Hey everybody,
At the moment I’m going to speak about RocketMiles (referral hyperlink), which is a service that allows you to earn numerous forms of rewards miles for reserving resort stays. In case you sign-up with our referral hyperlink, you’ll earn 1,000 bonus miles after finishing a keep. A few of the key ones embody United MileagePlus, Southwest Speedy Rewards, American Airways AAdvantage, Alaska MileagePlan, Aeroplan, British Airways Government Membership Avios, Asia Miles, JetBlue TrueBlue, Singapore Airways KrisFlyer, Avianca LifeMiles, Emirates Skywards Miles, Uber, and lots of extra. The total record is:
As you’ll be able to see, that’s a TON of applications! Typically instances a mileage program provides you with a giant bonus for reserving with Rocketmiles. We’ve seen bonuses of three,000 miles for a reserving fairly recurrently, and American and United have each despatched out affords for 10,000 bonus miles of their program for utilizing RocketMiles.
How RocketMiles Works
The search interface is fairly easy – you choose a metropolis, a program, and your dates and visitor/room necessities. That is the house web page:
As you’ll be able to see from a earlier submit on RocketMiles, your search will present a bunch of places with numerous level values:
On this instance I looked for a resort in Washington DC from September 12 – September fifteenth. There’s a variety of outcomes, however I sorted them by miles to see the max mile earnings. The very first thing to notice is that the variety of miles isn’t tied to the room charge. The Hyatt and Hamilton inns are mainly the identical worth, but th Hyatt Place will get you a lot extra miles. The Hamilton resort is ~$200/night time cheaper than the Sofitel Lafayette Sq., but it surely earns 1,000 extra UA miles than the Sofitel. DC is an costly place for inns, so in the event you scroll down the record you’ll see inns within the $300-$1000 vary however the variety of miles earned retains dropping, so your miles per greenback (MPD) simply drops. And keep in mind that that is simply the room charge with out taxes and charges.
In my expertise, the quantity of tax/charges finally ends up being 25% of the room charge. So if we have been to choose the Hyatt resort, we’d anticipate to pay round $500/night time in complete. Certain sufficient, the whole with taxes and charges finally ends up being $507/night time:
In case you worth UA miles at 1.5 cents per mile (cpm), then 29,000 UA miles is price about ~$450 to you. You might be successfully incomes 19 UA miles per greenback spent right here, which is absurdly excessive. Compared, in the event you have been a United 1K and reserving a United flight, the max you might earn continues to be 11 UA miles per greenback. So the per greenback earnings is loopy excessive, however the resort fare can also be costly. You may be questioning, how can RocketMiles afford to provide away so many miles??
Properly, let’s check out the Hyatt web site. In case you attempt to guide the very same resort and nights, you’ll discover that it’s ~$120 cheaper reserving direct than reserving through Rocketmiles. Living proof:
So in impact, you’re paying $120 to purchase 29,000 United Miles, and you’re giving up any keep/elite perks you could have. RocketMiles bookings are thought of pre-paid and customarily inns received’t give any elite credit score for them. The RocketMiles web site claims that folks report incomes keep credit score for RocketMiles bookings, but it surely’s not assured.
So is it price it to pay $120 for 29K UA miles? So long as you worth them above 0.4 cents per mile, then you definately positively ought to. Bear in mind although that this was an excessive instance the place the Hyatt resort gave 29,000 miles. The opposite inns have been giving 19,000, 15,000, 11,000 and decrease quantities for basically the identical costs. I might positively purchase UA miles at 0.4 cents per mile, but when I used to be getting 8,000 miles as an alternative of 29,000, then the online value turns into 1.5 cpm, which isn’t a worth I might purchase at.
And in a nutshell, that’s the RocketMiles enterprise mannequin. They add in additional taxes and charges and use a few of that cash + their resort fee to purchase miles in bulk from these mileage applications and pay you in miles to guide with them. In the event that they’re earnings 10-15% resort fee, on the above reserving they’re charging $120 in charges + getting as much as $180 for the fee, so that they’re netting $300 for the reserving. They’ll use that to purchase United miles in bulk and pay you a big chunk, and hold the remainder in revenue.
The First Secret of RocketMiles
So is RocketMiles price it? It actually will depend on the place you’re staying and particularly which resort. In my expertise, Hyatt inns give *large* bonuses, often far more than the opposite inns at their worth level. That is the primary secret of RocketMiles – guide Hyatt every time you’ll be able to to maximise the mileage factors.
