hilton). The way it works is that you sign up for the program and register a credit card. Then, when you dine at a participating restaurant, you earn miles (when you use that credit card) for dining. It's really simple, but requires some setup in advance of the dining. Unfortunately, not a lot of restaurants I frequent participate, but it's worth looking at the list of restaurants in your area. Maybe you already dine at a restaurant in the network and could be earning miles!

As Shawn at MtM points out, you can't have the same credit card registered with multiple programs. But you can sign up for multiple programs using different credit cards.

I'll stop there. If you want to read more, I suggest doing a search for "XYX Reward Network" - where XYZ is the name of the loyalty program(s) you care about. You can read more about the programs, and how they work exactly, on those websites.

KEY TIPS:  1) Each of the programs (all run by Rewards Network) offer different, but all decent, sign-up bonuses for your initial dine(s) through the program. Again, read about it on each of the program websites that you care about. 2) You probably want to focus on earning miles in the program(s) that you care most about. So maybe link the 1 or 2 credit cards you use most for dining out to the dining program(s) you care about the most. You might coincidentally find that you've dined at a restaurant in the network and earn some bonus miles from your favorite program.


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