RocketMiles Archives - TravelSkills

Earn thousands of airline miles for hotel stays

May 28, 2015

Outdoor terrace at the Peninsula New York. (Image: Peninsula Hotels)

If you don’t mind booking through third-party websites, you can rack up thousands of airline miles on select carriers when you stay at major hotels. We first reported on two of these sites — Rocketmiles and PointsHound — two years ago, and now The New York Times has provided an update.

The Times report notes that although both sites were purchased by other firms recently (Priceline and Points International respectively), they continue to offer the same business model. Travelers who book their hotel stay through the sites can earn up to a tidy 5,000-6,000 air miles per night — or sometimes even more — in exchange for their business.

Here’s an example in NYC– Use Rocketmiles to book the Hilton Doubletree Manhattan for $379 in June and earn a fat 5,000 United or American miles:

Or use Pointshound to book the W Hollywood in LA for $597 and earn 2,800 Virgin America Elevate points

Regrettably, Delta does not play with either of these sites, so no SkyMiles bonuses.

Both work with a varied roster of airlines, including many foreign carriers. Persons who book through the sites must make some tradeoffs for the generous mileage allotments –– e.g., they can’t get hotel points from the property; they must make reservations changes through PointsHound or Rocketmiles instead of with the hotel; and they might not always get the lowest room rate.

Check out the sites and see the big bonuses here: Rocketmiles | PointsHound

Note: These sites have “refer a friend” offers which TravelSkills signed up for (and you can, too). So if you make a booking from links posted here, we get 250-1000 miles. Come on and help us out!

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about: Airport smoking ban? + Trip Report: Aer Lingus + Terminal shuffle at Heathrow + More Uber at airports

New SFO flights + United fee hike + SFO Terminal video + 787

April 29, 2013

Catching up on Bay Area Travel news: New flights to France & China; United hikes fees; video inside new SFO Terminal; flirt on Virgin America flights from San Jose; 787 Dreamliner update, new Routehappy booking site; FlightCar is back.

China Eastern’s A330-200 at SFO (Photo Peter Biaggi)

HUANYING AND BON VOYAGE. Last Friday (April 26) was a busy day at San Francisco International.

At 9:30 am, the first China Eastern A330-200 arrived from Shanghai to a water cannon salute and a welcome celebration at the airport. For now, here’s what we know: The Airbus A330 departs SFO at 11:30 am and arrives at Shanghai Pudong airport (PVG) the following day at 4 pm. On the return, the flight departs Shanghai at 1 pm and arrives at SFO at 9:30 am. Three days a week, the flight offers continuing service to Wuhan (pop 10 million), a central Chinese city many refer to as “the Chicago of China.” At the festive inaugural dinner at the Westin St Francis, I learned that China Eastern offers two types of business class seats on its Airbus A330-200—one type is the angled lie flight, the other is a true lie flat (180 degrees flat). China Eastern’s San Francisco manager Charlie Gu assured me that the San Francisco flight will always get the newer plane with the true lie-flat seats. It has to, if it plans on competing for business travelers with United since the deployment of its excellent new business class product on SFO-PVG nonstops. Every seat on China Eastern’s A330 (coach and business) has personal seatback entertainment systems and access to AC plugs. China Eastern is the second largest carrier in China (after Air China), and flies a relatively young fleet—with an average age of just seven years. SFO joins New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu as the fourth US city served by China Eastern—although, oddly, the airline does not have a US website. China Eastern is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, which offers Delta flyers a new way to earn and burn points on flights to burgeoning China. We’ll provide an in depth look at the new China Eastern flight to Shanghai in a future post.

Passengers on United's inaugural Paris flight greet by a 12-ft Eiffel Tower & free French inspired food & drink. (Photo: United)

Passengers on United’s inaugural Paris flight greeted by a 12-ft Eiffel Tower & free French inspired food & drink. (Photo: United)

On Friday afternoon, United recommenced nonstop service between SFO and Paris-CDG. (United discontinued SFO-CDG nonstops in Oct 2005.) Flight 990 departs San Francisco daily at 2:45 p.m. and arrives at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at 10:45 a.m. the next day. For the return, flight 991 departs Paris at 10:05 a.m. and arrives in San Francisco at 1 p.m. the same day. United operates this new service with Boeing 767-300 aircraft, which offer 30 flat-bed business class seats, 49 seats in Economy Plus and 135 seats in standard economy. The BusinessFirst cabin (configured 2-1-2) includes 15.4-inch touchscreen monitors for personal on-demand entertainment, electrical and USB outlets, iPod jacks and five-course meals. Each seat in Economy features a 9-inch touchscreen with personal on-demand entertainment, and all rows (configured 2-3-2) include access to electrical outlets. Book and fly United to Paris by May 31, and you’ll earn some tidy Mileage Plus bonuses. Air France is currently the only other carrier offering nonstops between SFO and Paris. Paris-based XL Airways offers summer season SFO-CDG flights.

