Deals: Daily Getaways, $20 off Visa Gift Cards, Stockholm for $300, and

Daily Getaways is easily the most over hyped sale of the year, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to go after something. Just most people’s “something” is the Hyatt points. But there are a few other deals around the web I want to quick go over.

• Daily Getaways: 5,000 IHG points for $28
• Daily Getaways: Choice points for $.004 a point
• Stockholm for $300 roundtrip
• $10 off $200 gift cards at Office Max / Office Depot
• Reminder that the Club Carlson promos, and IHG set your sights are ending

Also, I should mention that those who follow Travel is Free on Facebook and saw the $400 roundtrip to China in Business Class, congrats to those who got on it. It went real quick! OMAT had a good post about it here, including visa info. Last time I got a Chinese visa it was done in person in Houston, but this time I won’t be near an embassy. My first passport service?

Daily Getaways

Daily Getaways are returning! This is the sale of the year, where every year frequent flyers compete to high demand batches of extremely expensive over priced miles sales, because it’s slightly cheaper than buying from the chain directly. Still, I’ll give my take on the few non insanely bad deals.

I’ll list prices at the best rate, usually the largest bulk package. Usually you have to be on your computer when this thing goes live, or you get nothing. Details here.

IHG Points

Last year IHG sold tons of batches of IHG points, taking up multiple days of the sale. However, the price is quite similar to IHG’s frequent 100% bonus on their own website. And like a lot of things, whether or not it’s a good deal is largely: “it depends”.

You’re essentially buying points at $0.00565 a piece. That’s not a good deal on most stays. However, if you’re certain you will use these on PointBreaks hotels (which is a sale of hotels for 5,000 points), a night would run you $28.25. That’s not bad, but if you buy them and use them for a Crowne Plaza somewhere that’s 30,000 points, that’s $170. And more expensive points hotels would be even more.
Choice Points

Same same, right? It’s often a bad deal but if you have a very specific redemption in mind, you can easily run the math. Here we’re buying points for $0.004 a piece.

Please see my Best Use of Choice Points. I’ve listed a number of great redemptions. For example, there is a hotel in downtown Venice that is 10,000 points. This would now be $40 a night. There is a hotel on an island in Honduras that’s 6,000 points and it would therefore be $24 a night. These would be extremely good redemptions.

On the high end, there are a few high dollar hotels. Like a hotel in Beverly Hills that goes for $1,000 a night. However, there are a lot of hotels that cost 60,000 points, and would therefore be $240, that aren’t even worth $200. It would be easy to get a bad deal or a good deal.

I say buy if you can get an absolute steal on a hotel you know you’ll go to soon.

Hyatt points and everything else

Everything else sucks. The most desirable on the list tends to be Hyatt points. And no matter how I run the math, I can’t imagine paying that much money. On a 15,000 point hotel it would be $160, which is normal for most hotels in that category, and you don’t earn elite night credit.

At the top end, you’re paying $332 a night. I can’t imagine paying that much for a night anywhere, given that you could always get a better deal or a hotel for free in the same town. Park Hyatt Sydney might be worth that on paper… but I’ll just BRG the IC, or use points, or use one of my certs… or find a hotel to pay for that’s a better deal and earn points.

$10 off $200 gift cards at office Max / Office Depot

Frequent Miler reports a deal of $20 off cards at staples:

• $20 off $250 VGC at Staples

This is great because the Chase Ink Plus card gives 5 points per dollar at office supply stores and I love Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Ultimately you make money to get 5x. The problem for me is the scale of it.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have a car. But if I’m walking by Staples I will drop in.

Stockholm for $300 roundtrip

This isn’t a mistake fare, this is a genuine sale. This could be a great deal for some… however, consider that the deal is only pricing out that low around January. I continually see this shared around, and I must say that it’s not tempting me. But if you’re going anyways… it’s a good deal.

You can find other deals from other cities, but the one most talked about right now is NYC to Stockholm.

In June you’re looking at $268 one way, and in Jan you can get $150.

The other problem for me is that the fare likely involves positioning, which is an extra cost. And the big one is that you don’t earn miles. We flew to Italy earlier for $140 roundtrip on a few different mistake fares and were earning miles. This would earn ya nothing.

Check out the deal here.

Reminder that the Club Carlson promos, and IHG set your sights are ending

The Club Carlson promotions I wrote about last time is ending at the end of March. Combining the 10k, 20k and 30k bonuses are almost done, but hopefully something good comes next quarter.

Never ended up doing the Club Carlson promotion, as it’s not nearly as good of a deal as the Set Your Sights. Speaking of IHG’s Set Your Sights, if you have the time (and a weekend) to get in 3 nights at Holiday Inn, it’s an easy 50,000 points!

The IHG Set Your Sights promo is ending At the end of April. About 6 weeks to get in all your stays.