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Hi All
Planning a trip to New York in December, and looking at booking a hotel through booking.com
On the BA E Store, it says 8 avios per pound : https://ibb.co/LN9xWPv
This seems too good to be true! Our hotels around the £1500 mark so that would equate to around 12k Avios points. Has anyone successfully got their points from a hotel stay via this way? I do have a Genius level 2 on my Booking.com account, so for some hotels I get a slight discount. Would this invalidate the Avios offer?
Final question, it does say on the BA Estore, that the payout is 90-120 days after your stay. In which case, I guess it doesn’t make a difference as to paying the hotel cost upfront (not refundable) vs paying when we get to the hotel in December?
Many thanks
Hi @totestornot123 – I am also a Genius Level 2 on Booking.com and have successfully harvested Avios via the e-store. However, the secret to a happy life when shopping via BA’s e-store is to have minimal expectations – any miles earned should be viewed as a bonus!
Hi All
Planning a trip to New York in December, and looking at booking a hotel through booking.com
On the BA E Store, it says 8 avios per pound : https://ibb.co/LN9xWPv
This seems too good to be true! Our hotels around the £1500 mark so that would equate to around 12k Avios points. Has anyone successfully got their points from a hotel stay via this way? I do have a Genius level 2 on my Booking.com account, so for some hotels I get a slight discount. Would this invalidate the Avios offer?
Final question, it does say on the BA Estore, that the payout is 90-120 days after your stay. In which case, I guess it doesn’t make a difference as to paying the hotel cost upfront (not refundable) vs paying when we get to the hotel in December?
Many thanks
Prices are usually higher if you book on Booking.com via the BA eStore (compared to what you usually see on Booking.com), which can largely cancel out the Avios earned, so you will want to check this. On top of that, there is always a possibility that the Avios are not awarded (e.g., if there are any issues tracking your spend), so you might pay more and not get anything in return.
I book pretty much all my hotels thought booking.com and the BA EStore. Most of the time I find that geniun discount is not applied to the booking if applicable.
I have personally never had an issue with tracking. Just make sure you clear your cookies before clicking the link.
On paying now or at check in. I have only paid now and all been award the avios, never paid at check in so can’t comment on that aspect.
You could have a look at booking via the Avios hotels that pays out at 15 Avios per pound. It should be reliable- you’d have to compare prices between:
a) Booking.com (not via eStore!) b) booking.com (via estore) c) Avios hotels d) booking direct.
I would weigh up the benefits and risks in each. I’d probably not pay much more for b above a (as a risk it might not pay out) but would pay a small premium for c over a,b or d.Always use booking.com unless its the thistle Hotel at t5 (which gives more avios)
Always check on separate browser for cost against BA click through and direct with booking.com.
I would say 95% of time they are same price and I’m genuis level3
I receive avios about 85% of time and when I raise a case it returns some BS about the hotel being valid anymore or that the click through wasn’t registered, but in the last 18months I’ve harvested circe 70k of avios through this method.
It’s a better option for me than booking a BA holiday somtimes( in terms of avios gain)
I have earned hundreds of thousands of Avios from hotel stays between the estore/TopCashback mixed with booking.com/hotels.com or with Avios hotels. For chain hotels, the return is normally greater than theough the chain’s own website, and Avios are more use to me than hotel points as I tend to regard chain hotels as a grudge-stay when I have no better alternative. Caveats: owner managed hotels can sometimes be persuaded to give a better deal if you book directly, and booking.com/hotels.com sometimes sneakily raise their prices if you access their website via a cashback site.
I have never had an issue with tracking for any of these combinations of sites.
I should have said that 8 Avios/£ is the minimum acceptable return. It’s often possible to get 12 Avios/£.
Thanks to everyone. I will double check the price of the hotels via the mobile app / website compared to what it is via the BA EStore. I wasn’t even aware of Avios Hotels so will check them out too to compare the price.
I guess clearing the cookies or trying incognito/InPrivate browsing would also achieve the same thing? (Make sure the booking via the BA EStore is tracked)
Hi All
Planning a trip to New York in December, and looking at booking a hotel through booking.com
On the BA E Store, it says 8 avios per pound : https://ibb.co/LN9xWPv
This seems too good to be true! Our hotels around the £1500 mark so that would equate to around 12k Avios points. Has anyone successfully got their points from a hotel stay via this way? I do have a Genius level 2 on my Booking.com account, so for some hotels I get a slight discount. Would this invalidate the Avios offer?