UNITED HIKES CHANGE FEE TO $200. In what appears to be a poorly timed slap in the face to customers just coming off a year a dismal performance by United, the carrier has increased its fee to make changes to nonrefundable tickets by a whopping $50. That means if you want to change a domestic ticket, you’ll now pay $200 (plus any change in fare) for the honor. Want to change an international ticket? That will now be $300, thank you. Shortly after United hiked its fees, US Airways matched, which likely means its future merger partner American will follow suit. That leaves Delta as the hold out, but it’s probably waiting a bit to hike fees after taking so much heat for changing its same-day change fee last week. As we all know, Southwest does not charge change fees at all, but passengers do have to pay any difference in fare if it has increased from the time of purchase. Alaska Airlines and Virgin America still charge a much more reasonable $100 change fee. Is the $200 fee enough to make you switch away from United? Please leave your comments below.

A LOOK AT TERMINAL 3 PROGRESS. SFO has produced a video providing a virtual hardhat tour of the new Boarding Area E at United’s Terminal 3, which is due to open earlier next year. Some interesting facts picked up in the video: The glassy new terminal should be as nice or nicer than SFO’s award winning Terminal 2 (home to Virgin America and American). Expect very wide corridors, high ceilings, giant picture windows with dramatic ramp views, a new “information terrace” at the entryway, environmentally sustainable design and local food vendors.

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MEGA-MILE BONUS SITES GET FUNDING. Remember when we wrote about mega-miles bonus sites Pointshound and RocketMiles last month? Seems like venture capitalists think the sites are on to something. This morning, TravelSkills received a note from RocketMiles announcing that the six-month old company raised $2 million in its first round of external financing.

GET FLIRTY ON VIRGIN AMERICA. You see that hottie in the boarding area and try to establish eye contact. Bingo! You got “the look” back! You get onboard and see the object of your desire a few rows ahead of you. Instead of posting a “missed connection” on Craigslist (and hoping for the best), a new service from Virgin America allows you to send a drink to someone via its seatback entertainment and food ordering system. Locate that hottie on the seatmap, choose a cocktail, and then send it over to them, then follow up with a text message via the system’s seat-to-seat communications platform. (Have a few minutes? Then check out this hilarious Asian animation of the new Virgin service.)

SPEAKING OF VIRGIN AMERICA. South Bay and Peninsula dwellers should be happy to note that Virgin America’s new four-times-daily nonstops between San Jose International and LAX crank up on May 1. Why suffer on another carrier’s cramped RJ when you can jump on Virgin’s mod A320 and send the hottie across the aisle a cocktail? Virgin will be entering the very crowded San Jose-LAX run, which is already served by five carriers: Low fare leader Southwest , United (which dominates the Bay Area) as well as American, Delta and Alaska Airlines. Southwest flies a one-class 737 on the hour-or-so long route, Delta, United and American fly regional jets, and Alaska uses a turbo-prop. Virgin is offering a two-for-one sale on SJC-LAX flights through May 31.

STATUS OF SFO’s LONG TERM PARKING LOT? From TravelSkills reader Damian: Chris, I love TravelSkills! Have you written about the SFO Long Term Parking garage? It has had floor closures for a couple years and is now empty. One parks outside or even gets a pass to go to short term parking at the same rate. Does the garage have structural problems? Seems like it should be a scandal. Perhaps this is old news but in poking around on the Web I didn’t happen to find anything.” Having noticed the same thing…and wondered, we contacted SFO, and spokesperson Doug Yakel helped clear things up. He said, “The level closures in the Long-Term Garage are part of an ongoing, pre-planned schedule to accomplish routine maintenance. This includes pressure washing, restriping of ground markings and light bulb replacements. Only one floor is closed at a time for this work, and the work is scheduled to ensure all levels are open during peak demand periods such as the holiday travel season. We also monitor occupancy rates to ensure the appropriate match of supply and demand, and modify closure schedules if needed.”

