Warning - Agoda

[Roflco]

Hi all, just thought I'd throw a reminder out there to new members (like me) for booking via agoda


I made the mistake this week of booking via Agoda.com: Smarter Hotel Booking instead of Virgin Australia


Apparently this means my booking is ineligible to earn velocity points - 5K points down the drain! I put in a missing points claim and VA rejected it.

 

[Ausbt]

Yep, we've probably all been down that road at some point. Even when you book via www.virginaustralia.com occassionally the process fails. I was in the habit of screen-shotting every page at one point, and then immediately emailing Customer Support at Agoda proof that I had booked it the correct way.

You might also notice that there is less property selection when you book via VA rather than with Agoda direct. Make sure you cross-check the rates direct with the property and also at Trivago. Keep at it though, there are some good points hauls to be made.

 

[JohnK]

Just out of interest did you check the discount you received by not getting Velocity points? The bookings I made a few weeks ago I took the discounted room rate over the Velocity points rate.

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

Ive been burnt that way too ended up dumping velocity.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Just out of interest did you check the discount you received by not getting Velocity points? The bookings I made a few weeks ago I took the discounted room rate over the Velocity points rate.

Good point.

Often deals with points are not worth taking. ie I just had a look at Lumo Energy for example and the rates per kw were way way higher if you went the bonus points offer.

 

[thetimeisnigh]

I have also been stung by this.
I will only book directly with the hotels now.
The elite status matching with the large hotel chains is not too much effort.

 

[grubbidok]

I've dumped VA and QF hotels sites as I personally find the cash-back sites more rewarding for hotel bookings than points sites. You get the cash back, usually the 'ordinary' rate plus whatever loyalty scheme the hotels site has - you can get points with the CC you use. On something like Hotels.com this means at least 15% back (the 10% Welcome rewards plus 5% cash back plus 2 VA pts per $ on CC)

Points are often a false economy

 

[dajop]

Just out of interest did you check the discount you received by not getting Velocity points? The bookings I made a few weeks ago I took the discounted room rate over the Velocity points rate.

Thats very common, going to the "regular" agoda site (no points on any program) or the agoda app will see lower rates.

In Singapore, and several other countries, a number of credit cards also have discounts off agoda bookings (book with a xx_Bank credit card via a special subsite agoda.com/xx_Bankand you get 8% discount), trouble is the rates on the subsite are often higher than the normal site, so your rate ends up the same anyway.

All very devious.

 

[JohnK]

Agoda introduced PointsMAX recently. Includes a number of top US based airlines.

I haven't seen too much information on it so started digging around. Please do not think this is a rewards program. You are in fact buying the miles from Agoda instead of United, AAdvantage, SkyMiles etc.

Unless there is some generous promotion with the airlines then take the 5% accumulated towards Agoda rewards and any cashback sites all the time.

 

[dajop]

take the 5% accumulated towards Agoda rewards ...

Does Agoda rewards even exist any more? Maybe I need to delete cookies, but I can only find reference to Points Max on website. Other than in FAQ's that suggest to earn Agoda rewards the booking must have been made by 1/4/2014 ....

In order to earn points you need to both
- Log into your account by entering a valid username and password.
- Have made a booking with Agoda before April 1st 2014

As an aside, what we are seeing is convergence of booking sites through acquisitions and the like. Although not always offering same prices, agoda is part of priceline, which also includes naturally priceline.com, as well as booking.com and kayak in its stable.

 

[casanovawa]

I've dumped VA and QF hotels sites as I personally find the cash-back sites more rewarding for hotel bookings than points sites. You get the cash back, usually the 'ordinary' rate plus whatever loyalty scheme the hotels site has - you can get points with the CC you use. On something like Hotels.com this means at least 15% back (the 10% Welcome rewards plus 5% cash back plus 2 VA pts per $ on CC)

Points are often a false economy

I use Hotel.com and with the 10 nights get one free i've already been able to book a free night, but what it the 5% cash back thing?

 

[JohnK]

Does Agoda rewards even exist any more? Maybe I need to delete cookies, but I can only find reference to Points Max on website. Other than in FAQ's that suggest to earn Agoda rewards the booking must have been made by 1/4/2014 ....

Agoda rewards is still there. I made 2 bookings recently and will receive 20 Agoda rewards per $1 spent.

