Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How I earned 7,000 Heathrow Rewards points with a £135 Rocketmiles hotel booking

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Back in September, we wrote about an excellent hotel promotion.

Hotel booking site Rocketmiles was (and still is) offering ‘first time users’ 5,000+ easy Avios or other airline miles for a one night booking.

I tried this offer out myself last week when I was up in Manchester to visit PremiAir.  I earned a total of 7,000 Heathrow Rewards points on a £135 room booking which will convert into at least 7,000 Avios.  Read on for how that worked out.

What is Rocketmiles?

Rocketmiles – if you are not familiar with it – is a similar website to PointsHound, Agoda and Kaligo.com.  You can earn airline miles and other loyalty points in a wide variety of schemes when you book your hotel stays via rocketmiles.com.

The one downside of Rocketmiles is that your stays will be treated as ‘non-qualifying’ by the hotel.  This means that you won’t earn points in the hotel’s own loyalty programme and you probably won’t get your status benefits either.  Rocketmiles, Kaligo.com etc are best used when booking a stay at an independent hotel or at one where you don’t actively collect their points.

Get 5,000+ miles with your first Rocketmiles booking

Via this special link, you will earn 5,000 bonus miles, on top of your base miles, when you make your first booking through Rocketmiles.

You have until 31st December to book and the stay can be at any point in the future.  You get 5,000 bonus points on all participating hotels.

Not all hotels are participating.  There seems to be some sort of cost threshold, and you also do not get the bonus if you book one of the hotels on the site which is offered via the Rocketmiles partnership with booking.com.  It is very easy to see which hotels are taking part, however.

You should assume that ‘first booking’ means that NONE of the following have been used before to book via Rocketmiles – your rewards programme number, your credit card number AND your email address.

Of the reward schemes we tend to cover on Head for Points, the following are included in the offer:

  • American Airlines AAdvantage
  • Emirates Skywards
  • Etihad Guest
  • Flying Blue
  • Heathrow Rewards
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

“But what about Avios?” you shout ….

I was coming to that.

IN THEORY, Avios is excluded.  The small print of the offer says:

“Promotion cannot be redeemed through AerLingus Aer Club, Amazon.com Gift Cards, American Airlines Business Extra, British Airways Executive Club, Caesars Total Rewards, Malaysia Enrich, @MyAirItalyClub, Norwegian Rewards, REI Gift Card, Sony Rewards, Uber Gift Cards, Vueling Club.“

All of the companies highlighted are Avios partners.

However, IN REALITY, you CAN earn 5,000 Avios from this offer.  How?  By crediting to Heathrow Rewards.

Heathrow Rewards Rocketmiles

Why should you credit your Rocketmiles stay to Heathrow Rewards?

Usually, when you earn miles via Rocketmiles, they are sent directly to the partner of your choice – Avios, Virgin Flying Club, Etihad Guest etc.

The Avios airlines, however, are excluded from this offer.

However, if you credit to Heathrow Rewards instead you can ultimately move the bonus to Avios and earn 5,000 points.

Why?  Heathrow Rewards has a lot of 1:1 transfer partners.  5,000 Heathrow Rewards points from this offer can be transferred into:

  • 5,000 Avios
  • 5,000 Virgin Flying Club miles
  • 5,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles
  • 5,000 Royal Brunei RoyalSkies miles
  • 5,000 Emirates Skywards miles
  • 5,000 Aegean Miles&Bonus miles
  • £50 Heathrow Airport shopping voucher
  • £100 Heathrow Airport parking voucher

…. and you could even mix and match across the various redemptions.  You can leave your points sitting in Heathrow Rewards until you are firm about where you need them.

If you’re not a member of the scheme yet, you can find out how Heathrow Rewards works in this article.

There is also the opportunity for a transfer bonus

Heathrow Rewards ran some aggressive transfer bonuses in 2017 and 2018.  So far in 2019 we have only seen one deal – a 50% bonus on transfers to Asia Miles, which is still running until 18th November.  However, we used to see:

  • 100% bonus on redemptions for Heathrow shopping vouchers
  • 50% bonus on transfers to Virgin Flying Club
  • 50% bonus on transfers to Avios
  • 100% bonus on transfers to Miles & More

Even if your only interest from Rocketmiles is earning Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines or Emirates miles – which you can earn directly from Rocketmiles – it may well make more sense to credit your stays to Heathrow Rewards instead and wait for a transfer bonus.  If there is no bonus, you can still convert at the standard rate and you aren’t any worse off.

The bonus points show up during the booking process for participating hotels so there is no risk that you do not get them, unless Rocketmiles later identifies you as a ‘previous customer’.

Do not book if you don’t see the 5,000 bonus points listed.  It means that your hotel is not participating.

How did it work out when I tried it?

Needing a hotel in Manchester for one night – and knowing that I had to check out early and would get breakfast at PremiAir – I was fairly ambivalent about where I stayed as long as it was decent.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to check out this deal.

