Want to experience a more unique side of travel? Airbnb can often be a great way to book stays in far-flung destinations or to enjoy more space in cities where hotels are traditionally small and expensive.
Airbnb doesn’t have its own dedicated loyalty program. Instead, it teams up with select airline loyalty programs so you can earn bonus points for every dollar spent. Even better, there are now opportunities to earn thousands more bonus supermarket loyalty points when buying Airbnb gift cards in Australia!
Putting it all together can be an effective way to boost your points balance while planning your next trip. Here’s how.
Buy Airbnb gift cards when there’s a promotion
Over the last few years, Airbnb gift cards have regularly appeared on special at Coles and Woolworths. You can usually earn 20x bonus Flybuys or Everyday Rewards points when the offer appears in the catalogue.
To put that into perspective, every $100 you spend on Airbnb gift cards could earn you 2,000 Flybuys or Everyday Rewards points. That’s enough for:
- $10 off at the checkout (Coles or Woolworths, respectively)
- Transferred to 1,000 Qantas or Velocity Points (respectively)
It’s not out of the realm of impossibility to spend $2,000 on Airbnb for a big family trip, for example. Buying that amount in gift cards would be worth 40,000 supermarket loyalty points. That’s equal to $200 off at the checkout or 20,000 Qantas or Velocity Points, depending on the supermarket.
Earn extra frequent flyer points with Airbnb
On top of the bonus points you can earn with Airbnb gift cards, you can also earn frequent flyer points for every dollar spent! Simply by clicking through one of these links, you’ll pick up points on every booking
| Frequent flyer program | Earn rate |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 Qantas Point per AUD spent |
| British Airways Avios | 3 Avios per USD/EUR/GBP spent |
| Delta SkyMiles | 1 SkyMile per USD spent |
In detail: how to earn Qantas Points with Airbnb stays
- Start your Airbnb accommodation search and booking via the Qantas/Airbnb portal, ensuring you are logged in with your frequent flyer number.
- Confirm on the Airbnb homepage that you see the banner showing the Qantas logo.
- Find the listing you are looking to book.
- Complete checkout (including with Airbnb gift cards if you have them).
- You’ll earn the bonus Qantas Points up to 8 weeks after the stay.
The method to earn British Airways Avios or Delta SkyMiles is essentially the same as above. Simply start your Airbnb accommodation search through the British Airways or Delta portal, ensuring you are logged into the respective frequent flyer account.
Summing up
Where possible, try to buy your Airbnb gift cards when there is a bonus points offer and then use an airline portal to book for extra points. It goes without saying that you should also pay with a points-earning rewards credit card to triple-dip on points.
For a $2,000 Airbnb booking, it’s possible to earn the following:
- 20,000 Qantas or Velocity Points (via Everyday Rewards or Flybuys offers).
- 2,000 Qantas Points or around 4,000 Avios (converted from USD rate).
- And credit card points per dollar spent on the gift cards or leftover amounts.
Best of all, this is also possible at no extra cost compared to if you booked without any offers.
American Express Velocity Platinum
- Sign-up Bonus:
- Up to 100,000 bonus Velocity Points¹
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- 1.25 Velocity Points earned per $1 on all eligible spend except for government bodies⁵. 2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent on selected Virgin Australia purchases⁵. 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 on Government spend⁵
- Annual Fee:
- $440 p.a.
- Offer expires
- 30 April 2026
- The American Express Velocity Platinum Card has 70,000 bonus Velocity Points on offer for new American Express Card Members who apply, are approved and spend $5,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months of approval, plus an additional 30,000 Velocity Points when you spend a minimum of $1 on your Card within 90 days of paying your second year annual Card Fee¹. (Offer ends 30 April 2026. New Amex Card Members only. T&Cs apply.) Includes several perks such as Virgin Australia Lounge Access² every time you fly domestically with Virgin Australia, 2 VA Guest Lounge Passes³ each year and a Complimentary Domestic Return Virgin Australia Flight⁷.
Supplementary images courtesy Airbnb and respective frequent flyer programs.
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Just booked accommodation with AirBNB, chose not to book through the qantas portal to earn points as it was $175.00 more!
