Avios added as reward option with hotel booking site Agoda PointsMAX

Back in July we wrote about Agoda.  It is a Hotels.com-style hotel booking website, originally launched in Asia.  It was acquired by Priceline and is now a sister company to booking.com.

The reason that Agoda had become interesting is that it had started to offer frequent flyer miles with every hotel booking you make via a new service called PointsMAX.

This put it into competition with Kaligo.com, Rocketmiles and PointsHound – PointsHound also being owned by Priceline.

When we wrote about it back in July, British Airways was not a PointsMAX partner.  BA, Iberia Plus and avios.com have been added to the site in the last couple of weeks so it is worth discussing the service again.

In advance of British Airways coming on board, Agoda offered Head for Points a free credit to spend on their website to find out how PointsMAX works and whether or not it’s worth considering Agoda for your next trip.

I had a holiday booked in Croatia and still needed accommodation for one of the nights so I chose to use the Agoda credit towards it.

How Agoda PointsMAX works

The Agoda website seems pretty straight forward:  you enter your destination, travel dates and number of beds required.  Click on any of the images to enlarge:

If you do a search without signing in, you will see a list of available accomodations for the regular price:

By signing in as a member, you are often offered lower prices.  This is because signing in means that Agoda is allowed to show lower rates at hotels where it has agreed not to undercut the official rate in public.

The new British Airways partnership was not yet live when I booked, although it is live now.  Instead, I created my account and chose Etihad Guest as my PointsMAX program.

Not every accommodation listed on Agoda earns points or miles.  I only realised that after having spent an hour trying to find somewhere suitable ….

In the end there was only one hotel in the whole of Split for my date that I could earn miles with: the Dioklecijan Hotel & Residences. To make the most of the credit, I decided to book a Junior Suite with balcony and sea view. If you click on this image, you can see the different prices.

For non members the price would have been $344.

The choice of miles earning options varied depending on whether you wanted to pay before arrival or pay at the property.  For pre-paying, there were two options as you can see from the screenshot:

• $302.25 when earning 1,350 miles
• $271.56 when earning 278 miles

Paying on arrival would have been $304 and with no miles earned.  As Agoda had given us $350 to spend, I booked for $302.82 + tax to get the maximum of 1,350 Etihad Guest Miles.

To be honest, in this example, PointsMAX was a bad deal.  I paid an additional $30.69 in order to get an additional 1,072 Etihad Guest miles.  That worked out at 2.86 cents per mile.

On the other hand, some properties ARE a good deal for ‘buying’ extra miles.  Take a look at this screen shot taken yesterday using Avios as your mileage currency:

You can choose between:

• £116.14 when earning 699 Avios
• £117.82 when earning 2,400 Avios

In this scenario, it is a no-brainer to pay the extra £1.68 to earn the extra 1,701 Avios.

One other point to note about Agoda is that it works with airlines such as Qatar Airways where it is hard to accumulate miles as a UK resident.  PointsMAX is one of way of picking up miles in these programmes.

Conclusion

PointsMAX is still a work in progress for Agoda, with new airlines being added regularly.  Adding British Airways Executive Club means that there is a reason to keep an eye on it now.

The model, whereby you are in effect given the chance to buy airlines miles cheaply when you book a hotel with Agoda PointsMAX, has potential.  You need to look carefully at the pricing though.  In my example paying an additional 2.86 cents per Etihad Guest miles makes no sense.  In the Avios screenshot I took yesterday, on the other hand, you are paying virtually nothing for the additional 1,701 Avios.

I should mention that the Etihad Guest points haven’t reached my account yet, but will hopefully at some point in the near future – I was told it can take 30 days from check-out.  We are very close to that now.

Remember that any room booked via Agoda PointsMAX will NOT earn hotel loyalty points from the hotel itself as it will be treated as a third-party booking.  You may or may not get your status benefits depending on the chain and the attitude of the individual hotel.  That is not an issue with an independent hotels such as the one I stayed at.

You can have a play around with PointsMAX to check out the Avios – or other airline – earning potential here.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.