Breaking Down Week 3 Of Daily Getaways
The first two weeks of Daily Getaways are in the books.
You can see my reviews of Week 1 here. Look here for the Week 2 write-ups. While some of these offers have sold out, there’s a handful still available that may be of interest.
Week 3 has some solid offers for folks, likely the first that will have widespread interest from various types of travelers.
In case you’re not familiar, Daily Getaways are daily deals sponsored by the US Travel Association. Some are better than others, so you need to think about whether you can take full advantage of the offer before buying.
For the more popular offers, they will sell out quickly, which means being around right when they go on sale each day at 1:00 pm EDT. Some offers will sell out in hours, some in minutes. It’s also important to be patient. If you click shortly after an offer becomes available and it shows sold out, keep trying. Someone may have an offer in their shopping cart but change their mind or have their computer crash. When that happens, their bad luck or change of heart can be your good fortune.
There’s no 10% discount this year for paying with an AMEX card. However, it doesn’t seem to make a difference in the pricing of most deals, with some being slightly better (and others the same or slightly worse) than last year.
Here are the offers:
Monday, April 6th: AVIS Chairman’s Club Membership And A 40% Discount On Rental Certificates
I’ve contemplated buying into AVIS Chairman’s Club the last couple of years it’s come up via Daily Getaways. In fact, one year I even planned to buy it and missed the window by 3 minutes. They only had half a dozen for sale and were gone by that point. They’re offering 15 of these again this year which is more than in the past, but I suspect they’ll still go very quickly. At a price of $1,115, I actually do think it’s a good value. You just have to be the right sort of traveler.
I’ve had Hertz Platinum service for a number of years now. They offer considerable upgrades as well as a pick-up and drop-off service, where they’ll drop your car off right at the terminal for you and give you a ride back to the airport when you return. For me, that saves at least 30 minutes every time I rent a car (sometimes as much as an hour). AVIS didn’t use to offer that level of service. Recently, AVIS has started to offer a more personalized service that closely mirrors the Hertz service. Similarly, AVIS offers multiple-category upgrades. I don’t have a big desire for fancy cars but plenty do. For folks who are heavy travelers and prefer a much nicer car, it’s easy to get $1,000 in value. A 2 or 3-category upgrade can easily be worth a few hundred dollars on a longer rental period.
If you’re interested in this offer, make sure your finger is hovering over the mouse button at 1pm EDT sharp.
As for the rental certificates, the offer is $30 for a $50 rental certificate good for a one-day rental on any car up to a Premium (Group G). They’re only good for rentals in the continental US, Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
As last year, these certificates are not valid for rentals in the New York Metro area.
You’re allowed to purchase up to 7 certificates and you’re also only allowed to apply up to 7 on any one car rental.
$30 a day is a solid price in a number of markets. There are only 700 available and I would expect these to go quickly. Again, finger over the mouse at 1pm if you want in on this.
Tuesday, April 7th: Discounted Nights At Omni Hotels & Resorts
This is pretty much an exact replica of last year’s offer, which I wrote up here.
Briefly, the only category where I saw decent savings were the properties in the $338 certificate list. I don’t follow the OMNI program closely, but I’ve stayed at a few here and there. The OMNI Mount Washington Resort is likely to be the best value here, with the rates at the OMNI Hilton Head Oceanfront Resort a decent second.
With a nod to potential availability issues, I might take a flier on the $338 certificate if you saw a property you liked. Better to check your dates before buying the certificates and redeem as soon as they e-mail you the certificate.
Wednesday, April 8th: Discounted Loews Hotels Offers
Again, a virtual duplicate of last year. You can see all of my reviews from last year here.
These offers target two separate groups of people. There are the two “value” offers of 2-night stays for $275 and $325. The properties between the two offers are:
- Loews Miami Beach Resort, Miami Beach, FL
- Loews Don Cesar Resort, St. Pete Beach, FL
- Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando
- Loews Coronado Bay Resort, Coronado Bay, CA
- Loews Annapolis Hotel, Annapolis, MD
- Loews Atlanta Hotel, Atlanta, GA
- Loews Boston Back Bay Hotel, Boston, MA
- The New Loews Chicago Hotel, Chicago, IL
- Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel, Rosemont, IL
- Loews Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA
- Loews Madison Hotel, Washington, D.C.
- Loews Minneapolis Hotel, Minneapolis, MN
- Loews New Orleans Hotel, New Orleans, LA
- Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
- Loews Regency Hotel, New York, NY
- Loews Santa Monica Hotel, Santa Monica, CA
- Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, Nashville, TN
- Loews Ventana Canyon, Tucson, AZ
- Loews Hotel Vogue, Montreal, Canada
A quick perusal of the rates at these properties shows there are plenty of great deals like last year. If you’re not tied to a specific chain for loyalty/status reasons, these can make for a cheap getaway in some pricey cities.