Booked five days in advance, there were only TWO participating hotels in Manchester.  I chose the Marriott Manchester Victoria & Albert Hotel on the edge of the City Centre:

Manchester Marriott Victoria and Albert hotel

The price was £135.  This was the same as the price offered on marriott.com to non-members of Marriott Bonvoy.  The discount for Bonvoy members was very tiny so I only ‘overpaid’ by £5 or so.

This hotel earned 2,000 base Heathrow Rewards points plus the 5,000 bonus.  This was an excellent return of 7,000 Heathrow Rewards points.  If Heathrow Rewards ever repeats its ‘100% bonus on transfers to Heathrow shopping vouchers’ offer then I can cash them in for £140-worth.

There was also a VAT quirk, however.  Rocketmiles books your room from outside the UK and so no VAT is triggered.  As this was a HfP work trip, I would be able to reclaim the VAT usually – a £135 room only really costs me £112.50.  The net difference, adjusting for income tax and NI, is that I ‘overpaid’ in total by around £17 plus the value of the Bonvoy points I would have earned.  This was worth it for 7,000 Heathrow Rewards points.

For anyone travelling for personal use, ignore the VAT discussion above.  It doesn’t impact you.

It was interesting to note that Rocketmiles paid the hotel £77.  This means that Rocketmiles will have broken even on the transaction after paying Heathrow Rewards £50-70 for my 7,000 points.

Don’t worry about your Heathrow Rewards points expiring. You need to go three years without earning points for that to happen, and simply spending £1 in the airport gets you another three years.

I checked out on Wednesday 6th November and the Heathrow Rewards points posted yesterday (Monday 11th).

Conclusion

This is a good deal if you are new to Rocketmiles and well worth a try if you can fit it in to your schedule.  Remember that you need to book by 31st December but the stay can be at some future date.

The special Rocketmiles booking page is here.  Remember that you must be a first time Rocketmiles customer, and that means using a credit card number, email account and transfer partner account number which is they do not recognise.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

Air France KLM and Flying Blue, American Airlines and AAdvantage, British Airways and Avios, Etihad and Etihad Guest, Heathrow Rewards, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (72)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • memesweeper says:
    12 Nov12 November 09:16

    What does Rocketmiles show up on the credit card bill / invoice as?

  • Charlieface says:
    12 Nov12 November 09:29

    Better question is why you would pay £130 for a room in Manchester anyway. Was it peak season?

    • John says:
      12 Nov12 November 09:40

      It was a work trip so I guess the price wasn’t too important. And he didn’t pay £130.

      • Rob says:
        12 Nov12 November 10:04

        I was in the room working from 2pm until midnight. Price was comparable to other 4-star options.

        I mean, really, what’s the point? Why would I want to stay in a dumpy budget hotel to save £50? I was in the hotel working for 10 hours. My ‘personal’ cost is only a fraction of what I pay because I get a 50% tax write-off and I keep all the points. The ‘saving’ would be £25, not £50, in return for which I would have to spend one of my few remaining days on this planet in a cheapo hotel. Why would I do that? HFP generates £25 in the time it takes me to have a shower.

        At some point you will wake up one morning and realise that no-one is going to give you a prize if you die with a pile of money in the bank, having lived a more depressing life than was otherwise necessary in order to get to that point. One ‘upside’ of my Dad dying at 48 (so I have now overtaken him) is that deliberately having a shittier life than you need to has never appealed.

        On the upside, if you ever want a job you’re welcome to come and work for us, since I can clearly dump our “all business travel travel, only 4/5 star hotels” travel policy for you 🙂

        • Sussex Bantam says:
          12 Nov12 November 10:23

          Amen to that Rob

        • Dev says:
          12 Nov12 November 11:53

          Happy to work for you if you keep the existing travel policy and need an experienced traveller who also writes articles for businesses! Live down the road from you… 😊

        • bazza says:
          12 Nov12 November 13:53

          This is where I think charlieface represents the true demographic readership of this site – whether you like it or not…..
          They are not spending a god dam penny that don’t need to on travel!

          • Rhys says:
            12 Nov12 November 14:07

            If that were true, nobody would be flying in business class or staying in nice hotels, which clearly isn’t the case….

            And Rob’s hotel was effectively free anyway, because £135 of room costs him under £70 personally (HFPs profit is reduced by £135 which reduces his tax bill) and the points are worth £70, or £140 if there is a double up offer. £50 for an Ibis Budget would have cost him more….

          • Lady London says:
            12 Nov12 November 16:01

            Er….IBIS Budget *shudder*.

            And I’m definitely on the cheapo side of the house.

            Sorry to hear about your Dad going at only 48, Rob.

            One other way to look at being cheapo, it’s kind of the same thing, is to say if I’m cheap I can get to see a lot more places around the world …so kind of another way of achieving the same aim of living it rather than leaving it.

          • Lady London says:
            12 Nov12 November 16:03

            Yes Bazza but we’re all aspirational which is what sets us apart.

