The U.S. Travel Association runs Daily Getaways offers every year which are deals that offer discounts on select hotel points and gift cards, theme park packages and more.
These offers once had appealing opportunities, but they’ve become much more lackluster in recent years. There’s usually one or two good deals to be had, but more often than not they’re nothing to be excited about.
Daily Getaways returns on April 15, with the first week’s set of deals having been announced. None of the first week’s collection stands out as a great deal, but some of the packages might appeal to people nonetheless.
The Deal
- Daily Getaways deals for week 1 are as follows:
- April 15 – Buy Hilton points for 0.5cpp
- April 16 – Buy IHG points for 0.5cpp
- April 17 – MGM Resorts accommodation packages
- April 18 – Universal Orlando packages
- April 19 – SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Adventure Island Tampa Bay & Discover Cove packages
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Offers go live at 1pm ET on their respective days.
- Limited numbers of each package.
Quick Thoughts
The first couple of days of Daily Getaways don’t provide any kind of special value as IHG and Hilton frequently sell their points for 0.5cpp. One potential benefit of buying from Daily Getaways rather than via those other sales that get processed by Points.com is that in the past Daily Getaways has coded as a travel purchase. That could therefore be useful if you have a card that earns bonus points in that category. Having said that, you can click through to Points.com from a shopping portal to earn 1%-2% cashback, so that limits some of the upside of choosing Daily Getaways over Points.com.
Another reason these points sales from Daily Getaways could appeal is that I believe they bypass the yearly cap IHG and Hilton have on buying their points via Points.com. If you’ve already maxed out points purchases via Points.com for the year, you could still buy packages from Daily Getaways and credit them to your IHG One Rewards and/or Hilton Honors accounts. What I’m not sure about is if crediting these points packages from Daily Getaways will lock you out from buying points via Points.com later this year if you’ve not already maxed out those purchases for 2024.
As for the other days, none of the Vegas, Universal or SeaWorld et al deals stand out to me as being screaming deals. I’d thought that perhaps the ‘Universal Orlando Vacation Package for 4’ for $3,360 could offer some value seeing as it not only includes accommodation for four nights and three day admission to three theme parks, but round trip flights for each person too when departing from the 48 contiguous US states. It certainly could save you money, but you’ll want to check the terms and conditions before buying. That’s because blackout dates are fairly extensive; in 2024, you can’t redeem the package from May 24-September 2 and December 21-31. If you’d want to use the package this year, that only gives you May 1-24 and September 3-December 21 as eligible travel dates. (n.b. the package can be used until May 31, 2025, but there are blackout dates next year too.)
Despite that, the savings could be substantial although that will obviously depend on your travel dates and where you’re traveling from considering the cost of flights will have a big impact on the overall price normally. I did a search for four people flying out of Bozeman, MT from October 11-14 and a similar three night, three park package staying at Universal’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort with airport transportation would cost ~$5,500. That’s over $2,000 more than the Daily Getaways package which would make the Daily Getaways package an excellent offer, but much of that is due to the more expensive flights.
If you were flying to Orlando from JFK, a similar package would cost ~$4,200 which still offers decent savings, but clearly not as substantial because the flights are much cheaper from New York. Saving $900 is still a great opportunity, but it comes at the expense of booking this non-refundable package from Daily Getaways and might not offer much flexibility in terms of which flights you’re allowed to take when it comes to actually redeeming it.
If any of these packages do interest you, be sure to set an alarm for 1pm ET on the day(s) you’re interested in as it’s unlikely that we’ll be posting each deal every day.
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@Stephen Should I assume that the Marriott GC’s can only be used in the U.S. since they’re issued in US$?
I think they can be redeem worldwide. However, I’m not sure what exchange rate they’d use when redeeming overseas, so you might lose a little of the benefit of paying with discounted gift cards.
The best thing to do though would be to contact the hotel you want to use the gift card at to ensure a) they accept Marriott gift cards and b) know how to redeem them.
Stephen, one potential benefit from buying the hotel points is that it guarantees you the best rate for purchasing the points. For example, over the last few years I have bought up to my annual limit in Hilton points when they advertise the 100% bonus. I noticed recently that when Hilton does their 100% bonus sells, I’m only targeted for an 80% bonus. It’s pure speculation but I bet that has to do with the fact that I have a history of purchasing points at the discount and using them at aspirational properties during peak season. By going through the Daily Giveway promotion, I can evade Hilton’s 80% cap on points purchases.
It may be because of your status. My husband has diamond status and has had the 80 percent bonus offer. I have had the 100 percent with gold. Neither of us has bought points.
That’s interesting. My wife is also a Diamond (due to the Aspire card) and she also is targeted for only 80%. I guess we should consider having a family member without Diamond status open a free Hilton account and purchase the points and transfer them to us.
Can you explain to me why you buy Hilton points? They seem to have devalued to oblivion in recent years. Take any city in America, and a comparable IHG property is usually little more than half the Honors points. I don’t think I’d pay 1/3rd of a cent for a Hilton point.
Sure, over spring break I completed a 5 night stay at the Conrad Fort Lauderdale. The cash rate for our junior suite for 5 nights was $4,830.75. I booked the room with 390,000 Hilton points I purchased at a rate 1/2 cents per point, or $1,950. That’s 40% of the cash rate! Also, with my Hilton Aspire card, I got a $200 resort credit; plus up to $50 a day in meal credits. I get good value from using points for the 5 night redemptions at Hilton luxury properties like Conrad’s and Waldorf Astorias.