Booking Air Travel? A Tip to Maximize Cash Back
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While earning cash back on most internet stores is surprisingly easy, earning cash back on air travel has, at least in my experience, always proven to be a unique challenge. However, it seems that William Shatner can once again prove useful.
The Cash Back Challenge
As a general rule of thumb, any airfare results that you get on one travel website should also be available on other websites – in other words, that same fare you pulled up on Expedia should be bookable on Orbitz or even the airline’s own website (there are of course exceptions: student airfare, consolidator fares, special airline deals, etc.).
You may notice that the price sometimes varies by a few dollars — this is usually because major booking websites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz tack on a booking fee for your purchase raising the price by a few dollars.
This becomes problematic when you look at what sort of cash back is generally offered on travel sites. For the most part, very few airlines offer cash back for purchases made on their website; some offer a meager return, some (like American Airlines, which I frequently fly) offer nothing. On the other hand, booking websites like Orbtiz, Travelocity, etc. offer sizable cash back but that five dollar booking fee often wipes out (or worse) the benefit from potential cash back. Until recently, this meant that it was pretty much a wash: either get the cash back and see it get wiped out by a booking fee, or skip the cash back and skip the booking fee.
Enter Priceline
Priceline.com has changed the situation, though. Priceline.com is usually known for the “Name Your Own Price” feature, where you can bid on hotel and airfare; however, Priceline also offers traditional bookings just like any other travel website. What makes them different is that Priceline now does not charge a booking fee — so that itinerary you found on Orbitz that includes a $5 booking fee would cost you $5 less at Priceline.com. Priceline also offers generous cash back at several sites including FatWallet (4% back at time of writing) and EBates (2%).
I recently helped a friend book a $250 airline ticket that she found on United’s website. By choosing to book it at Priceline instead, she got the same itinerary for the same price that United.com offered, but also earned 4% cash back through FatWallet; that’s $10 saved - not bad!
So keep Priceline in mind next time you’re looking to book airline tickets.
Bookmarked: Carnivals and Links - June 26
Festival of Frugality #131
This week I participated in the Festival of Frugality #131 - Summer Savings Edition hosted by the Broke Grad Student. Included was my post on Why i Hate Open-Loop Gift Cards. There were some great entries, so check out the rest of the festival when you get a chance.
Woops - Festival of Frugality #126
I also somehow forgot to mention that in May, I was pleased to be included in the Festival of Frugality - #126, The If i Had A Car Edition kindly hosted by The Financial Blogger. Included in the Festival was my recent post on The Microsoft Office Burden. My apologies for forgetting the mention until now.
Links
Outside of the great entries in the Festival of Frugality, here are some of the posts that have caught my eye in the last week or so:
- Trent over at The Simple Dollar posted on Ten Tips to Maximize the Value of a Doctor’s Visit. I was actually thinking about this subject the other day — doctors visits are difficult enough once; you might as well get as most out of a visit as you can.
- Frugal Dad has a great post on Cherry-Picking Coupons to Maximize Savings. For some reason it had never occurred to me to turn to eBay for grocery coupons. Thanks to this post, I just won a whole bunch of coupons for Tropicana Orange Juice.
- Five Cent Nickel posted on The Hidden Costs of Renting a Car. It really is amazing how quickly the costs add up, which is why I usually opt to try public transportation whenever possible when traveling. Sometimes that just not possible, but FCN’s post provides helpful knowledge to be armed with.
Three Quick Steps Before Check-Out To Maximize Online Shopping
Just about ready to buy that new product online? Hold up - by taking a few quick steps, you could end up saving even more money on your final purchase without much effort.
Before making any purchase online, I always do three things: check for cash-back affiliate links, check for online coupons, and use a credit card that maximizes my reward.
Step One: Check For Cash-Back Affiliate Links
As I’ve mentioned previously in my post on cash-back affiliate websites, it is almost a cardinal sin to make a purchase at an online store without first checking to see if you can earn cash back by using one of the cash-back websites like Ebates, Cashbaq, or FatWallet. There’s little to no effort involved on your part — if one of the sites offers cash back for the store from which you are about to purchase, all you have to do is start your shopping session by using the link at the cash back site.
