Updated, April 2012
Launched on 11/1/06, e-Miles.com is owned by the same company as e-Rewards.com. The idea is that you can earn frequent flier miles for providing demographic info and then watching ads keyed to your profile.
In the 2006 press release announcing the program’s launch, e-Miles promised, “At no cost and in just four to five minutes spent each day engaging with e-Miles, a member can earn enough miles for a domestic roundtrip award ticket each year.”
I don’t think the earnings possibility is anywhere near that high. In 2012, their Facebook page they claimed that you can earn hundreds of miles per week. Perhaps, but not with “no cost” as they originally promised. I don’t respond to all of their email opportunities, granted, but I earned just 300 e-Miles last year from viewing ads only (not making purchases).
You have to have a minimum of 500 miles to request a transfer to your favorite frequent flier program — it’s not automatically transferred — and miles can only be deposited in 500 mile increments, once a quarter.
The program is open by invitation only to residents of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam or U.S. Virgin Islands, age 18+, with their own email address.
Currently, the participating frequent flier programs are those for Delta, US Airways, United, Air Tran, Hilton HHonors, Priority Club Rewards, Frontier Airlines, or Alaska Airlines, or you can select instead Amazon gift cards. Choose your preferred program carefully, because they will not allow you to change it unless you meet certain conditions (such as moving over 50 miles away, a significant change in service to your city by your frequent flier airline, etc.). You can quit and rejoin with another sponsor, but you’ll have to forfeit all miles earned in your original account.
If you’re hoping to earn free travel rewards online, I’d suggest you check out the paid surveys available on sites like QuickRewards.net (cash out to PayPal with no minimum required, as often as you’d like), MyPoints (receive gift cards including gas cards), and Memolink.
Or if you shop online and want to receive cash back on travel bookings (hotels, vacation packages, etc.) or cash back on other purchases that you can use toward travel, I’d suggest you join Extrabux.com (they had the highest overall shopping cash back rates in my comprehensive research study last year) or MrRebates (another favorite of mine).
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a good program.
As a member of e-miles.com, I take part in surveys to earn sky mile points. Surveys often give you an offer to gain large sums of points for making a purchase. I purchased a product through one of the surveys in order to gain 100 points and was told to wait 4-6 weeks for the purchase to process. After that time period was up, I was then told they couldn’t find my order and was told it would take more time. After an exchange of several emails and 4 months, I was told I would need to send them my frequent flyer number and registration confirmation and that it would take another 5-7 weeks to investigate. I supplied them with my frequent flyer number, but I was never told the registration conformation for the products site would be needed and has been deleted for many months. I was then told that they could not help me and that I would not be getting the points.
Anyone that runs such a web site can review the activity on their own web site. This information should not be difficult to locate on their end and quite honestly is their responsibility.
Unless you purchase products through the site, there is no way you could get enough points to make the site worthwhile. I’ve been a member since May and by the end of August I have only been able to accumulate 480 points. That includes the 300 points you get when you sign up. I typically get one offer worth about 5 points every week or two. As points are only transfered to your frequent flier account when you reach 500, I plan on leaving the program as soon as I get to 500. There is no way I’ll be able to collect another 500 points with so infrequent offers. Consider joining MyPoints if you like rewards. In the same time period I’ve earned about $70 worth of gift cards.
Whenever you purchase something for the bonus points it is a real hassle to get the bonus points. They never seem to have a record of your purchase and continue to ask for more time to investigate. Definitely not worth the time or effort unless you are absolutely desperate for the miles and your time is worth less than 25 cents an hour.
They don’t give you miles for signing up – as another poster said, all they do is delay and obfuscate.
So in return I give them random answers, just want to get 500 miles so I can transfer them and my miles won’t expire.
I just learned today that e-miles and e-rewards both belong to the same company.
Is it possible to add the 2 rewards in some way. ..? Otherwise the process gets so so long to be able to accrue 500 points… or $50.00, and then when you are close, to getting them…, they expire!!!
