Taking a few surveys could rack up some air miles

FRIDAY, JULY 15: If I told you that you could earn a free $700 plane ticket by spending one hour a day for seven days filling out surveys online, would you do it?

Most of you would because that works out to $100 an hour for your time.

Last week I earned 5,000 frequent flyer miles sitting on my butt on my couch in front of the TV.

It took me about an hour and didn’t cost me anything other than my time.

The only downside was they all weren’t on the same airline, but I’ll take free miles whenever I can get them and let them add up to that free ticket.

My wife and I have already used free miles to travel to Miami this year and will have enough miles to take at least one free trip next year, if not two.

Here are some deals you could use to start earning your free trip:

Continental

The airline is offering 1,000 OnePass miles when you sign up for their e-mails. You should always subscribe to the airlines newsletter anyway. The short link is http://bit.ly/pRf9jb.

Continental is also offering 100 miles for signing up for its auction programme. You don’t have to buy anything, so it is another free giveaway. The short link is http://bit.ly/nr9Z5b.

Air Canada

If you have a Canadian residence, summer home, still use your parents address there, you can get 100 miles at homehardware.com and sign up for their newsletter. (short link http://bit.ly/rlJnp1). You can unsubscribe from the newsletter after you get your miles.

Air Canada and Fairmont just ended a promotion for 500 free miles by signing up for the President’s Club newsletter.

Delta 

You can get 1,000 miles on Delta when you download its app and use it between now and September 7. Obviously, you’ll need to do this on your mobile device as it will allow you to get your eBoarding Pass, thus bypassing the printer. It allows you to store your boarding pass right on your phone and you don’t need an Internet connection to use it. The long link is http://dmn.delta.com/ace_offers/summermobile/ and the short link is http://bit.ly/mRuNTw.

I’m flying on Delta later this month so I’ll pick up 1,000 free miles when I check-in using the app.

You can also get 500 free miles for getting an insurance quote from Liberty Mutual. You’ll need a US address, but if you have a time share, US Shipping box number, parents’ home address, those all will work.

The short link is http://bit.ly/p7P8l0.

American

If you have that US address, you’ll also be able to get another 500 frequent flyer miles from Liberty Mutual for American Airlines. Just put in the same info you did for Delta with that quote.

You’ll also need a US address for this one and it will cost you $8, but if you sign up for Netflix, you’ll get 2,500 miles. It’s way below the standard price when buying miles, so it’s a good deal. You can cancel after the first month so you won’t have to run up any other charges.

The short link is http://bit.ly/qzo8BJ.

United

The Netflix offer is also available with United but for only 2,000 miles.

The short link is http://bit.ly/plfRQT.

US Airways

They are currently offering a 50 per cent of miles bonus when you transfer them to a friend. So let’s say you transfer 35,000 miles to your partner and they do the same to do you. You’ll both end up with 52,500 miles.

(35,000 is the magical figure that gets you a free ticket to continental North America and the Caribbean on most US airlines).

The caveat is it will cost you $10 for every 1,000 miles. The transfer will end up costing each of you $350.

Is that a good deal?

If you’re using your miles to fly to the east coast of North America, round trip tickets would have cost you approximately $350 or less so you’ve spent that much on the transfer and you’ve lost half your air miles (35,000 for the free ticket, but you’ve got the bonus 17,500 from the transfer.

So the answer is no.

If you use it to fly out to the west coast, you could end up getting the better end of the deal, depending on what your ticket cost. If the ticket is more than $700, then you’re ahead of the game.

The bonus deal ends on July 31.

The short link is http://bit.ly/p0E3JY.

Not every deal is a good one, but if the airlines are going to offer you free miles from time to time, you might as well take them. They will eventually add up to a free trip.