3 out of 5 ain’t bad: A quick guide to Daily Getaways 2017 week 3 (out of 5)

There are some excellent deals this week!  Not only is this week 3 out of 5 for the Daily Getaways, but also three out of five deals this week have earned my thumbs-up.  And, I’ve added a new feature to the guide: info about how many deal items are available.  After all, in my opinion, when there are fewer than 50 available in-total, it’s not even worth bothering with those at all.

The Daily Getaways are a set of travel deals available in limited quantities. Each day, for the next three weeks, a new deal becomes available at exactly 1 pm ET. The most popular deals will be sold out before any mere mortal can click the “Buy” button. The best way to grab these deals is to be at your computer minutes before the deal goes live and refresh your browser continuously like your life depends on it 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 has the most items available and 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 this week below and rated the ones I consider particularly deal-worthy with a thumbs up icon.  I’ll follow up with weeks 4 and 5 in later posts.

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.

Date Available	Deal	Frequent Miler’s Review
Monday April 24	$100 Carnival Cruise Line Gift Card for just $85 2500 Available	If you plan to sail Carnival, this appears to be a great way to save $15 per $100. These gift cards can be used to purchase cruise tickets or as deposit to an onboard account.  Limit 3 gift cards per purchase.  Note this very important detail: Gift cards will expire on November 30, 2018. So, don’t buy unless you’re planning to cruise (or purchase a cruise) before then!
Tuesday April 25	One-Day Avis car rental for $30 800 Available	I like this one.  Sure, it’s often possible to rent cars for $30 or less per day, but definitely not always.  This is an opportunity to lock in a low $30 rate for a premium car. Up to 7 free days can be used with one car rental. Some disadvantages: Rental must be completed by May 15, 2018; You will have to pay the usual extra taxes and fees (but % fees will be less); Your credit card won’t cover rental insurance (but your regular car insurance probably will); and there are only 800 available.  I think these will sell out quickly.
Wednesday April 26	Vegas package deals ranging from $150 to $2000 Only 39 available in total	Does it really matter whether or not these are good deals?  There are only 39 available.  So, if there are any good deals here, you won’t get them anyway.
Thursday April 27	Vegas package deals ranging for $495 or $608 Only 26 available in total	Same as above. If there are any good deals here, you won’t get them since there are only 26 available in total.
Friday April 28	Buy Choice Privileges points for .4 to .45 cents each 1030 available in total	The current Reasonable Redemption Value for Choice points is .67 cents each, so the ability to buy points for around .45 cents each is terrific!  I just spent a night at a perfectly fine Comfort Suites hotel where I paid 10,000 points for a room that would have cost $110 after taxes and fees.  With this deal, you could get the same room for just $45 all-in. Even though there are over 1000 of these available, I predict they’ll sell out fast.

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