Everything You Need To Know About One Key

When you are booking your next vacation, chances are you’ll be using sites like Hotels.com, Expedia, VRBO, or TripAdvisor to research and book your trip. Using these websites you can book your vacation rental, your flights, your rental car, and a host of different amenities. And now, you can use the sites under Expedia Group to earn rewards across every aspect of your booking with the One Key Loyalty Program.

Below we will talk you through everything you need to know about this Expedia travel rewards scheme, and how to use it to earn cheap travel in the future.

What is the New One Key Loyalty Program?

The loyalty scheme has unified all of the rewards schemes available from the travel websites under the Expedia banner. So, you can use this program to build up points across all aspects of your travel booking for vacations and business. This makes it a terrific way to collect travel rewards across every aspect of your next trip.

The program replaces the previous Expedia Loyalty and Hotels.com program and adds a new VRBO rewards scheme into one clear and streamlined scheme. The Orbitz Rewards scheme will also be incorporated into the new scheme in the future.

As well as introducing this new US travel rewards program, Expedia is also releasing new booking and planning products to help make your next booking process easier and more rewarding.

How Does the VRBO, Hotels.com, and Expedia Group Rewards Scheme Work?

The rewards scheme is free to join, and as with the previous travel rewards memberships, allows you to unlock more rewards as you unlock higher tiers.

You will earn credits for higher membership levels and rewards points every time you use the participating websites to book your airfare, hotel room, rental car, and your next vacation rental.

The rewards points you build up can be redeemed as OneKeyCash, to spend on eligible bookings on Expedia, VRBO, and Hotels.com. This means you can earn discounts for all aspects of your future travel while booking your current trip.

What Happens to your Hotels.com and Expedia Loyalty Points?

The One Key Loyalty program brings together the previous Expedia Rewards and Hotels.com rewards schemes. And will also allow you to collect rewards for your VRBO bookings and other Expedia brands.

If you already have an active account with VRBO, Expedia, or Hotels.com, your account will be migrated to the One Key Loyalty scheme. This will not be immediate in all cases, and you may need to wait a while until you are moved to the new platform.

The rewards you have built up under the previous schemes in 2022 and 2023 will be transferred to count toward your new membership status. For example, if you earned a $100 rewards night through a Hotels.com rewards membership, this will be converted to $100 in OneKeyCash. Likewise, if you had 100 Expedia group loyalty points, this will be converted to $1 in the new rewards scheme.

How Is One Key Different From the Expedia Loyalty Program?

The main difference you’ll notice with the new travel rewards scheme; is how you collect and spend points.

With the previous Expedia rewards scheme, members were rewarded with 2x points for each dollar spent on hotel stays, car rentals, and travel packages. And you would earn 1x point for each dollar you spent on flights.

Under the previous Hotels.com program, you would earn a rewards night stay for every 10 nights you stayed.

The One Key Scheme streamlines how and what you earn for travel bookings across all the eligible Expedia Group sites.

How Will You Earn Points with the Expedia One Key Loyalty Program?

The new scheme allows you to earn points in a streamlined and uncomplicated way.

· 2% in OneKeyCash for each dollar you spend on eligible hotel bookings, vacation rentals, cruises, rental cars, and trip activities.

· 0.2% in OneKeyCash for each dollar your spend on participating flight bookings.

How to Maximize Your One Key Cash Rewards

Your OneKeyCash can be earnt on top of any other rewards you earn from airline loyalty schemes, and travel credit card rewards. So, you can start to build up some great discounts for your future travel bookings.

You will also be able to earn larger rewards when you book at one of the Expedia Group’s VIP Access Properties. For example:

· Silver Tier Members can earn 50% extra OneKeyCash.

· Gold Level Members will earn 2x OneKeyCash.

· Platinum Members can earn 3x OneKeyCash.

These extra earning opportunities also come along with perks such as extra food and drinks, free room upgrades, and more flexible check-in options.

How Much is OneKeyCash Worth?

So, once you have collected these rewards, exactly how much can they save you on your next travel booking? Well, you can redeem OneKeyCash at a value of 1:1 dollars when booking eligible travel. This rewards cash can be redeemed to give you a discount or cover the complete cost of eligible hotel or vacation rentals. You can also redeem it against participating car rentals and trip activities.

You will not be able to exchange OneKeyCash for cash and cannot transfer your rewards to other member accounts.

Can You Use One Key Loyalty Cash to Pay For Your Flights?

When it comes to flights, the rules are a little different. To use the rewards cash for your flight bookings, you need to have built up enough cash to cover the whole cost of the flight (Including fees and taxes.)

If you want to add extra options such as assigned seats and checked bags, you will need to book these separately after confirming your initial flight purchase.

What Are The Different Levels of this Travel Rewards Scheme?

There are four different status levels in the One Key Travel Rewards Scheme which you reach by attaining the required number of Trip Elements (various parts of a trip booking,) each year. A higher status will be given to those who book more of these Trip Elements. You can build up the next tier of the scheme by booking some of the below aspects (at a value of $25 and over.

When you join the scheme, you will be a Blue Member. To move to Silver tier status, you need to book five trip elements. To move up to Gold membership, you have to book 15 trip elements, and to graduate to Platinum, you need to purchase 30 qualifying bookings.

Here are the Trip Elements which can help you move up to higher-tier memberships:

• A vacation rental.
• Cruise booking.
• Air Tickets.
• Hotel Rooms.
• Airport shuttles and transfers.
• Car Rentals.
• Trip activities such as guided tours, theme parks, and activities.

What Are The Other Features of the One Key Loyalty Program?

As we detailed above, as well as the new travel rewards program, Expedia Group is introducing some other booking products and features. These will include:

· 20% Discounts on hotel bookings made through One Key.

· Waived resort fees at eligible properties.

· Member perks at Expedia and partner hotels.

· Property Credits.

· Perks which may include discounts, credits for spas, and free food and drink vouchers.

· Membership Tier rewards such as VIP Access properties, members-only discounts, and extra rewards when you book packages.

Takeaway - Everything you need to know about One Key, the new loyalty program for Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo

The new One Key Loyalty program presents travelers with an easy and streamlined way to earn rewards across all aspects of their future travel. Although those used to the generous Hotels.com program may find their rewards reduced, this is compensated for with an easy method to build up points across other aspects of their vacation or business trip booking.

This is an improvement for those who don’t book exclusively enough with one travel website to build up a decent level of points and will allow travelers to earn discounts for hotels, flights, and car and vacation rental bookings. The One Key Loyalty Program marks a new, streamlined process for those who don’t want to juggle several travel rewards schemes to get the best deals.