Latest ridiculous Total Rewards partnership: Rocketmiles

So I got an e-mail today (which I assume all TR members) received, promising RCs for staying in regular (non-Caesars) hotels. You just need to book through their new partner "Rocketmiles".

I was very skeptical of this. Often "rewards" programs which come with bookings involve inflated hotel prices, to where the unsuspecting customer doesn't realize he's getting a worse deal than just booking normally.

This is different than the status match programs (such as the current one with Wyndham), which have an upside but no downside.

So I decided to play with it.

I clicked on this link to get started, and searched Miami, Florida for tomorrow. Why Miami? I don't know. Just picked it out randomly.

It showed me 65 hotels in the Miami area to choose from. It wasn't a full list of Miami hotels, but it did contain both boutique brands and mainstream brands (such as IHG).

I randomly picked Holiday Inn Express Airport Doral Area, to compare rates.

On IHG's site (that is, booking regularly), I found these rates for 1 night on November 17th:
"Standard Room" (hotel picks for you): $173 (non-refundable), $199 (refundable)
1 King: $203 (non-refundable), $234 (refundable)
Two Queens: $212 (non-refundable), $244 (refundable)



Rocketmiles gave the following rates:

"Basic Double" $181 + you earn 2000 RCs (worth $20)
"Basic Double" $206 + you earn 3000 RCs (worth $30) "Today's special"

Why would anyone pay $25 for 1000 more RCs, which are worth at most $10?

How is that a "special"?

Also, there is no "basic double" at this hotel, so I'm assuming this is equivalent to "standard room", where they assign your room.

So yeah, you're getting a better deal, because you can cancel the Rocketmiles ones, and the IHG ones are somewhat more expensive if you get the cancellation rate.

But you have to choose the "standard" room and hope they give you a room you like, and if they don't, tough luck. So I wouldn't want to go with that option.

You also cannot get any kind of special rates through Rocketmiles such as AAA, Government, etc.

Verdict: This looks like a waste of time, and I'm not going to bother with it.

At first I thought it was a way to use a Seven Stars Retreat to CET locations which did not have attached hotels -- as in Horseshoe Baltimore. But when I opened the link, I see that Dan was right -- lame "promo."

FAB

I received Amtrak offers regarding Rocketmiles. Basically, if I book a hotel through Rocketmiles the first time, I get 3000 Amtrak points. The value of the points varies somewhat according to route and date, but the 3000 seem to be worth around $50, so that would make taking a $20 hit on the hotel not a bad thing.

It's a tribute to CET that they couldn't manage a similar promotion (yes, Sheldon, that was sarcasm).