Whilst the 3x offers may make for good value, you should be aware that Airbnb prices via the QFF site are ~10% higher I’ve found in practice.
Webby
Hi Webby
Thanks for your feedback. In my experience I have found it to be the same, but this was mostly for international stays. Has this been consistently c. 10% higher for you, or has it been more hit and miss?
Hi Keith,
I’ve already booked my Airbnb, but until only after booking have I signed up for Qantas FF. Is it possible to claim the points post purchase?
Unfortunately, you have to be a QFF member before you book.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for sharing this tip for earning more Qantas points (3x) on Airbnb booking this week! Just wanted to confirm though – I looked up the Qantas website & airbnb portal, but was unable to find this promotion anywhere. Is this targeted, or does it apply for everyone?
Cheers,
Tim
We got word of this via email and, like the last promotion, it wasn’t promoted elsewhere. It doesn’t necessarily seem to be targeted. Chances are that triple points will be awarded but I can’t give 100% surety that it won’t be 1 point per $ spent.
We have just received confirmation from Qantas that this is a targeted promotion. Apologies for the confusion. We have updated the article accordingly.
How can I tell if my AirBnb reservation was made correctly via the Qantas AirBnb portal (ie. so that I know I’ll get the points)? I logged in through the portal and requested a booking, but I think I was in the AirBnb app on my phone by the time I accepted the preapproval. The confirmation email from AirBnb looks like it always has – no mention of Qantas etc. Is there somewhere in my Qantas account to see bookings/purchases made with Qantas partners (AirBnb) via the portal?
“Do note that as you will not earn the points until up to eight weeks after your stay.” As far as I know, there is no way to see what bookings have been made through the portal or not before the stay is completed (or in the eight weeks afterwards, for that matter).
HI,
I book my Airbnb stay recently. But not via Qantas portal. Am I eligible to earn Qantas point? If yes, how? Thanks
No, you have to book through the Qantas portal. You’d have to cancel and rebook, if the host allows, to earn points.
Hi Keith,
I recently made a booking for a 1 month AirBnB stay on Feb 11th, prior to the start of this promotion. Do you reckon there is a chance that I would be eligible for this 3:1 bonus point promotion?! Thanks again!
You’d have to cancel (if you can without penalty) and rebook to get the bonus points, unfortunately.
Hi Keith,
Ahh I am devestated with this post! I just booked a 1 month AirBnB stay via Qantas only 3 days ago – do you think that booking would be eligible for the 3:1 bonus points?! Their T&Cs don’t designate a start date, but only an end promotion date. Thanks again!
Andrew
I read somewhere that listings are more expensive when booked through the Qantas link, has anyone found this?
Yes I had a booking open for the property I wanted
$250
Went through the Qantas site
$290
Went with the Airbnb site direct
Is there any way to link your QFF number to earn basic QFF points on a stay booked directly through Airbnb? I have just booked 3 weeks in Japan!
Unfortunately not!
The only problem with the Qantas Airbnb bookings can only be made up to 21 days of stay thus missing on the discounted rate when you book for one month so end up paying more. Short stay is Ok
I travel for business and use AirBnB quite often. I thought this was a great partnership but it ended up falling short. It’s been months and most of my stays have not received points yet. When I email Virgin i get no response. It had great potential and would have been fantastic if it actually worked. Instead i’m out thousands of points.
Can Elevate points be transferred to Velocity?
No. But they can be used for Virgin Australia flights once you have enough of them, and you can buy more Elevate points directly if you need a top up.
Oh no!! I literally just booked three (each nearly weeklong) air bnb stays in Italy. This would have been amazing! Oh well, fingers crossed for next time!
Not sure if the t&c have changed recently but the 20k bonus is only for US hostings and requires 5 nights of hosting… https://www.virginamerica.com/cms/dam/vx-pdf/Airbnb-Offer-TCs.pdf
Hi
Just used for my acomm in Tahititi, see if it works. Missed out for my whole week in Tassie… : (
Flew V. America premium econ. from Cancun to LA this year and was v nice.
Thanks for sharing Keith!
I feel I would pick up a lot more if you used 😉 emoji’s.
Maybe I was a bit overly subtle in that one! This could be a great deal if you maximise the hosting aspect.