PointsHound has been emailing members to say that they should now use Rocketmiles. And if you attempt to visit the PointsHound website, you will be redirected to Rocketmiles. For all practical purposes, therefore, PointsHound no longer exists for new bookings.

Both PointsHound and Rocketmiles started out as independent – with a similar business model of giving airline miles to clients who book through them – but had been bought up by larger groups: Points.com in the case of PointsHound and Booking.com in the case of Rocketmiles.

With PointsHound disappearing, Rocketmiles becomes the major player in the “miles for hotel stays” game. Kaligo.com also remains a competitor, but with fewer airline programs to choose from.

Who Cares?

Now that you can earn Loyalty Points from American Airlines AAdvantage by booking hotels – click here for details – you might be tempted to book more hotel stays via Rocketmiles or BookAAHotels. (which is just a white label version of Rocketmiles)

You often end up paying more for your hotel stays, as Rocketmiles sometimes inflates the rate to pay for the miles they buy on your behalf.  And when you book a chain hotel via Rocketmiles, you do NOT earn any points, elite status credit, etc. – hotels will rarely provide any elite benefits either…

But if you need an independent hotel, and the miles you earn compensate for any mark-up, then Rocketmiles can be a reasonable option…

Rocketmiles does offer interesting sign-up bonuses, but has been cracking down on multiple “new memberships”. So you might have run out of unused loyalty programs, credit card numbers, and email addresses by now… 😉