Two points here. First, Gary's referral link is better for folks signing up than the standard referral congas since it comes with 60 days of "level 2" points-earning (~ 50% more mileage earning) from the site. Second, Gary has it set up with PointsHound so that instead of the referrer getting 250 bonus miles with each booking, and the person making the booking gets 250, the person making the booking gets the full 500. So it looks like Gary doesn't get anything from this "referral link" at all.

The way it played out it appeared at first that Gary was going to get the 250 (his proposal to Pointshound to give his readers the full 500 and his 0 hadn't yet been approved when he first posted). But he fully disclosed the potential for the link to give him a whopping 250 miles.

Anyway, there are some good criticisms of the site -- Gary really likes the mileage rebate from bookings while earning elite status credits, even though it's only available for ~ 1000 hotels. Others like cash back sites better. Probably depends on which chains you book most often whether or not this winds up the best deal.