PointsHound now lets you choose to earn points or rebates for the hotel bookings you make for yourself or others in 18 different currencies.

You can do bitcoin if you wish, basically just earning in a foreign currency.

Or you can earn miles with a bunch of different programs. The newest options are Cathay Pacific’s AsiaMiles and JetBlue’s TrueBlue.

I find the best rates of return to be Alaska miles and American miles (I generally choose to accrue with Alaska).

You can sign up without a bonus, or the standard offer for being referred by an existing PointsHound user is 250 points each with your first booking.

My referral link, though, ups that bonus to 1000 miles.

My favorite things about PointsHound have been:

• That you earn miles when booking for someone else
  
• That they have ‘DoubleUp’ rates that earn miles through them, hotel points through the chain you’re staying with, and credit towards elite status.

However technical problems have paused the availability of these DoubleUp rates.

Nonetheless, I’ve tended to find PointsHound more personally useful than their major competitor Rocketmiles.

Rocketmiles has offered more miles much of the time (and I used to think it was an advantage that Rocketmiles let you earn United miles, but I no longer do). But Rocketmiles has far fewer hotels to choose from. And worth noting that PointsHound earning has increased.

Always check rates on the mileage rebate sites with the best rates you can get elsewhere. It’s often the same, sometimes more, and I’ve even seen hotels for much less with PointsHound. So your mileage may vary and know that the prices can deviate.

Still, booking hotels especially for others who aren’t concerned with loyalty programs, I love being rebates points for doing the favor..

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