Earn Frequent Flyer Miles For Your Online Purchases

(With sincere apologies for posting this the day after Cyber Monday)

It's a simple proposition: login to your frequent flyer account before buying things online and earn miles for the dollars you spend. Almost every airline offers this, but few people seem to know about it.

The process is typically as follows: (1) login to your frequent flyer account; (2) find the list of online retailers that the airline partners with; (3) click the link to your online retailer of choice; (4) buy something (pay attention to terms and conditions including lag times between purchase and miles being credited, and note that you must link to the retailer through your frequent flyer account to earn points). There is no added cost to you, and you earn miles for something you would do anyway. There's no reason not to do it.

So do yourself a favor this holiday season and earn miles for all those gifts you're buying online. Then when she's thanking you for the Fendi Peekaboo Tote ($2,550) or Better Sex Through Yoga instructional guide ($13.43), you can say: "Anything for you babe. Oh, by the way. The guys are talking about going to New Orleans for New Year's and I think I have enough miles to get there for free soooooo... happy new year in advance!"

Here are examples (not comprehensive lists) of what a few airlines award per dollar spent with some of their retail partners:

American Airlines: The Apple Store (1 mile), Barnes & Noble (6 miles), Barneys New York (3 miles), Bloomingdale's (3 miles), GNC (8 miles), iTunes (3 miles), J. Crew (3 miles), Kiehl's (4 miles), Neiman Marcus (2 miles), Nike (5 miles), Nordstrom (6 miles), REI (3 miles), Saks Fifth Avenue (6 miles), Stub Hub (2 miles), West Elm (2 miles), Zappos (3 miles).

US Airways: Barneys New York (2 miles), Dick's Sporting Goods (1 mile), iTunes (2 miles), Nike (3 miles), Nordstrom (2 miles), Ralph Lauren (2 miles), Saks Fifth Avenue (1 mile), Thomas Pink (2 miles), Topman (3 miles), Urban Outfitters (2 miles).

Virgin Atlantic: Adidas (5 miles), Borders (3 miles), CB2 (3 miles), Design Within Reach (2 miles), Endless.com (6 miles), Lab Series (4 miles), Macy's (3 miles), Martin + Osa (2 miles), NBA Store (5 miles), Nordstrom (5 miles), Rosetta Stone (7 miles), Saks Fifth Avenue (2 miles), Soccer.com (5 miles), Target (4 miles), Teleflora (5 miles).