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Expedia+ Credit Cards and Rewards Program: Worth It or Not?

  • Million Mile Secrets

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    Earn Points for Hotel Stays and Flights With the Citi Expedia+ Cards

    Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

    Million Mile Secrets reader Joe commented:

    Hey Daraius, would be cool if you could do a write up on using Expedia points.

    There are 2 credit card offers:  15,000 and 25,000 points.  Thinking you could stagger the 2, i.e. get the 15,000 1st then later get the 25,000.

    However, not sure what the value of 40,000 Expedia points would be.  Their site seems way more focused on how you earn the points than how you actually use them.  Would love to hear if you had any experience with this.

    Joe is referring to the Expedia+ Voyager Card from Citi and Expedia+ Card from Citi cards.  They earn Expedia+ Rewards points, which can be redeemed for flights, coupons to use for hotel stays, or donated to charity.

    Expedia+ Rewards is the loyalty program for Expedia, an online travel agency where you can search for and purchase flights, hotel stays, vacation packages, cruises, and more.

    Let’s look at the Expedia+ Rewards program and see if it’s worth considering these cards!

    Expedia+ Rewards Program

    Link:   Expedia

    Link:   Expedia+ Rewards

    Link:   Expedia+ Rewards Sign-Up

    1.   Earning Points

    The Expedia+ Rewards program allows folks to earn points on hotels, flights, packages with a hotel, activities, and flight + car packages purchased through Expedia.   And you’ll earn bonus points if you have elite status.

    Book Travel on Expedia and Earn Expedia+ Reward Points

    Usually, you’ll earn elite status by achieving the following in a calendar year:

    The point earning structure is a little complicated.  You’ll earn:

    All members get access to Expedia’s Extended Hotel Price Guarantee.  Usually, Expedia will give you a $50 credit if you find a lower price online (with conditions) within 24 hours of booking.  With the extended guarantee, you can file a claim up until midnight the day before your stay.  The extended guarantee only applies to hotel bookings.

    Find a Better Deal on Your Hotel? Expedia+ Members Can File Best Price Guarantee Claims up Until the Midnight Before Their Stay
    Note:  You’ll earn airline frequent flyer miles on flights booked through Expedia.  But you won’t always earn hotel points (or have any elite status recognized) on hotel stays!

    2.   Spending Points

    Expedia+ Rewards points can be used for hotel stay coupons, flights, or donated to charity (St. Jude Children’s Hospital).  There are no blackout dates.

    Hotel Coupons

    Expedia+ Rewards points can be exchanged for hotel coupons (sign-in required) at a rate of 3,500 points to $25 in coupons, which means points are worth ~0.71 cents each ($25 coupon / 3,500 points).

    Coupons are available up to $1,000 in value (140,000 points).

    3,5000 Expedia+ Rewards Points = a $25 Hotel Coupon

    You can use coupons for any Expedia Rate hotel, which are hotel rooms Expedia has already bought and sells to customers directly.  Most, but not all hotel prices they publish are Expedia rates.  You’ll see it indicated under the hotel name when you do a search.

    You Can Redeem Points for Coupons Valid for Expedia Rate Hotels

    However, Expedia has a selection of over 1,400 high-end hotels called +VIP Access.  At these hotels, elite members get VIP offers and extra perks, like waived fees, bottles of wine or dining certificates.

    +VIP Access Hotels Offer “Exclusive Amenities” and Perks for Elite Members

    You can get double the value when you redeem Expedia+ Rewards points for +VIP Access hotel coupons.  So for 3,500 points, you’ll get a $50 coupon.  In this case, your points are worth ~1.43 cents each ($50 coupon / 3,500 points).

    Note:  Elite +gold members can also get room upgrades if available, plus early check-in and late check-out at +VIP Access hotels.
    Flights

    You can redeem Expedia+ Rewards points for flights offered on Expedia.com.  The flight can be for you or for others.  But be careful, because once you book, there are no changes or cancellations allowed!

    The number of points for an award flight depends on the cost of the paid fare, inclusive of taxes and fees.  Expedia points are worth ~0.6 cents each when used for flights.

    For example, a round-trip flight from New York to Los Angeles on Delta, booked through Expedia+ Rewards, costs 60,200 points.

