Are there additional programs to earn bonus miles on every day spending aside from the rewards network (I.E. idine, Delta dining rewards, etc.)?

Well, first of all, there are credit cards that earn bonus miles / points on certain categories, like gas/grocery/drug. I use different credit cards depending on what kind of store I'm in to maximize this.

There's also this:

http://thanksagain.com/

but in my area and for what I do I haven't found it useful, but take a look and see if it helps you.

Thanks for the link. I checked it out and it seems, around me, they only give you credit to restaurants.com gift certs. I was looking more for a program that gives you additional miles when you link it with your credit cards. So far, I linked AA, Delta, and United that seem to give you additional miles when you also link to a credit card. Also signed up for the Rewards Network. So, that is what I am basically looking for. Not sure if there is anything else though.

It might depend on where you live. Safeway grocery stores use to award 100 miles for every $250 spent (or something like that) which was great because it was the grocery store closest to me but they ended that program over 3 years ago. The Washington Post has a points program for subscribers and you can redeem the points for Delta miles or Marriott certificates but the redemption levels are very high.

If you have a Chase ultimate rewards card, useful going through their portal for collecting miles for online purchases. As for simply everyday swiping, best picking the card that matches your normal spending.

Amex SPG isn't just a hotel card. $1 = 1 point transferable to 350 airlines w/ no blackout dates. Plus, you get 5,000 bonus miles when transferring 20,000.

You have to understand how these programs work. Let me cover Rewards Network. They hire people to go out to the indiividual merchants, and pitch loans. Yes, loans! Two of thre three Rewards Networks restaurant models are loans paid back by a cut (a big cut) of the credit card swipes of the cashback or miles collectors. The third model is a discount, but at least the last time we heard much about this, it was the minority of restaurants in Rewards Network that were signed up for this version. (Though perhaps the majority of the ones that have stayed in for years?)

Then they have to register the credit card payment terminal. This is somehow key to registering you swipe.

So, as you can see, it's far from simple. And that's why it doesn't extend so easily to other programs at other companies. It's not impossible, but it's trickier.

There are some airline shopping programs that have very recently (the last month?) started offering miles for in-store purchases, but it's at a very few store brands. Again, this is undoubtedly related to the problem of how exactly to intercept credit card swipes. (In the case of these brands, perhaps it's done at their central processing, as opposed to Rewards Network doing it at the individual restaurant, even if it is part of a chain?)

I just earned 3408 pts this month through my AMEX SPG (converted card). Is this automatically transferred to SPG? Or, do I need to wait until I have 20k to transfer to SPG to reach the 5k bonus?

Or, does the 3408 automatically transfer to my SPG.com account and then I need to wait until 20k to transfer to Delta for the additional 5k in pts?

Confused on how the bonus pts. work. Please help me understand better.

The points you earned automatically go to your SPG account. You can transfer in different amounts depending on your status but you only get the 5K bonus when you transfer 20K.

Platinum - you can transfer any amount
Gold - minimum 1500 points
Preferred - minimum 2500 points

Yep, oneeyejack got it! The starpoints will post directly into your SPG account from your spend on the Amex SPG. If you want to transfer your Starpoints to DL, you'll get 1 DL skymile per Amex SPG. Unless you transfer 20k (or 40k, 60k) over. Then, you will get a 5k (10k, 15k) bonus.

With that said, why DL? Are you finding a redemption that works really well on DL but not so well on other airlines? I think that more often than not, your starpoints are better sent to AA than to DL, since the transfer ratio is the same, and AA miles will generally get you farther

Not too familiar with AA. I know with DL, should I not want to buy a flight, I can redeem for other services or items through the DL marketplace. That is why I thought this may be a good idea.

Anything you've found on the DL marketplace that provide you with a good value for your mileage?

Where are you based, and where do you like to go? Maybe if you live in ATL, I could understand how come you prefer DL

Based in NYC. I am custom to DL and JB, never used AA, so do not know. Are AA miles worth more than DL and JB?

When you say JB, you are referring to Jetblue, right? That'd be B6

I'm not familiar with the True Blue program, so I can't comment about it. But AA miles are definitely a lot higher value than DL miles. It's almost impossible to get a domestic flight for 25k round on DL. Even 32.5k round will be a challenge. On AA, there should be a lot more MilesAAver availability to get you a domestic 25k round ticket.

If you try Asia for instance, good luck getting 70k round on DL. On AA, getting 70k round is significantly easier. Personally, I feel that of the 4 legacies, only UA lets you off more easily with getting a low tier award.

Hmm, b6. Interesting call sign. Learn something new each day. I belong to all programs, so I can transfer to any. Since being in NYC, I believe all come here. So AA has the best bang for the mile?