It pays to be a dummy…sometimes

We always list the best publicly-available credit card offers on our Best Offers page even when it means not showing our affiliate link for a particular card. In several cases, the best offer available is via a dummy booking. A dummy booking is when you go to the airline or hotel website and go through the steps as though you are going to make a booking even if you don’t actually plan to hit the final “book now” button. Quite often you’ll find an advertisement for that travel provider’s credit card offer during the checkout process. Sometimes those offers are publicly-available via a link we can save, and in those cases you will find the dummy booking offer on our Best Offers page (if it is the best offer available). In other cases, we can’t replicate the deal link – and in those cases we ordinarily try to include additional offer information on our card page to let you know that there may be a better offer available via dummy booking. Over the weekend, I ran into a dummy offer that led me around looking for other dummy offers. I am including each of the dummy booking offers I found below along with brief commentary about whether or not it is worth going after the dummy offer or if you’re better off with the public offer.

Air France

The public offer on this card includes both 50K miles and a $100 statement credit, but the dummy booking offer bumps the statement credit up to $150. It’s definitely worth taking 45 seconds to look at a booking for an extra fifty bucks if you want this card.

Allegiant

Believe it or not, the impetus for this post was Allegiant. I was booking an Allegiant flight over the weekend and got a statement credit offer that made me do a double-take: Allegiant touted the “$0 statement credit” I could get with their card. No, I’m not kidding. I actually went to make two bookings yesterday on Allegiant and on the second booking I got this offer for…no statement credit at all. While I initially thought it must have been some sort of display error, note that they doubled down by letting me know that it would take $0 off of my trip cost of $87. Obviously this dummy offer is, well……dumb.

Ironically, on my first booking they had offered me a $100 statement credit offer. That is certainly better than the public offer and I couldn’t grab a link to this one. I still wouldn’t apply for the Allegiant card, but I have to wonder what they hope to find with the A/B test here.

American Airlines

The dummy booking offer I found via American Airlines didn’t make much sense to me: unless you value American miles at less than 1c each, you’d be better off with the public 60K offer. If you value the miles at less than 1c each, there are probably other cards you should consider instead.

Amtrak

The new high offer of 50K points after $2.5K in purchases can get $100 better with a statement credit offer I saw during a dummy booking. That’s awesome: the 50K offer was already the best we’ve ever seen; a hundred bucks on top is icing on the cake. If you like to travel by train, you can get fantastic value out of this offer. I was kind of surprised to see a statement credit offer on top.

Hilton

The no-fee Hilton Honors card, Hilton Honors Surpass, and Hilton Honors Business cards all have an offer featuring a $100 statement credit. The no-fee offer isn’t as good as the current referral offer, but the Surpass dummy booking offer is slightly better. The current public offer on the business card is better than the dummy booking offer. I found it interesting that there is so much variance here. Note that there have also historically been different offers when logged in to hotel WiFi at a Hilton property. I know that for a while the Surpass was being offered with 2 free night certificates when on hotel WiFi, so if you’re staying at a Hilton and that appeals to you it could be worth logging on.

Hyatt

I’ve often seen different dummy booking offers from Hyatt and I can’t recall a time previously where I thought the dummy booking offer was better than the standard offer. The current dummy booking offer may be a rare exception since it only requires $3K in spend to get the Cat 1-7 free night and you also get $300 in credits for Hyatt stays. Given that the current public offer gives only 45K bonus points and requires a whopping $15K in spend, maybe this dummy offer is better if you know you’ll use the Cat 1-7 cert to full value.

IHG

IHG improves upon the public 150K offer for the IHG Premier card by stacking a $50 statement credit after first purchase via the offer you may find when making a dummy booking.

JetBlue

As is the case with the American Airlines offer above, the JetBlue checkout offer was worse than the public offer unless you value TrueBlue points at less than a cent each. I’d definitely pass on a $250 statement credit and only 15K points on this card. The current 40K offer is more valuable and we’ve seen it go to 60K at times.

Marriott

My Marriott test booking got an offer for an instant $250 eGift Card upon approval plus 50K points after $3K in purchases. This could actually be better than the current public offer for those who tend to stay in cheaper and/or low-category properties. The public offer is good for 3 free nights up to 35K points per night plus 10x on up to $2500 spend in select categories. That offer is definitely better if you’ll stay at an expensive 35K property even if you don’t max out the 10x spend. However, if you tend to stay at places that cost $80 per night that are only Category 1, 2, or 3, you could get more nights/points out of the dummy booking offer. Let me be clear: I’d pass on this offer, but I can imagine the circumstances where someone might take it.

Sonesta

During the booking process at Sonesta’s website, I received an offer for a $100 statement credit and the usual 65K offer (Sonesta bills this as a 95K offer, but they are including the 30K anniversary bonus that is an ongoing card benefit and not really part of the first year value).

Southwest

Eeek! The offer I got from Southwest during a dummy booking was for a $200 statement credit and just 10K miles after minimum spend on the Southwest Plus card. I think that’s the worst offer I’ve ever seen on this card. Hard pass here – I didn’t even want to click the “learn more” link for fear it would encourage them to offer it to other people.

United

Like the other airline offers, the United Explorer statement credit offer ($250 statement credit after first purchase plus 35K miles after $2K in purchases in the first 3 months) only makes sense if you value the miles on the public offer at less than a penny each — and if you value them that low and you are under 5/24, surely there is a Chase card that is a better fit for you.

Bottom line

There are certainly times when it pays to be a dummy try a dummy booking before applying for a credit card to see if there is a better offer advertised during the checkout process. Just don’t be a dummy and take them up on an inferior offer that gets floated under the guise of saving you some money on your booking. When the dummy offer is better, we always try to include either the direct link to the dummy booking offer or a note to alert you to its existence in the information we maintain on our Best Offers page — but if you find a better offer before we do, we always appreciate a heads up so that we can update our database promptly.

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