With American AAdvantage’s loyalty points system, you can achieve elite status without even stepping on the plane. Not that you should do it, but you can. Not only can you earn Loyalty Points for your credit card purchases, you can also earn Loyalty Points for all other types of partner activities.
One of the most popular ways to earn loyalty points is by booking a hotel in a way that earns you AAdvantage miles. We’ve just made some changes to this, so I’d like to explain what you need to know.
American AAdvantage hotel basics
Historically, AAdvantage miles and loyalty points for hotel stays have been most efficiently earned in one of two ways (the number of AAdvantage miles earned depends on the exact stay):
- Select American AAdvantage as your preferred reward currency to earn at Rocketmiles.
- Earn at AAHotels.com with Booking.com.
A big change was made to this last week. New AAdvantage hotel platform Now is the best way to earn AAdvantage miles and loyalty points on hotel stays. This is in response to what appears to be American Airlines essentially consolidating options for earning miles on hotel stays.
That’s because AAHotels.com now redirects to the new AAdvantage Hotels platform, and Rocketmiles has significantly reduced the number of miles they can earn with AAdvantage (apparently due to the launch of this new platform). AAdvantage Hotels are operated by Rocket Travel by Agoda, the same company as Rocketmiles.
Earn loyalty points and miles with AAdvantage Hotels
AAdvantage Hotels is essentially an online travel agency that displays the number of AAdvantage miles and loyalty points you earn for each booking. Online travel agents receive commissions for hotel bookings, and AAdvantage Hotels uses a portion of those commissions to reward customers who book through its platform.
A few things to note:
- Search for hotel stays to see how many AAdvantage miles you’ll earn. These are available as both redeemable miles and loyalty points.
- With elite status and a co-branded AAdvantage credit card, you’ll earn even more perks, so make sure you’re logged in when searching for hotels.
- The AAdvantage Loyalty Points Rewards system allows you to earn a 20% Loyalty Points Bonus for 6 months at AAdvantage Hotels after 60,000 loyalty points and a 30% Loyalty Points Bonus for 6 months at AAdvantage Hotels after 100,000 points. can be obtained. Loyalty points; this is not reflected on the site, but you can earn more if you qualify (these are just loyalty points, not redeemable miles).
- Future changes to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (Review) will allow you to earn 10x miles on hotels booked through AAdvantage Hotels.These 10x miles are redeemable miles, but only 1x loyalty points per dollar spent
When you search for hotels, you’ll notice that the mileage earning rates vary widely. This probably reflects the amount of commission the hotel pays. On this site you will find that you can search by the most earned miles. I like to search this way, but note that this is the highest number of miles earned in absolute terms, not the highest earned miles per dollar spent on hotel charges.
For example, consider some hotels in Tampa. Earn 4,000 AAdvantage miles at $124 Sleep Inn & Suites and 3,900 AAdvantage miles at Marriott for $249 when you use a co-branded credit card to log in as an elite member.
Let’s analyze these numbers further using Sleep Inn & Suites as an example.
- These 4,000 AAdvantage miles will be both loyalty points and redeemable miles.
- Earn an additional 1,200 Loyalty Points if you exceed the Loyalty Points threshold that provides 30% bonus Loyalty Points
- Earn 1,240 AAdvantage miles and 124 additional loyalty points when you pay with your Citi AAdvantage Executive Card after these changes.
- So all together, you can earn up to 5,324 Loyalty Points and 5,240 AAdvantage miles.
Pitfalls of booking through AAdvantage Hotels
Earning AAdvantage miles and loyalty points for hotel stays sounds great, of course, but what’s the problem?
If you are staying at a hotel that is part of a major hotel loyalty program, please assume that you cannot earn rewards through programs such as Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt. Also, you don’t usually get rewards. Elite benefits otherwise entitled.
Luxury hotels cannot be booked through AAdvantage Hotels in conjunction with value-for-stay programs such as Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso.
Regardless of the type of hotel you book, you can:
- Always compare AAdvantage hotel rates with rates you can find elsewhere, as lower rates may be found elsewhere.
- Third party bookings are generally given last priority in room allocation, so avoid booking through a third party if you want a great hotel stay.
AAdvantage Hotels is a great concept from an American perspective in the sense that airlines can essentially skimp on hotel booking fees and keep people in the hamster wheel of loyalty points. Personally, I think the opportunity cost is too great to book that way, but I know others will feel differently.
Conclusion
AAdvantage Hotels is American’s new platform for earning AAdvantage miles and loyalty points on hotel bookings. Return rates are often not as favorable as they used to be. However, the rewards certainly add up, as you can earn up to 10x his AAdvantage miles with your payment, on top of the loyalty points boost of up to 30% with Loyalty Points Rewards.
If you’re into loyalty points, it might be worth booking a few hotels this way. Just be aware of the opportunity cost. Personally, I like to earn rewards with my preferred hotel loyalty program. And for luxury independent hotels, they want to take advantage of programs that offer elite-like perks.
What do you think about AAdvantage Hotels?