    You’ll Pay 60,200 Expedia+ Rewards Points for a Round-Trip Flight Between New York and Los Angeles on Delta

    The same flights on the Delta website cost ~$376.  So in this case, your points are worth ~0.62 cents each (~$376 cost of ticket / 60,200 points).

    Delta Charges ~$376 for the Same Itinerary

    I checked an international flight to see if there was any difference.  A round-trip ticket between Philadelphia and London, UK, on British Airways costs 135,800 Expedia+ Rewards points.

    Heading to London? You’ll Pay 135,800 Points for This Ticket

    The same ticket, booked through British Airways, costs ~$848.  In this example, your points are worth ~0.63 cents each (~$848 cost of ticket / 134,600 points).

    A Paid Ticket Costs ~$848, So Your Points Are Worth ~0.63 Cents Each

    Redeeming Expedia+ Rewards points for flights at ~0.6 cents per point is not a terribly good value.  To compare, Southwest points are worth ~1.43 cents each – more than double!

    Or you could book this flight (or any other flight on the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal) where 1 Chase Ultimate Rewards point is worth 1.25 cents.

    Is It Worth Considering the Citi Expedia+ Cards?

    Link:   Citi Expedia+ Voyager Card

    Link:   Citi Expedia+ Card

    Citi has 2 versions of the Expedia+ card, with different sign-up bonuses, benefits, and annual fees.

    Citi Expedia+ Voyager

    The Citi Expedia+ Voyager gets you:

    The Citi Expedia+ Voyager Card Gives You Free +gold Status, Which Could Get You Upgrades and Extra Perks at Hotels

    So what’s the 25,000 point sign-up bonus worth?  You’ll get:

    That’s NOT a very good sign-up bonus compared to other Citi cards with similar annual fees, like the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®  or Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve.   You can get potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars more in travel from those cards! The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

    And even though there are bonus spending categories for Expedia purchases, dining, and entertainment, I’d rather spend my money on cards that earn more valuable points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Ink Plus.

    However, this card might be worth getting now, because the $100 annual statement credit for airline incidental fees is per calendar year.  So you’d get $100 worth of credits to use until the end of the year, and another $100 starting in January.  The statement credit also makes up for the $95 annual fee.

    Citi Expedia+ Card

    With the Citi Expedia+ Card, you’ll get:

    How Much Travel Will You Get With the Citi Expedia+ Card Sign-Up Bonus?

    The 15,000 point sign-up bonus is worth:

    While it’s hard to complain about getting a sign-up bonus from a card with no annual fee, other fee-free Citi cards, like the Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature, have much better offers!

    Let’s look at it this way.  With the Citi Expedia card you get 3 points per $1 you spend on Expedia.  That’s worth ~1.8 cents per $1 you spend (3 points x ~0.6 cents per point when redeemed for flights).

    If you used the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard (annual fee waived for the 1st year) to book flights on Expedia, you’d earn 2.1 cents per $1 you spend (2 miles per $1 + 5% rebate when redeemed for travel).

    Or you could use the Citi Double Cash card (no annual fee) to earn 1% back when you buy the ticket plus another 1% back when you pay the bill.  That’s 2 cents per $1 you spend on Expedia purchases.

    And the Chase Sapphire Preferred (annual fee waived for the 1st year) earns 2 points per $1 for Expedia bookings.  You could then redeem points for travel later at 1.25 cents each through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.  So in effect you could get 2.5 cents per $1 you spend (2 points per $1 x 1.25 cents per point).

    That said, if you spend a lot of money on Expedia, or if you’ve run out of Citi cards to apply for, it might be worth considering 1 of these cards.   But they’re not at the top of my list!

    Bottom Line

    The Citi Expedia+ Voyager and Citi Expedia+ cards earn Expedia+ Rewards points, which can be used for flights, coupons to use for hotel stays, or donated to charity.

    Expedia+ Rewards points aren’t usually worth as much as other airline and hotel points, and the sign-up bonuses on these cards aren’t great.  But they could be useful for folks who spend a lot of money on Expedia, or have run out of Citi cards to apply for.

    Emily and I will be skipping these cards, but maybe they’ll be of interest to you.

    Do you collect Expedia+ Rewards points?  What do you like or dislike about the program?

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)