Welcome to the Rocketmiles/AAdvantage Hotels (née BookAAHotels) Official Thread & Wiki!
reflecting July 2023 program changes

AAdvantage Hotels Customer Support phone # (844) 801-6778 and email is [email protected]

Posting times per the AA Hotels Platform FAQ: "Rewards typically post between 3-4 weeks after your stay is completed with the transaction date reflecting your check-in date. If booked through one of our suppliers that provide “Pay Later” rates (pay upon check-in), the rewards typically post within 4 – 6 weeks after your stay is completed."

Posting times per FT user experience: Varies greatly, and cyclically through the year, between several days to 6 weeks after checkout. Within 2 weeks after checkout is arguably "average" but YMMV greatly. Notwithstanding whatever wait you might have, the points will eventually post.

0. Why should I use RocketMiles over AAdvantage Hotels?
You shouldn't. There are no advantages to doing so unless you truly have no superior booking option. AAdvantage Hotels, now being on the same platform, is strictly better if your goal is AA LPs or AA RDM. (Note: RocketMiles, the engine for AAdvantage Hotels, is owned by Booking Holdings: https://about.rocketmiles.com/how-it-works who also owns Priceline, Agoda, Kayak, etc.)

1. Do base miles earned on AAdvantage Hotels count towards Loyalty Point earnings/status?
Yes - but any boost miles (miles purchased during checkout) only count as redeemable miles.

2. How can I maximize my AA earnings? 2a. If I'm approved for an AA credit card, how long will it take for my "AA Cardholder" status to be updated on the Book AA Hotels website?YMMV. Reports here have varied from 1 day to several weeks. Citi appears to be faster than Barclay's.3. What is the max LPs for a booking?
You can earn up to 15,000 LPs max per booking. During the checkout process you will be offered an opportunity purchase additional miles (aka "boost"), but boost miles only add RDM to your earnings, not LPs.

4. What hotels earn miles?
Since July 2023, all hotels on AAdvantage Hotels earn miles. The total will be listed on the search page and you can sort results to find the highest earning hotel for your particular journey parameters.

5. Can I earn miles booking for someone else?
Since July 2023, the booking name must match the name of the AAdvantage account attached to the AAdvantage Hotel account to earn miles. This is further specified in the T&C.

6. Are points awarded based on check-in or check-out date?
Check-in date.

7. How quickly do points post?
Expect points to post approximately 2 weeks after check-out. If points have not posted within a month, contact AAdvantage Hotels customer support.

8. I'm having an issue with my booking. Who should I contact?
If it is an issue regarding the property directly, contact the hotel you've booked with. If the issue is with points or booking, contact AAdvantage Hotels/Booking.com. If a bonus earning has not been properly applied, contact AAdvantage Customer Service. If an issue requires escalation, contact Booking.com through the following channel: [email protected].

9. Will I earn hotel points or get hotel elite benefits in my hotel loyalty program if I book thru Rocketmiles/AAdvantage Hotels?
Unlikely, but occasionally people have posted they got elite benefits or a mistaken hotel credit. Since a hotel room booked thru RM/AA hotels is a 3rd party booking, most hotel stay programs exclude giving any credits or benefit for stays booked thru methods like this. Expect to earn nothing and get no benefits. Anything extra is a nice surprise. You can ask the hotel to add your hotel membership number to your reservation at some point such as before your stay or in person once you arrive, but be prepared for a firm "No."



WARNING: ALL INFORMATION FROM THIS POINT FORWARD REFLECTS THE PROGRAM AS IT EXISTED AS OF 7/13/23. THIS INFORMATION IS HERE PURELY FOR THOSE WITH EXISTING BOOKINGS. IF YOU HAVE QUERIES ABOUT THE CURRENT PROGRAM, PLEASE SCROLL UP.

This Wiki will be built out over time. To begin, we are going to cover a list of the most frequently asked questions in this thread. Over time, we expect to add to this guide with official information from Booking and/or AA, as well as guides on how to best optimise your earning on these wonderful platforms.

1a. Do the points earned on RM/BAAH count towards my annual qualification as Loyalty Points (LPs)?
Yes - the points earned for your booking, as well as the paid multiplier points, are both referred to (and post as) "base miles". This means they count towards your annual status progression.

1b. Which hotels on RM/BAAH earn Loyalty Points?
For RocketMiles, this is easy: once you have selected AA as your frequent flyer program, all hotels that show up in the search results will earn LPs.
The BookAAHotels interface is more complicated -- some hotels that show up in the search results will not earn LPs. LP-earning hotels will have a banner in the search results saying "Earn XX,XXX Base Miles"; no banner means no LPs. Also, before checking out make sure that the "Price Summary" states how many Base Miles (LPs) will be earned after your stay. If no base mile earnings are indicated, you may have accidentally toggled over to the regular Booking.com site, where you will not earn LPs.