WHICH IS MY OTHER COMPLAINT: The complicated system used for making your points or miles expire. Months…,, quarters of years, what not…,They surely shouldn’t expire at all because every cent or mile you have won you have sweated it out, wearing yourself out, sometimes tired …, sitting in your chair till late at night…, answering questions for a prize… just to have it deleted later…!!!???! Please answer…!!!! THANKS
I just signed up for e-miles less than 24 hrs ago. So far I’ve seen the survey’s are really short. When I enrolled and completed the profile, I ended with 275 miles. Now I have 330. I agree that it is tedious to do so many to get to 500 but I remind myself of the reward.
I prefer e-rewards even though the surveys are lengthy. I find that I am able to rack up miles a lot faster with them. And the surveys aren’t all that bad.
Does anyone know if I can use my miles for one way on a round trip ticket with Continental? I don’t want to buy 2 separate tickets. Some insight would really be helpful…thanx! Good luck everyone earning your miles…just remember the reward
This program is a scam. When I purchased a product from an organization through this program I was never given the miles. I had to chase down a lot of people to get to someone who would take action. After giving me them miles I deposited them into my miles program with Delta Airlines. The miles were never acknowledged, deposited or shown in that account. No one is accountable in this program, they all blame the other guy. Such a fraudulent program.
On the other hand, both of us, my wife and I, have been in this program for years.
We haven’t bought anything through them so I can’t speak to that issue, however,
we have both redeemed 500 miles a number of times with no problem whatsoever.
At 5 points a pop does it take a little time to aquire 500 miles, yes, but it’s doable and costs nothing – what’s the gripe?
I beg to differ on your opinion. I have earned over 1100 emiles just this week alone through e-miles.com and not paid one penny for them. i am now only 1,500 miles away from a reward flight =)
I used e-miles for sometime and it was fine. However they must have sold the comp or have different people working there as my miles take forever to be credited to my account. Noone gets back to you to resolve issues and I have even donated alot of money to some of there offers and not received my miles > dont sign on to E- Miles
This program is seriously flawed. Points are frequently NOT awarded for completed activities and the is no closed loop to correct this.
Joined the e-miles program a couple years ago. After about 1.5 years I finally have enough for another deposit only to realize they no longer transfer to Delta, at least not the usual 500 mile denomination. Not only this, but apparently this “miles” earning site has partnered with hotel programs, and they don’t partner with either of my preferred hotel programs, Marriott and SPG. I did just enough to get my $10 amazon card (they said I should have the rest of my points sometime by 12/10, another rip-off) and as soon as I get that I’m out. What a waste.
I’ve used this website for over a year now. And I’ve received about 1000 Dividend Miles from US Airways. It’s not something that you can earn a lot of miles in a short amount of time, but I usually do this on my downtime at work. So I’m already on the computer and have some time to kill. Most of the offers I don’t accept, but one or two I have. Basically the free ones. I’ve also earned about 2500 miles from e-rewards. That seems to go a little faster. I already fly a lot, so these extra thousand miles here and there actually help me out with my award travel. When I need an extra 700 or 1200 miles, I just use these 2 sites and in a week or two, I’m all set. Again, this is something I do b/c I’m bored and in my free time. Not something that I expect to earn me quick money/miles.
The customer service people at e- miles are the worst ever. It takes weeks before they get back to you and when they do they send a generic link to all questions. They have no phone number. I participated in many offers and donated a lot of money to charities via their website I always had to send emails 2,3 4 times for one girl latisha to get back to me about my miles not being credited. i finally got to speak with a manager who hung up on me. Watch out my experience was terrible
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching
for E-Miles.com
I joined and did the surveys, then when I gained 500 points went to redeem them and my points disappear to zero and the website told me that I had completed all available offers. I e-mailed them (three times to date) and have received no satisfactory resolution of the issue.
What that means is that I spent that time for nothing.