I wrote about a couple of the deals earlier but the full list has been revealed and I decided to break down all the travel deals. Look at the terms and conditions, come up with some best uses and give it some real thought.
DailyGetaways is a 5 week long sale that launches everyday at 1pm Eastern Time every week day. Some of the deals are cheaper ways to buy miles, and some are really bad. I’ll give a quick comment on each deal then go into full details below.
All the travel deals:
- March 24: IHG – Only good for PointBreaks
- March 25: Club Carlson – could do better with MS, but could save money
- March 27: Hilton – Really bad for the most part. Could be $25 cat 1 hotels, and $50 cat 2.
- March 30: Best Western – bad $55 for 10k, but no 10k hotels
- April 3: Choice – $40 for a hotel in Venice
- April 6: Avis – Status for $1,115, no thanks. 1 day rentals for $30.
- April 7: Omni – depends
- April 8: Loews
- April 9: More vegas ripoffs
- April 10: Hyatt – Not a good deal to me, but it will sell out.
- April 15: Hertz – Could be a good deal
- April 17: Marriott – just 20% off
- April 20: Fairmont
- April 21: Vegas ripoffs
- April22: Expedia -good if you’re going to spenc $1,000 at once
How it works
“Offers go on sale at 1:00pm ET each weekday beginning March 23, 2015.”
For some of these, it’s important to check out how many packages they are selling. For example the package of 72,000 Hyatt points, there are 15 packages for sale. 15 people will get to buy that package, and the chances of it being you are relatively small compared to the 3,850 packages of 100,000 IHG points. That would be an easy grab.
There are often different packages, but I’ll just be talking about the general rates.
Do the math, read the terms and conditions if you’re really interested in a deal. The points deals are straight forward, you pay money and they deposit points. But a few of the others have some catches you should know about.
Breaking down the deals
March 24: IHG Rewards points
Via this sale you can buy 5,000 IHG points for $28.25. This is a bit expensive if you’re just looking for free nights at most city hotels. In most cases this won’t save you money. However, if you know for sure that you will only use these points for PointBreaks, than it’s a good deal – it’s just $28.25 a night.
March 25: Club Carlson points
This sale allows you to buy 100,000 points for $450. That’s about .45 cents a point.
A category 1 hotel would cost you $40.50. That’s a pretty good deal if you can find a hotel for only 9,000 points and you have the credit card. The credit card allows you to get two award nights for the price of one.
A category 6 is 50,000 points and would run you $225, and that’s two nights with the credit card. Two nights at the Radisson Blu Vienna, Sydney, London or similar is actually a good deal for $225.
That being said, I’m not buying with this deal. If it was slightly cheaper I would consider it more. But buying good hotel nights for $110+ a night is not my goal.
March 27: Hilton HHonors points
Pay $500 to get 100,000. That’s a lot of money, and considering top hotels go for 95,000 points… this is hardly a deal.
The value could be on the low end. 5,000 points for a category 1 would cost you $25. 10,000 points would cost you $50.
See Category 1 & 2 Hilton Hotels. There aren’t a ton of category 1 hotels, as you’ll see, except in Egypt and a few other places. But there are a number of great category two hotels, including DoubleTree hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
The only way I would buy this is if there was a particular category 1 I was looking at booking and was excited about. This isn’t the case for me.
March 30: Best Western Rewards points
10,000 Best Western points for $55. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of Best Western properties available for 10,000 points, and even if there were… I don’t think I would jump on it. I try to always jump on free nights under $30 if it’s a desirable hotel, and I don’t see much that’s desirable here and $55 is too much for me.
This does transfer to airlines, but still not a great deal. You’d get 2,400 Southwest points for $55. See here if interested.
April 3: Choice Rewards points
40,000 points for $160. See the Best Use of Choice Points to get an idea of the value of 40,000 points. 60,000 points can get you some of the nicest hotels in the world. Free nights do start at 6,000 points and there are a few hotels that could be worth booking for 6,000 points.
There are a number of 10,000 point hotels for $40. This is slightly above my line, but there are a number of specific hotels I have in mind (as mentioned in the Best Use post linked above).
April 6: Avis free rides
You can get a max of 7 different 1 day car rental certificates for $30 each. Is a 1 day car rental worth $30? Rarely do I pay that much for a car rental, so I don’t see this as a deal.
It allows rentals up to Premium class “G”. But unfortunately the real value opportunity of using the cert for a oneway rental isn’t allowed. For me, the Hertz deal below is way better.
April 7: Omni free nights
Terms and conditions often limit to weekend, and consecutive.
For $162 you can stay two nights at the Omni in Charlottesville, Houston, St. Louis and more here.
For $245 you can stay two nights at the Omni in New Orleans, Austin, Providence and more here.
Will I be buying any of these? No. Could they save you money? Sure. If you’re the type that would be spending $80 – $120 on hotels in Houston or Austin, might as well stay at one of these hotels. Some of these hotels go for $300 a night.
April 8: Loews free nights
For $275 you can stay two nights at the Loews in NYC, Montreal, Boston, New Orleans and more here. Only 16 packages available.
