Find the good deal in Daily Getaways week 2

Daily Getaways is a series of deals sponsored by the US Travel association.  They’ve been going on for a week or so next, and I’ve written before about the o

The deals go live each weekday at 1pm, and sometimes the deals go fast, and sometimes you will have time to consider the deal (there is still one deal from last week that is still available as of the writing of this post).  If there’s a deal out there that you think is good, my advice would be to be ready at 1pm to buy it.

In the hopes that it will help, here’s a quick look at the Daily Getaways deals going on this week (March 30 – April 3)

As a side note, as a computer programmer, I LOVE how the URL for Daily Getaways week 2 is https://dailygetaways.ustravel.org/Calendar.aspx?week=1

Monday: Best Western

Monday’s deal is 10,000 Best Western points for $55.  There are 835 available and you can buy 5 sets per purchase (so 50,000 points total).  The math’s a little difficult on this one 😀 but this is a valuation of 0.55 cpp.

My take is this is an okay deal, but not one that I would take advantage of unless you have a specific redemption in mind.  We stayed at a Best Western in Indianapolis last year and it was nice, even though it took 5 (FIVE!) tries to get them to honor their Best Rate Guarantee.  Since there are 8 of us in our family, we use 2 rooms, so we booked the other room on points – 12,000 points in comparison to a room rate that was about $80.

The last time I stayed at a Best Western, the hotel shuttle took, no joke, an HOUR to show up at the airport…

Tuesday and Wednesday: various Las Vegas resorts

Just…. no

Thursday: Universal Studios

Thursday’s deal is a 4 pack of 2 day tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood for $313.  The retail price for a 2 day ticket is $119, so this would be about a 35% discount.  I would imagine that there are other ways that you can get Universal Studios tickets a little cheaper through places like AAA or often grocery stores have discount tickets, which means that it’s a little less of a deal.

Again, probably a good deal if you were already planning on going there (and if there are at least 4 of you)

Friday: Choice Hotels

I am sure some marketing wizard came up with this, but it’s really irritating the way that they market these Daily Getaways.  They say that it’s “2 nights at a Cambria Suites hotel”, but really it’s just 40,000 Choice points, which you can use at a Cambria Suites, or any other Choice Hotel stay.

Here are the breakdowns:

• 40,000 Choice points for $160 – “Cambria Suites”
• 32,000 Choice points for $132 – “Comfort Suites”
• 36,000 Choice points for $155 – “Comfort Inn”
• 20,000 Choice points for $90 – “Sleep Inn”

The first deal comes in at 0.4cpp, and the other 3 are slightly higher (worse deals).

There are many good hotels, especially in the western United States, that you can have for 6,000-10,000 points, but many of them have pretty cheap cash rates.  I stayed at a Rodeway Inn last month (is this ever a good idea?) which was only $39 / night.

Another options for getting Choice Hotel points is from Chase Ultimate Rewards (via Amtrak).  These transfer 1:3, so 5,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards becomes 15,000 Choice Hotel points.  So looking at it another way, would you buy 12,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards for $155?  If not (and you shouldn’t!), then you wouldn’t want to buy 36,000 Choice points for the same price.

So I think I’ll sit these ones out – any of these deals seem good to you?

Newsletter Signup

Join the PWaC newsletter filled with credit card and travel tips

Join Now!

You have Successfully Subscribed!