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Update 12/22/18: The discounted gift cards are out of stock on Newegg and Gyft.
There are a few different sites currently selling Hotels.com gift cards at a 15-20% discount, with one of them also offering the opportunity to earn 5x on the purchase.
The Deals & Key Terms
- Gyft – Buy $50 Hotels.com gift card for $40.
- Direct link to offer.
- Use promo code TRIP18
- Expires December 26, 2018 at 9pm ET or while supplies last.
- Limit 5 per household.
- Newegg – Buy $50 Hotels.com gift card for $40.
- Direct link to offer.
- Expires December 20, 2018.
- Limit 3 per customer per 48 hours.
- Paypal Digital Gifts – Buy $100 Hotels.com gift card for $85.
- Direct link to offer.
- Expiry date unknown.
- Limit is variable.
Quick Thoughts
Gyft
If you have an Ink Plus or Ink Cash card and pay with Paypal, Gyft purchases have been coding as 5x / 5%.
Gyft can sometimes be a little choosy about which orders it accepts and which it declines. I’ve found that buying with my VPN turned on results in declined transactions pretty much 100% of the time. When disconnecting my VPN, my orders seem to be accepted about 90% of the time.
Newegg
The Newegg deal has a limit of three discounted Hotels.com gift cards every 48 hours. This is a strict 48 hour limit – I’ve had orders declined when ordering again 47.5 hours later. With an expiry date of Thursday, it should be possible to buy three gift cards today and another three on Thursday before the deal ends if you’re wanting to stock up.
In theory, you don’t earn portal cashback on gift card purchases. As always though, it’s worth clicking through from a portal just in case it does track.
Paypal Digital Gifts
There’s no specified limit as to how many of these discounted gift cards you can buy in one transaction. In the past you had to buy one at a time, but they’ve recently changed that so you can add multiple cards before checking out.
Paypal Digital Gifts can also be a little temperamental when it comes to accepting orders. Sometimes you’ll only be able to be 2-3 cards before they’ll stop you, other times you can buy 10 (or possibly more) before they decide you’ve had enough and cut you off.
Other Thoughts
You can only use one gift card when making a reservation on Hotels.com. All these $50 and $100 don’t have to be a hassle though as you can combine them into one larger balance.
You’ll also earn 10% back on each stay if you’re enrolled in Welcome Rewards. If you’re not interested in a hotel chain’s status benefits or points, a 20% discount and 10% back towards a future stay (once you’ve stayed 10 nights) can be a good discount and bonus, especially if you’re staying at brands like Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn where you’ll get free breakfast and there’s little chance of a meaningful room upgrade with status. Just remember that you no longer (in theory) get free breakfast at Hyatt Places when booking through an OTA like Hotels.com.
Cashback portals exclude stays booked using gift cards and this has always been enforced whenever I’ve tried. Similar to the Newegg deal though, it’s still worth clicking through from a portal in case it tracks.
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“You’ll also earn 10% back on each stay if you’re enrolled in Welcome Rewards.” I was under the impression this does not apply to the amount paid with a gift card. Can you confirm?
Yes, you still earn Welcome Rewards when paying with gift cards, you just don’t earn portal cashback. I’ve paid for a few stays this year with discounted gift cards and all of those stays have earned 10% back.
Well, that’s interesting. Just went to newegg and it says the deal for these cards is no longer available…a day early.
Some of the better deals sell out early, so this one must’ve been popular.
So, I did this deal at 7:15 am with newegg but the egift cards weren’t delivered to my inbox until 1 pm. I assume I can take advantage on Thursday at 7:16? Or should I wait til after 1 pm. There’s no published time for Thursday’s expiration of the deal.
In my experience it’s been based on the time I placed the order rather than received the card. You should therefore be good at 7:16 on Thursday, but maybe give it a few extra minutes just in case.
Of course, I was just using the one minute as an example. Would really like to know what time that discount ends on Thursday.
I suspect it’ll be 11:59pm, but I couldn’t find any specific time listed.