Way back in the Stone Age of points and miles-1988-Delta Air Lines ran a Triple Miles promotion.

Since miles were awarded based on the distance flown, a cross-country LAX to JFK flight could earn about 7,500 miles instead of the roughly 2,500 miles flown.

Not to be outdone, American Airlines quickly followed suit and launched its own Triple Miles promo. Anyone with an AAdvantage frequent flyer account would earn three times the miles flown.

This launched the first mileage run in points and miles history. For the first time ever, customers were incentivized to fly more often-even on routes that didn't make logical sense-to rack up more miles.

As you might expect, this didn't last very long. The airlines soon wised up and Triple Miles promos wound down within the year. Airlines started making fewer seats available to book with miles.

Although the days of the Triple Miles promos are in the distant past, you can still earn airline miles to redeem for a free flight. The good news is that now it doesn't involve flying a lot of convoluted routes.

Earning miles on flights

The most obvious way to earn airline miles is on flights with the airline. However, don't expect to earn tons of miles this way-airlines stopped rewarding you for miles per distance flown about 10 years ago.

Now, all major airlines award your miles based on dollars spent on your ticket. This model is simply more profitable for the airlines. With a revenue-based model, there's no way a Triple Miles promo could ever happen again.

Let's say you find a cheap long-distance flight. If you were earning miles based on distance, the airline may have to award you more frequent flyer miles than it does if based on the price of your ticket.

Earning miles with airline credit cards

This brings me to another way to earn airline miles: Opening an airline credit card and earning its signup bonus is one of the quickest ways to earn more airline miles.

Here are some top options:

• Earn 80k bonus miles: This card earns 2X miles on groceries and dining, plus it lets you check one bag for free (per person on your reservation, up to nine people).
• Earn 50k bonus miles: This humble little card has a credit for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS, plus two passes per year to this airline's lounges.
• Earn 85k bonus miles: Plus get a head start toward this airline's companion pass.

Many of these cards allow you to earn additional bonus miles on specific spending categories, including flights with the airline.

Earning miles on partners

You can also leverage airline partnerships strategically to help you earn miles.

Partner airlines do not offer a joint rewards currency, but you can credit the miles you earn from your flight to a partner airline.

Let's say I'm booking a flight on Air France. After I've selected my tickets and entered my personal information, you'll see an option to add a frequent flyer program. It will often default to the booking airline-in this case, the default option is earning Flying Blue miles.

But I also have the option to select another partner airline. Since Air France is a partner with Delta Air Lines (they both are part of the SkyTeam alliance), I can opt to earn Delta SkyMiles. I'd just need to enter my SkyMiles number here and then continue with the booking.

There are two reasons you'd do this:

1. You're chasing status with an airline.

I think pursuing airline status is overrated (airlines seem to make it harder to get each year, and status can be mimicked with the right credit cards), but if this is important to you, this method helps.

2. You fly a partner airline more often than your booking airline.

Maybe you're booking on Air France because you saw a Going deal that you couldn't pass up. But after this trip, you're planning more domestic travel and do not have plans to fly Air France again in the near future. In that case, it might be better to credit the miles toward a partner airline, such as Delta.

Just be aware that some ticket fare classes do not allow you to earn miles with a partner airline.

For example, a Going member once had trouble claiming Alaska miles for a Singapore Airlines flight (the two airlines are partners, though they are not in the same alliance). The fare class that the member bought-K class, an Economy Lite ticket-was not eligible to earn Alaska Mileage Plan Miles.

As the saying goes-your mileage may vary.

Can I get credit for miles after the flight?

In your haste to book a flight, maybe you forgot to enter your airline loyalty number. Or maybe you weren't even a member of the loyalty program before you flew.

The good news is that you can request miles after your flight.

Each airline's process and timeline is slightly different, but in general, you'll need to request the miles within 12 months of your flight.

Here's the process, timeline, and the place to go to request airline miles for each major US airline.

Other ways to earn miles:

• Shopping portals: Many airlines have shopping portals that allow you to earn additional miles per dollar by using their referral link. There's even a Chrome extension you can add that will show you how many miles you can earn with a specific merchant.
• Dining rewards programs: These programs allow you to earn airline miles when you sign up with your airline loyalty account and credit card. When you eat at participating restaurants in the program and pay with the enrolled card, you'll earn airline miles.
• Link rewards accounts: Whether it is Lyft, Uber, VRBO, Airbnb, Hertz rental cars, or even Starbucks, you can earn additional airline miles with select airlines when you link accounts.

To maximize your earning potential, you could select the same airline miles program for every function. This is one time when you'll want to focus instead of diversify your portfolio.

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