I’ve written about Rocketmiles a few times in the past, but essentially it is a third-party hotel reservation site were you earn airline miles for your stay – you’ll earn anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 miles based on the hotel and rate. While they do not have every possible hotel on their site, if you are able to book through them, you can earn thousands of airline miles. The one caveat is that since you are booking your hotel stay through a third-party site typically you will not earn hotel points or stays/nights towards status (although sometimes it slips through the cracks and you will – this is the case when booking through all third-party hotel sites). This is great though for non-chain hotels and those one-night inexpensive stays where you’d hardly earn any hotel points anyways.
Participating airlines include: Aeroplan, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Ethiad, AirFrance/KLM, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue, Qatar, Turkish Airlines, United, US Airways, Virgin America, and Southwest. Note that Delta is no longer a partner.
Southwest promotion
Through May 31, 2014, you will earn 3,000 bonus points on all reservations booked through December – your stay must include a check out by December 31 to qualify. This is limited to first time Rocketmile customers, so if you’ve booked a reservation through this site in the past you will not qualify. This is also a one time bonus, so even if you book multiple stays through the 3,000 point link, only your first stay will qualify for the bonus. Remember though, for ALL stays, even the one were you will get the bonus points, you’ll earn an additional 1,000-5,000 Southwest points. You also must book through the 3,000 point promotion page.
The terms also state that it cannot be combined with other promotions so you might not receive the 1,000 bonus points by signing up through a referral with the regular 1,000 point offer. If you want to book a hotel and get miles for another airline (not Southwest), you use the 1,000 bonus point link to make the reservation.
Are Rocketmile prices comparable?
Hotel rates can differ from booking with the hotel directly. Sometimes they are the same as the best available rate you’ll find at the hotel, but then you cannot apply any other discounts, i.e., AAA, AARP, Corporate Rates, etc. So ALWAYS ensure that you are getting the best rate possible. And also calculate out what you’d prefer – the airline miles or the hotel points.
For example, I searched a random date this summer and saw that for the Hyatt 48 Lex I can earn 2,000 airline miles (+3,000 Southwest mile bonus if I select Southwest as my earning preference) for a one-night stay. I compared the $341 rate to the Hyatt website and saw that the rate was exactly the same, and actually when I selected the AAA rate it was the same as well. No discount for AAA members, although it was not a prepaid rate.
In this particular scenario it is the exact same price, so you need to decide if you prefer the miles or Hyatt’s hotel points (since it is a 3rd party website earning the hotel points is not a guarantee). 5,000 Southwest points is worth a fixed $71 towards a “Wanna Getaway” fare. If you do not have Hyatt status and there is no bonus, you’d earn 1,705 Hyatt points which I’d value at about $34.
The best value really is at a hotel that is not part of a chain so you do not need to decide which is best. If the price is exactly the same, or even a few dollars more on Rocketmiles, you absolutely should book through them. It is free miles that you wouldn’t earn booking through the hotel directly!
Sign up links:
- 1,000 miles as a signup bonus after completing your first reservation + the regular miles for completing your stay (sign up link)
- 3,000 Southwest bonus points after completing your first reservation + the regular miles for completing your stay (sign up link)
These are my referral links, but feel free to paste yours in the comments section. As mentioned before, I am not 100% sure though if you book through the Southwest 3,000 bonus point promo if you’ll receive the bonus 1,000 miles as well (assuming you created an account initially under the 1,000 mile sign up bonus).
Earning this number of airlines miles for a reservation is amazing, so I highly suggest looking into it for your next hotel booking. Just be sure you are getting the best (or equivalent rate) and calculate out if the miles is better than the hotel points you might be missing out on.
Anyone have any luck getting a great rate with a lot of miles tacked on?!
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I looked through the website for a couple upcoming stays, and the prices are higher by about 5-10% than the AAA rates I typically get. For a 1-night stay, the 3000 bonus probably makes it worth it, but not if it’s for more nights, IMO. At least for the hotels I checked.
Bear in mind the cancellation terms may be different. Cancellation allowed was 2 days earlier through Rocketmiles for hotel I looked at vs directly at the hotel website. However the higher rate was more than offset by the 3000 point bonus.
Will points earned through this promotion definitely count toward Companion Pass earning? I have read differing accounts. Some say yes, others so, no, only the initially earned miles would count, not the bonus. Thoughts?
@Linda – That is a great question. I actually am not sure. I’ll let you know though if I find out.