Use Alaska Mileage Plan Dining to earn bonus miles at participating restaurants

Editor's note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.

Dining rewards programs are among the easiest ways to earn miles, and one popular program is Alaska Mileage Plan Dining. You can earn Alaska miles when you dine with a linked card at participating restaurants.

All you have to do is join and register at least one debit or credit card to watch the miles stack up as you dine at participating restaurants. You'll even qualify for bonus miles on your first purchase and increase your earning rate when you dine out frequently. Here's everything you need to know about the Alaska Mileage Plan Dining program.

Related: Best dining credit cards

How to join Alaska Mileage Plan Dining

It's easy to join Mileage Plan Dining. To sign up, you'll need to provide your name, ZIP code, email address and Mileage Plan number.

While promotional emails are often pesky, we recommend agreeing to email communications. Doing so means you'll earn 3 miles for every $1 spent instead of the standard 1 mile for every $2 spent.

Related: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: How to earn and redeem miles

How to earn miles with Alaska's dining program

Earning miles with Alaska's dining program is as simple as signing up, registering a credit or debit card to your account and paying for meals at participating restaurants with an enrolled card.

Once you enroll a card in a dining rewards program, the program tracks your purchases with that card at participating restaurants. So, if you enroll multiple cards in Alaska Mileage Plan Dining, you'll earn Alaska miles when you make a qualifying purchase using any of your enrolled cards. You can search for participating restaurants by name, cuisine type or location.

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After you dine at a Mileage Plan Dining restaurant and pay with a linked card, you'll usually get an email notification from Mileage Plan Dining. This email lets you know your purchase has earned miles and includes an invitation to submit a review.

Related: Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping portal: Earn miles on your online purchases

Mileage Plan Dining tiers

Alaska Mileage Plan Dining has three membership tiers, earning between 0.5 and 5 Alaska miles per dollar spent:

• Basic member: 1 mile per $2 spent
• Select member: 3 miles per $1 spent
• VIP member: 5 miles per $1 spent

As mentioned, you can upgrade from the Basic membership to the Select membership by opting in to email notifications. You can do this during the sign-up process or at any other time. As a Select member, you'll not only earn more Alaska miles but also receive opportunities to earn bonus miles and get advance notice of promotions.

Becoming a VIP member requires opting in to receive email notifications and completing 11 qualified dines in a calendar year. On your 12th dine, you'll begin earning 5 miles per dollar spent and qualify for bonus opportunities until the end of the next calendar year.

It's also worth noting that you can join every airline- and hotel-affiliated dining reward program. However, they're all part of the same network, so you cannot register the same card with more than one program.

Mileage Plan first-dine and reservation bonuses

New members can earn up to 500 bonus miles after spending $30 at any participating restaurant and submitting an online review within 30 days of joining Mileage Plan Dining.

You can also take advantage of the program's reservation bonus by booking a dining reservation through Mileage Plan Dining. Not all participating restaurants offer reservations, but for those that do, you can earn an extra 50 miles every time you make a reservation, dine and pay with a linked card.

Note that this bonus is limited to one completed reservation per day, with a maximum of eight completed reservations per calendar month.

Related: Can you earn rewards with a dining rewards program and a credit card at the same time?

Is Alaska Mileage Plan dining worth it?

Although Alaska miles can be hard to earn compared to other loyalty programs, we value Alaska miles at 1.6 cents each — one of the highest frequent flyer program valuations. So, signing up for Alaska's dining rewards program is worth it if you like redeeming Alaska miles. Otherwise, another dining rewards program might serve you better.

Remember, points and miles from dining rewards programs like Mileage Plan Dining come in addition to the rewards you'll earn from your credit card.

Related: Maximizing redemptions with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

The best credit cards for dining

To maximize your earnings when you dine out, we recommend linking your Mileage Plan Dining account to a card that earns bonus points on dining. Some great credit cards to use at restaurants include:

• American Express® Gold Card: Earn 4 points per dollar spent at restaurants worldwide (on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1 point per dollar).
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) and Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees): Earn 3 points per dollar spent on dining, including restaurants, takeout and eligible delivery services.
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Earn 7 points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants.
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: Earn 6 points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery.

Related: Expert stacking: How I earned $80 in cash back and rewards from 1 dinner

Bottom line

Alaska Airlines' dining rewards program is a great way to earn Alaska miles. With Alaska Mileage Plan Dining, you can earn up to 5 miles per dollar spent at participating restaurants. Remember to pay the restaurant directly, as ordering through a delivery service like DoorDash won't count toward Mileage Plan Dining.