PointsHound allows hotel guests to earn miles when booking stays through the website. Recently, PointsHound announced they have, “supercharged our website and deals have never been better.” This is an increase in the everyday earn rates, not a special deal. Also, more hotels have been added.
Some examples of new earn rates include the Mondrian Soho in New York City where the average nightly rate is $388 and PointsHound users now average 14,425 American AAdvantage miles for a three-night stay compared to the former 9,950 miles per a three-night stay. Another example was the Four Seasons Las Vegas with an average nightly rate of $277, which will earn 14,225 Alaska Mileage Plan miles compared to the former 9,500. PointsHound partners with 16 frequent flyer programs including American AAdvantage, Alaska Mileage Plan, US Airways Dividend Miles, Virgin America Elevate and more. Visit http://www/pointshound.com to see how many miles you can earn for hotel stays.
Bottom line: When we searched for the same hotels listed in the email announcing the changes, our numbers varied. For a midweek October stay at Mondrian Soho, the nightly rate averaged $434 per night and the earn rate was 900 AAdvantage miles, which is 2,700 miles for a three-night stay (another date netted 1,000 AAdvantage miles per night but still far from the amount mentioned in the email). For the same dates at Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, the nightly rate was $277 with an earn rate of 3,875 Alaska Mileage Plan miles per night, which is 11,625 miles – much closer to the amount displayed on the email from PointsHound announcing the change.
PointsHound has a direct competitor called Rocketmiles that also partners with Alaska, American, US Airways and Virgin America among other programs including United MileagePlus and Southwest Rapid Rewards. We searched for hotel stays at the Mondrian Soho and Four Seasons Las Vegas on midweek dates in October. Rocketmiles did not offer the Mondrian Soho but nearby was the Wyndham Garden Chinatown with an average night of $351 and an offer of 4,000 American AAdvantage miles per night (12,000 miles for a three-night stay). Four Seasons Las Vegas was also not available at Rocketmiles, but the Venetian Resort was available for $299 per night, earning 1,000 Mileage Plan miles per night, so fewer miles compared to what you would earn with PointsHound in Vegas.
We did not take into consideration how many more miles per stay you might earn when you reach higher membership levels with PointsHound which offers up to 20x as a Level 3 member compared to up to 8x if you are a Level 1 member.
Final word? We are sure that PointsHound has increased their earning rate as they mentioned in their email, it just didn’t play through exactly when we searched for a hotel stay. All numbers are dynamic and can change at any time.
