Velocity Hotels (Expedia)

[mrmerc500]

Since last month, seems that Velocity has launched a new Hotel Partnership with Expedia.

Currently offering 9 Velocity / $ so for a recent $300 hotel booking, i’ll earn 2700 points which is certainly impressive.

Offer ends 13th June.

https://expedia.virginaustralia.com/?icmpid=vf:hotel:page:na:na

 

[ozstamps]

Yes a handy promo.

I got 17,500 miles for booking a Cook Island hotel last week whilst on the 920 SC Biz Class run to Cook Island!

No idea how many Virgin points the 6 Biz flights get, but I assume a few 1000 as a Plat to add to that.

 

[dxwell]

I booked a whole heap of hotels for our UK and Scotland trip. Should be a good haul.

 

[Bagpuss]

I’ve changed a number of “pay on arrival” forward bookings to take advantage of the promo, shame I had recently booked and pre-paid for a number of bookings.
Have noticed with the sale some bookings are a lot cheaper with this promo plus adding in the extra points.

Pretty sure Virgin previously hotels.com (and a few others prior) which is interesting as Expedia own hotels.com. That said I think in Australia Expedia is more popular / has a better perception.

 

[dxwell]

You should always check prices across sites before booking.
Here is Expedia's brands:
BedandBreakfast.com
CarRentals.com
CheapTickets
Classic Vacations
Ebookers
Egencia
Expedia.com
Expedia Affiliate Network
Expedia Local Expert
Expedia CruiseShipCenters
Expedia Global Partner Solutions
HomeAway
Hotels.com
Hotwire Group
Orbitz
Travelocity
trivago
Venere.com
wotif
ALICE

 

[Nathant123]

Couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve got ~5k worth of accomodation to book in New York and Israel so might as well go through Expedia. Some of the places I’m looking at staying only offer a pay on arrival option. Do the reservations need to be paid for by end of promo or just simply booked and confirmed before the promo end date?

 

[Pleb Status]

You need to be very careful to check all of the various offers available prior to booking.

If you have a Mastercard, you can get 11% off the base rate on Expedia Rate bookings (and 12% off Agoda bookings - it still works) using the following link -

Mastercard Retail Offers

www.mastercard.com.au

You cannot combine the various Expedia offers and the base rates may not be the same (before any member pricing, discounts and/or points promos).

Although I normally use Agoda for most hotel bookings (as they are generally cheaper overall), I did make an Expedia booking yesterday for a hotel in Germany using the Mastercard link above.

Reviewing the pricing for the same hotel I booked yesterday using both the Mastercard and the VFF links this morning, the VFF base hotel rate was ~11% more expensive than the Mastercard base rate (before any discount). Once the 11% Mastercard discount was included, the VFF rate was ~19% more expensive than the Mastercard rate. There is also another future ~1.2% discount in Expedia Rewards using the Mastercard rate.

To be fair, this example did appear to be the exception rather than the rule. The base rates (before any discount) for most hotels in the area did appear to be the same using either of the Mastercard and the VFF links. Expedia may have a special deal with this particular hotel and this is why it was cheaper when booking direct and also cheaper than booking with Agoda.

Agoda easily won all my other (non Accor) hotel bookings for the trip...

 

[Bagpuss]

Couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve got ~5k worth of accomodation to book in New York and Israel so might as well go through Expedia. Some of the places I’m looking at staying only offer a pay on arrival option. Do the reservations need to be paid for by end of promo or just simply booked and confirmed before the promo end date?

They simply need to be booked and confirmed before the end of the promo.

 

[Saab34]

Add promo code 10% off. Min two night, prepay only.
EXPGRPHTL10

Plus the 9 points per $, and this deal just got a whole lot sweeter.

 

[Bagpuss]

Add promo code 10% off. Min two night, prepay only.
EXPGRPHTL10

Plus the 9 points per $, and this deal just got a whole lot sweeter.

I dont see any options to add any promo codes.....

 

[dxwell]

I dont see any options to add any promo codes.....

It is difficult to pick up - took me a while to find it. Click the link and the input field appears.

 

[Denali]

Thanks for the info and link, I needed to make bookings so extra point win for us.

cheers,

 

[Ausbt]

Well, I went a bit crazy and booked up 20 nights or so at 9x points in the UK, all with cancellation options. I have to say exercising the cancellation option will require a call - there is no online ability to cancel. Then we get to the 'Change' option: I do not regard 'Change' as an option at all - the Expedia operators will attempt to cancel and rebook you and that could simply mean not getting the original property at all.

I have a situation where the first night is booked direct with the hotel at double the rate of the following six nights with Expedia at the same property. I want to cut it short by three nights but Expedia want to cancel and just see if it becomes available again. No way. No only are those six nights on the 9x deal but they are half the per-night rate of the booked-direct cost. I'm guessing it will be the same cost now to just leave as-is and check-out three days early.

 

[Bagpuss]

I have a situation where the first night is booked direct with the hotel at double the rate of the following six nights with Expedia at the same property. I want to cut it short by three nights but Expedia want to cancel and just see if it becomes available again. No way.

Why dont you rebook through the website or whatever means. Then once that has been done cancel the original booking?

Booking via the Virgin Australia links are an indirect booking and these setups normally are more challenging for changes/cancellations than booking "direct".

 

[Ausbt]

Why don't you rebook through the website or whatever means.

I have one night booked direct with the hotel for GBP154 and a further 5 nights booked via Expedia at a rate of GBP90, same room and inclusions. Yes, it's GBP64 cheaper and carrying 9x Velocity points to boot which will be 8,766 (it actually states this on the itinerary, which is handy). So I guess the points are valued at AUD$175 / GBP95.

I could rebook that's true, but not via Virgin. Hotel-direct or with some other amalgamators would be GBP154 per night. So, it's either re-book entirely with total 4 night cost GBP616 and no velocity points (ok, not the biggest deal but it all helps) or sit on the existing booking which is a grand total of GPB689 + 8,766 points.

I guess deduct the value of the points and there is not much in it. Maybe I can find a colleague to 'hot-bed' the last two nights - ewwww feel bad for them already

 

[Flyinfish]

Just checked and it's now only 3 points/$?

 

[Bagpuss]

Just checked and it's now only 3 points/$?

That's correct. 9 points/$ was a promotion which is now expired.

 

[jb01]

Although having completed a booking a few weeks ago with the 9 point/$ promotion, so far I have received 0 points/$

 

[traceyy]

i also have a bunch of bookings now completed booked under the points promo yet to get anything.... got first stay at 3 points pretty quick, 2 weeks ago had one night booked under promo and had to book a second night so only under normal points havent been credited for either, hopefully it doesnt take too long, i hate trying to keep track of all the points im waiting on between amex offers wine club, hotel offers, flights

 

[Ausbt]

i hate trying to keep track of all the points im waiting on

At least with expedia your itinerary actually indicates how many points you should earn, so that should make reconciling it easier (if you keep them all in the same folder for later review).