I can toggle PointsMAX on and off to look at the points/miles earned in the various programs. Tricky way to get to it though from memory.

 

[dajop]

Agoda rewards is still there. I made 2 bookings recently and will receive 20 Agoda rewards per $1 spent.

I can toggle PointsMAX on and off to look at the points/miles earned in the various programs. Tricky way to get to it though from memory.

I can toggle PointsMAX, but can't see any Agoda rewards stuff. Maybe because I am signed in with an account with a Singapore addresss it means it's not there, perhaps it depends on where you are geographically located, so it could be that. Or a cookie. Or the IP address of my browser. Or ........

 

[grubbidok]

I use Hotel.com and with the 10 nights get one free i've already been able to book a free night, but what it the 5% cash back thing?

They're the cashback referral sites. Basically you click a link to Hotels.com via one of the sites and you get a share of the commission. I have Ebates, Mr Rebates or Coupon Cactus and check to see which one has the highest rate on the day (they are variable) using Cashbackholic to compare. Bear in mind though that you need to use the US Hotels.com site for those (settings are at the top bar - you can configure US site to use AUD).

Cashrewards is an Australian cash back site that I notice has a flat 4.8% cashback rate for the Australian Hotels.com site. I don't use it for Hotels.com, but have used it for other stuff and it works well. I just prefer to use the others as I like being reimbursed in USD so we can keep our US bank account topped up (they all pay by PayPal though, so you can link to any account).

 

[burmans]

They're the cashback referral sites. Basically you click a link to Hotels.com via one of the sites and you get a share of the commission.

Similar with Agoda.com you can get Cash Back and the PointsMax I believe.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Yes, this is one of the problems with Agoda, in the sense you have to be on the ball and make 1000% always that you can see with the corner of your eye, that you are always within the VA part of Agoda.
If you for some reason go backwards for any reason, it will reset to the general Agoda website, not the linked with VA one.
I also note that on the Agoda (non VA linked website), it has something called My Rewards, with the Agoda and VA, its My Reviews.
Not good.
Prefer the other Aussie airline's hotel booking website, where their name is huge that you can't miss it.

 

[bam71]

Have had an interesting experience using the Velocity/Agoda partnership. I had to book some clients into a property in a certain area. Normally I use Rocketmiles or Pointshound for this to earn AA or EY miles. Neither had availability but Agoda did. I waited 6 weeks until I could put in a claim for the points (6K worth of accommodation = 18K Velocity points). I've been told that as the booking was not for me I am ineligible to receive the points. There is nothing in the T&C's that says the booker has to be the traveller, indeed Agoda ask " are you the person staying" or some such. Should I pursue further?? I'm inclined to but I want to make sure I've covered all bases. Ive checked and rechecked the T&C's and can't find anything that says I'm ineligible. I advised Velocity to either grant the points or change the T&c's but as a lowly red member don't even get a response.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ausbt]

There is nothing in the T&C's that says the booker has to be the traveller, indeed Agoda ask " are you the person staying" or some such. Should I pursue further?? I'm inclined to but I want to make sure I've covered all bases. Ive checked and rechecked the T&C's and can't find anything that says I'm ineligible. I advised Velocity to either grant the points or change the T&c's but as a lowly red member don't even get a response.

Bam, I use Agoda via Virgin extensively and you definitely should be receiving Velocity points even when making bookings for others. I've only done so once but I received the points. My golden rules for Agoda are:

Never log into Agoda seperately
Always log in via Velocity, perform your search and never click the back button
Do not alter many options, I tend to filter by location only, and occassionaly by price if there are many properties
Once you have chosen to book, screenshot every page and save it to a windows folder (Agoda page 1, page 2 etc)
When the confirmation email comes through, ensure it has 'Agoda a Trusted Partner of Virgin' image is present
If anything does not check out, immediately email [email protected] and be persistent

I've actually found their Customer Service to be be quite good, certainly a quick response time.

 

[bam71]

Thanks Ausbt, I will definitely pursue it further. I didn't take screen shots, but I did log in via Velocity, and they acknowlege that. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[theblank]

Just out of interest did you check the discount you received by not getting Velocity points? The bookings I made a few weeks ago I took the discounted room rate over the Velocity points rate.

I just made a booking through Virgin Agoda and the price was the same as direct with Agoda.