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Earn up to 10k AA miles/night with hotel bookings
Yes, there are a few different ways you can earn AA miles for hotel bookings. Rocketmiles is a great source, but AA itself has come out with a new hotel booking site: www.bookaahotels.com. It’s powered by booking.com, and AA members are receiving emails regarding a pretty lucrative offer of up to 10k points per night. I fiddled around on the site and found that not only were hotels offered, but also villas, homes, and condos. While the 10k AA miles are offered on the more expensive properties, there are situations whereby rates are competitive with other OTAs, and even the hotel’s website and you’d earn a grip of AA miles. Not bad! Let’s take a look at AA’s new site, and how you can earn up to 10k AAmiles/night with hotel bookings.
Let’s take a look at Chicago over labor day weekend.
You can sort properties by how many AA miles you’d earn.
The Raffaello priced in at $974 for 3 nights and 19k AA miles
While this isn’t 10k points per night, it is 6333. Everyone values points differently, but say you value AA miles at 1.7 cents, you’d be earning back $323, or essentially a free night. Backing out the AA miles you’d be paying $651 for the hotel.
If you compare this to Expedia
However looking at Momondo, you see you can get a better cash deal with hotels.com, but if you’re wanting AA miles it’s a debate.
Where can I earn 10k AA miles a night tho?
I searched in LA and found that a stay at the Beverly Hill Hotel would offer 10k AA miles/ night. But you’re paying A LOT.
If you’re in the market for a large home for a bunch of people…$450 a person for 3 nights. Not bad.
The site at least provides options and opportunities to buy miles at a discount.
If all things are equal, and the price is competitive, AND you’ll earn AA miles – this could be a good deal for you.
I’d suggest approaching opportunities like these as two separate transactions, buying the hotel, and buying the points. AA sells miles all the time, but the cheapest I can recall was roughly 1.72 cents during the June sale, and why I use that valuation. If the bookaahotels site is offering a good bonus, and the price is competitive, you could end up purchasing miles for much less than that, and then redeeming them for much more.
Keep in mind. This is powered by booking.com, an OTA ( Online Travel Agency), so my guess is the nights will be treated as such.
This means you won’t enjoy the Elite benefits you may carry with the hotel’s loyalty program. And the nights won’t count towards regaining status. There are exceptions, but that’s the basic rule you should keep in the back of your head. Sometimes a hotel will honor certain benefits if you show your membership card at check-in, but my experience hasn’t been great.
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Does the hotel room have to be in your name?
Christian – I’ll have to look into it more, I’m not sure but my feeling is yes
Do you have to pay in advance or is there an option to make them pay at the hotel?
I believe they are pre-paid if getting an AA mileage bonus, but many have refundable options. Be sure double check the terms
Just booked a 3 night stay(160$/night) at Hilton in Houston, TX for 11000 AA miles… I called the hotel and gave them my HHonors number on which they added it to my reservation and thanked me for being a Diamond member..
When I reached the hotel an hour later for check-in the agent told me that it was showing as a Priceline booking in their system therefore no Diamond benefits will be offered. My request earlier for an upgrade was rejected but the manager made an exception and gave me access to the Executive Lounge , may be because she knew me as I had stayed there 15-20 times in the last 2 months.
With the current Hilton promo I should have got 21000 points for the stay, but I believe 11000 AA miles may be worth more than those points…
Naif – I’d for sure value the 11k AA more than the 21k HH. HH are regularly on sale for half a cent whereas AA’s best deal was 1.72 cents. Say you only value AA at 1.5 cents you’re still getting 50% more value than you would have from the HH. Good deal getting your club access – most valuable diamond perk imo.
Thats correct…upgrade is not that important but club access is definitely the most valuable perk