Check out our Top Rewards Cards to boost your points earning and travel more!
Daily Getaways is back, an annual promotion by the US Travel Association designed to whip people into a frenzy of impulse purchases they may regret. SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED! BUY NOW!
Dan’s Deals and FrequentMiler have good rundowns on where they see potential value.
All the recent loyalty program devaluations and industry consolidation should be warning enough that when trading cash for points, you best have an immediate, viable short-term use for the points.
Many offers take the form of packages and certificates. You may be getting a discount off retail, may even be getting a discount over what you already would pay. You are earning that discount by giving up cash now and accepting conditions and restrictions.
The Avis certificates are egregious offenders. Dan’s Deals notes “you can buy Avis 1 day rental certificates for $30 each, though they’re not valid in NYC, for one-way rentals, and they have hidden blackout dates.” FrequentMiler has a reader report that they don’t work in Alaska either.
Nearly anytime I have bought something travel-related far in advance that locks me in I have come to regret it, if not out of economic loss, then at least out of frustration. I am steering clear of the temptation.
Readers, what great Daily Getaways deals am I missing out?
Check Out Our: Top Rewards Cards ¦ Newsletter ¦ Twitter ¦ Facebook ¦ Instagram
[…] that if there’s one thing all the recent devaluations have taught us, it should be to never stockpile points, miles, or certificates for an unknown future trip. Angelina opined (correctly) at her blog Angelina’s Travels that, among other things, many of […]
[…] have to agree with Rapid Travel Chai on this […]
Completely agree. Each year gets worse and worse. Let’s see how many bloggers overhype it.
I picked up 20k Choice points specifically for a couple of airport hotel nights coming up. And I hope to max out Best Western points later this week and convert them to topbonus miles (5k BW = 2k tb), which will be used for intra-Europe flights this fall.
Other than that, I wasn’t able to find anything else that works for me this year and still fits within my current finances.
As long as Choice Hotels don’t devalue in the next month or so, I’ll be staying in hotels in Sweden & Denmark that normally go for $200-300 per night for just $40-80 per night thanks to the Daily Getaways points I got today. The deals aren’t for everyone, but I’m happy.