The website Rewardsdb.com makes this process even easier; when you’ve decided to purchase from a store — say Drugstore.com — all you have to do is go to RewardsDB.com, enter Drugstore.com, and it will tell you all of the sites that offer cash-back at Drugstore.com and what they offer, making easy to very quickly determine what your options are.
Step Two: Check For Coupons
The beauty of the internet is that there are very few secrets — and that is especially true with regards to any coupon or discount codes a store releases. There’s no need to search extensively, but a quick trip to RetailMeNot.com or a Google search for “ABC Store Coupon” can often turn up useful discount codes that you might otherwise not have known about. Never hurts to look!
Step Three: Use a Credit Card That Earns Rewards
Finally, you can make a further dent in the final cost to you by using a credit card that offers rewards suited to your purchase. For example, the Citi mtvU Visa Card offers (an equivalent) 5% back at a bunch of categories that includes Amazon.com. Even a general-purpose card that offers something like 1% cash back can make a dent.
These three steps really don’t take that long — a quick search of some place like Rewardsdb.com, a quick search of some place like RetailMeNot.com, and then using a rewards credit card — but the savings can really add up.
Any one else have any tips to share?
The 10-Way Pass
A mini-milestone will occur later today: I will completely use up my first ten-ride pass for my local commuter rail line. I have only had the pass for about six months, but I’m very relieved that I successfully used it up, as I was worried when I purchased it that some of it might go to waste.
A Range of Options
See, I don’t use the train often - maybe once every month or two, and so I had always figured that buying individual round-trip tickets was my best bet. Most frequent commuters quickly figure out that buying a monthly pass is in their best interest, but, at least in my experience, infrequent commuters are, for some reason, much less likely to embrace the option for which they might be best suited — the 10 way pass.
The 10-Way Pass
Most commuter rail lines, and many bus systems, offer a 10-way pass (or something similiar:
- Is good for ten one-way travels
- Usually gives a modest discount of something like 10%.
- Expiration dates vary, but in my experience, many are valid for up to a year.
- Can often be used for multiple people in the same group.
- An often-overlooked benefit: you don’t have to worry about buying a ticket if you’re running late, don’t have to worry about change, etc.
- Sometimes can be purchased with a slightly greater discount online.
Of course, in order to maximize the value of these 10-way passes, you have to not lose it and remember to use it before it expires.
So next time you’re about to take a train or bus ride, consider whether “investing” in a 10-way pass might be in your best interest. About to take a ride with 5 of your friends? Split the cost of a 10-way. Planning on making a few round-trips in the next year? Go fo the 10-way. Might save you a bit of money and a bit of hastle.
Three Quick Deals
Some of these deals expire quickly, so without further ado…
“Economic Stimulus” Gift Card Bonuses
Many, and i do mean many, grocery stores across the country are offering bonuses if you put your “economic stimulus check” — or an equivalent value in most cases — towards a store gift card; the going rate seems to be a 10% bonus on $300 increments, meaning a free $30 for every $300 purchased in gift cards. Patrick over at Cash Money Life has a goof overview of this on his post Get $206 in Free Groceries.
This deal can be made even more lucrative in two ways:
- Many grocery stores will let you charge the gift cards to your credit card. If you use a credit card that offers high rewards at grocery stores — like the 3%+ offered by the Chase Freedom Card — you can earn even more cash back.
- Some grocery stores will allow you to purchase gift cards with a gift card. In this case, you won’t earn money, but you could move that 10% bonus over to another merchant’s gift card.
Most of these promotions expire July 31, 2008.
American Express Gift Card Promotion: Buy 2, Get 1
While I have previously argued against open-loop gift cards, American Express is currently running a very tantalizing promotion. If you purchase two American Express gift cards at participating retailers, you’ll get one free $25 gift card valid only at Best-Buy, Borders, Fandango, or SpaFinder, after mail-in rebate. You can find more information on the AmEx webpage here — remember, you have to purchase at a participating retailer, which includes Walgreens and most Grocery Stores. Beware: All AmEx gift cards have an activation fee. The cheapest way to execute this deal is to purchase two $25 AmEx gift cards, which will each have a $3.95 activation fee. Then, for $57.90 you’ll have $75 in gift cards, a net profit of $17.10.
