Quick Points: Earn American Loyalty Points when you stay at hotels and rent cars

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This is a recurring post, regularly updated with the latest information.

Hotel chains and car rental companies have had loyalty programs for decades, encouraging travelers to earn free hotel nights and car rental days. However, you might not be aware that many hotel and rental car companies allow you to earn a different type of currency: airline miles.

Hotel and rental car company transactions that are credited to American Airlines AAdvantage earn Loyalty Points. In turn, that can land you American Airlines elite status.

While it is not always the most rewarding option to credit your hotel stays and car rentals to airline programs, today we’ll walk through how you can change your earning preferences to earn airline miles instead of hotel or car rental points — and what you will get if you do.

How to earn airline miles instead of points

We’ve assembled a list of links below to popular hotel chains and car rental companies where you can change your earning preference. While each program handles things a bit differently, you’ll essentially be choosing to earn airline miles whenever you patronize one of these chains. All you need to change your preference is your frequent flyer number.

You can change your preferences at will, but it can be cumbersome. For example, even though Hyatt has a link to change your earning preference on its website, a TPG staffer had to solicit the help of the Globalist concierge to make changes. Multiple attempts to access the profile page for Dollar Car Rental were met with errors. Still, this will give you a good place to start if your goal is to earn more airline miles on hotel stays and car rentals:

Related: Meet the man who’s earned 1.2 million United miles by renting cars

Should you opt to earn airline miles?

Like many earning opportunities associated with travel, whether you should earn airline miles is another story. For starters, fees are often associated with earning airline miles on rental cars. For example, most rental car companies, including Hertz and National, usually charge a small fee (normally around $2 per day) to earn airline miles instead of rental car rewards.

Also, different programs have different earning amounts. For example, Dollar Car Rental will award 50 American AAdvantage miles per day, whereas customers choosing airline miles with Hertz can earn 1 mile per dollar spent on the base rate of their rental.

World of Hyatt is one of the most generous in awarding airline miles. Elite members from both programs can earn World of Hyatt points and AAdvantage miles on their paid bookings. With Marriott and IHG, you have to pick one currency.

One thing to note is that you can still earn elite status and get your usual elite benefits with the hotel and car rental programs when you choose to earn airline miles. So, if you’re a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite crediting to American, you can still get complimentary breakfast as a welcome amenity; however, the 50% Marriott bonus point accrual that Platinum Elite members are entitled to on paid stays doesn’t apply if you elect to earn airline miles instead of Marriott points.

Related: 6 reasons to strive for Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite status

Bottom line

Alternative earning methods for many hotel programs and rental car companies have been around for quite some time. But when American Airlines revamped AAdvantage with Loyalty Points, it highlighted an old benefit and made this path more appealing for many folks chasing elite status in the AAdvantage program.

In general, the airline mile earning rates for car rental companies have rarely been showstoppers, especially with the surcharges. But forfeiting rental car rewards and hotel points, the airline miles you earn may be enough to get you over the top for elite status.

Additional reporting by Kyle Olsen.