- Pay Up! Increased Vegas Resort Fees Pass $50 & How to Avoid Them in 2020! by MtM
- Confirming a Great Hidden Benefit – Citi Prestige 5x TYPs on Travel Agencies by Middle Age Miles.
- ‘Heavenly’ Italian beach to charge entry fee to cut overcrowding The Guardian. Personally I never have an issue with these types of fees as local as they actually end up going where they are supposed to (I usually like when locals are excluded as well).
Deals starting/expiring at the end of today or starting today (view the full deal calendar here):
- Frontier ‘Kids Fly Free’ Promotion (Must Join Discount Den For $59.99 & Other Restrictions) – Extended
- Chase Offers/BofA: Make Two Xfinity Mobile Payments & Get $25
Deals starting/expiring at end of tomorrow:
Here are some of the most popular posts from past few days:
The 5x TYP for OTA -would be interesting if Citi hadn’t just gutted all it’s travel protections (as well as 85% of benefits).
Rarely use OTAs with a few exceptions Daily getaway deals, and CC backends – Hotels.com, Priceline/Expedia on rare occasions.
If you have a travel issues, cancelled flight, room etc, you have to deal with OTA and CSR or lack of, to change seats, routes, rebooking on delays/cancel flights/rooms is far easier directly with Airline/Hotel. direct (often).
Hey, Will. Just curious – can I ask why your experience has been better when locals are excluded? Sorry if I misinterpreted your comment, but it stuck out to me and I wanted to inquire.
I assume he meant he likes it when locals are excluded from paying the entry fees/taxes on local attractions, as opposed to excluded from entry to the attraction.
I mean I prefer when they are excluded from having to pay. I feel like they generally already pay via taxes/property fees etc and I don’t like that they are forced to pay more because they live in a tourist area
Agreed. Saw this in Hyderabad, India and was happy about it. In fact I wished they charged foreigners even more (like 10x) because the fee was so nominal to the average international traveler. Keep it free for Indian citizens but if they could generate enough income to keep a world heritage site to the same upkeep standards as the rich countries, everyone benefits.
I visit Vegas once or twice a year and my go-to hotel now is the Marriott Grand Chateau. Pretty nice rooms compared to the standard casinos, half a block off the strip, non-casino hotel so it’s all non-smoking, and NO resort fee. Since it’s a vacation club property they have regular events (oftentimes including free drinks), and you can also run the timeshare presentation for points if you desire.
I generally hate Marriott/Bonvoy these days but this hotel continues to be great to me.
Many thanks for the link, Will! Hope it helps our readers earn some extra TYPs to use on fun travels. ~Craig
Citi is quiet about the travel agency benefit because they have a co brand deal with Expedia and want that card to be the main one for people racking up TA spend.
On the Prestige statement TA spend is even marked as Air Travel so its not overly obvious. But as noted on FT, TA bookings are not always going to code up how you expect, even if you ask an agent. Sometimes they look like direct bookings, other times as agent ones.
We use this benefit quite a bit, and I would note that there are times when the OTA’s are cheaper than booking direct. So its worth checking multiple sources, and even calling the front desk to see if they can discount further.