For $325 you can stay two nights at the Loews in Miami and more here. Only 20 packages available.
Will I be buying any of these? No. Could they save you money? Sure. If you’re the type that would be spending $140 – $160 on hotels in NYC or Miami, might as well stay at one of these hotels. Some of these hotels go for $500 a night.
April 10: Hyatt Rewards points
There are different bundles. 72,000 Hyatt points for $775 is the most expensive and therefore the best deal per point.
That makes a 5,000 point hotel $54 and a 30,000 point hotel $323. Realistically, the middle redemption hotels for 15,000 points would be $161, and none of these are particularly good deals. Even with cash & points allowing you to earn elite night credit, it’s not a good deal. There are very few exceptions.
The 72,000 point option is limited to 15 packages. However, the smallest 24,000 point option has 95 packages. Still not a ton.
April 10: Hertz points
5,500 points for $252.
Here Hertz lists the redemption options and they aren’t bad.
- 2,750 points gets you 1 week rental with “standard rewards”. That’s $126 for a week or $18 a day.
- 5,500 points get you 1 a week oneway rental with “standard rewards”. That’s $252 a week or $36 a day.
I don’t currently have enough points to check out the availability on standard rewards. But assuming the availability is decent, these can be good deals. I’ve rented cards via Autoslash out of DC for $9 a day (was with budget) and so $18 wouldn’t be a good deal there, but other times I’ve paid $40 for a rental.
The killer deal is a oneway rental. Again, it’s dependent on availability, which I know nothing about. But check out the cash rate going from Denver to Glacier, Montana.
$300 a day is insane, but oneway rental prices actually are that bad.
April 17: Marriott gift cards
It’s just buying a gift card for 20% off. You can still earn points, complete promotions, and even BRG and pay with a gift card (as long as you would pay at the hotel). 20% is not a deal to me, but for loyal Marriott people, I suppose it could be helpful.
April 20: Fairmont free nights
$610 for three nights (including breakfast for 2) at certain Fairmont hotels.
$1,780 for six nights (including breakfast for 2) at a wider range of Fairmont hotels.
No way am I committing to $200 a night, but they have a number of great hotels in the mix.
The annoying thing is that they don’t list what category, or “collections”, are available for redemption. My guess is that in this list, it includes collections A and B.
If that’s true the first three night cert would include many famous Fairmonts in Canada, including the ones at Banff, Jasper, and Lake Louise in the Rockies. It would also include the ones in Kenya, and Swissotel Sydney, Singapore, and Zurich to list a few.
The six night option says it is for the two Hawaii hotels, which could imply that it includes collection C. Collection C includes Farimonts in Kohala Coast and Maui, Singapore, Bali and more.
None of these sound like “deals” to me though.
April 22: Expedia Coupon
This is a $1,000 coupon from Expedia for $650, plus Expedia Gold status, which doesn’t mean much to me.
35% off Expedia hotels if you commit to $650, sounds like a good deal but I’m slightly concerned about the coupon system. By using an Expedia coupon, I’m now not able to use other coupons? And since there are often huge coupons, it might not actually be a 35% savings.
The other thing is that some of the terms and conditions weren’t clear to me. Like it says that you can use a coupon once and any left over value is void. So… that means you have to book a single $1,000 stay or you forfeit the value? That seems true if it gives one big $1,000 coupon.
Despite the oddness, I’m still slightly tempted in case of a long stay in a place like the Galapagos where I know there aren’t chain hotels.
Bad Vegas Deals
- March 26: Dimond Resorts – So bad it should be called a scam
- March 31: Suites at the Palazzo/Venetian – really bad deal. I’ve seen these hotels for cheap, plus everything around is cheap. Paying $250 – $300 a night is insane.
- April 1: Caesars – Same same, cheap Vegas.
Bad, bad, and really bad.
I agree. Other than Hertz CC and Choice other deals are just really bad.
Hertz one way award availability is usually pretty good in my experience. Renting a premium car costs same points as economy for one way with points. I have spent less than $40 for one way from SF to San Diego which is pretty sweet deal and cash price was like $400 a day.
Amex Card doesnt have 10% off anymore this year?
It is a sweet deal.
No more 10% off with Amex unfortunately. Don’t know why they got rid of it.
i think you are missing one of the most important pieces in this mate.
The SM angle. I did an easy 20k last year and made a profit, not big but not small for sure. It did not take me long to make that. With my brand new spanking discover this will be easy money to me.
I assume you mean the MS angle? What deals did you do 20k with/make sense to do this year?
I don’t both writing about MS or resell on this blog. And personally I’m not going to bother with it. But I can’t help but notice that Marriott is selling $1k gift cards for $800 and https://www.cardcash.com/sell-gift-cards/ is buying them for $865. But if too many people do it it can drive the price down. I don’t bother at least.
Drew, truly appreciate all your posts. Thanks for the analysis, I’m so tired of all these other bloggers always pushing “deals,” when in reality, they aren’t deals at all.
