Originally Posted by
vasantn
So I think I have this figured out.
On RocketMiles, you have only one opportunity to buy extra miles, after you have selected your room. This is unrelated to the cost of the room. So the room miles post as base miles and the extra miles post as bonus miles.
On BookAAHotels, you get two extra bites at the apple. You can choose to pay more for your room (and forfeit the free breakfast which IMO is a bit cheesy) and get extra miles and since they are related to the cost of the room, they will all post as base miles and LPs. Then you have the opportunity to buy "boost" miles at the bottom of the form. I'm fairly confident that these will post as bonus miles.
So BookAAHotels is definitely better for buying extra LPs. RocketMiles is far better in terms of the interface and their customer service has been exceptional, but you can't buy extra LPs. I have not had an occasion to use the BookAAHotels customer service yet but since it's an offshoot of booking.com, I'm betting that it's not extraordinary.
Exactly this. Much better worded than my post...
However, for the searches i have been doing so far for some know travel for later this year, RM is showing hotel options with considerably more miles than BAAH.
ps/side bar - this thread is very clearly predicting what i believe will be a gigantic increase in low-level elites under the new scheme. Obviously, if those elites fly only a few times a year then who cares, but it is interesting to me nonetheless and who knows what the second/third/fourth order effects of that many elites are.