If your first question is, “What’s a Bing Reward?” you’re probably not alone. Bing, the Microsoft search engine that I have photography competitions with, has always offered a rewards program. The more times you search on Bing, the more credits you get. You have to do quite a few searches before you get any meaningful amount of points, and even once you do, you can’t redeem for much. The most valuable things there are $5 Amazon and $5 Starbucks gift cards.
I just got an e-mail today from Microsoft, saying that you can now convert Bing Rewards into frequent flyer miles. COOL! While I don’t expect anyone to be able to earn too many points this way, this is a great way to keep accounts from expiring.
Frontier, American Airline, US Airways, Hawaiian, Avianca LifeMiles, Virgin America, and Icelandiar are the partners. Some of those programs are pretty popular, and while you won’t be able to really rake in that many miles at all, you’ll be able to keep miles from expiring by maintaining some account activity.
I decided to test the process out with two accounts. I gave it a shot with Hawaiian Airlines.
Unless you’re a Bing Gold member, it is 400 points to get 100 airline miles. If you’re a gold member, it’s 385.
I figured the process would work like transferring American Express or Chase Sapphire points, but it actually orders a certificate for you that gets e-mailed to your account. It said to allow 24 hours for the certificate to arrive, but it came in less than 5 minutes.
The e-mail has some codes with instructions to go to pointsselect.com to make the redemption.
The site is pretty straightforward. You just put in your certificate code and tell it which program you would like your 100 miles in. It’s quick and easy.
I logged out of my Hawaiian account, and I logged back in.
Boom. The 100 miles were there. Easy. I think Bing is a pretty good search engine, close to as good as Google. Getting frequent flier miles, as miniscule in amount as they may be, is another motivator to ues Bing instead of Google. This is great to keep points from expiring, as it looks like they transfer instantly. Enjoy! Follow me on twitter for technology and travel related ramblings.