Note, of course, that this promotion is really only worthwhile if you are planning on shopping at Best-Buy, Borders, Fandango, or Spa Finder anyway. Promotion expires June 30th, 2008.
Restaurant.com 60% Off Coupon
Restaurant.com, which sells gift certificates to specific restaurants and almost always has decent coupons available, has a particularly good deal going on right now. Use coupon code MEALS to save 60% off your order, plus get a free $10 gift certificate with each order. Pay attention to the details before you buy a gift certificate to a restaurant, as certain restaurants place limitations on when you can use it order minimum purchase orders. Expires July 1, 2008.
In my case, I was able to purchase a $25 gift-certificate to a local Indian restaraunt for $4, plus get my $10 certificate.
A Suspicious Phone Call
Late last week, I received a phone call on my cell phone that came up as an “Unknown Number”. When I picked up, the woman on the other end identified herself as being a customer service representative from a store from which I made a purchase recently. There was a problem with my order, and in order to get around it, she was going to cancel and re-submit part of the order; the only catch, though, was that she needed my credit card information to verify.
At that point, the defense mechanisms in my mind kicked into play.
Telephone Scams
You see, several years ago, I’m afraid to admit, I fell victim to a telephone impersonation scam. I had always considered myself fairly well educated on credit card scams and proper protections — this was right around when “phising” emails were becoming popular, and I was repeatidly stressing to my mother the importance of being on the lookout for dangerous emails. It’s somewhat ironic, then, that I fell victim not to a phising email, but to a phising phone call.
One day I was out running errands when I received a phone call from an unknown number on my cell phone. The woman on the other end identified herself as being from my cell phone company, and informed me that my cell phone bill had not been paid in full for the month, and that service was going to be discontinued if I didn’t immediately pay the remaining balance, which I was told was something like $9 or $10. Not wanting to lose my cell phone service, I provided my credit card information. And, with that, I provided my credit card information to a scam artist.
It didn’t take me long to realize that this story was suspicious. I quickly contacted my cell phone company that told me that my bill, in fact, had been paid in full and that they had not tried to contact me recently. I then immediately called my credit card company and told them what happened. Even though less than an hour had passed, the Citibank customer service representative informed me that there were was an authorization attempt for several thousand dollars on my card. Luckily, Citibank was incredibly helpful, and quickly had canceled the pending charges and had issued me a new card number.
In hindsight, there are several things that can be learned from my stupidity: Read more
Gift Cards: Why I Hate “Open-Loop” Cards
Dear Uncle Robert,
I know you mean well. I really do appreciate the fact that you still send a gift over the holidays even though I am now old enough where it is no longer an “obligation.” But please reconsider giving me these Visa-branded $25 gift cards, otherwise known as open-loop gift cards since they can be used anywhere that Visa is accepted.
Open-Loop Cards Make the Buyer Look Silly
For one thing, it pains me that anyone, especially a family member of mine, would buy these things, given the activation fee associated with it. Yeah, it is only a few dollars, but it seems silly that you paid $3 or $4 dollars on a $25 gift card. I was looking at American Express Gift Cards the other day, and the most basic version has a $4 activation fee. Yikes. You really could have simply given me cash (which, last I checked, has no activation fee), or even a normal gift card to a major merchant.
Really, this point isn’t so much for me as it is for you. I hate to see you waste money. Read more
Scoring Cheap Hotel Rooms
A couple of times each year, two or three of my friends and I will end up taking a weekend trip somewhere to explore a city for a few days. We are always on foot — so always relying on public transportation — and definitely prefer to stay in the “heart” of a city for both convenience and experience. Thus part of the planning for these trips inevitably involves trying to arrange a hotel room. Unfortunately, hotel rooms in “the heart” of a city can often be quite expensive.
Sometimes I have found you can get lucky using a normal travel search engine — Travelocity, Hotels.com, Expedia, etc. — but these days I find myself frequently turning to William Shatner for help.
