Expedia and ThankYou Network
 

Introducing ThankYou Network
A new rewards program for Expedia.com customers

Book a trip, earn points, and get great rewards. It’s that easy!
Traveling with Expedia.com just got even more rewarding. We’ve teamed up with ThankYou Network to offer a free, easy-to-use rewards program that lets you earn points by booking travel with us! There’s no need to sign up for a new credit card—you earn points no matter how you pay.

But the best part? You can redeem points for almost anything from gift cards to flights (with no blackout dates or restrictions!), luggage to whitewater rafting trips, electronics to jewelry, and so much more. With redemption items starting at just 1,000 points, you’ll be collecting rewards before you know it—all just for booking with Expedia.com.

ThankYou Network

Booked one new year ticket with thank you point, smooth process, had availability exact the day I want, although schedule is not perfect, no complain.

I would have assumed this is obvious but it should be noted that Expedia doesn't fly planes. They simply are an online booking agent where one can book commercial flights...in other words an online travel agent. The schedules have nothing to do with where you buy the ticket. The airlines determine that.

A little bit of discussion about this program previously in the credit card forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...hlight=expedia

I'm surprised it's taken this long, but it's an important step - an online travel agency offering loyalty points for booking with them. (Ok, Orbitz and Travelocity have co-branded credit cards IIRC and those earn higher returns for purchases made with them, but that's a little different.)

The unfortunate thing, though, is no points for air-only bookings. :td:

My point is that expedia(or Citi thankyou program) gives me a new year ticket for 25k thankyou points, with pretty good availabilities and schedule choices, while no airline would give me an award ticket with 25k airline miles (I tried AA, UA, CO, NONE during the new year season!)

Before you move all your ticketing business to Expedia, note that buying an air ticket by itself doesn't earn you any TY points.

I would have assumed that "schedule is not perfect" in the post you quoted means that poster didn't get his/her ideal choice of flights, not that Expedia didn't arrange a charter to leave at the exact time he/she would have wanted.

Exactly.

Be careful with expedia!!
 

The are a lot of complaints about EXPEDIA in general in the travel industry. This is the result in Google for "EXPEDIA complaints"

Thank You program may not be such a great deal. I have been earning Thank You points for last three years through Citibank Rewards card, reaching
~ 39,000 points. Just to check out how much travel I could get for it, I put in domestic travel in May, 2007. It quoted me > 39,000 points, just shy of my total points. I had expected 25,000 points. So I am doing something better to stretch my points - buying gift cards instead, with points.

I saw this too, when I was looking last week for hotels. Hotel stays earn 1 point per dollar. Gift card redemptions are 1500 for $10, so that's 0.67% cash back. Better than nothing, but nothing to get excited about.

Travel redemptions might be better, but it wouldn't let me see those until I created an account, which always makes me wonder if they are hiding something.

That's all I've done with my thankyou points. TY had better gift card rates than my other credit card (MBNA) until they raised the rates on cards less than $100. Now they're about the same.

Thank You Network, in common with other credit card programs, offers two completely separate airline redemption options. One program offers awards for a fixed rate, such as 25,000 points for a domestic economy roundtrip. These awards have restricted availability and can ONLY be redeemed by telephone. The other program converts points to money and can be used to buy virtually any ticket from any airline. These variable rate awards work out to $0.01 per point and can be redeemed online.

If you were quoted 39,000 points it means the ticket could be purchased for $390, but it tells you nothing about whether the 25,000 point award was also available.

Yeah, that's the catch that got me, too. Grr. Still, some points are better than nothing if you book anything else along with the airticket.