Final question, it does say on the BA Estore, that the payout is 90-120 days after your stay. In which case, I guess it doesn’t make a difference as to paying the hotel cost upfront (not refundable) vs paying when we get to the hotel in December?
Many thanks
Prices are usually higher if you book on Booking.com via the BA eStore (compared to what you usually see on Booking.com), which can largely cancel out the Avios earned, so you will want to check this. On top of that, there is always a possibility that the Avios are not awarded (e.g., if there are any issues tracking your spend), so you might pay more and not get anything in return.
I don’t believe that is true. I always paid the same and have used Booking.com to harvest around 100k Avios over the last 2/3 years easily. I was also always awarded, as long as you do what it says on the tin. Go from the portal and complete the booking. It’ll also appear pretty quickly as pending and get the Avios 3 months after you come back.
Hi All
Planning a trip to New York in December, and looking at booking a hotel through booking.com
On the BA E Store, it says 8 avios per pound : https://ibb.co/LN9xWPv
This seems too good to be true! Our hotels around the £1500 mark so that would equate to around 12k Avios points. Has anyone successfully got their points from a hotel stay via this way? I do have a Genius level 2 on my Booking.com account, so for some hotels I get a slight discount. Would this invalidate the Avios offer?
Final question, it does say on the BA Estore, that the payout is 90-120 days after your stay. In which case, I guess it doesn’t make a difference as to paying the hotel cost upfront (not refundable) vs paying when we get to the hotel in December?
Many thanks
Prices are usually higher if you book on Booking.com via the BA eStore (compared to what you usually see on Booking.com), which can largely cancel out the Avios earned, so you will want to check this. On top of that, there is always a possibility that the Avios are not awarded (e.g., if there are any issues tracking your spend), so you might pay more and not get anything in return.
I can confirm this to be true. I’m a Genius Level 3 and booked an hotel a couple of weeks ago and the price when booking after clicking on EStore link was ~5% higher than going straight to Booking.com
Hi All
Planning a trip to New York in December, and looking at booking a hotel through booking.com
On the BA E Store, it says 8 avios per pound : https://ibb.co/LN9xWPv
This seems too good to be true! Our hotels around the £1500 mark so that would equate to around 12k Avios points. Has anyone successfully got their points from a hotel stay via this way? I do have a Genius level 2 on my Booking.com account, so for some hotels I get a slight discount. Would this invalidate the Avios offer?
Final question, it does say on the BA Estore, that the payout is 90-120 days after your stay. In which case, I guess it doesn’t make a difference as to paying the hotel cost upfront (not refundable) vs paying when we get to the hotel in December?
Many thanks
Prices are usually higher if you book on Booking.com via the BA eStore (compared to what you usually see on Booking.com), which can largely cancel out the Avios earned, so you will want to check this. On top of that, there is always a possibility that the Avios are not awarded (e.g., if there are any issues tracking your spend), so you might pay more and not get anything in return.
I don’t believe that is true. I always paid the same and have used Booking.com to harvest around 100k Avios over the last 2/3 years easily. I was also always awarded, as long as you do what it says on the tin. Go from the portal and complete the booking. It’ll also appear pretty quickly as pending and get the Avios 3 months after you come back.
Afraid that’s not been my experience. On some properties the price is the same, but others you do pay more.
Usually the extra cost is less than the value of the Avios you’re getting – but you are effectively buying the Avios at that point, so you have to do the sums carefully to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
It’s the same as when Booking.com offers you the chance to pay in £ rather than the local currency. Their markup seems to be around 1%, so it’s clearly less than the 3% that Amex and most other card companies charge. However, if you have a Curve/Chase etc. card where there are no fees, you have to consider whether it’s worthwhile using the Amex etc. instead. Generally, I’d have said it’s only worth it if you’d otherwise struggle to meet a spend requirement.
Last point to note is that some hotels offer a cheaper mobile-only rate. This can be combined with the BA EStore points, but you obviously have to do so through your mobile device and the browser, rather than the Booking.com app.
In short, a bit of research will often pay dividends.
Hotel.com also gives avios through the e store. Currently up to 12 per £. They also give you a credit after your 10th night of about 8% (they imply 10% but they don’t include taxes and fees).That offer is due to end sometime this year.
I use both Booking and Hotel as there is a big difference between them depending where you are in the world both in price and selection.
