We often refer to ‘dummy bookings’ in posts about shopping portals, credit card offers, hotel and airline bookings, etc., so if you’ve ever wondered to yourself “What is a dummy booking?”, here’s a quick explainer, along with some examples for how it can come in handy to save money and/or earn more rewards.
What is a dummy booking?
A dummy booking is when you go through much of the process of making a purchase, booking or application for a product or service, but cancel the transaction before submitting payment.
Why do people do dummy bookings?
People’s reasons for doing dummy bookings might vary, but generally it’s because they’re hoping to get targeted for some kind of better offer. Sometimes that targeted offer will be displayed immediately, while in other cases the targeting will occur later on (usually via email).
What kind of offers are available via dummy bookings?
This depends on what kind of product or service you’re thinking about purchasing as there are all kinds of different ways you can be targeted for savings or rewards. Here are some examples:
Increased credit card welcome offers
This is something we see frequently with American Express cards. Sites that have Amex affiliate links might show one offer, going directly to the Amex website might show you a different offer, visiting the Amex site in a different browser might display another kind of offer, while a referral link from a friend or family member could yield a completely different bonus.
A few years ago Nick wrote about dummy bookings in the context of increased welcome offers for hotel and airline credit cards. Banks, airlines, and hotel chains will often offer different bonuses when being approved for a new credit card depending on which link you use when applying. One way to find an alternate link is to do a dummy hotel or flight booking where you do a search for a stay or flight with the company whose credit card you want. As you click through the screens, you’ll often see a banner advertising that hotel or airline’s credit card. Sometimes – but certainly not always – that offer will be different from the best offer available.
Something that’s important to be aware of with dummy bookings using this method is that the alternate offer you see isn’t always better. For example, the standard offer on a Marriott credit card might be 120,000 bonus points, but via a dummy booking you might see an inferior offer giving 20,000 bonus points plus a $250 statement credit on your next Marriott stay.
Other times you’ll see better offers though. For example, when making a dummy booking sometimes you’ll see the standard number of miles/points being offered, but with a $100 or $150 statement credit thrown in.
Some dummy bookings will yield a different welcome offer where the best value is in the eye of the beholder. For example, the public welcome offer for a Delta credit card might be 80,000 bonus SkyMiles. When (dummy) booking a flight on Delta’s website though, you might see an offer for 60,000 bonus SkyMiles + a $300 statement credit. You’d be forgoing 20,000 SkyMiles, but gaining $300. If you value $300 more than 20,000 SkyMiles, you should go for the offer available via a dummy booking. If you think you’d get more than $300 of value from an additional 20,000 SkyMiles, the standard public offer would be the better option.
With these types of targeted welcome offers, it’s important to double check the terms of the offer because sometimes the extra incentive has some additional requirements. For example, a Delta credit card welcome offer found via a dummy booking that includes a statement credit might require that you spend $x on Delta flights on your new credit card to earn the statement credit.
For example, here’s a past Delta offer found when doing a dummy flight booking:
As you can see, in that case you’d get a $200 statement credit after making a Delta purchase on your card in the first three months. In that instance, any Delta purchase would trigger the $200 statement credit – even the $5.60 of taxes payable on a domestic Delta award booking. That’s not necessarily always the case though, hence why it’s vital to verify the requirements.
Exit intent discounts
Sometimes when you’re shopping online, if you move your cursor to close the tab you’re on you’ll suddenly see a popup saying something along the lines of “Don’t leave!” The site will then offer some kind of incentive to complete your transaction.
For example, in the past TheGiftCardShop.com gave a 100% discount on Visa gift card purchase fees when using promo code 100GIFT. I came across this offer when browsing their site and went to close the tab; when doing that, this offer popped up:
You could see something similar when making other travel bookings, particularly for activities. Making it look like you’re trying to close your browser window might yield a popup offering a discount on sites like Viator, TripAdvisor, Klook, GetYourGuide, etc.
Boosted shopping portal rates
We’ve written numerous times about Capital One Shopping because it’s a shopping portal that sometimes offers incredibly generous cashback rates that are significantly higher than those available through other portals. Those increased rates are often targeted and can frequently be triggered by doing dummy bookings/purchases provided you have the Capital One Shopping browser extension installed.
For example, in the past there were two Amex Offers for Fanatics; one giving $20 back when spending $100 and one giving +4 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent at Fanatics. I decided to buy a gift card to resell and wanted to click through from a shopping portal in the hope that the portal would track the purchase and pay out (not common when buying gift cards, but always worth a try anyway). This wasn’t a time sensitive purchase, so I browsed the Fanatics website, added a $100 Fanatics gift card to my cart, went to start checking out but deleted the card from my cart before finishing the order.
