Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
On Friday last week, I stepped off a plane at about 12:55pm and began walking towards the airport exit. At 12:59, I pulled to the side and opened the Daily Getaways website in my iPhone browser. Last week, there were several good Daily Getaway offers, but the one I was most interested in was the chance to buy Choice Privileges points at .45 cents each, or less. While Choice points are probably most valuable in parts of Europe, I’ve had several occasions lately to use 10,000 points per night at hotels in the US that would have cost $110 or more. That’s a value of over 1 cent per point. Buying points at .45 cents per point, therefore, is a great deal.
There were several different Choice packages available. I purposely avoided the first one because I was sure it would sell out instantly. Instead, I picked the offer to buy 36,000 points for $155 (.43 cents per point). At exactly 1pm I refreshed my iPhone browser, pressed “Buy”, and succeeded! I somehow got my purchase in before they were all taken.
If you missed out on that deal, there are more coming up. In my table below, you’ll see that the deals that I consider worth pursuing are indicated by a smiling thumbs up icon. Unfortunately, in the next two weeks, there’s only a single deal that I’ll pull over in the airport for. See below for details…
Background
The Daily Getaways are a set of travel deals available in limited quantities. Each day, for the next week and a half, a new deal becomes available at exactly 1 pm ET. Most of these deals will be sold out before you can say “where’s my wallet?”. The best way to grab these deals is to be at your computer minutes before the deal goes live and refresh your browser continuously until the option to “Buy” appears. Then, click the button and hope not to see the dreaded sold out message. There are often multiple deals available on the same day. To increase your chance of getting one you can try first for the deal that you think will be less popular than the rest.
Are any of these deals worth this craziness? In general the answer is… it depends. For most deals, you can save money by buying them if you were planning to spend more money on similar travel anyway. Many deals, though, will only encourage you to pre-pay for things you might never actually want to use.
To save you time, I’ve summarized each deal for the next three weeks below and rated the ones I consider particularly deal-worthy with a thumbs up icon.
NOTE: With any deal that you’re interested in, please read the deal’s terms carefully. Some have severe restrictions that are not obvious in the summary description.
Daily Getaways Weeks 4 and 5
| Date Available | Deal | Frequent Miler’s Review |
|---|---|---|
| Monday May 1 |
Universal Orlando Resort packages ranging from $535 to $2,642 61 available in total |
These can be great deals if you’re planning Universal Orlando trips, but there are so few available that they’re not worth pursuing. These will be sold out before you can sneeze. |
| Tuesday May 2 |
Buy Hilton points for .48 cents each 961 available in total |
Given that the median value of Hilton points is now about .44 cents each, I wouldn’t recommend buying these points unless you need them for a very specific high value award. See: Hilton Honors results are in. Is that Hilton’s middle finger? |
| Wednesday May 3 |
Vegas package deals ranging from $299 to $590 50 available in total |
Does it really matter whether or not these are good deals? There are only 50 available. So, if there are any good deals here, you won’t get them anyway. |
| Thursday May 4 |
1522 available in total |
If you ever have paid Marriott or Ritz Carlton stays, this is a great way to stack savings in advance. These gift cards can be used worldwide at participating brands for stays, dining, spa treatments, golf and more. “The following Marriott Hotel Brands DO NOT accept Marriott or The Ritz-Carlton GiftCards: Protea Hotels by Marriott®, Marriott Executive Apartments®, St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Tribute Portfolio™, Four Points® by Sheraton, Aloft®, Element®, Design Hotels™.” |
| Friday April May 5 |
$1000 Orbitz Promo Code for $650 55 available |
This one can be a great deal under certain circumstances, but the terms are loaded with restrictions and only 55 available. Don’t bother. |
| Monday May 8 |
Fairmont 6 night Hawaii vacation for $2,178 or 3 nights in San Francisco for $834. 10 of each available |
This could be a great way to prepay for Fairmont stays at a great discount, but there are only 10 of each package available! Forget this one — it will be sold out before you even think of pressing the “Buy” button. |
| Tuesday May 9 |
Buy Hertz points for as little as 4.23 cents each 130 available in total |
Hertz points can be extremely valuable, so I may have marked this one as a great deal, but with only 130 available in total, it is yet another deal not worth the attempt. |
| Wednesday May 10 |
Buy Hyatt points for 1.04 to 1.1 cents each 229 available in total |
Hyatt points can be worth far more than 1.1 cents each, so I do think this is an excellent deal. However, with only 229 packages available, this will be next to impossible to get, so this deal didn’t get my thumbs up. Don’t waste your time. |
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does this website code as travel for the CSR?
I don’t think so
I scored a Vegas deal last year, worked out perfectly or my wife’s birthday. I was on it right when it opened and I had to snag Plan B, but still worked out great.
Great!
That Marriott offer is very tempting. Are you able to use that Egift card to buy points? The only question I ask is because I am probably a bit short of a 5th free night, which of course would give me 20% off the entire stay if I use points.
I am trying to think about the best way to get that 5th free night free.
No, you can’t use them to buy points. Best deal for buying Marriott points is to buy SPG points for 30% off and then convert 1 to 3
The problem with the Marriott gift cards is that you can’t use it for pre-paid rates — which I usually find to be cheaper. You can use it with all the crazy promo codes (they keep track of them on a flyertalk thread), but that involves sitting at your computer and plugging in a bunch of codes until you find one that works. So it’s not the most convenient deal in the world.
The hotels also tend to get confused about the gift cards, particularly overseas.
You can use this money for incidental purchases (like meals) at Marriott hotels, but I find their “incidental” prices to be generally usurious, so I usually buy nothing during my stays.
Looks like they may have lowered the total available from 1522 down to 1070
*for the recommended 20% Marriott gift card offer
There are 1070 of the $100 cards, but click Next Offer to see more options
I don’t understand; what’s the one offer you’d pull over for? You seem to say none are worth pursuing?
Sorry if it wasn’t clear. The Marriott gift card offer is the one. It’s the only one I gave a thumbs up to.