Daily Getaways Travel Deals – Week Four

The fourth week of the U.S. Travel Association’s Daily Getaways begins tomorrow, April 25, 2016.

Here’s the rundown of this week’s offerings:

Monday

Universal Studios Hollywood 4 pack of 2-day park tickets

Tuesday

A variety of Loews Hotels packages

Wednesday

Alamo car rental certificate

Thursday

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts packages

Friday

Hyatt Hotel points

MY THOUGHTS AND MORE DETAILS

Universal Studios Hollywood

Four (4) 2-day admission tickets to Universal Studios Hollywood in California. Price: $500 (84 Available)

A quick check of the Universal Studios website shows 1-day Anytime Admission tickets (2 adults and 2 children) would run $448. Multiply that by 2 for the equivalent of this deal and you’d be saving about $400 by purchasing the deal.

Loews Hotel packages

Loews is definitely a high-end hotel brand, and the prices for most of its daily getaways deals reflect that. However, for those okay with paying a high price for a quality product and experience, there are deals to be had.

• 2 nights in a suite at the Loews Regency New York for $1,000 (5 Available)
• 2 nights in the Bridge to Bridge Suite at Loews San Francisco for $1,300 (2 Available)
• 2 nights at a four diamond Loews Resort for $325 (20 Available)
• 2 nights at a luxury Loews Hotel for $275 (16 Available)
• 2 nights in an ocean view suite at Loews Miami Beach $1,000 (5 Available)
• 2 nights in an ocean view suite at Loews Santa Monica $950 (3 Available)

A few examples to compare deal pricing to regular pricing:

2 nights at the Loews Madison Hotel (Washington, D.C.) Deal price: $275 Price for a June 24 – 26 stay: $455.72. A savings of $180.72 when purchasing the deal.

2 nights at the Loews Don CeSar Hotel (St. Pete Beach, Florida) Deal Price: $325 for a June 3 – 5 stay: $822.64. You’d save $497.64 buying the deal.

As you can see, there’re savings to be had, you just have to decide how much you value the Loews brand, especially when purchasing the $1,000 or more deals.

Be sure and check individual deals for hotels specific to the deal and restrictions that may apply.

Alamo Car Rental

A $50 certificate toward a car rental for $25. (2000 Available)

Not much to say about this one. You basically get a $50 savings on an Alamo car rental for $25. You can purchase up to 3 of them, so that’d be a total savings of $150 on a rental (for $75). Certificates can only be applied to the total base rental rate – not taxes, fees, etc. – so while it will reduce your rental rate, in the big picture, it won’t be a 50% savings.

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts

This is another high-end hotel deal, limited to three of Fairmont’s properties.

• 6 nights at the Fairmont Kea Lani (Maui) or the Fairmont Orchid (Big Island) for $1,800. (10 Available)
• 3 nights at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess (Arizona) for $610. (10 Available)

Fairmont Orchid: September 17 – 23, 2016, $2,319.30. By purchasing the deal, you save $519.

Fairmont Princess: November 10 – 13, 2016, $1,431.51. By purchasing the deal for this specific reservation, you’d save $821.

Again, you definitely can get value from purchasing these hotel deals. It’s just whether or not the destinations, and the specific properties, are of interest to you.

Hyatt Gold Passport Points

• 2 nights in a Hyatt Premium Hotel $260 (120 Available)
• 2 nights in an Elite Hyatt Hotel $330 (54 Available)
• 3 nights in a Hyatt Suite $775 (25 Available)
• 2 nights in a Hyatt Top Hotel $415 (30 Available)

These deals are advertised as hotel stays, but in reality are the equivalent Hyatt Gold Passport points for the advertised stay deposited into your Gold Passport account – at a discounted price, obviously. Which means, you can use the points in any way you please, for any redemption you please.

Hyatt points – in my estimation – are THE best hotel reward points available. And the Hyatt brand is outstanding.

The value you can get from using Hyatt Gold Passport points is far above any other hotel loyalty program.

And, while Hyatt doesn’t have the “reach” of other, larger, hotel chains, the majority of its properties, from the high-end resorts, to the base-level business/family stay hotels are exceptional places to spend a night – or more.

It’s because of Hyatt’s reputation that the Hyatt deals are usually gone within seconds (literally) of the 1:00 pm availability time.

I’ve tried for the past few years, sitting at my computer, the browser loaded to the purchase screen, watching for the computer clock to hit 1:00 pm, and have never gotten the deal.

Good luck if you’re going to give the Hyatt points deal a try – it’s definitely worth the effort.

DAILY GETAWAYS INS AND OUTS

My typical Daily Getaways post reminders go as follows:

All deals go on sale at 1:00 pm ET the day they are listed.

I’ve noted the quantities available next to each deal – they’re also listed on an individual deal’s page on the Daily Getaways calendar. For popular deals, they will go quickly, so be ready to click the “Buy Now” button right at 1:00 pm.

Actually, if there is any deal in which you’re interested, just to be safe I’d be ready to buy right at 1:00 pm when the deal opens.

As with anything in life, the details matter, so for deals you’re interested in, be sure to look at the fine print…it’s listed on each individual deal at the Daily Getaways site.

So, scope out the deals that interest you for this week, set your cell phone alarm for 12:50 pm the day of the deal and get ready to buy!

I’ll see you next weekend with my rundown of the final week’s deals for this year’s U.S. Travel Association’s Daily Getaways.

Until then, here’s hoping you get the travel deal(s) of your choice!