Sure enough, the following day Capital One Shopping had a targeted rate for me of 15% cashback that hadn’t been there before. For comparison, other portals were only offering 1%-7.5%, so 15% was double the highest offer available elsewhere. FWIW, that purchase didn’t track, but for non-gift card purchases this is a great technique.
This works extremely well with Capital One Shopping when needing to book travel too. Visit a travel site – whether that’s an airline, hotel, activity site, etc. – with the Capital One Shopping browser extension installed, then wait. Oftentimes, you’ll receive an email within hours offering a much higher rate. For example, just last week I received many offers including:
- $300 back on a $650+ Homes & Villas by Marriott booking
- $75 back on a $225+ Caesars Rewards booking
- $200 back on a $650+ British Airways booking
- $75 back on a $175+ Hertz booking
Those are sensational offers that far exceed anything you’re likely to get from any other kind of shopping portal.
Discount codes via email
When shopping online, if you browse a site while you’re logged in and add items to your cart without checking out, I’m sure you’ve subsequently received an email from a retailer saying “Hey, you forgot this!”
Although those emails can be annoying, it can be worth opening them anyway because sometimes you’ll see a coupon code inside that can save you money on your purchase or booking.
In order for this to work, you need to be logged in to your account. Browsing in incognito mode without being logged in won’t work as the retailer won’t know who to send the offer to.
Retargeting ads giving discounts
If you search for travel (or any other product for that matter) while not in incognito mode and don’t make a purchase, you’ll often find yourself followed around the internet with ads encouraging you to book that specific hotel or flight.
It doesn’t always happen, but it’s worth glancing at those ads because sometimes companies use retargeting ads such as those to offer a discount on your booking or purchase.
Bonus points via email
This is an interesting example that a reader gave us a heads up about. She was planning on booking a stay on Hilton’s website while logged in, but didn’t end up proceeding with the reservation. Hilton subsequently emailed her, offering bonus points on her next stay.
Dummy bookings for travel visas
There’s an entirely different kind of dummy booking that’s not related to getting targeted for some kind of special offer. Instead, it’s related to obtaining a travel visa to enter a foreign country.
When visiting other nations, you often need to be able to provide evidence that you have a ticket for onward travel, whether that’s a round trip ticket back to your origination airport, or a separately booked one way ticket. Depending on the country, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a flight; a bus or train ticket that’ll take you to another country would also be valid.
The thing is, people don’t always know when they’ll be leaving a country. They don’t have any intention to overstay a visa, but they also don’t have a specific exit date. Perhaps they want to travel around for an indeterminate amount of time and see where serendipity takes them. Perhaps they’re hoping that some kind of amazing award flight will open up, but that might only happen a day or two in advance. Other times, there’ll have been a family emergency or bereavement and they need to get to a destination ASAP, but don’t have a firm return date as a result.
In those kinds of scenarios, a dummy booking might be utilized. Some travel agents and/or companies that assist people with obtaining visas will charge a (somewhat) nominal fee to provide a dummy verifiable flight reservation that you can use for a visa application.
Alternatively, that could be something that you do yourself without any outside assistance. You could book a refundable cash or award flight in order to obtain confirmation that you have a ticket to leave the country, then cancel the ticket once you’ve gotten the visa approved. That said, you might also need to provide evidence of onward travel when checking in for your flight to the destination initially, so you might not want to cancel the ticket immediately after getting a visa approved.
In this scenario, your dummy booking is an actual booking; it’s just a “dummy” in the sense that you have no intention of ultimately keeping it.
If going this route, it’s important to verify that your ticket is indeed fully refundable, whether it’s a ticket booked with cash or miles. Some award flights that are refundable in terms of miles aren’t necessarily refundable when it comes to the associated taxes and fees, so do the research ahead of time to ensure you don’t end up out of pocket inadvertently.
Question
What are other ways you’ve used a dummy booking to get a better offer? Let us know in the comments below.
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Great post Stephen. Well done!
I used a dummy booking to get a World of Hyatt credit card. I am usually Lol/24 and this was the only way I could get the card.
I highly doubt any ‘dummy booking’ would overcome the Chase 5/24 rule, but if it actually worked out for you, cool.
Try as if you are going to book a room. I had no problems.
Impressive!
With ever-increasing costs and devaluations of these corporate pseudo-currencies (“points”) it sure feels like every booking is a ‘dummy’ booking these days…
Great post Stephen! Never thought about this strategy.