Expedia® Rewards Voyager Card from Citi

The Expedia Rewards Voyager card could be a great fit for those who primarily use Expedia to book their travel, as it has a great rewards rate toward Expedia purchases and offers a welcome bonus, a great annual anniversary bonus and Expedia Gold status — which can boost your rewards earnings on bookings.

Welcome offer: Affordable spending requirement

This Citi Expedia card offers 25,000 bonus points when you spend $2,000 within the first three months of opening your account. The Expedia Rewards site explains that 140 points are equal to $1 — making this bonus worth roughly $180. But even so, that calculation does not take into account discounts you get when you are an Expedia Rewards member. For instance, your points are worth double at thousands of VIP Access hotels.

In comparison to other travel rewards cards, there are plenty that offer more valuable welcome bonuses, such as the Citi Premier® Card — which currently offers a bonus worth at least $600 toward redemption through Citi’s ThankYou portal and a maximum possible value of $1,140 through the right transfer partner (Based on Bankrate’s point valuations). However, it has a much high spending requirement, so if you want a card with a lesser spending requirement, the Expedia Rewards Voyager may be a better option.

Rewards: High rate for Expedia.com or Expedia mobile app bookings

Earning rewards is easy with the Expedia Rewards Voyager card, as you’ll be rewarded for being an Expedia loyalist. You’ll earn 4X Expedia Rewards points every time you make a purchase through Expedia.com or the Expedia mobile app. That includes flights, hotels, rental cars and travel packages. 

Expedia Rewards Voyager also gives you 2X points for restaurants and entertainment purchases, including tickets to sporting events, concerts and movies. As is the case with most reward cards, you’ll get 1X point for every other purchase you make.

Moreover, as an Expedia Rewards member, you earn an additional 2 points for every dollar you spend. As a complimentary Gold level member, you’ll earn 30 percent more points on top of that. And you’ll get double Expedia Rewards points when you book on the Expedia App.

Cardholder perks: Moderate range of travel benefits

The Expedia Rewards Voyager offers a number of benefits designed to help travelers navigate with ease.

• Expedia Rewards Gold status. You automatically become an Expedia Rewards Gold member when you open your credit card account. Gold members earn 30 percent more points every time they book.
• Annual air travel fee credit. You’ll get a up to $100 air travel fee statement credit each year you are a card member. This credit can be used toward airline incidentals (like baggage fees or in-flight purchases) on qualified airlines or toward either the Global Entry or the TSA Precheck application fee.
• An anniversary bonus. Every year you own the card and spend at least $10,000 in the prior year, you’ll get a 5,000 point bonus.
• Citi Concierge. Expedia Rewards Voyager Card members have access to Citi Concierge’s team of experts who can help you make travel, shopping and dining arrangements

While the list of perks are minimal, it may be perfect for infrequent travelers or those who are more focused on earning maximum rewards on their Expedia bookings.

Even though the Expedia Rewards Voyager card is fairly valuable for Expedia enthusiasts, there are a handful of downsides of the card you should consider, such as its rigid rewards redemption and how its annual fee don’t fully measure up to its small list of perks.

Redemption: Limited flexibility compared to other travel rewards cards

Expedia Rewards Voyager makes it easy for you to redeem points when you purchase travel items from Expedia.com. According to Expedia Rewards, 140 points are equal to a dollar off a booking, but your points are worth double that at thousands of Expedia VIP Access hotels. You can also use points to get a discount on car rental purchases and hotel rates, or you can redeem points to get a flight and purchase coupon worth $25 or more, but most of the card’s redemption options (and its maximum reward redemption value) limits you to Expedia purchases.

With a card such as the Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card, not only would you have a much more flexible range of eligible redemption categories, such as car rentals, cruises, transit, tourist attractions, restaurants, cocktails bars and more, you’d have no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, a higher flat rewards rate on all purchases, an intro APR offer on both purchases and balance transfers and a more valuable welcome bonus than the Expedia Rewards Voyager.

Rates and fees: You can find better travel rewards cards with similar fees

The standard APR for the Expedia Rewards Voyager card is 13.99 percent to 21.99 percent variable, depending on your creditworthiness. There is also an annual fee of $95. The cost of the annual fee and APR aren’t out of the ordinary for travel rewards cards, but you can definitely find similar cards that have annual fees within the same range that have better rewards rates, perks and redemption flexibility than the Expedia Rewards Voyager.

Fortunately, there is no foreign transaction fee, so you won’t be charged a percentage every time you make a purchase in a foreign country. Some travel rewards cards, despite its category, may have a 3 percent foreign transaction fee, so this is a nice advantage — however, you need to watch out for its cash advance fee, as it is either $10 or 5 percent of the cash amount, whichever is greater. You’ll also pay up to $40 for late transactions and returned payments.

The Expedia Rewards Voyager card has the best benefits when you book all your travel through Expedia.com. Two other travel reward cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, offer more flexible reward opportunities.

Since the Expedia Rewards Voyager card offers better benefits for hotel and rental car purchases, intrepid travelers may want to pair this card with another travel card that lets you rack up miles toward airline travel.

The Expedia Rewards Voyager may be the best option for you, or it might be contrary to that. If you travel often, the benefits on this card may appeal to you; but, if you travel sparingly, the card may not be suited to you.

If you don’t travel a lot, and especially if you don’t book hotels when you travel, there are better travel reward cards out there. You have limited ways to earn points outside Expedia.com, and there are limited ways to redeem the points on the Expedia site as well.

But if you are a frequent traveler who loves to find a bargain, the Expedia Rewards Voyager offers the ability to earn points that give you discounts on future hotel, car rental and travel itineraries. Or you can let your points accumulate until you have banked enough to purchase an entire flight from Expedia.com.

*The information about the Expedia® Rewards Voyager Card from Citi has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

*For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply