Earn Miles For Donating to Help Hurricane Harvey Recovery
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Hurricane Harvey, now downgraded to a tropical storm, continues to devastate the Eastern part of Texas. While the top sustained winds have dropped to 45 mph, the storm continues to dump enormous amounts of rain on top of already flooded areas. Many areas have already hit record flood levels:
An additional 20 inches of rain is still expected to fall across some parts of the already flooded area:
The rising waters and continued rain have shut down four airports in the area, including Houston's Hobby (HOU) airport through Wednesday morning:
People battling the rising waters could certainly use a hand, and you can send money to help fund organizations providing shelter, food and drink, and even flying rescuers into the area to assist.
Thankfully, airlines are stepping up. Here are the airlines currently offering miles for donations:
American Airlines
AA is offering 10 AAdvantage miles for every $1 donated to the American Red Cross from August 24 through September 24. Minimum donation of $25 applies. All major credit cards and PayPal are accepted. Terms state that "mileage will appear on mileage statements within 30 days of donations being made."
United is offering a tiered mileage bonus for those donating to Airlink:
- Donate $50-$99 – Earn 250 bonus miles (up to 5x miles per $1 for $50 donation)
- Donate $100-$249 – Earn 500 bonus miles (up to 5x miles per $1 for $100 donation)
- Donate $250 or more – Earn 1,000 bonus miles (up to 4x miles per $1 for $250 donation)
Although it's unclear on the donations page, the same offer is also available for donations to: Operation USA, Americares or the American Red Cross. You'll see these offers in the terms and conditions on the donation details page instead of the initial landing page.
For those not working on meeting a minimum spend on a credit card, use the best non-bonus category credit card for your situation. Based on TPG’s valuations, the Blue Business®️ Plus Credit Card from American Express’s 2x Membership Rewards on the first $50,000 per year; then 1x thereafter or Chase Freedom Unlimited’s 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points would be the two most rewarding choices.
We will continue to update this page as we see other donation offers. Please share below if you've found another program.