I think a lot of bloggers try to find the good in a deal, when I’m just extremely opinionated and am willing to call a deal terrible if I think it doesn’t work for 99%. Plus I’m just cheap and don’t want to pay money. 😀
I skipped Alamo yesterday because of not being sure how to cover the insurance while using the coupons to pay for the rental. The same question with Avis or Hertz- If I buy these certs or points then I’m not paying with a Master card with primary insurance…
If you have cash rates booked. I asked Tahsir (from HMT (https://twitter.com/TahsirAhsan)) and confirmed that you need to pay for something. He even said to do a 1 day car rental first. I’ve never had experience with that, but I believe him.
Drew/others, I’m thinking of purchasing 100-150k of the IHG points to use towards an overwater bungalow for a honeymoon ~18 months from now. The IHG Thalasso is ~$700 a night, so I think this makes sense in that case unless I’m missing something… I have 150k IHG points already but if we want to go for 6 nights I would need another ~150k. It seems like the ~$850 to top off our points is the best way to get an overwater bungalow for 6 nights.
Any advice before I buy the points? Is there a better way to get that many IHG points over the next 3-4 months (we both already have the IHG credit card, hence the 150k pts)?
If the goal is Bora Bora this is a good way to go. But I think you should go on IHG.com and check award availability just to get an idea of what it’s like.
Thanks Drew. I know the availability is pretty tough to find but we’re 18-20 months out so I’m really hoping I can find something that will work. I know the award availability is released 11.5 months out but do you know if new dates are opened on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
Not sure about that detail. I have checked regularly that far out and haven’t noticed a daily release, but I didn’t check consistently.
I find that randomly dates open up in all over, and most often as the time approaches.
Buying points this far out would leave you open to a devaluation. Make sure you have a plan B in case you find yourself with a bucket load of purchased IHG points but not enough for the trip you had in mind. Also, as Drew has suggested, make sure you have a plan B in case you find that award inventory doesn’t open up (as can easily be the case with Bora Bora)
Drew,
For the Fairmont deal it clearly states:
“Three Ovations Rewards Certificates each redeemable for a 1 night stay and breakfast for 2 at The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona” (for $610).
You think they are redeemable at other properties or just this one? I was looking to go skiing in Canada (Lake Louise) this winter and this deal could have some value to me if I could use it at the property there.
Thanks.
Well, I’m just familiar with the Ovation Reward certs, and they are for Fairmont hotels listed by collection groups A-D.
The terms clearly state that it is good for the Scottsdale hotel but it doesn’t say only. I may be wrong, but I was confident enough to write this. Please do call if interested.
I can verify that you will receive Ovation certificates good anywhere.
I purchased the Hawaii version last year and gifted them to my parents for their 40th anniversary. With an Amex, it was like $1560 or something for 6 nights (6 Ovation C certificates for a standard room). Of course they chose to go to Scottsdale with them because old people are crazy. But the point is, they were accepted and the rooms were over $600 a night the week they went, plus they had breakfast included, so they got plenty of value for them. Not to mention that with a credit card suite upgrade, they could have spent 5 nights in a suite. They never expire, which is the main benefit to me, because I love the Fairmonts I have been in and will totally be investing in 6 more nights at $300 a night. Of course it is down to your travel preferences and pay threshold 🙂
So, to make that short story long, the Fairmont Hawaii deal last year was 6 standard room Ovation Collection C certificates which were used at a B property and had no mention of specifically Hawaii anywhere on them when received.
“Honest” review of the deals. Kudos for the honesty compared to some others in the space trying to entice readers in to unworthy deals.
I’m just opinionated Kumar. :-p
Do we know how these purchases process? Are they considered travel or regular spend? Is there a suggested rewards card to buy these deals with?
I’m not sure, I just can’t remember and I can’t even remember what card I would have used last year… but it was probably an Amex.
Drew, I know most of your stays are outside of the US… but is it even realistic to expect to reach a price per night within the ranges you seem to stick to within the US (and Western Europe) when staying at any of the points earning hotel properties. I just stayed at a Holiday Inn in San Diego, and it was $189/night. I could not find anything lower or within the range you prefer at IHG, Starwood, Marriott or Hilton properties.
Yes. I have spent most of the last year in Europe and the US.
It’s all about long plays.
Also, if you MS with the Club Carlson card, you can always get that price. Even paying 1% you can get 100k CC for $200. That’s 4 nights at a 50k hotel (with the credit card), and 13 nights at 15k hotel, and I find both options often. So if I spent $400 now on 200,000 CC points, and then spent 4 nights at a 50k and 13 nights at 15k… That’s 17 nights for $400. Average of $23.52. This is how I live my life.
Now when I have the opportunity to scale at this rate (the big win, for example), I do. And I do it big. I’m willing to drop $5k now it the points last me a year of hotels.
Hope you don’t mind me asking…how do you effectively liquidate 40k in VCG (Which is how I assume you are MS 200k CC points @ $400)?
It seems like it would take way too long for Walmart Bill Pay or Serve to be efficient due to daily load limits?
Hi Drew , thank you for the info about choice hotels . Does points from DailyGetaways, can be used for hotel redemption in Europe , especially in Norway .