ANA’s expansive true lie-flat business class seat on its Boeing 787 (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

787 UPDATE. As you may recall, ANA’s important new nonstops from San Jose to Tokyo-NRT were waylaid by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounding, forcing all passengers to fly via SFO. While the FAA and Japanese authorities have given a conditional green light to new flights, ANA says it will begin by “replacing existing batteries with new batteries, changing to new battery chargers and installing new battery containment boxes and venting system. The improvements will require approximately one week per aircraft, with work on all seventeen aircraft scheduled to be completed by the end of May.” After that will be new crew training and a series of heavily monitored “proving flights.” This week, an ANA spokesperson told TravelSkills that it should have a firm date for the resumption of SJC-NRT by May 9. How would you feel about flying on a Dreamliner across the Pacific? Please leave your comments below.

GET AROUND SFO CEASE & DESIST. The smart guys at FlightCar have found a way around the airport’s recent cease and desist order pushing it and other new-fangled airport transport options such as Lyft off airport property. Now, instead of dropping your car off with a FlightCar attendant at the airport, you drop your car at its off-airport lot, and then a licensed black car brings you to your terminal. When you land, you call FlightCar and the black car is sent to pick you up and brings you back to your car. Have you tried FlightCar? Should unlicensed transportation serviced be allowed at SFO? Leave your comments below.

—Chris McGinnis

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Mega mileage earning bonuses proliferate

April 11, 2013

A room at the Andaz Wall Street in NYC nets 15K Mileage Plus miles (Photo: Andaz)

Word about two new travel websites, RocketMiles and PointsHound, which woo frequent travelers with massive mileage bonuses for hotel bookings, is starting to leak out.

A quick scan of RocketMiles today shows that it is currently offering 15,000 Mileage Plus miles for a three-night stay (@ $493/night) at the swank Andaz Wall Street in New York City in late April. On Pointshound, book three nights at the trendy James Chicago hotel at $254/night, and you earn 6,600 Virgin America Elevate points.

Sounds to good to be true, right?

Let’s take a look and see if they are right for you.

First off, these sites are likely appeal to the type of traveler who is more focused on earning miles than saving money. That’s because the rates they offer are close, but not always as low as those found on more conventional booking sites.

They are set up to appeal to so-called “rogue” or “unmanaged” travelers—those who are not required (or choose not) to book hotels through a central corporate travel department or agency.

Screenshot from RocketMiles

Pointshound founder Peter Van Dorn told TravelSkills that a light bulb went off when research showed that 61% of all business travelers book hotels wherever they want, regardless of company policy (and without penalty). He added, “The other related data we found encouraging was the size of this market: ~8 million elite-level frequent travelers in the US make 13 hotel bookings a year on average. At ~$300 per stay, this gets to a market size of $30 billion just in the US.”

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Earn 8,000 Mileage Plus miles at the Westin Michigan Ave in Chicago (Photo: Westin)

How do they do it? Generally, the sites buy distressed hotel room inventory (unsold rooms) at a discount, then mark the rate up to the average online travel agency price, and take that spread. Then, they buy miles from airline programs to provide members with the incentive to book through their sites.

“Every property is selected and screened by our staff of experienced business travelers. RocketMiles attracts the type of frequent travelers that our hotel providers are trying to reach, which is why they offer us rates with enough margin to bundle the rooms with incredible amounts of airline miles. It’s a win-win for everybody,” said RocketMiles founder Bjorn Larsen in an interview with TravelSkills from Chicago.

Both sites are free. And both offer the promise of big mileage bonuses, but there are some differences worth noting.

Pointshound, with offices in downtown San Francisco, was first to market with the concept (Oct 2012), and partners with more than 150,000 hotels around the world. It offers mileage bonuses on three different tiers based on rate—the cheapest rates net the fewest bonus miles. Pay a bit more, and your bonus-earning blossoms, or you can pay a rate that allows you to earn both miles and hotel points. Members earn miles with United Mileage Plus, Virgin America Elevate, Delta SkyMiles, American AAdvantage among others.

RocketMiles is just coming off beta this month, and its hotel inventory is limited—on purpose. The site states, “We don’t want to bother you with unremarkable offers…We only offer a handful of hotels in cities and neighborhoods where our customers travel the most.” When you book via RocketMiles, you are unable to earn hotel program points. But the mileage bonuses it offers are tough to resist. RocketMiles works with United Mileage Plus, Delta, American, US Airways, and Hawaiian.

