[earnist_link ref=”rocketmiles-referral” id=”6799″]Rocketmiles[/earnist_link] is a hotel booking platform with a twist. When you book a hotel room on Rocketmiles, you’ll earn miles or points with your favorite airline or loyalty program. For instance, you can book a Hyatt hotel and earn thousands of Alaska Airlines miles instead of Hyatt points. This can be a nice change if you don’t want to earn points from that specific hotel’s loyalty program. There are good and bad things about their program. We’ll analyze all of them for you.
Often, you won’t find the best price for a given hotel on Rocketmiles, but surprisingly, sometimes you do. They don’t claim to have the lowest price. It’s aimed at giving the customer bonus airline miles or loyalty points for hotels bookings instead of having the lowest price. But, on occasion Rocketmiles has the lowest price and offers airline miles with your booking. It’s the best of both worlds.
When searching for hotels, definitely compare to make sure that it’s worth earning the miles. You don’t want to pay extra just to earn miles that aren’t worth the difference. While doing a few searches I found some hotels that were more expensive and some that were substantially cheaper than the competition.
Rocketmiles Hotel Search Results for San Diego (Feb 14-18)
Hyatt.com Search Results for San Diego (Feb 14-18)
As you can see, there is quite a large price discrepancy. Rocketmiles, to my surprise, was 36% cheaper for these dates than booking directly on the Hyatt website. On top of the discount, you get 5,000 Southwest miles (which is the loyalty program I searched with) that are valued at around $75. In this instance, choosing to book on Rocketmiles is a no-brainer.
This isn’t the norm though. Most often you’ll find lower prices elsewhere. Sometimes you might get lucky and find a great rate (like the one above) with Rocketmiles, which is why it’s always worth checking. Even if the prices are similar, earning extra airline miles might make it worth booking at Rocketmiles. I’ve actually seen bookings that earn up to 40,000 miles for a few nights stay.
Are All Hotels Available?
Rocketmiles seems to focus on high-quality hotels that are typically in popular business markets. If you’re looking for a budget hotel or hostel you likely won’t find them. While searching for hotels in San Diego I noticed that they include many Marriott/SPG hotels, Hyatt, Best Western, Hilton, as well as many privately owned hotels. San Diego is a large market, but Rocketmiles comes up with 209 results to choose from.
Get a 1000 Mile Bonus on your First Booking
On top of earning the typical amount of miles for a hotel booking, you can also get 1000 bonus miles on your first booking by using the referral link below. By using our Rocketmiles referral link, you will get an extra 1000 miles or points when you book your first hotel. We’ll also earn 1000 miles for referring you, so it’s a win-win. Also, once you have an account you can refer your friends so you both can earn even more miles.
There seems to be no formula for how many miles are earned according to the amount spent nor the hotel chain. Some hotels will earn 1,000 miles per night and others 10,000 miles. Higher priced properties do typically seem to earn more miles though. The hotels that I have seen earning 10,000 miles per night cost in the multiple hundreds of dollars per night. Lower-priced hotels usually earn a lower rate at 1-2,000 miles per night.
The number of miles earned also differs between which airline or loyalty program you search with. It’s possible to search a hotel with Alaska Airlines as your loyalty program and earn a different amount than you would with Southwest.
Comparing Search Results of Different Loyalty Programs
Since there seems to be no particular rhyme or reason why different loyalty programs allow you to earn more or fewer miles for the same booking, let’s take a look at some search results. What I’ve found is that it pays off to search all of your favorite loyalty programs to see which one earns the most miles. Below, are the results of a search for Hyatt hotels in San Diego on Valentines Day weekend (Feb 14-18). Let’s see what we can find. I searched for hotels using a few of the top loyalty programs that Rocketmiles offers. Here are the results that I found for searches with United, American, Southwest, Alaska, and Emirates.
*If you have a Southwest Companion Pass, you’ll essentially be earning double the points. This is because you’ll be able to use points to book a flight and then add your companion for free on every flight.
Since American Express Membership Rewards are the newest loyalty program on Rocketmiles, I decided to search with them also. I figured Amex Membership Rewards would have lower results because their points are so valuable. Membership Rewards are worth about 2 cents each (higher than any of the other airline partners). They’re worth so much because you can transfer Membership Rewards points to their 19 travel partner airlines and hotels.
To my surprise, Amex Membership Rewards came back with the best results by far. The Rocketmiles searches using American Express Membership Rewards (arguably the most valuable loyalty rewards available) earn 40-60% more points per night than the other programs. Earning Membership Rewards also allows you to earn airline miles that are otherwise not available on the platform. Delta is not available to earn directly on your hotel bookings, but because they’re a transfer partner with Amex, you can transfer your earned points to their program.
For instance, if you booked the Hyatt Regency using Amex Membership Rewards as your loyalty program, you’d earn about $200 worth of points. To earn Membership Rewards points through Rocketmiles you must have and use a Membership Rewards earning American Express credit card. Below you can see the results side-by-side.
If you are going to book a hotel, Rocketmiles is definitely worth comparing to other options. Sometimes it has the best price, but even if it doesn’t, the miles earned might make it more valuable to you. Know that when booking through Rocketmiles you will not receive any hotel loyalty night credits nor get any of your elite status benefits if you have them. If you have elite status at the hotel you’re looking to stay at, this is another thing to compare. It’s also noteworthy to mention that you can book through Rocketmiles for other people and earn miles for yourself.
[earnist_link ref=”rocketmiles-referral” id=”6799″]Rocketmiles[/earnist_link] is a great hotel booking source if you don’t have elite status at the hotel and you want to earn airline miles instead of hotel points for your stay. Like we mentioned before, it might even make sense for you to pay a slightly higher rate to earn a large number of miles. Rocketmiles won’t always be the best option, but it’s worth comparing when searching for a hotel.
Ryan loves to travel. He learned the power of using points and miles for travel way back in 2012 and hasn't looked back. Ryan's favorite place to travel is to Hawaii, where he's explored each of the main islands. Travel has changed his life for the better and opened him up to new experiences!
