US Travel Association/American Express ‘Daily Getaway’ deals come around once a year. They used to be fantastic Groupon-style deals (back when Groupon was good). Limited in quantity, they offered deep discounts on things that were actually good.
They weren’t all good, I found the first two weeks of 2012’s deals disappointing.
But they’ve on the whole gotten worse. That’s not entirely about price, in cases where they’re selling hotel points (usually marketed as hotel stays) those points just don’t go as far as they used to. Same price, same number of points, you’ll get less in
Marriott with big award category shifts, Hyatt with a new more expensive award category 7 and other changes.
Wyndham devalued their award chart, and also transfers of their points to miles (so buying discounted Wyndham points as a means of getting airline miles no longer makes sense).
At the same time, there’s only a limited number of deals on offer each day. So when there’s actually something good, they’re hard to get in on.
All together that’s why I’ve only given Daily Getaways a single mention this year, and that time in a list of links.
I haven’t covered them because I haven’t seen any that have especially appealed (today for instance you can speculatively pre-purchase one night at a Super8 hotel for $84 less 10% for paying with an American Express card), and because most of the deals sell out within minutes anyway.
Today’s packages are Hyatt Gold Passport points, though. And they’re being sold for a about penny a point when you pay by American Express. (Remember, paying with an Amex takes 10% off the purchase price.)
- 24,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for $260, 95 packages
- 30,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for $330, 35 packages
- 40,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for $415, 15 packages
- 72,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for $775, 15 packages
As someone who pays for Hyatt stays this is a fantastic value. I value Hyatt points at 1.5 cents apiece although I can get better value from them than that.
And with the introduction of cash and points awards this year, I no longer mind booking using my points towards nights since cash and points redemptions earn elite status credit, can be upgraded using Diamond confirmed upgrade certificates, and count towards promotion-earning.
Under cash and points for category 2-6 hotels you’re buying back points at 1.2 – 1.3 cents apiece, and that’s always a better deal than free night awards (whether it’s better than paying for a room outright depends on the prevailing rate, of course). I’m a buyer of Hyatt points at 1.3 cents and that’s why I’m a buyer at 1 cent.
The deal goes live at 1pm Eastern, and the bigger packages with tighter availability will especially go quickly. I’m coming out of a meeting at 1pm, I will probably give this a try.
But I also won’t sweat it if I miss the deal, it’s not points at half the value I place on them. I’ll even set a calendar reminder, but I wouldn’t go to outrageous lengths.
And that’s just sad. From my perspective this is the best offer so far, and just underscores how disappointing they all are if I won’t plan my schedule around trying to jump onboard.
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Gary,
How do I participate in this promotion?
TIA!
See the link to daily getaway deals at the top of the post.
Thanks, Do I need to preregister with the website?
With only 160 total available, its going to be another mega millions lottery.
@fan – no
From a value perspective, the Choice Hotels offer was WAY better. Here, you’re basically being offered the opportunity to buy mid-level hotel rooms for $80 and nice hotels for $200. Cheaper in most cases than paying for the rooms, but not by a heck of a lot (in most cases). In contrast, Choice was selling mid-level rooms for about $60 and nice hotels for $100 (albeit they don’t have that many nice hotels).
That said, because the socioeconomic profile of folks who play these games skews toward Hyatt customers, today’s deal will be way more popular. And with many fewer points being sold, extremely difficult to obtain. Good thing the deal isn’t so great. 🙂
I’m passing on this one as well. I can see if you had Diamond status this may be worthwhile, but for general members with little or no Hyatt points or status this isn’t a good deal.
Waste of time for me, gone at 1:00:02. A lottery ticket is more fun and same odds.
Looks like they don’t exist anymore at that link, so probably sold out.
Check that, sorry. I read it wrong. They’re still around…
Gary, you might warn people that they can’t win the high-value deals unless they have automated software to press the Buy Now button. Human response time is too slow.
@nsx, well, I wrote
“there’s only a limited number of deals on offer each day. So when there’s actually something good, they’re hard to get in on.
And I quoted the only thing I wrote about the deals before, 2 1/2 weeks ago,m
“…most of the deals sell out within minutes anyway.”
@easy victor – yes, sold out
Gary, I retract that criticism. When the offer status was “on hold for other customers” well into the hour, I realized that someone was holding onto the inventory and releasing it bit by bit. It’s not clear to me whether this was the Daily Getaways people or “brokers” using automated software. I’ve read that the latter will grab inventory and then press Cancel at a precisely arranged time so that they or their customer can pick it up immediately. If someone else happens to be clicking Buy Now at that instant, the broker loses his inventory.
Regardless, it was possible to snag this deal by clicking. I landed a package myself about 30 minutes into the offer. I could feel my odds improving as (I assumed) people got tired of clicking and dropped out of the race.
In this situation, the early bird does not get the worm.
Gary and all, I have been very successful in purchasing these items. Just have to have the information in front of you. I purchased the top Hilton award, since we are going to Europe this fall, This held as we are staying in Paris and Dublin with the sigh up bonus’s and this purchase our trip will be wonderful.