Discover it Miles Program Review: One Big Reason You Should Consider the Discover it® Miles Card

Insider Tip: During the first year with Discover it® Miles card, Discover will match the miles you earn at the end of the year. That means you’ll have twice the miles!

Do you want to travel for free but don’t have the mental energy to compare card earning rates, bonus categories, etc.? If you answered “yes”, then the Discover It Miles program might just be the perfect rewards program for you.

The Discover it Miles reward program has taken all the complexity out of other travel and reward programs. It focuses on simplicity without throwing value to the curb.

Here’s our Discover it® Miles program review!

Our Discover it Miles program review will show you why it’s one of the easiest ways to earn miles towards free travel. (Photo courtesy of Dean Drobot / Shutterstock.com)

Discover It Miles Review

It’s hard to beat the Discover it Miles program for an uncomplicated experience. That is going to be the repeating theme as we dive in deeper into reviewing it — simplicity:

  • Unlimited earning
  • No minimums for rewards
  • Miles never expire
  • Redeem for cash or travel
  • No blackout dates
  • No bonus categories to worry about

Basically any restrictions with other reward programs are gone here.

Here’s what you need to know about the Discover it miles program.

How to Earn Discover It Miles

To start earning Discover it miles, you need the proper credit card. There is currently only one card that earns Discover it Miles, conveniently named the Discover it® Miles card.

There are a few other “Discover it” cards, but these cards are focused on cash back. For now, we will direct our attention to the travel-focused Discover it® Miles.

1. Earn Discover It Miles From Spending

Discover it miles are among the easiest miles to earn because all you do is spend money with your Discover it Miles card. It really is that simple!

There are no bonus categories, so every dollar you spend with your card will earn you 1.5 miles toward future travel rewards. The earning is unlimited, so you can spend as much as you desire and continue to earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent.

No worrying about which category a purchase is going to fall into. No worrying about if you have hit your bonus cap for the quarter. It is always 1.5 miles per $1 that you spend, no matter what.

2. Discover Will Match Your Miles at the End of Your First Year

The Discover it Miles doesn’t have a welcome bonus like most credit cards do. But Discover has come up with something that can honestly be even better if you take advantage of it.

After your first 12 billing cycles, Discover will match the miles you earned during the first year of card membership. There is no limit to how much you can earn during this introductory offer.

This means that during your first year of having the card, you are effectively earning UNLIMITED 3 miles per dollar (or 3% back) on ALL purchases for an entire year. This is unmatched by nearly any other card we know of right now (though the Chase Freedom Unlimited® has a similar offer).

3. Refer a Friend for a Mutual Reward

So this won’t earn you miles directly, but it will earn you a $50 statement credit, which is just as great. That is equivalent to 5,000 Discover it® Miles.

All you have to do is refer a friend to get a Discover card. If they apply and open a new account then you will earn a $50 statement credit.

Your friend even gets a $50 statement credit, too, so it’s mutually beneficial. All they need to do is make a single purchase with their new card within the first three months of account opening and they will get a $50 statement credit posted to their account.

To be clear, this is a $50 statement credit that posts to your card account immediately (reducing your amount owed by $50). This doesn’t accrue “miles”.

How Much Are Discover It Miles Worth?

Discover it Miles can be redeemed for 1 cent each towards travel expenses or cash back. Again, simplicity is the name of the game with Discover it Miles. Regardless of how you use your miles, they always equal 1 cent per mile.

This means that you will always earn 1.5 cents per dollar you spend, on any categories, except for the first year when Discover matches the spoils you’ve earned during your first 12 billing cycles, giving you an effective 3 cents per dollar. Just remember that this bonus won’t happen until the end of the year, so you will earn 1.5 miles per dollar during the first year, and then receive the bonus as a bulk award at the end of the year.

How to Use Discover It Miles

After you collect your miles (or get your massive double miles bonus at the end of the year) you will want to redeem those miles. Discover offers several ways to use and redeem miles, focused primarily on crediting back travel expenses. But other options are also available, like redeeming miles for credit on Amazon or getting straight up cash-back.