Right here’s an instance of Los Angeles on the identical dates:
Hyatt provides the identical quantity of miles however is means cheaper than the comparable inns. One other instance in New York Metropolis:
Now clearly these different two inns are increased rated than the Hyatt Place, however in the event you’re making an attempt to maximise miles earned then Hyatt is often the most effective at that worth level. Now you may be questioning: That’s all good and all, however these inns are loopy costly and I’m not paying $500 an evening to remain in Manhattan. Even on the low finish, there’s fairly good worth with Rocketmiles:
Normally, RocketMiles provides you with 1,000 miles for each night time stayed. So a spot like NYC isn’t good for RocketMiles the place even the most cost effective inns are costly. In case you choose a spot like Austin, you may get the three,000 miles for ~$100/night time. Plus a spot like NYC has ~15% in tax, whereas RocketMiles will find yourself charging ~25% of their charges, so you find yourself paying $50 for the 3k-6k UA miles, For the 6,000 miles it’s an excellent worth at 0.8 cpm, however for 3,000 miles it’s a ripoff at 1.6 cpm.
So it’s best to all the time examine your remaining worth with what you’d be paying in the event you booked immediately with the resort. Don’t neglect to issue within the worth of factors/elite credit misplaced because of reserving pay as you go with RocketMiles. For instance, in the event you spend $1000 for five nights at a SPG resort, and also you’re a SPG Platinum, you’d earn 3000 SPG factors for that keep. The identical stick with RocketMiles would possibly earn you 5,000 or 10,000 UA miles. I might positively take 10K UA Miles or 3K SPG miles, however I might most likely take 3K SPG miles over the 5K UA Miles.
So to recap, you all the time need to examine the additional that you simply’re paying and whether or not it’s price the additional miles, which leads us to the second secret of RocketMiles…
The Second Secret of RocketMiles
Right here it’s:
Most individuals simply choose the mileage program they fly with essentially the most, so typically United or American for US primarily based flyers. BUT, the most effective program for Rocketmiles is Aeroplan! Right here’s the New York search redone with Aeroplan as an alternative of MileagePlus:
45K Aeroplan miles as an alternative of 30K UnitedMiles for the very same reserving!! That’s an insane acquire. After the taxes and charges, that’s like earnings 22 Aeroplan miles per greenback spent, which is insane. The identical DC Hyatt from above will get us 42K Aeroplan miles as an alternative of the 29K UA miles:
At a web value of ~$1500, you’re incomes 28 Aeroplan miles per greenback spent. It’s like shopping for the Aeroplan miles at ~3 CPM and getting a free resort. Clearly RocketMiles isn’t a device for getting the miles, however in the event you’re reserving a resort, then going Hyatt+Aeroplan is a good combo for incomes tons of miles. To earn 42K miles from flying, you’d must fly 28K miles on Star Alliance enterprise carriers. You’d must fly New York-London round-trip in enterprise after which fly New York-Singapore in enterprise to earn 42K Aeroplan miles, and right here you may get it for staying in a resort for 3 days. Insane!
You possibly can learn extra about Aeroplan in our guide, however they’ve some wonderful redemption charges for Enterprise class journey. One-way enterprise from North America to Europe begins at 55K miles + taxes/expenses, that are fairly low on Swiss, United, and some different carriers. Home US redemptions may also be nice. We received’t go into the specifics right here, however there’s tons of worth available.
Conclusion
Like all issues in life, RocketMiles has many positives and negatives. The positives embody:
- Methods to earn miles on many various applications.
- Nice mileage incomes charges in some places. Incomes 20-30 miles per greenback spent is absurdly excessive.
- Wonderful mileage bonuses for a lot of Hyatt inns
- Nice earnings on particular applications like Aeroplan
- Flexibility to earn miles in circumstances the place there aren’t any good chain inns.
- Availability of non-refundable and refundable fares.
The negatives embody:
- No elite keep credit score or elite advantages at most inns, particularly not SPG inns.
- Poor earnings on sure applications like FlyingBlue, which supply a fraction of the UA/Aeroplan miles
- Extra charges which might be hidden to the consumer, which generally are uneconomical for the miles earned.
- Decreased flexibility because of pre-paid charges and non-refundable rooms.
- No actual chance of room upgrades.
- Poor earnings at decrease fares and in lots of large cities.
General although, RocketMiles is extremely helpful in the precise context. The web neighborhood is fast to dismiss it due to pay as you go charges, however there’s a variety of worth in the event you stick with our two secrets and techniques, the Hyatt and Aeroplan combo. In giant cities particularly, the earnings potential of that’s insane. Every time I’m taking a look at a reserving for work or private journey, I all the time at the least verify RocketMiles to see what’s accessible. I all the time double-check the charges with the general public charge to see what else is feasible. And if all the things seems to be good, then I’ll guide RocketMiles when the good incomes alternatives exist.
Good luck!
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