Four Ways to Earn Airline Miles Quickly with a Hotel Stay Published
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Four Ways to Earn Airline Miles Quickly With a Hotel Stay Published: May 16, 2015 Outlet: New York Times By: Stephanie Rosenbloom Can you parlay a hotel room reservation into thousands of frequent-flier miles? In the last year, the leading websites that allow travelers to do just that, PointsHound and Rocketmiles, were acquired by Points International and Priceline, respectively. How are they measuring up? And if you haven’t tried such sites before, is it worth trying them now? PointsHound and Rocketmiles give you frequent-flier miles in exchange for staying in hotels booked through their websites. There are, of course, trade-offs. For instance, when you don’t book directly with a hotel, you often have to forgo points and elite qualifying stays in the hotel’s loyalty program; any changes to your reservation must be made through the third-party site instead of with the hotel; and you may not always receive the lowest rate. On the other hand, you can accumulate enough miles for free flights and upgrades on airlines such as American, Air France, British Airways and JetBlue. When you reserve a room through PointsHound, you can generally earn up to 6,000 points a night in the airline or rewards program of your choice (there are exceptions: A recent search turned up a one-night stay at the Peninsula New York that would earn 16,100 miles on American Airlines). Properties marked with a Big Earn banner rake in the most miles. The site also has its own rewards program where members at the top levels (based largely on the number of nights booked) earn points at higher rates. Users of Rocketmiles, the primary PointsHound competitor, can earn up to 5,000 miles a night on their airline of choice. Both PointsHound and Rocketmiles allow members to earn miles on carriers including Air France, Alaska Airlines, Alitalia, American, Etihad, Finnair, Frontier, Hawaiian, Icelandair, JetBlue, Saudi Airlines and Turkish Airlines, as well as Asia Miles, a travel and lifestyle rewards program. In addition to the airlines mentioned above, users of PointsHound can also earn miles on AeroMéxico, AirBaltic, LAN Airlines, TAM Airlines and US Airways. (They can use their hotel bookings to accrue the virtual currency, Bitcoin, as well.) Users of Rocketmiles have more options in addition to the carriers above: They can earn miles on British Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Norwegian, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Singapore Airlines, Southwest, United, Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic, as well as points for Amtrak, Aeroplan and the Avios travel rewards program. To see what kind of mileage could be accrued during even a brief getaway, I performed several searches, always comparing both sites on the same day around the same time. Let’s use as an example a hotel search I ran for two guests staying in Orlando, Fla., from July 24 through July 26, with AAdvantage from American Airlines as the loyalty program of choice. PointsHound turned up more than 200 hotels, including the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, Four Seasons Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort and Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Available miles on American Airlines ranged from 3,300 miles (for a two-night stay in an eight-bedroom house with a private pool at Champions Gate Vacations Villas near Walt Disney World at $500 a night), to 5,800 miles (for a two-night stay in a deluxe queen room at the Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek near Downtown Disney at $203 a night). For the same search, Rocketmiles turned up some of the same hotels, but far fewer: 35. They included the Radisson Hotel Orlando in Lake Buena Vista, DoubleTree by Hilton at the entrance to Universal Orlando and Hilton Garden Inn Orlando at SeaWorld. Additionally, Rocketmiles didn’t offer the major Disney-branded hotels found on PointsHound, including the Contemporary. The site is designed to show users the best miles or points deals at any given time, however, so only the hotels that deliver on that promise appear. Indeed, one Rocketmiles hotel deal, at the Hilton Orlando, promised 10,000 miles (for a two-night stay in a deluxe queen room at $239 a night) — that’s 4,200 miles more than the best deal at PointsHound. Lock in that kind of offer for several trips and it won’t be long before you rack up 60,000 miles — enough for a round-trip flight to Mexico on American Airlines. As you can see, several factors should be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to book through such sites: Q. How much can you spend on a hotel (and might it be worth it to pay a little more to earn a lot of miles)? A. The nightly rates at the top miles-earning hotels on both PointsHound and Rocketmiles were the same as those on the hotel’s own websites. So if I were to book through either of the sites, I would not be paying more just to earn miles. Excellent news. PointsHound promises that its rates tagged “price match guarantee” are the lowest online: If you find a lower rate for the same dates and the same hotel, you will be refunded the difference. The details are at Pointshound.com/low-price-guarantee. Rocketmiles does not have a best-rate guarantee. The website notes that the rates offered are in line with those of other online competitors, though, which is easy enough to spot check. What’s the cancellation policy? Booking directly with a hotel typically gives you the most flexibility when it comes to room preferences, making changes to your reservation, or canceling it outright (unless you booked a nonrefundable rate). On both PointsHound and Rocketmiles, most of the rates are refundable up to a few days before arrival at the hotel, though the specific cancellation policy varies from reservation to reservation so be sure to read the fine print. Changes must be made through the sites though, not through your hotel. That can be inefficient, but it need not be a deal breaker, especially if you’re poised to earn a lot of miles. Will you miss out on earning points, status or reaping the benefits from a hotel chain’s own loyalty program, and if so, is it worth it to earn miles? Here’s where you have to make the hard choices. If you book through Rocketmiles, hotel rewards points will generally not be earned in addition to miles. That means you’re forgoing the hotel loyalty program in favor of an airline loyalty program. On PointsHound, for a time rates with a Double Up icon would earn you both hotel rewards points and stay credit toward elite status even as you earned miles. None turned up during my various searches; here’s hoping they make a comeback. Is the hotel with the best miles offer a place you actually want to stay? Don’t choose a hotel just to bank a few thousand miles; stay where you’ll be happy. Bottom line: These sites are a great way to score frequent-flier miles. The fundamental issue is that using them means you’re generally choosing to earn miles instead of hotel points. Would you rather work toward a free night at a Marriott in Rome, or a free flight to Rome? For some travelers, the boarding pass trumps the room key. Link to Article .