2. Do points post quickly after check out?
Forum Experience: For pre-paid stays, reported posting times have varied between several days after checkout and several weeks. Post-paid stays can take up to 8 weeks to post, as their posting is dependent on communication between the hotel and Booking.com/RM/BAAH.
What BAAH and RM say: For BAAH -- "3-4 weeks". For RM -- "typically within 2 weeks after your stay is completed"" or 6-8 weeks if made through Booking.com

3. For what date will the points for a hotel stay count? If I need points by Feb 28, when should I stay at a hotel?
Forum Experience: As of February 2023, RocketMiles.com appears to post stays on AA as the date of check-out. BookAAHotels, however, appears to post stays as of the date of check-in. So if one is looking to lock in miles for February to count for the qualification period, ensure that your check-out is before the 28th of February and that your stay is pre-paid. This way you are assured of your points posting, regardless of platform, and counting towards qualification before your status drops after March ends.
Per AA.com: "Purchases made with your AAdvantage® credit card will count based on the date the activity posts to your AAdvantage® account. All other flight and partner transactions will count based on the activity date of the flight or other transaction." (emphasis added). See Aadvantage FAQs linked here

4. I cannot check-out on RocketMiles - help!
First of all, this isn't a question. Second of all, don't fret. There are at least two class of processing problems known on the RM platform. To solve the majority of them, follow these diagnostic pathways:

0. Clear your cache, disable ....... and JS-script blocking software, and turn off your VPN.
1. Try again with the desired credit card but don’t fill out any of the optional information on the address section, only what’s required. There is a known system with how they handle this info.
1a. Do as above but use your full zip code (this means the 5 required digits and the trailing 4 digits). You can look up your full ZIP here.
2. Push it all the way to the dev team by contacting support via phone. The agent will put you on hold while they reset part of their system.
3. Use another card and keep trying the first card on subsequent purchases until it works again.

If none of the above work, your problem may be related to your account/card being blocked by Booking.com. To alleviate this, contact [email protected]

While this may not work to correct checkout issues on both sites, you should at least now be able to use RM.

5. My stays haven't posted and it has been well past one week (for pre-paids) or eight weeks (for post-paids)!
Call the phone number for RM/BAAH and ask for a manager who can change the status on your stays to “approved”. Every legitimate stay should then be caught in the next cycle. You may receive duplicate emails about previous stays which already posted; sadly, you will not get double miles but this is a positive sign that your oustanding stays have been successfully processed.

6. How many cents per mile is a good rate?
Ultimately this is up to you. However, at the moment, it appears that RM/BAAH have a floor on their miles at around 2.15 cents per mile. The general consensus on FT seems to be that if you can secure a hotel at 2.5 cents per mile, you have done well.

7. Do I need to stay at a hotel to get points?
As long as it is a pre-paid stay, you will receive the points regardless of your presence at the hotel.

8. Will I have to pay the check-in resort fee if I "no show" the stay?
We only have one report of this happening; however, it is not standard practice for RTI (Booking.com) to pass pre-paid credit card details to the stays, so as-of-now the forum is skeptical of this report without further information.

9. Do I get more miles for selecting a better room?
Unfortunately not. The miles are set on a per-location basis; the only way to get more points is to pay for the multiplier/bonus points. Any more expensive rooms will simply mean you're paying more per-mile on your stay.

10. What is the best way to contact the two sites?
E-mail is always the first line of defense. If you fail to get a response within 48 hours (unless this is extremely time sensitive - then call first) then proceed to the phone line. Do note that many of the agents are extremely new or unfamiliar with certain aspects of the program, so be judicious in utilizing your two best friends: the manager and HUACA (hang up and call again).

11. Why can't I contact AA if I have issues?
They don't run the sites. Booking.com does. If you are having a REAL issue (that is, not that your miles didn’t post 15 minutes after checkout, but a technical problem, etc.) a recommended point of contact is [email protected].

12. How do I view only the hotels that award miles on BAAH?
You can't.

13. How do I sort hotels by most points awarded on BAAH?
You can't.

14. How can I see the total stay cost on BAAH on the search screen (as on RM)?
You can't.

15. So then why should I use BAAH?
You shouldn't.

OK, this is a bit of a lie. It is often the occasion that BAAH will offer a slightly higher mileage reward or a hotel that isn't present on RM. Most users will find their target hotel on RM and then do a final sanity check on BAAH to make sure they aren't ignoring a better deal. We certainly recommend this until the UI/UX experience on BAAH is improved.

Also (new in 2023) BAAH is a "select partner" that benefits from LP bonuses (20% for 6 months after achieving 60k LP; 30% for 6 months after achieving 100k LP). RM is not a "select partner" so no bonus LP will be awarded. Note that the bonus is LP only (no bonus RDM are awarded). Although there as some data points with members receiving LP bonuses for the actual stay that put them over the bonus level, AA's official response has been that you'll only receive the bonus LPs for stays completed after you achieve the new bonus level.

16. Can I book a room for someone else but still get the miles in my account?
Yes, if you book through RM. No, if you book through BAAH.

Also, both RM and BAAH will let you book multiple rooms under a single reservation, but the rooms will all be non-refundable. (Booking a single room shows refundable options.)

17. Which year will my LPs count for if I check in a hotel in February but check out in March?
RM stays have their posting date effective the check OUT date.
BAAH stays have their posting date effective the check IN date.
Given the LP program is new for 2022, we assume AA will treat hotel bookings from BAAH and RM the same as a flight taken on Feb 28: LPs will count effective for the date of the posting from RM or BAAH, not the date your account actually gets miles added. Will be updated in March once we have reports

18. Will I earn points in my hotel loyalty program if I book thru RM or BAAH?
Unlikely, but occasionally people have posted they got elite benefits or a mistaken hotel credit, but it's a 3rd party booking, so most hotel stay programs exclude earning for stays booked thru methods like this. Expect to earn nothing and get no benefits. Anything extra is a nice surprise.