How to use Alaska Mileage Plan Dining to earn bonus miles at participating restaurants
Dining rewards program is one of the easiest ways to earn miles, and a popular program is Alaska Mileage Plan Dining. You can Earn Alaska miles when you dine with your affiliated card at participating restaurants.
All you have to do is join and register at least one debit or credit card to see how many miles you earn when you dine at participating restaurants. You’ll even qualify for bonus miles on your first purchase and increase your earning rate when you dine out often. Here’s everything you need to know about the Alaska Plan Dining program.
Related: Best dining credit cards
How to join the Alaska Mileage Plan dining program
It’s easy to join Mileage Plan Dining. To register, you’ll need to provide your name, ZIP code, email address, and Mileage Plan number.
Although promotional emails are often annoying, we recommend that you agree to receive email communications. Doing so means you’ll earn 3 miles per $1 spent instead of the standard 1 mile per $2 spent.
Related: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: How to Earn and Redeem Miles
How to earn miles with Alaska’s dining program
Earning miles with Alaska’s dining program is as simple as registerRegister a credit or debit card to your account and pay for meals at participating restaurants with the registered card.
Once you enroll your card in a dining rewards program, the program will track your purchases with that card at participating restaurants. So if you enroll multiple cards in Alaska Mileage Plan Dining, you’ll earn Alaska miles when you make qualifying purchases with any of your registered cards. You can search for participating restaurants by name, cuisine type or location.
After dining at a Mileage Plan Dining restaurant and paying with your linked card, you will typically receive an email notification from Mileage Plan Dining. This email lets you know your purchase earned miles and includes an invitation to submit a review.
Daily newsletter
Gift your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers to get breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive offers from TPG experts
Related: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping Portal: Earn miles on your online purchases
Meal Class in Mileage Plan
Alaska Mileage Plan Dining has three membership tiers, earning from 0.5 to 5 Alaska miles per dollar spent:
- Basic member: 1 mile for every $2 spent
- Select member: 3 miles per $1 spent
- VIP member: 5 miles per $1 spent
As mentioned, you can upgrade from a Basic membership to a Select membership by opting in to receive email notifications. You can do this during registration or at any time. As a Select member, you’ll not only earn more Alaska miles, but you’ll also have the opportunity to earn bonus miles and receive advance notification of promotions.
Becoming a VIP member requires opting in to receive email notifications and completing 11 qualifying meals in a calendar year. At your 12th meal, you’ll start earning 5 miles per dollar spent and qualify for bonus opportunities through the end of the next calendar year.
It’s also important to note that you can participate in all airline and hotel dining rewards programs. However, they are all part of the same network, so you Cannot register the same card with more than one program.
Mileage Plan first meal and reservation rewards
New members can earn up to 500 bonus miles after spending $30 at any participating restaurant and submitting an online review within 30 days of joining Mileage Plan Dining.
You can also take advantage of the program’s booking rewards by making dining reservations through Mileage Plan Dining. Not all participating restaurants offer reservations, but for those that do, you can earn an additional 50 miles every time you book, dine, and pay with the linked card.
Note that this bonus is limited to one completed booking per day, with a maximum of eight completed bookings per calendar month.
Related: Can you earn rewards with a dining rewards program and a credit card at the same time?
Are Alaska Mileage Plan meals worth it?
While Alaska miles can be difficult to earn compared to other loyalty programs, we Alaska miles value at 1.6 cents each – one of the highest frequent flyer program valuations. So signing up for Alaska’s dining rewards program is worth it if you like it redeem Alaska miles. If not, another meal rewards program may serve you better.
Remember, points and miles from dining rewards programs like Mileage Plan Dining will work alongside the rewards you’ll earn from your credit card.
Related: Maximize redemptions with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Best credit cards for dining
To maximize your earnings when you dine out, we recommend linking your Mileage Program Dining account to a card to earn rewards points when you dine. Some great credit cards to use at restaurants include:
Information about the Hilton Aspire Amex Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Stacking Expert: How I Earned $80 in Cash and Rewards from 1 Dinner
Bottom line
Alaska Airlines’ dining rewards program is a great way to earn Alaska miles. With Alaska Mileage Plan Dining, you can earn up to 5 miles per dollar spent at participating restaurants. Remember to pay the restaurant directly, because ordering through delivery services like DoorDash will not be counted towards Mileage Plan Meals.