Daily Getaways
Every year American Express & the U.S. Travel Association hold a sale called Daily Getaways. Each weekday for about a month, they release limited quantity deals that are related to travel in some way.
These deals can be theme park tickets, hotel nights, points & even VIP experiences. This year’s sale begins on May 19th and the first two weeks of deals have been released. As a side note I should mention that you earn 10% off of the listed price when paying with an American Express card.
Week 1
May 19 – 2-3 nights stays at various hotel brands. (Super 8, Days Inn, Wingate, Ramada, Wyndham.) These are actually Wyndham Rewards points in various quantities. None of these look particularly good unless you have a planned stay at one of the brands and you know it will be cheaper to buy the points.
For example, they have a deal for 2 nights at any Ramada for $240 ($218 w/Amex) which is 40,000 points. For most Ramadas in the U.S. this isn’t a deal, but they do have some high end international properties which may be a good value.
May 20 – There are three deals for Hertz car rentals. $280 for 1 week in a standard vehicle, $475 for a weekend in a Prestige Collection vehicle & $775 for a week in a Prestige Collection vehicle.
I almost never find Hertz to be the best deal and wouldn’t touch this with a 10 foot pole. If you live in a city where rentals are notoriously high then this might be something to look at, but my feeling is that you will probably be able to do better elsewhere or by searching across multiple rental companies.
May 21 – 2-3 nights at various brands again which are actually Choice Privilege Points. (Cambria Suites, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn.) Some of these might be good if you have a specific property in mind, but I wouldn’t lock myself in speculatively. (See May 19.)
May 22 – $50 certificate towards your next Alamo car rental for $25 ($22.50). This seems like a good deal although the terms & conditions state it cannot be combined with any other promotional code or discount. I know in the past people have had success combining them anyway, but it certainly is YMMV.
May 23 – Various levels of Hilton Hhonors points. All I can say is no thank you. Most of their redemptions require way too many points and I don’t want to be left speculatively holding Hhonors points in case of another devaluation. Once again, if you have a specific property in mind for specific dates, then this may be something to look at.
Week 2
May 26 – You can buy between 15,000-100,000 IHG Rewards Club points. The points are selling for about $.0065 which isn’t a horrible deal especially if you save an additional 10% with an Amex card. IHG points are relatively easy to come by and can always be purchased for $.007 by booking a cash & points reservation and then cancelling it. I wouldn’t buy these to hold, but if you have use for them, then this might be something to look at for redemptions at one of their high-end properties.
May 27 – Various Caesar’s Entertainment hotel stays & packages. This is a personal preference as to whether these are good or not. Most of the time with these packages you are paying for the experience and the extras and thus are not getting the best deal.
May 28 – This one confuses me. They have the City Pass on sale for San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, & New York. For those who don’t know, the City Pass is a discounted booklet that you buy which gives you access to various attractions around the city. It is usually a good value if you are going to visit all of the included attractions anyway. Daily Getaways is selling the City Passes for their normal price. The only way this is a deal is if you use an Amex card where you will save 10%.
May 29 – 5 nights at a Diamond Resorts International Property Worldwide for $600 ($540). Diamond Resorts does have some very nice properties around the world and I think getting them for just over $100 per night is actually a good deal depending on the season. With that said, their properties are limited mostly to the U.S. & Western Europe, so take a look before jumping in.
May 30 – Visit any SeaWorld park for $49 ($44) or any Busch Gardens park for $45 ($40.50). I actually think this is one of the better deals out there. Tickets to these parks are rarely discounted and never by this much. I know that we will be definitely trying to get a few of the Busch Gardens tickets since we will be near Tampa later this year. I have been to all of the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens parks and highly recommend them for families.
Conclusion
There are a couple of decent deals here, but not many that I would speculatively purchase. Remember that there are limited quantities available, so I highly recommending purchasing as early as possible if you really want one. (They go on sale at 1pm ET) You can sign up on their website for notifications or set a reminder in Google Calender.
While I am not truly excited by any of these deals, there are still three more weeks to be released. With the economy getting stronger, companies may not feel the need to discount their products as much, so who knows what we will see. I will bring you my thoughts on the additional deals when they are released!
HT: Mommy Points
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