Expedia drops Nectar as an earning and spending partner

Expedia and Nectar have announced that they are ending their partnership on 15th December.

At present, you can earn Nectar points on all Expedia bookings at the following rates:

Package bookings: 1,000 Nectar points 
Hotel-only bookings: 200 Nectar points 
Flight-only bookings: 200 Nectar points 
Car-only bookings: 200 Nectar points

With such paltry earn rates, it is hardly surprising that few people were choosing to use Expedia purely because of the carrot of Nectar points.  Remember that, in 99% of cases, Nectar points are worth exactly 0.5p when redeemed.

You will continue to earn points on bookings made up to 15th December, irrespective of when you travel.

From the same date, it will no longer be possible to redeem Nectar points for Expedia vouchers.   To be honest, since they were worth the same 0.5p per point of value as redeeming them in Sainsbury’s, this is not a great loss.  You can always use your points to pay for your groceries and use the money saved to book travel.

Sainsbury’s bought Nectar earlier this year, and I’m not sure if they will consider this a loss or if they are happy to see the scheme shrink down to a pure Sainsbury’s ‘earn and burn’ scheme.

Expedia Rewards, the lacklustre Expedia loyalty scheme which we covered here, will continue.

Our review of the American Express Nectar credit card is here if you are interested in other ways of boosting your Nectar points.