Expedia Travel Hacks That You Need To Know in 2025

On my last trip to Cancun, I was able to book four nights at a 5-star, all-inclusive boutique resort. The original price was estimated to be $4,000, but I paid $0.00. It wasn’t magic — it was math! Let me explain.

For a full year, I worked every angle, doubled my credit card points whenever possible, and created the ultimate recipe to maximize my travel points and daily Expedia deals. In essence, my hard work and planning effectively bankrolled my entire honeymoon.

In this article, I’ll share my best travel hacks, tips, and tricks for one of my favorite websites: Expedia.com.

Best Expedia Coupons 2025

• Take advantage of Expedia hotel deals for under $100.
• Score up to 51% off last-minute Expedia deals.
• Browse Expedia’s vacation deals and enjoy up to 50% off luxury hotel deals!
• Enjoy up to 30% off thousands of hotels as a OneKey member.
• Find package travel deals on Expedia for as little as $499 a person when you bundle your flight and hotel stay.
• Shop Expedia vacation rentals for the biggest bargains on your next trip.
• Sign up for Expedia emails to save 10% on a hotel stay.

How to Earn Rewards Points and Travel for Free

As an avid traveler, I’m always on the hunt for a good deal. I want to go farther, for longer, and for less. The easiest way to do that is to maximize my ability to earn points on specific travel provider websites or with a travel rewards credit card; however, not all purchases are treated equally. Each program will provide incentives to book certain hotels or buy from specific companies — this is where you can make a grab for some serious points.

For example, in Expedia’s OneKey program, you’ll earn 2% in OneKeyCash for every dollar spent on hotels, vacation packages, activities, cars, and cruises. Additionally, you’ll get 0.2% for every dollar you spend on airfare for flights booked on Expedia. Every $1 in OneKeyCash equals $1 to spend on other Expedia bookings. Bonus: You can still earn OneKeyCash on top of any credit card rewards or airline miles you might already earn from your booking.

Let’s put a few numbers down so you can see the power of playing the game! If you spend $500 on a hotel, $500 on a car, and $1,000 on airfare through Expedia, then you’ll earn $22 in OneKeyCash to spend on a future booking. But as you book more through Expedia, you can move up OneKey tiers to earn as much as 6% in OneKeyCash when you stay at VIP Access properties.

I book nearly all of my trips (both business and pleasure) on a select few travel programs so I can compound points quickly. If you book all over the market, you’ll never accumulate enough points to make a serious dent in your travel costs. I then pay careful attention to any promotional offers that might earn me double, triple, or even quadruple points! This is how I quickly racked up enough rewards on Expedia to help me fund my honeymoon.

Free Upgrades and Bonuses for Customer Loyalty

Learning how to earn points quickly tends to be a popular topic for obvious reasons, but the real fun begins when you learn to unlock free upgrades and save money on luxury hotel stays.

Free upgrades and bonuses tend to be reserved for those in the upper echelon. Expedia encourages customer loyalty for frequent travelers and repeat clients by incentivizing high-value upgrades with their spending — the more you book, the greater the rewards.

For example, I am a Gold Member with Expedia, which means I booked at least 15 “trip elements," like flights, nights at a hotel, or car rental days. Essentially, a one-week trip with your significant other could rack up enough trip elements between your hotel nights, flights, and car rental days for you to become a Gold Member. By booking both my personal and business travel on Expedia, I’m able to quickly achieve Gold Member status. This unlocks special perks like:

• Priority travel support
• Food and beverage perks when staying at VIP properties
• Free room upgrades on eligible properties
• Double OneKeyCash at VIP Access properties

As an Expedia OneKey Gold member, I can take my travel hacking to the next level by staying exclusively at Expedia VIP Access hotels. VIP Access hotels are great properties with amazing service and points in these exclusive spots are worth DOUBLE, elevating my savings to ridiculous heights. Make your way up to Platinum status by making at least 30 bookings through Expedia, and you can TRIPLE your OneKeyCash at VIP Access properties. Don’t want to stay at a VIP Access property? Gold and Platinum status grant you 20% off more than 10,000 hotels across the world.

Take Advantage of Seasonal Travel Deals

Flexibility will be your greatest asset when it comes to travel hacking. If you’re dead set on a specific location, date, or supplier, it becomes more difficult to work the system.

Every travel rewards program or website will have daily, weekly or monthly deals that give customers the opportunity to redeem generous discounts for a brief window of time. This is because travel reward programs strike marketing agreements with specific hotels, carriers, or service providers throughout the year, creating ever-shifting opportunities for more flexible travelers.

For Expedia, I always start my travel search in the deals section of their website so I can explore what’s on sale. I try to establish a general idea of my desired activities (i.e., city break, ski trip, etc.), then look to see which deals make the most sense for me given my location, budget, and timeframe. Plus, I can earn more rewards when I book a VIP Access Hotel from the deals page, which means more OneKeyCash to use for later trips.

When hunting for the best deals, don’t forget these two important rules:

1. Avoid peak season. While enjoying the gorgeous Santorini sights in July may sound like fun, the summer months are actually the worst months to travel as Santorini will be flooded with tourists. In other words, it means inflated prices and a shortage of available hotel deals. Always book for the beginning or end of the travel season. There will be fewer people crowding your destination than during the high season and you’re more likely to snag a deal.
2. Take advantage of sales during national holidays or major celebrations. There will almost always be deep hotel and flight discounts during Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine's Day. If you plan accordingly, you can snag a real deal! For example, I specifically buy airline points during Christmas time because they’re regularly on sale for up to 50% off.

Flexibility and planning around major holidays like Black Friday will help make your travel budget go further for less. However, please be advised that these deals quickly refresh or expire so take advantage when you see something you like!

Adopt These Year-Round Travel Hacking Habits

After traveling to over 50 countries, I know that good habits year-round are critical to maximizing travel hacking methods. This means that I am constantly thinking about the best ways to earn points, even if I don’t have an immediate trip coming up.

So what does that look like?

• Maximize your spending. Shop recommended providers through your travel rewards card whenever possible to earn extra points. As the saying goes, always make your money work for you.
• Look out for point sales during the holiday season. Don’t rush into this — unless there’s a sale of 30% or more, you can skip this point. Don’t forget to triple-check that the points don’t have a looming expiration date (RIP to all the expired points that were never used during the pandemic).
• Pick up the tab. When traveling with a group, always book the accommodations on your travel rewards credit card with your Expedia account so you can scoop up those double points. Secure the savings, then settle the bill.

As you become more knowledgeable in the travel hacking space, this whole process will be more intuitive. You’re going to start noticing specific times of the week or holiday season when deals are easiest to find, and you’ll get better at spending intentionally with promoted companies to rack up points with your everyday purchases.

If you’re overwhelmed, don’t give up — it gets easier over time. For additional money-saving tips, check out our guide on how to save money on flights! Whether you’re booking your first trip in a while or you’re a frequent traveler, there are plenty of ways to maximize your savings and travel rewards to make each trip more affordable.