The Offer
Direct link to offer (our affiliate link)
- Orbitz is offering $75 in Orbucks on select Puerto Rico hotels when you book before October 1st, 2018
The Fine Print
- Â Book a qualifying standalone hotel (not booked as part of a package or as an add-on to a standalone flight or car booking) with a total price including taxes and fees of $200 or more, and receive $75 in Orbucks for that hotel booking.
Our Verdict
Update: Looks like these Orbucks are only valid for 60 days and they don’t post to the account until after the stay is completed. Second update: Looks like they do post before the stay.
It says the booking needs to be $200+ including taxes and fees, but seems to be showing on bookings of $75+ or more. The bonus Orbucks don’t appear in search results, but do appear when you click through to the individual hotel. To make the deal better do the following:
- Use promo code BOOKNOW for a further 10% off
- Go through a shopping portal (should stack with the above)
I suspect the number of readers that can take advantage of this will be low, but should be very useful if you can. Good to see Orbitz trying to support the Puerto Rican tourism economy as well.
Hat tip to Frequent Miler
PR is still an active Zika transmission zone.
https://www.cdc.gov/zika/reporting/2018-case-counts.html
This is a very small number — 80 vs 35,000+ cases compared to the outbreak 2 years ago. Figured I would point that out, but thanks for the info.
But maybe if somebody wants to bash Trump for not providing enough health care funding, that number will be revised to 8000. 🙂
Seriously, there are certainly some valid reasons not to vacation in Puerto Rico, but I don’t think the fear of zika is a good reason right now.
Yeah, if you happen to be heading to Puerto Rico, there are some good deals, especially outside of the San Juan area. In San Juan, hotel prices tend to be high, so $75 off doesn’t get you too much, unless you’re willing to crash at somewhat-sketchy, poorly-reviewed properties. Personally, I’d still opt for using hotel loyalty points for free stays at decent hotels, like at the various Hyatt properties.
But as I commented on the Frequent Miler sites, there’s also some weirdness with this bonus. Unlike most “Orbucks,” these points seem to expire in 60 days. And they don’t seem to be immediately available for use after your booking. So maybe you have to wait for your stay to be completed to use the points? But what if you’re booking for a winter vacation? Does that mean your points will expire before you’re even eligible to use them?
Thanks, let me add this to the post.
It took a couple days, but Orbitz did credit me the extra $75 Orbucks for my winter booking in Puerto Rico. In my account it says these points expire mid-November, so I think I’m OK as long as I use them to book a new hotel reservation by that date. I am curious what would happen if I used these bonus Orbucks and then needed to cancel my original Puerto Rico reservation. I’m also curious what would happen if I use the bonus Orbucks for a new hotel reservation (remember, I’ll be on a deadline to book something within 2 months) and then need to cancel that reservation for some reason after mid-November. Would I just lose those Orbucks, or would they flow back to my Orbucks account for my next hotel booking?
Not too sure what they would do to be honest