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2016 Dining Dash Coming Up! Visit 12 Restaurants, Earn Miles for the Rest of the Year

If you aren’t tired from stuffing envelopes for hotel points, there’s an all-new travel hacking adventure coming up on Friday. You can join us from anywhere in the U.S. for this one.

Two years ago, I co-created the "Dining Dash." We went to 12 restaurants in a single day, all in pursuit of “running the table” on earning all the qualifying stops we’d need to earn extra Frequent Flyer miles when dining at many other restaurants for a whole year.

Last year we repeated the adventure together, and ended up in a bar (our 12th stop!) with a dozen other local friends and readers.

Well, a new year means it’s time to qualify yet again ... so the Dining Dash is coming back!

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Travel

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Bonus Miles from All 12 “Dining Dash” Visits Have Posted (AKA “Yes, It Works”)

Two weeks ago, the travel hacking crew and I went on our 2015 Dining Dash, an attempt to visit 12 restaurants in a day. As explained in the recap post, we did it!

And I just noticed that we really did it, because the miles posted up for all 12 of the stops. When I logged into my AA account this morning, I was greeted with this update:

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Travel

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Mission Accomplished! The Full Report from the 2015 Dining Dash

We did it! As mentioned, last week my travel hacking colleagues and I took on a mini-quest of going to 12 specific restaurants in Portland in a single day, all in pursuit of miles and points.

On Friday morning, we set out at the crack of dawn 8:30am with an ambitious goal: To visit 12 restaurants throughout the city. We wanted to achieve all 12 of our qualifying “dines” (any purchase at the participating restaurants, no minimum) to earn VIP status with Rewards Network in a single day.

IMG_0038_2 My friend Stephanie and I did this last year in a more limited (though still awesome) fashion. This time, we wanted to increase the challenge. We invited another friend, Tyler, to come along, and we also invited others to participate virtually.

At the end of the night we had a small celebration at the Triple Nickel, a hilarious—in the best of ways—pub in my Southeast Portland neighborhood. To recap, here are the rules of the challenge:

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Travel

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Join Us on Friday, February 6—Virtually or In Real Life—for the 2015 Dining Dash

This Friday I’ll be going on a mini-adventure to visit 12 restaurants in one day. You can follow along virtually, recreate the adventure in your own way, or even join me for the last stop of the evening in Portland, Oregon.

Last year my travel hacking colleague Stephanie Zito and I went on a “Dining Dash” (not to be confused with Dine and Dash) adventure to ten restaurants in a single day. We did this to requalify for VIP Member status with Rewards Network, a company that provides miles and points bonuses for anything you purchase at qualifying restaurants.

It was a lot of fun, and there was just one problem: 2014 ended! Each year, the count starts over, and we now need 12 more dines to requalify for VIP status throughout all of next year.

Obviously, you could just qualify as you go to places throughout the year—but where’s the fun in that? This time, we’re joining up with another friend and colleague, Tyler Tervooren, and the three of us will attempt to complete all 12 dines in a single day: this Friday, February 6.

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