6 July is when the fun hits the fan– Expedia’s One Key rewards program is coming to topple the First World achievements of many of us BoardingArea readers. Bid adieu to those 11th night bonuses of hotels.com, and whatever the heck Expedient.com offered.
As I mentioned earlier this year, Expedia is rearing its own version of Cerberus so as to allow award redemptions on hotels.com, expedia.com, and even vrbo.com. (which specializes in vacation homes; I’ve never them either)
In order to do that, the points accruals will be significantly lessened, while the ways of getting points — that is, OneKey Cash — is diversified. According to travelweekly.com, “trip elements” will include not just hotel and vacation rental stays, but also flights and rental car days:
Blue status – four (4) trip elements
Silver status – five (5) to fourteen (14) trip elements
Gold status – fifteen (15) to twenty-nine (29) trip elements
Platinum status – ≥ thirty (30) trip elements
A goal of the One Key reward program, according to Expedia’s c-suite, is to encourage infrequent travelers to link up. Hence, some modicum of status after four trip elements.
My response?
After three of ~100-150 hotel nights on hotels.com (save for 2020, and periodic booking.com reservations) I’ve got some elements for the One Key rewards program to chew on- Sulfur Chromium Uranium your new disloyalty scheme. For starters, I’ve never used expedia.com or vrbo.com.
But here’s the real beauty; Expedia is flipping the bird right back at the anti-One Key faction. How? Hotels.com is flat-out saying that anyone who doesn’t want to stick with them through the transition should up and delete their account!
Like I alluded to in April, my travel loyalty is back on the auction block. Agoda’s UI recounts Japanese variety shows, wherein characters and images erupt on screen all of the time, booking.com has awful customer service, and priceline stopped drawing my attention when they got rid of the name-your-own-price diversion. Although I just started using China’s trip.com for bookings within/originating in China, they are every bit as international as other OTAs. However, I don’t want to see how their customer service is, should an issue arise.
If you’re about to suggest signing up with individual hotel companies, such as IHG or Accor, let me halt you right there. For me, hotels are mostly just places to crash and to write. Whereas I wouldn’t turn down a stay at a nice place, consider that no matter where I’m staying, the night was a success if I’ve woken up.
Are you wondering with which OTA to book for your next adventures? Join the club.
I’ve had the same strategy for hotels and am now also in the same boat. So the last few months I’ve done price comparisons for bookings, comparing Agoda, hotels.com, and Cap1 portal (for the 10x pts). If all were equal, I would definitely use Cap1 bc of the 10x points w my Venture X. When it started that portal offered the lowest rates. Now, however, that doesn’t seem to be true. Agoda varies widely. For our Cape Town trip they were much, much lower than anyone else but that was only when I searched using my wife’s account. She has used them longer but it’s still strange because I got her same status for signing up, yet our prices were wildly different. We booked almost everything in South Africa thro Agoda (and every time her price was lower). However, when searching hotels in NY, Seattle, Vietnam, and the Netherlands, Agoda has not given us good prices. Have not seen a pattern yet. I’m now a free agent, though getting hotels.com gift cards for 20% off will always make that worthwhile and I’ll stick with them at least until my existing stash of gift cards is gone. I wish Cap1 would offer the same price. I guess i could use their price match offer but I’m guessing that is a hassle at best and at worst they find ways to deny the claim.
Good points, Jeff, thanks for your comment.
Hmm, forgot about the credit card portals, but I might have to look into Cap One Venture X since you mentioned the multiplier.
Of all the OTAs/cc portals that you’ve used, which have provided you with the least offensive customer service experiences?