Enter Priceline
Well, not quite William Shatner, but the company for which he is a spokesman — Priceline.com. You may have seen their television advertisements, where they talk about “naming your own price” for hotel bookings. Priceline also offers airfare, but I’m going to focus on bidding for hotels. Priceline’s system is simple — they break their hotels into geographic categories (in New York City, for example, the categories incldue Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Times Square, Downtown-Soho, etc.), as well as star-quality rating (1 star through 4 stars).
To try to name your own price, go to Priceline’s website, click on “Name your own Price”, and tell it the city, dates, and number of rooms you are looking for. You’ll then be taken to a page where you specify which areas in your city you want to try to bid for, as well as the hotel star-quality level. You then name your own price, and click submit. Because of the auction nature of the site, you have to provide your credit card information upfront, because if the bid is accepted you will be charged immediately. If your bid is not successful, you will not be charged, and can rebid after a day or two.
Student Ticket Agencies
I needed to book a domestic flight for next month, and with such high airfare prices lately, I spent the last few days trying to find the best airfare deal. While I wouldn’t call the ticket I ultimately purchased a great deal, given the current economic climate I’m pretty happy with it, and, much to my surprise, I ultimately ended up booking it through StudentUniverse.com.
STATravel and StudentUniverse.com
There seem to be two major student ticket agencies out there — STA Travel and StudentUniverse. These ticket agencies target students and (in some cases) faculty, and employ some weak level of verification that you really are a student. In the case of StudentUniverse, my .edu school email address acted as verification . Both STA Travel and StudentUniverse heavily market international and “study abroad” travel services (flights, hotels, train tickets, etc.), but also sell domestic air tickets as well.
Trouble with STA Travel
Take this as anecdotal evidence if you will, but I ended up going with StudentUniverse partly because of the difficulty I had using STA Travel’s website, which seems to both be poorly designed and questionably functional. Read more
Earn Cash-Back For Your Online Shopping
There are a whole crop of websites out there that offer cash back when you shop at major online merchants through their site, at no cost to you.
Earn Cash-Back: A Primer
How do these sites work?
- Each cash back site, such as Ebates, maintains a long list of merchants, such as ProFlowers, Travelocity, BestBuy, Barnes and Noble, and many many more, with which they have affiliate commission agreements.
- Say you need to buy something at Barnes and Noble.com. Ebates has an arrangement with Barnes and Noble where they offer 4% cash back.
- To earn that cash back, you need to click on the link to Barnes and Noble at Ebates; when you do that, Barnes and Noble records that you came from Ebates.
- Shop as you normally would. Other than having to make sure that you complete the purchase in one session (without closing your browser window, for example), your shopping experience at Barnes and Noble will be no different.
- Complete and pay.
- Several weeks later, once Ebates has confirmed that the transaction went through and was not returned, you’ll get your 4% cash back.
It’s a win-win scenario — Ebates gets a commission for sending you to Barnes and Noble, and Ebates passes some of that comission on to you.
Cash-Back Sites
There are a whole slew of sites that offer cash back, many with initial sign-up bonuses. Some of the major ones include:
- Ebates.com - Earn $5 for free with your first purchase (If you use this link, I get $5, too)
- Cashbaq.com - Earn $5 for free with your first purchase (Again, if you use this link, I get a referral commission).
- Fatwallet.com
And many more, each with slightly different lists of participating merchants. Also, note that many airlines and hotel programs offer affiliate programs that offer rewards in the form of frequent flyer miles per dollar spent — unless you’re a frequent traveler, these aren’t the best deals — but they can be useful in extending the expiration date of your frequent flyer miles.
Comparing Cash-Back Sites
One of the most frustrating aspects of these cash-back programs is that the list of merchants is different at each site, and the same merchant at one site may have a different cash-back than a merchant at another site. Knowing which is the best cash-back site to link through is a lot easier when you use a website like RewardsDB; simply go to RewardsDB and enter the website from which you are looking for cash back, and RewardsDB will tell you the different rewards you can get at different cash back sites. Definitely useful.
Enjoy!
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