Sounds great, but not everyone is completely sold on the idea yet. Seth Miller, who writes the popular and pithy Wandering Aramean Boarding Area blog told TravelSkills, “I’m not entirely convinced that either product is going to be universally better for travelers. There are so many booking portals now, each with their own hook trying to get a share of the booking market…In many ways the proliferation of these sites makes it harder for consumers to compare the total value proposition. That’s not to say that they’re bad; it just means a bit more work to truly maximize your travel dollar.”

When it comes to hotels, are you a price shopper or a points shopper? Are the big bonuses worth shopping yet another travel site? Please leave your comments below.

—Chris McGinnis

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Big SkyMiles bonuses at hotels + Calculating Delta MQDs + Inheriting SkyMiles

April 2, 2013

How about a nice 10,000 Skymiles bonus for a couple nights at the chic Public Hotel in Chicago? (Photo: Public Hotel)

BIG SKYMILES BONUSES FOR HOTEL BOOKINGS. Have you heard of RocketMiles? It’s a new hotel booking site (new since last November) that is offering unbelievably large mileage bonuses for bookings at a handful of high-end hotels in several major cities around the country. For example, it’s offering a whopping 9,500 SkyMiles bonus for a two night stay at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan in April; 10,000 SkyMiles for a two-night stay at Ian Schrager’s swanky new PUBLIC hotel in Chicago. How about 7,000 SkyMiles at the InterContinental San Francisco near Moscone Center? How do they do it? “Every property is selected and screened by our staff of experienced business travelers. Rocketmiles attracts the type of frequent travelers that our hotel providers are trying to reach, which is why they offer us rates with enough margin to bundle the rooms with incredible amounts of airline miles. It’s a win-win for everybody,” said Bjorn Larsen, one of RocketMiles’ founders contacted by The TICKET. We checked and found some of RocketMiles’s hotel rates mildly inflated compared to rates found on the hotel brand sites. For example, the RocketMiles rate at the InterConti San Francisco is $319 per night, but on IHG.com, it’s $284. So this might work best for “unmanaged” business travelers who simply have to submit a receipt to their client or company for reimbursement. Larsen contends that in a recent RocketMiles study, its rates were the same or lower than other online sites 85% of the time. Along with Delta SkyMiles, RocketMiles works with American AAdvantage, HawaiianMiles and United Mileage Plus. Check it out and let us know what you think. Note: RocketMiles has a “refer a friend” offer on the site, and we signed up for it (and you can, too). So if you make a booking from links posted here, we get 1000 miles. Come on and help us out!

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TAXES & FEES…AND SURCHARGES. Delta’s new SkyMiles rules state that you’ll earn Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) on fare only—you will not earn it on the taxes and fees included in the ticket price. When we first dug into that new wrinkle, it looked ugly. For example, on a $1,149 coach fare between Atlanta and London in May, nearly half that– $644– is comprised of “taxes/carrier-imposed fees,” which made it look like you’d only earn 505 MQDs for that round trip.

That seemed like a total rip off, so we asked Delta to confirm.

Thankfully, Delta told The TICKET that it’s only the government-imposed taxes and fees that don’t count as MQDs. Since “surcharges” are imposed by Delta, they do count toward MQDs. In the case of the $1,149 ticket to London, there’s a $458 “carrier imposed international surcharge.” So when you tack that on to the $505 base fare, you get $963—and 963 MQDs.

Not great, but not as bad as we thought.

This means that the math used in this widely circulated CNN/Fortune/Money article about Medallion Qualification Dollars– which was sent to us by many alarmed TICKET readers– is not correct.

SKYMILES IN YOUR WILL? Here’s another reason to burn up those banked SkyMiles as soon as you can. Last month Delta quietly (and without any warning) changed its rules when it comes to passing your SkyMiles along to heirs when/if you die. The new rules state that as of March 2013 “miles may not be transferred…upon death.” Old rules allowed an executor to transfer miles to the accounts of heirs. Delta joins several other carriers that do not allow mileage transfers upon death. How do you get around this? First, those who are terminally ill should transfer miles to heirs as soon as possible. At a minimum, everyone should leave their SkyMiles account number and login information with someone who can redeem miles or make transfers in the event of their demise. Have you done this??

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