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Expedia launched a reward program last month in a what might be an effort to recapture some of the market share that they're slowly losing to the airlines and their respective websites. A spend-based program, users receive points in direct proportion to the amount of money that they spend on the site. Those points are earned in addition to any points earned from the airline, hotel or car rental that the user books and can be spent on either hotel or airline discounts.
Occasionally the site also offers points specials as well, incentivizing users to book particular hotels or packages for double or triple points. Currently, for example, users can earn double points by using their Mastercard for purchases.
Since the program is spend-based, the reward is directly based on the number of dollars that you spend on the travel, so the real value is based on which price points Expedia sets their rewards at. Currently, the travel agency offers discounts on either airline or hotel bookings, with direct airfare booked in the former case and a hotel coupon offered in the latter.
So how valuable are the points? Gadling Labs collected some baseline data for a few flights out of Chicago. Off the shelf, a ticket to Detroit from June 24-26 should cost about $200, while the Expedia Rewards Program bills 20,000 points. That's $20,000 in booked travel in exchange for a $200 ticket -- or a 1% return. Not so great compared to the 2-3% earned from a rewards credit card, but on top of another reward it's not a bad deal.
Continue reading Road test: Expedia's Rewards Program
Road test: Expedia's Rewards Program originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 24 May 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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