100 Free, Instant American Airlines Miles

by Gary Leff

American AAdvantage will give you 100 miles for joining PointsHound, the hotel search website.

I’ve written about PointsHound in the past, and used it when they had rates that allowed you to earn miles in the airline of your choice for making a hotel booking and still earn hotel points, elite credit, and receive elite benefits from the applicable hotel loyalty program.

Those rates (‘DoubleUp’) have been unavailable due to technical issues between PointsHound and the system they were using to source the rates. However I’m told they’re working on a new approach to bring those rates back.

Without earning hotel points and elite status credit, I don’t want to use sites like PointsHound and Rocketmiles for my own stays (though occasionally I’ll have to book outside of a chain where I care about the points… occasionally). These sites are still useful when making bookings for other people who do not pay attention to rewards programs. You can earn miles for other peoples’ hotel stays.

In addition to the 100 American AAdvantage miles for signing up, PointsHound will give you 2000 bonus American miles for your first booking (in addition to the points you’d otherwise earn through the site) made by March 31 for stays completed by January 31, 2016.

A total of 2100 bonus miles is better than the standard 1000 mile first-time customer bonus you’d get through my referral link when you complete your first stay. And you receive 100 of those miles right away, too, meaning you don’t even ever have to use the site.. just join their mailing list.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  2. […] 1) 100 Free American AAdvantage Miles for Joining PointsHound – PointsHound, which is a site that offer miles or points for booking hotel rooms through them, is offering new users 100 Free AA miles simply for signing up – no purchase required. You will also get an additional 2,000 miles if you actually reserve a hotel room by March 31st. I definitely recommend signing up to get the free 100 AA miles but if you do book a hotel room through them, remember you will most likely not earn stay credit with the hotel program nor have your elite benefits recoginzed. I mainly use PointsHound if I have a non-chain hotel stay. (H/T View from the Wing) […]

Comments

  1. I must be missing something… I followed the link and signed up, but they never asked for my AA# – how do the free 100 miles get credited to my account?

  2. Sorry, answered my own question… Looks like you have to go back and log in and add your aadvantage number in your account profile.

  3. I just signed up for the mailing list and it’s not clear how I’m going to receive the 100 free points if they didn’t ask me for my AA account #. Once I joined I’m simply taken to the main Points Hound landing page, but how do the points then get credited to my AA account?? This needs clarification.

  4. After a big of digging I think I answered my own question. You have to find a tab at the top and click on “My Account” and then add your Loyalty Program. I suggest you make this clear in your blog post.

  7. I just signed up, followed above instructions and clicked on the LEVEL 1 button, from where I went to My Account and added my AA number. Also made it my preferred program. It now shows 100 AA miles are pending.

    I’ll give this site a try, as I have many stays at non-chain or lesser chain motels. Hyatt is my main hotel chain for miles/points earning, but of course they aren’t everywhere I go.

  8. Is booking a room enough to trigger the bonus, or do you need to check in? There are a few very cheap hotels available which might make the 2000 mile bonus marginally attractive for a no- show.

Comments are closed.