The other 3 offers are for 2 nights in a suite at 3 higher-end properties:
$1,000 for 2 nights ($950 for Santa Monica) in a suite is a solid deal. The regular room rates at these properties are around $500, so you’re essentially getting the suite upgrade for free. The only thing that gives me pause on these offers is this little tidbit from the T&C:
- Hotel reserves the right to restrict this offer for certain days, weeks, or seasons without notice. Limit one (1) room per certificate.
While I don’t see a lot of risk with a chain like Loews, it’s worth noting they have some wiggle room. There aren’t a lot of these certificates available, so don’t think too long before committing.
Thursday, April 9th: Discounted Packages At MGM Resorts In Las Vegas
Getaway for 2 at Mandalay Bay for $1525:
- Three nights in a 1-bedroom Sky View Suite at Mandalay Bay. Maximum 2 people.
- Two tickets to Michael Jackson ONE a Cirque du Soleil® show at Mandalay Bay.
- Two dinners for 2 people at a restaurant of your choice inside Mandalay Bay.
- Two – 50 minute massages (one per guest) at Spa Mandalay.
- Round-trip airport limo transfers (between McCarran Airport and Mandalay Bay).
The dinner is capped at $500. That means $1000 gets you 3 nights in a suite, 2 show tickets and 2 massages. That strikes me as a pretty good deal, as long as you value suites.
2-night stay at New York-New York for $475:
- Two consecutive nights in a Spa Suite (double occupancy) at the New York-New York Hotel & casino. Room and tax included.
- 2 tickets to Zumanity™ by Cirque du Soleil®
- Dinner for 2 at Gallagher’s Steakhouse (valued at $400).
I don’t have high opinions of the rooms at New York-New York, but they’re okay. If you’re willing to pay for dinner at Gallagher’s and would normally spend $400, then the room and show tickets are free. I’d say this is an okay deal, but not great.
3 nights in a suite at the Mirage for $1,780:
- Three (3) consecutive night stay in a Mirage Suite or similar suite (double occupancy).
- Airport limousine transfers to and from McCarran Airport to The Mirage.
- Dinner for two at Japonais.
- Dinner for two at Tom Colicchio’s Heritage Steak.
- Dinner for two at Portofino Italian Cuisine.
- VIP seating for two to The Beatles LOVE™ by Cirque du Soleil®.
- VIP seating for two to Terry Fator.
- Massages for two at The Mirage Spa.
- VIP amenities of champagne and strawberries in your guest room.
The dinners are capped at $500 a piece. If you like expensive dinners and will enjoy the shows, this is a screaming good deal. But, most normal folks don’t drop $500 a night for dinner 3 nights in a row, pay for a luxurious suite and go to shows every night when they’re in Vegas (I don’t, but I also wouldn’t claim to be normal). Just make sure you can actually get $2,000 in value or more out of this if you’re thinking about taking the plunge.
4 nights at Excalibur for $475:
- Four (4) consecutive nights in a Contemporary Tower Room (double occupancy) at the Excalibur.
- 2 tickets to the Criss Angel® Believe ™OR Jabawockeez.
- $400 food & beverage credit at select Excalibur or Luxor restaurants.
Pass. The rooms at Excalibur are dicey, so you can’t really attribute much value to them. Unless you really planned to spend $400 at Excalibur and Luxor already, there’s no upside here.
2 nights in a Penthouse suite at HOTEL32 at Monte Carlo for $1,050:
- Two nights in a one-bedroom PENTHOUSE Suite at HOTEL32 (double occupancy).
- Dinner for two (2) at BRAND Steakhouse (value of $400)
- Two VIP tickets to the turbo-charged Blue Man Group show.
- Round-trip airport limousine transfers (between McCarran airport and the Monte Carlo).
- VIP Lounge check-in.
Good price given the regular rate of the penthouse suite. But, if you don’t value suites it’s going to be tough to make out on this one.
Friday, April 10th: Hyatt Gold Passport Points On Sale
These prices are slightly higher than last year but still a screaming good deal. I value Hyatt Gold Passport points at almost 2 cents a piece and the price here is just higher than a penny. Even if values differ, it’s reasonable to see this as a 25%-35% discount on Gold Passport points.
The best example I have personally is my stay at Park Hyatt Place Vendome last year. It costs 30,000 points to grab a room at the Park Hyatt Place Vendome. At roughly a penny a point that’s $300 a night. I’ve never seen the property for under $500 a night and it’s frequently in the $1,000 range. Given that Hyatt already announced category changes recently which were pretty mild, it’s pretty safe to assume the redemption values will remain static.
There are a very limited number of packages given that this is likely one of the best offers of all the Daily Getaways. This one will be a bit of a scrum.
The post Breaking Down Week 3 Of Daily Getaways was published first on Pizza In Motion.
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How does one determine the black out dates for the Loews properties?
Heavenlyjane, you can try emailing the Daily Getaways folks. Definitely too vague in the T&C
Does anyone know how long we have to wait for those Choice Privilege points to be deposited into our account? Thanks
Chamnan, last year I heard folks had them in their account within 2 weeks.