Even though hotel programs vehemently try to resist: They make little sense for someone who hasn’t reached a (higher) elite status in the program. Even the supposed member rates can often be found similarly on booking platforms.

Many hotel programs do offer the possibility to collect frequent flyer miles, but this is often in the range of 2 miles per USD. If you set a mile value of 1 US cent per mile, this corresponds to a savings of 2%.

So if booking platforms offer corresponding promotions for collecting miles, one should take advantage of them and plan their trips in advance: Currently, you can earn 7 miles per USD in Copa’s ConnectMiles program (bookings until August 25) and 5 miles per USD in the Qatar Airways Privilege Club (August 31 for stays until October 31) for bookings through Booking.com, which is more like a savings of 5-7%.