Category Archives for Discounts & Deals.
Costco frequently sells travel-related gift cards at a discount. They have $500 Southwest Airlines gift cards for $450 online. But through Sunday, March 10th they’re taking an additional $20 off ‘while supplies last.’ That gets you $500 worth of Southwest Airlines travel for $430. Funds on the card do not expire.
There’s a legit fare sale from Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal. They’re mostly promoting good coach deals (like Chicago to Copenhagen from $379 roundtrip), but it turns out there are even better business class offers. And the fare deals allow Lisbon stopovers at no extra charge.
For travel January through March, JetBlue is offering roundtrip business class trips between New York and London Gatwick airport for $1835 total, all-in.
The best loyalty program deals ever are the ones that really scale – earning millions of miles at a reasonable cost by thinking outside the box and thinking big. Sometimes these deals work out, and other times they wind up in court.
I first joined AARP because of the discount their members get buying British Airways tickets. I’ve stacked the AARP and Chase discounts during BA sales to buy very cheap tickets, which I’ve then upgraded to first class using points. The hotel deals are great, too. And most people don’t realize you don’t need to be old to join.
The Wall Street Journal covers a trend in younger people joining AARP to take advantage of discounts, as effective methods of saving money become more focal in an era of inflation.
Several readers let me know that Capital One Travel has a special $200 off offer for hotel stays in their ‘Premier Collection’ for Venture X and Venture X Business cardmembers. There is no minimum spend for the night. Book a $201 all-in room, and the cost will come to $1 for the night.
The offer was available in my account as well. If it’s targeted, it is widely targeted. Just go to Capital One Travel in the rewards section of your account and at the top of the page you’ll see ‘Offers’ highlighted by a light blue ribbon.
Bask Bank is known for its Mileage Savings Account which awards American AAdvantage miles rather than interest – the math on this works out especially well in a low-interest rate environment.
They’ve now launched a new Bask Interest Savings Account, which is no longer restricted to Bask Mileage Savings Account holders.
While right now the cheapest business class roundtrip fares are over $4000 between San Francisco and Tokyo, ZIPAIR is selling business class for just $1668. And there are great deals from Los Angeles as well.
Forward bookings must be weak. United Airlines is offering a 15% off coupon for coach travel booked by April 30 and completed by June 28. The promo code is UASKIES.
This summer Expedia is launching a new rewards program that will apply across all 21 of their brands. Historically some have offered better rewards, like Orbitz and Hotels.com, while others have offered consistently devalued rewards such as Expedia directly, and some haven’t offered rewards at all – like Vrbo. That’s changing. You’ll be able to go earn points buying airline tickets and spend them on homesharing.
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 »
