My Newest (and Best?) Giveaway Yet? Actual Money Courtesy of Bing Travel!

by Gary Leff

Bing travel wants to get your (and my) attention.

I’ll admit, I hadn’t paid them much mind before, I’m used to searching with ITA Software and with Kayak, booking directly through an airline site or with Expedia or Orbitz if need be. I often find that Orbitz is good for putting together complex multi-carrier itienraries, and depending on the carrier they may be updating inventory at a lag from other sites, so Expedia or Orbitz might be cheaper on any given itinerary on occasion.

So I was surprised to find that Bing seemed very much in the tradition of Kayak, the site I’ve recommended most often to non-experts for search for travel. Very good to know!

So how did they get my attention and now yours?

They’ve laid out their summer travel forecast and have quite an offer to promote it.

Here’s what they say about overall air and hotel pricing:

The average airfare to domestic destinations is up 22% from 2009 and 4% higher than 2008 fares, averaging $303 per ticket. But don’t kill the messenger – you can still save big with your hotel stay!

On average, premium hotel rates in domestic destinations are down 10% over 2009, averaging $166 per night. Choosing the right destination this summer could allow you to make up for higher airfares. Some destinations we recommend considering are Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, Honolulu, San Diego, and New York City, where hotel rates are down considerably and can help reduce your overall trip cost.

And they actually provide some reasonable advice on booking summer travel, not the fanciful made up stuff that you get out of most commentators but advice on using alternate airports (and an implication would be add a train or European discounter segment if you need it) and to book the best deal you can now rather than waiting. Nothing new for the expert, but sound nonetheless for general guidance.

So what are they offering exactly? Money. Serioously. Bing-branded prepaid Mastercards. They’ve sent me 100 $15 cards. I’m going to package them as (20) prizes of 5 cards apiece. Which means there will be (20) winners receiving $75 each.

These prepaid Mastercards say “15 Dollars / Bag Fee on Bing.com” but I know many of my readers are elites whose baggage fees are waived. Use the cash for whatever you’d like.

Personally, I love keeping low-dollar prepaid cards around, for (1) free trial signup offers that require a credit card and (2) for testing out bidding on Priceline when I don’t want to play the incorrect security code trick. And I’ve also been known link debit cards to my Paypal account and shoot the balance over to my wife. Or just load up my Starbucks card.

There are (2) ways to enter:

  • Visit Bing’s summer travel forecast and post a comment here on this blog post answering the question where will you go this summer?. 15 winners will be chosen at random from these entries. Only one entry per person.

  • Follow @garyleff and @Fareologist on twitter and tweet
      RT this and follow @garyleff and @fareologist to win actual CA$H http://tinyurl.com/vftw-bing

    5 winners will be chosen at random from these entries. Only one entry per person.

Enter once using either or both methods no later than Tuesday, May 11 at noon Eastern time.

Very generous of the folks at Bing Travel, and as always I pass the goodies on to you!

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

  3. i’d love to go to japan or greece. (and die of heat in either location?)

  8. Where will you go this summer?
    I’m heading to Europe! 18 day trip starting with a flight into Dublin. From there a discount provider over to Budapest, then going to make a big loop through Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic before flying out of Nuremberg!

    BTW – might consider changing your comment box to display above comments. Makes it easier to track down on popular threads and encourages commenting!

    Great contest! Thanks guys!

  9. Italy and/or Scotland.

    Question: the bing site has no way of providing contact information for the person who might win from there… how does that work?

  11. Going to Orlando for the opening of the new Harry Potter section at Universal. Then driving back instead of flying 🙂

  12. For work, Columbus (CMH) in June, then for pleasure to the Florida Keys in August. Thanks for the opportunity!

  15. Rather than buy a packaged “around the world” trip, I’m planning my own, with stops in Paris, Casablanca, Dubai, Bangkok and Seoul. Wish me luck.

  17. Pretty flexible but planning for Toronto, London, Cardiff and Paris. It all depends on pricing/awards

  18. I would love to go to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic or Cabo San Lucas in Mexico this summer 🙂

  23. Lima twice, La Paz AND if the flights to China come down in price Beijing in June!

  27. This summer my boyfriend and I are going to rent a convertible and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, from San Franciso to San Diego. I can’t wait!

  28. I’m going back to Bonaire and also to Delaware. Delaware for a family get-together (even though we’re from the midwest, how odd, and Bonaire for awesome diving with my wife and some friends.

  36. Bermuda and Miami so far! I’d love to convince my family to go back to Iceland….

  38. I am going to San Francisco. My #1 daughter is going to school there and my other two daughters and I are visiting her. #1 daughter just scored a job with Nordstrom’s and we are so excited to celebrate with her.

  40. Motorcycling from DC to VT, then to Quebec, coming home via Nova Scotia and the ferry to Maine. My wife will fly to a half-way point and meet me!

  41. I’m going to New York and DC this summer. But Farecast is telling me there’s an 80% chance fares will drop, so I’m waiting it out a bit.

  44. We’ll go to a beach somewhere so that we can spend some time away from the extreme summer heat

Comments are closed.