Avoid booking hotel stays directly if you want to maximize your American Loyalty Points.

American Airlines has fully rolled out its new elite-qualifying metrics. You’ll now earn AAdvantage elite status based on Loyalty Points, a new currency linked to the base miles from a range of qualifying activities, including online shopping, credit card use, and hotel stays.

In true TPG style, we're exploring all eligible partners to identify which activities will help you achieve status the fastest and with the least expense. This week, our focus is on American's hotel partners.

You can earn Loyalty Points by crediting stays booked directly with Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG to American, or by using American's hotel portal and Rocketmiles for your bookings.

We usually suggest booking directly with hotels to earn hotel points and enjoy elite perks. However, if Loyalty Points are your goal, booking through third-party sites may be a better option. In fact, our testing showed we earned 20x more Loyalty Points this way.

Accumulate Loyalty Points through your hotel stays.

As a quick recap, here’s how many award miles and Loyalty Points you can earn with various chains when opting for AAdvantage miles instead of hotel points:

• Hyatt: Earn 500 miles for each stay (and an extra mile per dollar spent if you’re an American elite).
• Marriott: Earn 1-2 AAdvantage miles per dollar on eligible charges. Luxury brands like Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott offer 2 miles per dollar, while budget options like Aloft and Moxy provide only 1 per dollar.
• IHG: Earn 1-2 miles per dollar on qualifying room charges. Stays at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites yield 1 per dollar, while other brands provide 2 per dollar.

Alternatively, you could earn up to 10,000 miles per night by booking through the American Airlines Hotels portal or Rocketmiles. Both are part of Booking Holdings Group, but nightly rates and earnings may differ, so comparing both is advisable. Note that any bonus offers through these portals, like those for first-time users, do not contribute to Loyalty Points.

Keep in mind that while you can earn up to two miles per dollar spent with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, these miles do not contribute to your Loyalty Points.

Direct booking versus Rocketmiles

Not every hotel is available on the American Airlines Hotels or Rocketmiles portals. However, there are hundreds of thousands of participating properties, including those from major hotel chains. So, when faced with various booking options, how do you choose between booking directly or through a portal?

To explore this, we booked the same hotel in two different ways. Specifically, we secured two rooms at a Fairfield by Marriott in New York City—one booked directly through Marriott with American miles as our earning choice, and the other via Rocketmiles.

You might expect that booking directly would yield the most rewards. However, based on the earning rates mentioned earlier, you can likely guess which option accrued more miles.

Our Rocketmiles reservation earned us 2,000 American miles, whereas the Marriott booking garnered only 116 miles. That's nearly a 20x difference!

The two rooms were the same, but there were two key differences in how we booked them.

Elite perks

Firstly, the direct booking received the standard Marriott Bonvoy elite status recognition. However, the benefits were somewhat limited since breakfast was provided for all guests, and there were no suites available. The main advantage of our status was a welcome gift of 500 bonus Marriott points.

Even though we credited our stay to American, this booking also accumulated Marriott elite-qualifying nights and contributed to the Ambassador Elite spending requirement. In contrast, the Rocketmiles booking did not earn any elite-qualifying credits and provided no elite benefits.

Pricing

Secondly, there was a significant difference in the nightly rates. We had the option to select from various rates through Marriott, including member-exclusive and AAA rates. Additionally, we benefited from Marriott's best rate guarantee, ensuring we secured the lowest price. However, Rocketmiles only offered two options—refundable and nonrefundable—and both were considerably higher.

We booked the AAA rate directly for $136, inclusive of taxes and fees (approximately $12 less than the standard member rate). In comparison, our Rocketmiles booking totaled around $197. To be fair, the price gap won't always be this drastic—sometimes, there may be no difference at all—but it was quite substantial in this instance.

Return

In this scenario, Rocketmiles proved to be significantly more rewarding. We earned approximately 10 miles per dollar spent through Rocketmiles, which translates to about 10 Loyalty Points per dollar as well. In contrast, Marriott offered only 1 Loyalty Point per dollar (excluding taxes and fees). The elite benefits were irrelevant here since breakfast was complimentary and there were no opportunities for upgrades.

That 10x return via Rocketmiles was even more advantageous than flying with American. Depending on your status tier, you earn between five and 11 miles per dollar on the base ticket. To receive the maximum 11x return, you need to hold the top-tier Executive Platinum status.

Although we opted out, we could have achieved an even better return through Rocketmiles. During the booking process, we were presented with the chance to earn an extra 2,000 miles for about $56 more. If we had accepted, we would have ended up earning around 16 miles per dollar, which is a pretty impressive return, in my opinion.

Final thoughts

Typically, you'll achieve the highest returns on hotel stays by booking directly and opting for hotel points. However, if you're aiming for American elite status through hotel stays, booking via Rocketmiles or American Airlines Hotels may yield significantly more Loyalty Points compared to direct bookings.

In our experiment, the direct booking had no impact on our Loyalty Point total, while the Rocketmiles reservation contributed about 7% toward AAdvantage Gold status. However, this came at the cost of losing our elite benefits and elite earnings, along with a higher nightly rate.

The takeaway: always compare your booking options before making a decision.