The Best New Member Bonuses for Airline and Hotel Programs

Airline and Hotel new member bonuses are a great way to kickstart your points and mileage balances. Not to mention that you can’t earn points or miles for your flights and hotel stays without having an account with that loyalty program.

We’ve put together a full list of each program offering a bonus to new members, so you can start racking up those points and miles as you join them.

Airline New Member Bonuses

Aeromexico Rewards

Joining Aeromexico Rewards as a new member can yield 1,000 bonus points. To earn this bonus, you’ll need to join the program by November 14, 2024, and take your first flight within 6 months of joining — so no later than May 14, 2024, if you join on the final day the bonus offer is available.

Alaska MileagePlan

While Alaska does not offer a promo to earn bonus miles for creating an Alaska MileagePlan account, it does offer a promotion to get a $25 to $50 discount on your next Alaska flight, depending on which state you live in:

• California and Hawaii residents can receive $50 off when enrolling
• Residents of all other states can receive $25 off when enrolling

Note that to receive the $25 to $50 flight discount, you must enroll by December 31, 2024, and purchase an Alaska Airlines flight within the first 28 days of your enrollment. Travel must be completed within 120 days of enrollment.

American Airlines

For those who don’t already have an American Airlines AAdvantage account, you can earn up to 3,000 miles after making a new account, though there are a few hoops to jump through.

First, you need to register for the promotion within 30 days of creating your AAdvantage account. Then, you need to book and fly 2 flights with American Airlines within 3 months of registering. This only applies to flights marketed by American but can be operated by American, American Eagle, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines, or Qantas.

Finally, you’ll also need to earn miles with an eligible partner with 3 months as well. You have quite a few options here with varying degrees of ease:

• AAdvantage Cars
• AAdvantage Dining
• AAdvantage Hotels
• AAdvantage Shopping
• SimplyMiles

Hot Tip:

There really is no shortage of ways to earn American Airlines miles. In addition to the above partners, you also can earn miles with American Airlines credit cards, through Bask Bank, vacation packages, and more.

Delta SkyMiles

New members of the Delta SkyMiles program can earn 1,000 bonus SkyMiles after creating an account. Better yet, you’ll also be able to claim the miles you would have earned for any recent flights in the past 9 months.

Emirates Skywards

It may surprise you to learn that the German airline Condor uses Emirates Skywards as its loyalty program. This new partnership is being offered by the 2 airlines together. Through March 31, 2025, you can earn 2,000 bonus Skywards miles if you sign up using the promo code CONDOR at registration. Note that these bonus miles will expire after 1 year.

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands

When you create an EVA Air Infinity MileageLands account as a new member, you can receive 500 bonus miles just for signing up, plus another 500 miles after you complete your member profile. That provides a total of 1,000 bonus miles.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

New members who join the Qatar Airways Privilege Club by December 31, 2024, using the code JOIN0324 who travel by June 30, 2025, can earn up to 5,000 bonus Avios.

After you register for the promotion and take your first flight as a member by June 30, 2025, you’ll earn 3,000 bonus Avios if your flight was in economy and 5,000 bonus Avios if your flight was in business or first class.

Spirit Airlines Free Spirit

Spirit Airlines gives new members of its Free Spirit program 500 points just for signing up and the ability to earn an extra 1,000 points after you book your first round-trip flight with Spirit.

TAP Miles & Go

New members who sign up for a TAP Miles&Go account will receive 200 bonus miles. This won’t get you very far, but if you ever plan to book a TAP award ticket, you’ll need to have a Miles&Go account anyway, so it is nice to receive a little something for signing up.

THAI Airways Royal Orchid Plus

When you sign up for a Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus account through this promotion link, you’ll receive 2,500 bonus miles after booking and completing your first international flight with Thai Airways.

Hotel New Member Bonuses

Best Western

While not exclusively a new member bonus, any Best Western Rewards member, including those who have just created an account, can earn 2,000 bonus points on their next stay between now and December 31, 2024.

Hilton Honors

You can jumpstart your Hilton Honors balance by earning a welcome bonus of 1,000 bonus points on your first stay, plus an extra 2,000 bonus points after your second stay.

Simply sign up for your Hilton Honors account through the promotion page prior to December 31, 2024, and book your stays within 6 months of signing up.

IHG One Rewards

When you join the IHG One Rewards program and stay at an IHG property within 21 days of joining, you can earn 5,000 bonus points.

Note that you need to sign up through the promotion link to be eligible, and your qualifying stay must be a paid stay with a cost of at least $30 per night.

Marriott Bonvoy

Before signing up for the Marriott Bonvoy program, you’ll want to get a friend or family member who already has a Marriott account to send you their referral link.

After receiving a referral from a current Marriott member, you can earn up to 2,000 bonus points for each stay — up to 5 stays and a total of 10,000 bonus points. Plus, the person who referred you will earn 2,000 bonus points for each stay you make, also valid for up to 5 stays and a total of 10,000 bonus points.

Hot Tip:

This is one of the most lucrative new member bonuses, as we value 10,000 Marriott points at $70, which both you and the person referring you can earn.

Radisson Rewards

The Radisson Rewards promotion for new members isn’t a typical new member promotion but rather a refer-a-friend promotion.

All you need to do is get your friend to send you their referral link and sign-up through it. Then, you both will receive a 1,000-point bonus after you complete your first stay within 12 months of signing up.

Rakuten New Member Bonus

If you’re not already familiar, Rakuten is a shopping portal that allows you to earn cash-back for shopping at your favorite stores. But there is a twist, as you are not just limited to earning cash-back!

Those who already have an Amex credit card that earns Amex Membership Rewards points can opt to earn Amex Membership Rewards points instead of cash-back when shopping through Rakuten.

For instance, instead of earning 1% cash-back, you’d earn 1x Amex point per $1 spent, depending on the merchant offer through Rakuten.

This is great because Amex Membership Rewards are some of the most valuable travel rewards available, and they transfer to a wide variety of airline and hotel transfer partners.

Plus, when you sign up through a Referal link, you and the person referring you receive a $30 cash-back bonus or 3,000 Amex Membership Rewards points after your first purchase.

Final Thoughts

In case it wasn’t obvious by now, you should always check to see if there is a new member bonus that you can take advantage of before signing up for a new loyalty program.

If you feel like all of these promotions are tough to keep track of, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Bookmark this page and refer back to it. We’ll regularly update this page as bonuses are removed and others are added.