          • Spurs Debs says:
            12 Nov12 November 17:17

            As my Mum would say why go away and stay in a room worse than your own home. I’m currently sitting on balcony of my king suite in Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah which was upgraded from a twin basic room. Booked in Hilton 30% off sale and after reading Robs articles on this and the Waldorf on the palm. Flew out club world paid £700 return WTP fare upgraded with points. I earn 10k points as silver plus it’s double Hilton points promotion.
            My time off is far to precious to stay in a dump.
            Although £8 for a pot of tea I’m so glad I always bring my supply of tea bags with me.

          • Rob says:
            12 Nov12 November 18:03

            Those suites are OK! Trying to remember which ones we had the other week – I think it was 328 and 329.

            What is OK about this place is that the patisserie is OK for a snack (ok, coffee and cake!) if you’re not in the mood for a full meal.

          • Spurs Debs says:
            12 Nov12 November 18:43

            The cakes/ desserts are lovely. I’ve got room 607 very nice sea view with huge balcony. I’ve not explored much as only got here today. Been as far as spa to book treatments and restaurant for dinner.

          • Lady London says:
            12 Nov12 November 20:04

            Own tea bags, first stop after arriving : the spa to book treatment, followed by booking dinner in the restaurant….. you have your priorities right, @Spurs Debs!

    • Charlieface says:
      12 Nov12 November 14:50

      Actually I think I’m very unrepresentative of the readership. I’m probably far younger than most, I live in ‘up naarth’ and I probably earn a fraction of what most people here earn. I also don’t actually travel that often, I’m really on HFP mainly for the deals, bonuses and tricks, as I often book travel for others.
      Maybe I’m more of an MSE reader, except more brains 🙂

      • John says:
        13 Nov13 November 05:50

        Well, why pay £500 if you can get a perfectly adequate room for £125?

        Equally, if you feel that the room you want is worth £500 and you aren’t getting into debt to pay it, why not splash out?

        My point of view tends to be the former, because I feel the £500 room is not four times as good as the £125 room. But the cheaper room is certainly 4 times better than a hostel going for £30. I have no problem with people who choose the latter point of view though (except that I will express my opinion that such a room is not worth £500 to me).

        Also agree that when you are younger you should save money for your “old age”, but this means that when you get older you need to start spending it else there was no point saving it.

    • Boi says:
      12 Nov12 November 20:17

      Wait a minute…. I paid £237 in Manchester last month (Hilton Piccadilly). Was that a rip off?

      (I got a refund as it was a work trip otherwise I would have taken train from Leeds in the morning)

      • John says:
        13 Nov13 November 05:33

        Not sure if you mean the DT Piccadilly or the Hilton Deansgate, but yes, it would have been a ripoff if it was a personal trip. DT usually goes for £66. I once paid £79 as I was desperate. The Hilton usually goes for under £100, but the lounge sucks and it’s far from where I want to be when I go to Manchester.

        But clearly your work trip generated more than £237 + train fare of value for your company, so it wasn’t a ripoff in that sense.

        • Rob says:
          13 Nov13 November 08:41

          It’s not a ripoff if there is an event in Manchester and every hotel could sell its room five times over. Or are you seriously telling me we should change the law so a hotel has to charge the same price 365 days a year?

  • Rob says:
    12 Nov12 November 11:32

    Thank you. I have booked the Sheraton on Bath Road near Heathrow Airport for next week. £140 for the night and 8000 Heathrow / Avios points! Bargain.

  • ChrisC says:
    12 Nov12 November 13:22

    Any bonus offers for opening a Heathrow Rewards account?

    • Rob says:
      12 Nov12 November 13:44

      Yes, requires £150 or £300 airport spend in one day though.

      • ChrisC says:
        12 Nov12 November 14:03

        Thanks Rob for the quick response

        That won’t work for me but I’ll open an account anyway to get these bonus miles

    • Peter Stewart says:
      28 Nov28 November 21:49

      I couldn’t find a current promo code but I did get 100 points sign up bonus strait away automatically.

  • Questions says:
    12 Nov12 November 15:05

    So could I stay one night for the virgin flying club points, then use a different credit card and email to stay another night for the Heathrow rewards? Thanks

    • Rob says:
      12 Nov12 November 15:20

      Technically yes, but I would have the hotel check you out and you check you back in again to avoid any issues. There is also a very obvious risk that the same name booking the same hotel for two nights back to back is flagged. Easier if you are with your partner and you book 1 night each.

  • Geoff says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:49

    I’m in my 7k Rocketmiles hotel right now. It turned out to be more than the hotel’s own rate but not by as much as 7k points so still good value. I plan to wait for a transfer bonus or use them for parking which is worth double the normal face value anyway.

  • Concerto says:
    13 Nov13 November 10:08

    Can Heathrow Rewards be transferred to Flying Blue?

  • Mike says:
    13 Nov13 November 10:17

    Does the ‘American Express Membership Rewards’ option on Rocketmiles work with UK-based MR accounts?

    • Rob says:
      13 Nov13 November 10:27

      Don’t think so – but I admit I’ve never tried it and I’ve never heard of anyone who has.

      Because of the different global MR schemes it is very possible that it only accepts US numbers.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!