1. Credit Towards Travel Expenses

Each mile is worth a 1 cent credit towards travel purchases. You can find travel expenses on your credit statement within the last 180 days. Just request a credit using your miles to offset any travel charge. This removes a lot of the complexity with redeeming travel rewards, because you don’t need to use special travel portals to find hotels and airline tickets. Simply use your favorite travel site and use your Discover it Miles card as you normally would. Then go back later and request a credit for the purchase on Discover’s account portal.

There is also no minimum redemption amount with Discover it miles. You can redeem just a single mile (worth a 1 cent credit) if you want.

Discover considers the following transactions as “travel expenses”:

  • Commercial airline tickets
  • Hotel rooms
  • Car rentals
  • Cruises
  • Tour operators
  • Vacation packages purchased through airlines
  • Travel agents
  • Online travel sites
  • Local and suburban commuter transportation
  • Ferries
  • Passenger railways
  • Taxis
  • Limousines
  • Charter/Tour bus lines

The biggest advantage to this type of travel rewards program is that you can use it on many types of travel expenses not covered by flexible reward programs which require you to redeem miles in a proprietary rewards portal. So you can use miles for taxis or boutique hotels that aren’t found on those other portals.

I also like that you can combine offers through other sites. For example, let’s say your favorite airline is offering a flash sale for $99 tickets one-day only. These sales don’t often make their way to travel reward portals and are only found on the airline’s website. So with another travel card you wouldn’t be able to use your miles for these special offers. But with Discover it miles you could. Simply purchase through the airline’s website using your Discover it Miles card and then request a credit later for the sale price of the ticket.

Redeeming miles for a travel credit is easy:

  • Log in to the Account Center. (Or Register first if you’re not registered)
  • Click “Redeem Miles”
  • Click “Travel Credit”
  • Select which travel purchases you want to pay for with Miles

That’s it. Redemption is very simple with Discover it Miles.

2. Redeem for Cash Back

You can also choose to use your miles for cash back.

Cash back can be requested starting at just 1 mile and will be deposited electronically into a bank account that you designate. The value on cash back is the same as a normal travel credit at 1 cent per mile.

So 5,000 miles will give you $50 in cash back.

3. Buy Off Amazon

The final way to use Discover it Miles is by redeeming your miles on Amazon.com using the “Discover shop with Points” program.

Like the other redemption methods, your miles are worth 1 cent each, so 100 miles will give you $1 off on Amazon. To get started, you will want to visit the Discover Shop with Points page on Amazon.com and link your Amazon account to your Discover card.

To redeem miles on Amazon:

  1. Check out through your Shopping Cart.
  2. Select your payment method and choose the amount of points you want to apply to total due. If you decide to cover a partial amount, you can choose any other payment method for the remainder.
  3. On the final checkout page, you’ll see the amount of Discover it Miles you’re using before you place your order listed as ‘Rewards Points’ in the Order Summary.

I personally don’t recommend this option however. You would be better off to use your Discover card for the full purchase, and then requesting cash back to cover the amount of your purchase. This way you continue to earn more points (and potentially double it if you are purchasing within your first year of having the card) for your purchase.

Should You Collect Discover It Miles?

If you enjoy the simplicity of this type of program, then the Discover it Miles program might be for you. I do like the simplicity of the program. No matter how you redeem miles, they are always the same value. You don’t need to mess around with travel portals when redeeming miles and there is no minimum redemption amount.

The biggest value to the Discover it Miles is the introductory offer of Discover matching all the miles you earn during your first year at the end of the year. This means you are effectively receiving 3% return on EVERYTHING you buy, and it’s 100% UNLIMITED.

After the first year however, this card’s value drops. There are many other cards which can out-earn this card even on everyday purchases.

Bottom Line

Focused on simplicity, the Discover it Miles program excels in keeping things simple. There is no need to worry about bonus categories because all points and earned at the same rate. Points are also always redeemed at the same value, regardless of how you choose to redeem them.

The biggest value to the Discover it Miles program (and specifically the Discover it® Miles) is that Discover will match the miles you earn during your first 12 billing cycles. This means you can effectively earn an UNLIMITED flat 3% back on EVERYTHING you purchase with this card during your first year. That makes it more valuable than most other cards during that first year. This is especially enticing when you consider that there is no annual fee.

We always let our email subscribers in on deals like this as soon as they happen. So if you want to earn more free travel be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.