@supermacypu can’t combine the 12/£ offer with the 10th night credit. If you do, the Avios award drops to 5/£. But you are right that either way you get a better return than from booking.com.
Hi All
Planning a trip to New York in December, and looking at booking a hotel through booking.com
On the BA E Store, it says 8 avios per pound : https://ibb.co/LN9xWPv
This seems too good to be true! Our hotels around the £1500 mark so that would equate to around 12k Avios points. Has anyone successfully got their points from a hotel stay via this way? I do have a Genius level 2 on my Booking.com account, so for some hotels I get a slight discount. Would this invalidate the Avios offer?
Final question, it does say on the BA Estore, that the payout is 90-120 days after your stay. In which case, I guess it doesn’t make a difference as to paying the hotel cost upfront (not refundable) vs paying when we get to the hotel in December?
Many thanks
Prices are usually higher if you book on Booking.com via the BA eStore (compared to what you usually see on Booking.com), which can largely cancel out the Avios earned, so you will want to check this. On top of that, there is always a possibility that the Avios are not awarded (e.g., if there are any issues tracking your spend), so you might pay more and not get anything in return.
I don’t believe that is true. I always paid the same and have used Booking.com to harvest around 100k Avios over the last 2/3 years easily. I was also always awarded, as long as you do what it says on the tin. Go from the portal and complete the booking. It’ll also appear pretty quickly as pending and get the Avios 3 months after you come back.
Afraid that’s not been my experience. On some properties the price is the same, but others you do pay more.
Usually the extra cost is less than the value of the Avios you’re getting – but you are effectively buying the Avios at that point, so you have to do the sums carefully to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
It’s the same as when Booking.com offers you the chance to pay in £ rather than the local currency. Their markup seems to be around 1%, so it’s clearly less than the 3% that Amex and most other card companies charge. However, if you have a Curve/Chase etc. card where there are no fees, you have to consider whether it’s worthwhile using the Amex etc. instead. Generally, I’d have said it’s only worth it if you’d otherwise struggle to meet a spend requirement.
Last point to note is that some hotels offer a cheaper mobile-only rate. This can be combined with the BA EStore points, but you obviously have to do so through your mobile device and the browser, rather than the Booking.com app.
In short, a bit of research will often pay dividends.
Interesting to hear that point, good to know.
Anytime I checked prices – whether that was 2020 for Athens, 2021 for Mykonos, 2022 for Paris, 2023 for Florida or 2024 for Las Vegas the prices matched to the penny and allowed me to gather a ton of Avios. There has never been a time since I started my Avios farming journey where I’d have been shafted even by a few %.
But I guess that does not mean that it’s not a thing and thanks for sharing, it’s definitely a 50-50 if it does skew prices or not I guess. In my experience it’s never been not worth using the Booking.com link from BA, free Avios especially if the prices are the same.
One item to note, when booked through ba click through….any changes to booking, number of stays, number of guests, adding breakfast, even just contacting the property I ALWAYS click through the ba store.
Thinking about missing avios a few years back where I wasn’t given any explanation. I had made minor adjustments to the booking going straight into bookimg.com on the app.
DP re BA E-Store accommodation bookings via booking.com vs hotels.com. I booked 11 single night stays for 3rd to 14th July via Booking.com (at the time it was 10 avios per £ via the BA E-Store) and I’m pleased to report that I’ve had the first 10 lots of Avios credited to my account, with one lot landing daily since 5th August. In contrast, my most recent E-store generated Avios via hotels.com for a stay that ended on 23rd March only landed on 30th June. The E-store emails which confirm the points have landed have fortunately made it easy to track!
Over the years I have seen frequent mention on the forums of Avios not being awarded and always found that odd as it has always worked for me and I have collected tens of thousands of Avios from Booking.com and airbnb. In the last week however I have had 3 emails telling me that 3 different stays were not eligible! I can’t work out what I did differently but some useful suggestions in this thread (such as clearing the cache) which I will probably try next time!
Last point to note is that some hotels offer a cheaper mobile-only rate. This can be combined with the BA EStore points, but you obviously have to do so through your mobile device and the browser, rather than the Booking.com app.
In short, a bit of research will often pay dividends.
Thanks for this interesting tip on mobile only rates? Is it possible to identify such hotels when you search for them on the laptop, so that you can switch over while booking to save ££?
You should see booking.com credits pending on the relevant tab in the BA rewards app. Seems to be the only avios that track there
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