American Airlines is the latest airline to partner with HolidayCheck to offer airline miles in return for reviewing hotels on their website. It seems that, in an attempt to compete with TripAdvisor, HolidayCheck needs to offer generous incentives to get you to review.
You will earn 70 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for every review you post on HolidayCheck.
Other airlines also let you earn miles via HolidayCheck. These are:
Miles & More (100 miles per review)
airberlin topbonus (150 miles per review)
airBaltic PINS (150 miles per review)
Etihad Guest (150 miles per review)
There is a cap of 10 reviews per month and you are allowed to backdate reviews for stays up to 24 months ago.
Whilst 70 American Airlines miles may not sound like a lot, it is enough to stop your miles expiring. One quick review every 18 months will keep your AA account in good health.
About Head for Points
I could bash out a dozen or so from my last couple of years’ holidays.
If you have already entered reports onto Tripadvisor just copy and paste them across.
Or copy and paste anyone’s review from tripadvisor?
They ask for proof of stay.
By my calculations you could generate 18k Etihad miles from reviews per year? This seems quite a lucrative possibility. Do any of these schemes have a BA style household account, thinking my auntie, uncle, sister, brother dog and milkman who joined me on holiday might want to write a review?
Etihad certainly does, I have written about it in the past. A friend of mine cleaned up when his parents and extended family (but not him) went to The Maldives and he took all the miles.
I did a review a while back and they did say that they vett the reviews and may ask for proof that you stayed where you said you did!
I’m assuming a booking confirmation email will suffice, if required. I keep mine for years!
I’ve earned a couple of thousand so far in lufthansa. Nice lttle bonus for miles that are harder to earn. I have been asked to provide proof of stay a few times so they do check.
While the ethics are dubious, the proof of stay request (which is regularly required) for reviews where a stay has not actually been made can be overcome with a refundable/cancellable booking that is then refunded/cancelled. You’ll still get a confirmation email at the time of booking of course.
Sounds like a lot of hassle for 70 p worth of miles, especially considering the ethical aspect!
Agreed, although I wouldn’t want to admit to some of the lengths I’ve gone to in the past for a handful of miles.
In any event, unless it’s the only scheme of use to you, you’d be ill-advised to go for the 70 AA miles for holidaycheck reviews when there’s alternatively 100 M&M and 150 Etihad Guest/Topbonus miles available.
I personally value more 70 AA miles than 100MM miles. American has definitly the best program. You can have flight with very little taxes departing from Europe for less miles. But the real value is the ability to give another 18 months easily as Raffles pointed.
I did a review and I wasn’t asked any proof. Maybe they start asking after many reviews in a row.
Easiest thing is to only review hotels you actually stay at. This makes for a useful website (in contrast to the all too often unreliable trip advisor).
In my experience collecting air berlin tb points, holidaycheck (very politely) ask for proof once every eight or so reviews. It takes about 30 seconds to forward the booking confirmation email.
As Tom above has indicated, this doesn’t absolutely guarantee reviews are genuine, but I think it’s reasonable for the site to attempt some form of verification from time to time.
Has anyone else noticed Etihad’s current status match offer?
Yes, will onto this early next week. Only useful in a very particular set of circumstances (unless you can match it to Gold elsewhere!).
Correct me if I’m wrong but all those miles will expire regardless of activity on the account after a few years (depending on the airline) with the exception of AA which you can keep alive with things like this?
Etihad will expire. Miles & More will expire UNLESS you have the UK Miles & More credit card (free) and use it once a month. AA will not expire as long as you have activity of any sort every 18 months.