Back when I first got into the travel hacking game, I thought surveys were a good way to earn some extra points and miles. I’d complete several a week, adding a bit to my Southwest or United balance in the process.
But soon I became disenchanted. The time requirement is large, and the payoff is small. My survey-taking soon went the way of the dodo.
However, I have held onto a single survey portal. And it only makes sense for one specific type of points
Why I still use eRewards
eRewards is the only survey site I still use to collect any miles or points. I gave up long ago on the airline or hotel specific options. There are two reasons eRewards is more unique (and worth using from time to time).
First, they offer partial compensation. Granted, it’s not much. But sometimes earning $0.25 or $0.50 of eRewards currency for each survey you can quickly disqualify yourself from is worth more than slogging through 30 minutes of mind-numbing clicking for $7.50 of their currency.
Second, they have an attractive partner with whom you cannot obtain points easily any other way: Hertz.
Why I always redeem my eRewards for Hertz points
eRewards has many redemption options. On the hotel side, you can redeem your currency for Choice, Club Carlson, Hilton, IHG, La Quinta, and Le Club Accor. Their sole airline option is Southwest. You can also redeem for FlexPerks, but the redemption value is terrible. Actually, the redemption value for most of those options is terrible. But for Hertz it is not.
eRewards currency can be redeemed for Hertz points at the $30, $65, and $120 level. The $120 level is only a bit better than the $65 level in terms of value. but it may be the one worth shooting for. Especially since you can only make one Hertz redemption per quarter.
You see, Hertz’s points can be worth much more than the all the competition. They won’t be in every situation, but as a general rule, they are a much higher value. Case in point: I made my first redemption for a value of 9.1 cents per Hertz point. This is a weekly rental of a full-size car for an upcoming trip. Autoslash and Priceline currently offer the same car type for $330. Subtracting the ~$80 in fees I still owe, my 2,750 Hertz points covered $250 of rental car (leading to the 9.1 cents per point valuation). This also means $120 in eRewards currency is worth ~$100. You really cannot approach this value with any other eRewards partner.
If I believe Hertz’s standard rate when I booked using points, though, my “value” would be more like 27 cents per point. But there are ways to score a much better deal, so that is a pretty unrealistic evaluation.
The other reason using eRewards for Hertz makes sense is that there are very few ways to easily accrue points with rental car companies. If I want a rental car for free, I have to redeem my precious flexible points through a travel portal. Since I typically don’t like letting go of my Ultimate Rewards for 1.25 cents each, I usually bite the bullet and pay cash. I use Autoslash, of course.
As an aside, it’s still a puzzle to me why one (or all) of the car rental companies have not jumped on the co-branded credit card bandwagon. If Hertz or Enterprise offered a credit card, I’d almost certainly apply for one.
Understand that time is money
Time is my most limiting factor these days. Between working a full time job and raising our three recently-adopted kids, life is very full at the moment. So why am I even bothering to complete surveys?
Well…when you can obtain points that are a) worth a whole lot more than most others and b) earn points that are impossible to otherwise accrue, I think it can make sense. Granted, if you have other ways you could spend some hours of your time and earn an extra $250 for the effort, that is probably the way to go.
Honestly, I didn’t have to use eRewards to earn all the points I needed. Due to a few work rentals and a couple personal rentals with Hertz, I already had some points with them (although I prefer to earn United miles through Hertz if they are running a great promo). So all I needed was $120 of eRewards currency to finish off what I needed for our weekly rental.
Conclusion
The eRewards survey panel is the only one I occasionally do for the points or miles. In all other cases, I find that the return simply isn’t worth it. But since this is a unique partner with high-value points, it is an attractive enough option, especially when I can kill 15 minutes of “down time” (not sure what that is, now that I am a parent…haha) to earn several bucks of eRewards currency.
Featured image courtesy of Nick Youngson and Alpha Stock Images under CC 3.0 license.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Trying to think if driving Uber or doing surveys are more lucrative lol.
I sure hope it would be driving for Uber…
Their sole airline partner is not Southwest. They partner with every airline, that I know of. Except the obscure ones.
Recently cut ties with Delta & Wyndham though. It all depends on where you signed up for e-rewards in the first place.
I’m wondering if we are talking about the same survey group. Look under Rewards here: https://www.e-rewards.com/rewards.do
You’re right on Wyndham. They used to show up as an option. I don’t recall Delta. I’m sure the rate would have been terrible no matter what.
I believe it depends on the original invitation to the program. The invitation generally comes via an email from a particular partner (UA, etc.) My choices are wide, but my spouse’s invitations have been from a more limiting program so I haven’t signed him up yet.
I think the partner list is driven by cookies, so that link you provided shows my normal list including AA, IB, UA, BA AF and others. I sense from your comment you don’t get that same list.
Not even close. I have Southwest, Hertz, and 5 hotel partners in the travel category.
Interesting. I was completely unaware there may be different partners based on how you were invited. Mine have changed slightly over time, but I’ve never see AA, BA, or UA as options.
Can you share with me the link of the most recent airlines or hotel invitations?
How does credit card insurance work if you’ve paid for the rental with points.
Since I don’t own a car, I rely exclusively on credit card insurance for car rentals, but from reading T&C that doesn’t apply if you’re partially/fully paying for the rental with points.
You would need to buy it if you don’t have it. As we own a family van that has full coverage, we’ll be adequately covered for our rental. But I wouldn’t do this outside the U.S.
Its too much work. You get through most of the survey and it trips you out and you get like 25 cents.
The key here is to make your bet on if this will happen or not. I try to either a) wash out as fast as possible, or b) complete one as fast as possible, targeting surveys with lower returns ($3.00 – $4.00 in currency). I’ve found it the most effective strategy.
I redeem erewards for AMERIcan Airlines at 2000 miles a month. That is 24000 miles a year
Regarding the sole airline partner with e-rewards being Southwest, that is specific to your profile. My wife can redeem e-rewards for American Airlines miles, but I cannot. I contacted them about this, and they would not add American to my profile. Not sure why it is set up this way, but it is.
I agree the points are rarely worth the time, but it is a decent way to pass the time occasionally.
I earn between $200-$300 a month doing this. Over time I’ve restocked my Southwest, Jetblue and United points. I did get kicked out about a year ago for having inconsistent responses- whatever that means. I appealed and appealed and appealed and they reinstated all the points and let me back in. It is time consuming, but I figure if I’m sitting in front of the TV doing nothing I may as well earn some points.
The link above takes you to a long list of airlines. As a matter of fact, earlier this week I transferred some rewards to my Alaska account.
Interesting. Per the other comments, it’s now apparent that different people have different options. Mine unfortunately only include Southwest as far as airlines go. What is the transfer rate for Alaska? It would be nice to have another option for their miles.
Hi Ian,
I have joined E-Rewards years ago and have the transfer availability
to many Airlines and hotel chains.
My main reason for using E-rewards is to transfer miles/points
to different accts to avoid expiry for inactivity.
Michael