Big Discounts on Luxury Hotels, a $500 Booking Credit, and More

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About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. As a recent MBA from a top tier school that AA attempts to recruit from, there is nothing “great” about their low salaries and uninspiring job opportunities

  2. @Gary I just tried using club1hotels. They quoted me $1450. When I go to book, it’s $1800 with a $350 “Tax Recovery/Booking Fee”. So much for a better deal. Have you actually booked ever booked with them? Even if $1450 was subtotal, this is Boston, with about 14.5% tax, not 25%.

  3. @Gary I’m on the move right now but it’s 4/14-18 in Boston. Think it was the Omni Parker hotel that I was looking at. Will verify once back on my computer.

  4. I also tried Club1 for a couple of business class tickets. They were about 1,500./per ticket higher than I could get on the open market, and I don’t know if there were fees on top of that because I never went past the initial price quote.
    It seems like a good concept, but I’m not sure the value is there at this time.

  5. @Gary Confirmed. Search April 14-18, Boston, Omni. Omni Parker House comes up at $1350.27 and $1354.18. Beats me what the difference is. Anyway, click the $1350.27 one and pick the traditional one-bed (the one still at $1350.27) and get this:

    TOTAL PRICE 1687.84 USD
    Booking Amount: 1350.27 USD
    Tax Recovery/Booking Fee: 337.57 USD

    That’s a 25% upcharge. If I go to Omni’s site, I get the same room for $1606 subtotal and $232.05 taxes (about 14.5%, which is correct). So the whole thing seems pretty scammy at this point. Yes, it comes out cheaper than what I can get online (but not what I can get with the Prestige card 4th night free, in this case), but to advertise $1350 and then have $337.57 in “tax recover/booking fee” is misleading at best.

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