Expedia One Key program is living up to its name: You’ll only earn 1% without status

It’s been almost three years since the Expedia group massively devalued the Hotels.com Rewards loyalty program, replacing it with One Key—a new program that’s applicable not only for Hotels.com bookings, but for those through Expedia and Vrbo too.

As a reminder, Hotels.com Rewards historically offered 10% back in rewards based on the room rate, the sum of which you could then redeem after staying ten nights. When that was switched over to One Key Rewards, the earning rate was slashed by 80% to leave your rewards earning rate at only 2% unless you booked VIP Access hotels.

That was an appalling devaluation, but Expedia has decided that devaluing by 80% wasn’t enough. They’re now devaluing One Key by a further 50% unless you have status in the program.

Hotels.com sent out an email today advising that the following changes will be occurring from July 28, 2026:

• You’ll earn up to 3% in OneKeyCash® on all eligible non-flight bookings, including packages, on Expedia
• You’ll no longer earn 0.2% in OneKeyCash on flights on Expedia
• We will no longer be offering Hotel Price Guarantee on Expedia or Hotels.com®

Now, you might look at that first bullet point and understandably think that this is a program improvement. After all, 3% is higher than 2%. As is often the case though, the devil is in the details:

OneKeyCash earn rate is based on membership tier. Blue members earn 1%, Silver and Gold members earn 2%. Platinum members earn 3% in OneKeyCash on eligible bookings. When booking a package, earn on hotels, car rentals, ground transportation, and activities only. Flights excluded.

So while that 3% rate will be earned by those who have top tier Platinum status in One Key, those without any status will have their earnings cut from 2% to 1%. That’s a 90% devaluation in the space of three years for former Hotels.com Rewards members.

If you have Silver or Gold status, your earnings will be maintained at 2%, so at least you won’t see a devaluation in that respect. Platinum status members will be the only ones with anything to gain with this change as their earnings will increase by 50% from 2% to 3%.

Here’s how to earn elite status in the One Key program, along with its associated benefits:

As you can see, the requirements to earn Silver status—and thereby maintain at least a 2% One Key Rewards earning rate—aren’t particularly stringent. You only need five Trip Elements for Silver status and Trip Elements are earned as follows:

• Flights – 1 Trip Element for an Eligible Flight where each ticket (a roundtrip flight ticket and any stopover(s) are deemed to be 1 Trip Element, a multi-city ticket is deemed to be 1 Trip Element for each segment) in the booked flight itinerary is flown
• Hotel – 1 Trip Element for an Eligible Hotel per room per Completed night stayed
• Accommodation Rental – 1 Trip Element for an Eligible Accommodation Rental per Completed night stayed
• Car – 1 Trip Element for an Eligible Car per Completed car rental day
• Activities – 1 Trip Element for an Eligible Activity for each ticket where the activity is Completed. Where the Eligible Activity is Ground Transportation, 1 Trip Element for a completed roundtrip
• Package – 1 Trip Element for an Eligible Travel Component Completed as outlined in this table
• Cruise – 1 Trip Element per cabin per night for the length of the voyage (regardless of the number of guests)

Seeing as a Trip Element when it comes to hotels and vacation rentals is one night rather than one stay, and that with car rentals it’s one day rather than the entire length of a rental, it does make it somewhat easy to earn One Key status. Still, I have to imagine that the majority of One Key members have base level Blue status and will therefore only be earning 1% back on their bookings from July 28, 2026 onwards.

The devaluation for non-status holders isn’t the only bad news. You’ll also no longer earn 0.2% back in rewards for flights booked through Expedia, nor will you be able to submit Hotel Price Guarantee claims on Hotels.com and Expedia. Neither of those changes are going to be dealbreakers for most people enrolled in the One Key rewards program, but cumulatively it gives even less reason to book travel through Expedia or Hotels.com going forward if you’re looking to be rewarded for said travel. That’s especially the case when it comes to hotel reservations because stays booked through an Online Travel Agency (OTA) like Hotels.com or Expedia aren’t eligible for hotel points, hotel elite status benefits, etc.

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