Discount / Promo codes for travel – Do you use them?

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  • MarcusGB
    Participant

    Do you ever use “discount codes” or “Cashback” sites when booking your airport parking, hotels, or Airlines?

    With the current World issues affecting travel, indeed everyday living costs, your home – Mortgage or rental, Air fare rises, these codes or sites, are becoming sensible savings.
    I have been using them for quite a few years. If YOU pay yr own travel costs for Leisure, it can offer a decent saving.

    For “Cashback sites”, you just join as a member with no cost, select an Airline or Hotels for eg, and it re-directs you to that Company’s own website. This is logged, and you gain the % that can vary, as a payment back. It can take a few weeks after booking a flight, hotels up to 3 months after a completed stay.

    The % can be up to 3% for Airlines which is not so much, but if you spend £2,000 on a flight, would you refuse £60 cash if handed to you? That could pay for a fair few coffees after all.

    Hotels are a prime saving, and one of the best is “All Accor”. Rates tend to be either 10% or 15%, in which case would you refuse £150 handed back to you, after spending £1000?
    You also pay 5-10% less as a member, when booking.

    Airport parking also is one of the best, simply using a search engine for that Airport or a specific Company “Discount / Promo code”

    I just booked a simple economy return to Amsterdam with KLM, and earned £6 cashback. My hotel booked for 5 nights with Accor, that earns me 15% cashback, so around £125.
    As a Gold or Platinum member of a hotel group, you would also earn points with Accor, and a base 10% off from within your own Hotel Frequent Guest program account.

    These do not clash, you earn both, so that is a 25% saving for hotels. Then take into account yr Gold / Platinum benefits, and earned points of credits, as you still booked directly through the Hotels website.
    Most of these are counted as direct bookings to the Hotel or Airline Company, whereas using a hotel search engine, you negate your benefits when you arrive at the hotel, as you did not book direct.

    So i can expect my £125 cash back after the stay, I paid 10% members discount.
    I still have my Hotel membership benefits at the hotel, earn my Platinum guest points for renewal.
    And, wait for it… Triple points with The Accor group for stays until March 2023!
    (Black Friday offer)

    For me No Discount, No purchase!

    I booked parking at LCY (always very expensive), but made a search for a promo code, and entered it on the Airport page, another 15% discount!

    In 5 years, with one cashback site, I earned over £5,500 just on my self paid Leisure travels alone.

    So what are the your tactics for your self paid leisure travel to beat the increased costs?!!!

    (I list below a code valid for LCY parking that can be used until end of the year)

    ============================================================

    “Discount code is LCY15PROM

    Promotion starts on Monday 7th November 2022 and finish on 31st December 2022.

    To take advantage of 15% off parking discount advertised from London City Airport, the parking entry must be made between Monday 7th November 2022 and 31st December 2022.

    The discount code must be entered at the checkout on https://parking.londoncityairport.com.”


    MartinJ
    Participant

    I regularly use Expedia’s x percent off codes (10% was the highest I’ve seen) which can be used on top of the 10% membership discount. Whether or not discounts are worthwhile of course depends on the headline price. Especially with direct hotel bookings I often find that 15% off is still dearer than the cheapest online travel agent price.


    FrequentTraveller
    Participant

    For a number of years I have used cashback sites when purchasing personal spend travel and accommodation. They can provide savings.

    Some care is required, as some companies detect the referral is from a cashback site and quote a different (higher) price than if navigating to the site directly. In this case the cashback has been factored into the quote so isn’t a saving at all.

    Occasionally there is so much small print with using the cashback site that I find my reservation would be excluded from the cashback award. E.g. Certain travel dates, locations or routes are executed.

    Some hotel chains won’t pay the cashback site when the reservation has been made using a corporate discount code or corporate negotiated rate. Yes, some chains allow company employees to use their corporation’s price for personal stays. In this case the buyer needs to evaluate which they consider is the best buy as they don’t always stack together.

    I will only purchase if I am prepared to pay the quoted price, without the cashback. If the cashback is applicable to my reservation and it actually tracks correctly then I am obviously pleased. But as there is a risk it won’t track then I won’t let it be the deciding factor in my purchasing decision.

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