Booking Hotels + Car Rentel Thru Delta?
 

Hello -

I'm a new business traveler, using Delta, Marriott, and National as my preferred companies. I saw today that Delta offers points for booking through them for hotels and cars. Should I be booking there in order to get more miles?

Thank you for the advice.

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I too am a Delta/Marriot snob, but use Hertz as being a DM gets me Hertz elevated status and perks.
One of them is the extra miles when booked through Delta.
The rates are usually good (80%), so I'll check other companies on the Delta site as well as independently.
But using Delta, gets me the extra miles, and with the elevated Hertz status, I can select a 'standard' car, but when I walk onto the lot, I get my choice of Presidents Circle cars, which have been almost always very nice upgrades.

I suspect that as a very general rule, if you're eligible for special rates such as AAA or your own corporate rates, they will be better than what you're offered through DL. YMMV.

if you make a standalone booking - just the hotel without an attached flight - delta processes that through hotels.com so you will follow any rules for earning when booking through a third party or OTA. I believe most hotel chains do not allow you to earn points on OTA bookings, and some won't even honor your elite status

I initially booked my Hertz via DL website. Granted I get 1100 or so bonus miles .But the DL CDP disc doesn't come near as good as the USAA CDP rates I am qualified for..so I cancelled, and booked directly via Hertz thru USAA instead. Still had Hertz apply the bonus miles, to my Skymiles acct, upon booking.

Aside from the points/earning status issue, it may end up costing more money. Many hotel chains will provide free internet access if you book direct. Booking made through online travel agencies don't include perk, which can raise the rate by an estimated $10.

Of course, that assumes that you use internet at the hotel, which pretty much is a given. It won't matter at hotels that give internet to everyone. And if this is business travel, that's probably a cost that gets reimbursed. Still, I think it's worth mentioning.

In my experience it has been the same price or cheaper than the hotel's list rate. Delta will also have some Silver/Gold level hotels that give you thousands of miles. I book all of my hotels through their hotels site, and haven't had any issues. I also have my own MiFi, so I don't use/care about free hotel internet.

To answer OP's question, if you're not necessarily loyal to a single hotel chain, (like me - I try to find the nicest/closest hotel relative to my destination) then booking this way is a great way to earn a lot of "free" miles.

I just booked and drove a Hertz rental thru the DL website as an add on to my ticket, for the first time. During the car choosing windows, a little popup said something along the lines of, "1850 miles for this car," but I see on my activity that I rec'd 1250 miles. I don't know how these are calculated, is there a formula or set number per dollar amount or rental?