Most travellers are familiar with the accommodation service Airbnb, which offers the option to bypass traditional lodging options like hotels for a more ‘local’ experience staying in an apartment or house (or treehouse).
What a lot of people don’t know is that just by clicking through a dedicated link, you can earn 1 Qantas Point for every Aussie dollar ($1.11 NZD) spent on Airbnb stays.
Airbnb doesn’t have its own dedicated loyalty program but instead has generally chosen to team up with other partners to offer loyalty perks. Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus have joined the Airbnb fold too.
Current offer 1: earn 500 bonus Qantas Points for your first ever Airbnb stay booked through Qantas
Qantas have an ongoing promotion whereby you earn 500 bonus Qantas Points on top of the points that you usually would on Airbnb stays.
Do note that as you will not earn the points until up to 8 weeks after your stay, and there is no loophole to make a booking, get the points, and then cancel the booking.
Link: Qantas Airbnb portal
Current offer 2: earn up to 1,000 bonus SkyMiles for your first ever Airbnb stay booked through Delta
If you’ve already taken advantage of the Qantas promotion and have a reason to accrue Delta SkyMiles (which can be used for travel on Virgin Australia as well as SkyTeam partners such as Korean Air, Air France and KLM), then you may want to direct your focus to this option.
You’ll receive:
- $25 Airbnb credit valid toward a first booking totaling at least USD $75
- 1,000 bonus miles for a first stay totaling at least USD $150 or 500 bonus miles for a first stay totaling at least USD $75
- 1 mile per USD $1 spent on all qualifying stays
There is no expiry for this offer.
Link: Delta SkyMiles Airbnb portal
How to earn Qantas Points with Airbnb stays
The regular earn rate doesn’t compare well when looking at the base return for booking via Qantas Hotels, which starts at 3 Qantas Points per $1 AUD and is often increased during promotional periods.
However, this isn’t comparing apples to apples. Airbnb is a totally different product and experience to booking a hotel, and you usually would know which you’d prefer to get the most from your travels.
- Start your Airbnb accommodation search and booking via the Qantas.com Airbnb portal, ensuring you are logged in with your frequent flyer number or log in when prompted
- You’ll pick up 1 Qantas Point per AUD spent on the final value of the guest fees of your booking after credits or discounts
- The points will be credited to your account up to eight weeks after your stay
- You won’t earn points on cancelled bookings
- The name on the booking must match the name on your Qantas Frequent Flyer account
- If booking an overseas property where the price is not quoted in AUD, then the points earned will be calculated on an AUD exchange rate used by Airbnb
Given you are booking directly with Airbnb after clicking through from Qantas, you should find that pricing is the same. If you find this is not the case, please let us know in the comments.
Here are the full terms and conditions for earning Qantas Points via Airbnb.
Airbnb is an alternative to hotels for sure but, generally, you can decide whether the benefits and trade-offs of staying in an Airbnb are suitable, and would usually be more of a sway to your decision than whether you can earn points or not.
Other options for earning points and credits with Airbnb
1. Pick up $40 with your first stay, or $100 for your first ‘hosting’ with our referral link
Airbnb offers a referral program where existing users can refer new users and both earn credit. Here’s our referral link, which will give you $40 AUD credit with your first booking.
Similarly, if you decide to rent out a room or apartment as a host, you can pick up $100 for using our link too.
If you’re already an Airbnb user you can create and share your own referral links here.
2. Earn Delta SkyMiles
If you make a booking within 60 days of becoming an Airbnb member, you will get $25 USD off that first booking and between 500 and 1,000 bonus SkyMiles.
Link: Delta SkyMiles Airbnb portal
3. Earn United MileagePlus miles
This process is the most convoluted of all but earns the highest points, collecting 2 United MileagePlus miles per $1 USD spent on Airbnb gift cards (this earn rate changes periodically).
Do note that this online store regularly changes which retailers it partners with, so this option may not always be available.
MileagePlus offer good-value First and Business Class redemptions to Asia on Star Alliance carriers.
Here are the steps:
- Make sure you have a MileagePlus account (sign up for one for free here).
- Download the MileagePlus X app for iOS or Android.
- Click on Airbnb.
- Buy an Airbnb gift card to use for your Airbnb purchase. Note that the gift card will be in US Dollars, so you may want to do your search on the Airbnb website or app in USD too so you can get the exact amount right.
4. Get a $50 USD credit for your first ‘Business Travel’ booking
If you have a work email address (basically any address other than a public domain like @gmail.com, @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com), then you can get a $50 USD credit after booking your next Airbnb stay as a ‘business trip’.
All you need to do is link your work email address to your existing Airbnb account through the Airbnb Business Travel page.
Supplementary images courtesy Airbnb and respective frequent flyer programs.
