TheConsumerist.com
Jetblue is selling a bunch of flights from JFK for $10 each. The site was getting hammered last time I checked so give the pages time to load.
New customers can get a free photobook from Picaboo or, if you already have an account with them, there is a BOGO free coupon that is good through March 31, 2010.
Use this Gap coupon code to get jeans at 30 percent off. Just trade-in an old pair by Sunday, March 14, 2010.
Snag a bag of free dog treats from Science Diet when you share your name, email and address.
Coldwater Creek coupons! Get 20-25 percent off when you buy $100 or more. Good in stores and online.
Do you live near a Dunkin Donuts? Then get free coffee every Monday in March.
mdanys/Flickr
I recently talked to Diana Castilla at News Net TV about travel deals for cheap hotel rooms and cheap flights. The segment is running Tuesday March 9, 2010 at 6 a.m. on KVMD (cable news channel 31 on Dish and Direct TV) or you can watch it online starting at noon.
If you are a student or educator, you can get a lot of cheap travel deals at StudentUniverse. Anyone can save money on a trip by renting a home or condo. Sometimes you can even arrange swaps!
If you are really pinching pennies, check out this post on 17 ways to save money in Vegas.
Reader Bob left four great travel tips as a comment:
I travel a lot and over the years I’ve learned a few trick… Hope these are helpful..
1. Everybody knows about flying into alternate airports (e.g. OAK instead of SFO) but increasingly it’s cheaper to book a multi-destination flight to lower the fare. Last year I saved $300 on a RT from SFO to AMS by booking the outbound from SFO to TGL and walking away at AMS. Note that you can’t do that on the inbound since airlines will now cancel your entire ticket if you miss your flight at the origin. So inbound was booked from AMS to SFO.
2. In Europe, take advantage of the rail system. It is almost always cheaper to fly to LHR and train to Paris than it is to fly direct to CDG. Same is true for many other popular destinations.
3. If you can take it or leave it, haggle!! I’ve got amazing deals from airlines by calling them the day of the flight, pointing out that they were flying almost empty and offered them what I thought the trip was worth it.
4. Add a ’stop’ – a lot of times you can add a layover for little or no money. Just last month I added a Paris stop to my Istanbul trip for only $80 more by booking an open-jaw flight.
Happy traveling!
Spring break is coming up and one way to save money is to earn a free night at your hotel. The Choice Hotels spring promo lets you do just that. The cool thing about the promotion is that once you earn your free night you can choose to stay at 1,500 hotels across the globe – gratis! Here’s how it works.
Stay two different times at any of the ten hotels in the Choice Hotels chain, including the Quality Inn, Cambria Suites, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn. You can mix and match which hotels you stay at. Each visit has to be at least two nights.
Stay twice between now and April 30, 2010, and you earn a free night. You can find a great hotel rate on the Choice Hotels website, which searches the entire hotel chain for the best deal. Within any given city, you can search for hotels by radius or by proximity to prominent attractions, like SeaWorld in San Diego or Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Make sure to sign up for the Choice Hotels privileges reward program to get your free hotel night. You’ll need an address in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or eligible countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe to qualify for the promotion.
Watch four movies for free with these Blockbuster Express coupons (similar to Redbox).
Clothes for children, babies, and moms-to-be are up to 40 percent off at Old Navy. Plus, you’ll get free shipping with this Old Navy coupon code.
If you like to go on cruises, sign up for a free subscription to Cruise Travel magazine.
The Bev Mo nickel wine sale is on! No coupons or codes needed.
Check out all the deals on my WalletPop blog.
Here are the latest and greatest deals from my WalletPop blog.
Get 25 percent off at Borders with a coupon that ends today, Feb. 8, 2010.
Snag this Old Navy coupon code and get 20 percent off your purchase online, with some caveats, through Feb. 18, 2010.
I’m sitting pretty with this Michaels 40 percent off coupon, good through Feb. 20, 2010.
Buying luggage, travel accessories, or leather products? Check out this $20 off $100 coupon code for Luggage Pros.
Scoops of ice cream are just 99-cents at Baskin Robbins when you buy one scoop to start.
This post is brought to you by Dolphin Discovery, where you can swim with dolphins in the Caribbean.
The airfare sale wares continues, especially between Virgin America, Southwest, and United. Virgin America and Southwest are creating windfalls for travelers on the west coast, where these two airlines have hubs.
Today I received an email about a fare sale with one-way flights as low as $44. Southwest just launched three days of “click ‘n save” deals that must be booked by Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010.
If you have not already signed up for the email lists of these three airlines, do so now! I also recommend getting on the email list of any other airline you regularly fly. Airlines have a habit of letting loyal customers (i.e. those on their email list) know about fare sales first. So you stand to save a good amount by agreeing to receive a few more emails.
I like Airfarewatchdog.com for tracking specific routes and TravelZoo for vacation specials. It’s never to early to day dream about summer vacation.
My frugal friends at Savings.com recently shared some great coupons with me.
Get 20 percent off $100 or more at Lane Bryant. Unknown expiration date.
Get 20 percent off all sweats and tees at Hanes.com. Expires Feb. 7, 2010.
Get $10 off vitamin orders of $60 or more at Drugstore.com. Expires Jan. 31, 2010.
Get $10 off $50 or more at Ulta beauty. Unknown expiration date.
Get 10 percent off hotel reservations at Orbitz. Expires: March, 31 2010.
If you have an account at Bank of America you are in luck. B of A has extended their free admission program for museums, zoos, science centers and botanical gardens for 2010.
More than 100 institutions are participating in 34 states across the country, including:
- The Met, Whitney, Bronx Zoo, NY Aquarium and Intrepid in New York
- The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.
- de Young Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum and Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco
- Lied Discovery Children’s Museum and Natural History Museum in Las Vegas
- Children’s Museum of Richmond in Virginia
- Witchita Art Museum in Kansas
- LACMA in Los Angeles
- The New Children’s Museum in San Diego
Participating institutions are free on the first full weekend of every month. Upcoming free dates are Feb. 6-7, March 6-7, April 3-4, May 1-2, June 5-6, July 3-4, Aug. 7-8, Sept. 4-5. To get in show a photo ID with your Bank Of America/Merrill Lynch ATM, credit card, or debit card.
Caveats: excludes ticketed shows and special exhibitions. Only the cardholder gets in free. Cannot be combined with any other offers.
Have you noticed how many insane travel deals they are lately? Virgin America is successfully putting pressure on other airlines to reduce fares, which means you and I benefit!
If you are traveling for the holidays and haven’t booked your tickets, or are traveling in the next six months, here are my best money-saving travel tips.
- be flexible with travel dates if at all possible
- flying on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday is generally the cheapest
- sign up for the email list of various airlines you like to travel on because they often send electronic fare sale alerts, giving you the first crack at sales (especially for Virgin America and Southwest)
- comparison shop on Kayak.com
- but check the airline’s homepage for a reduced fare, too
- consider Priceline.com if you are flexible about travel times and airlines
- Southwest flights can only be booked through them
- sign up for TravelZoo.com, a site that finds incredible travel bargains and emails them to you (they are especially good for packaged vacations and event tickets)
- sign upfor AirFareWatchDog.com, which tracks specific routes for you
- pack light to avoid baggage fees (see below)
- use this coupon for free in-flight Internet access
Here is a summary of airline baggage fees so you can factor them into the cost of your trip.
American – $20 first bag, $30 second bag
Continental – $20 first bag, $30 second bag
Delta – $20 first bag, $30 second bag but get a $5 discount by paying ahead of time online
United – $20 first bag, $30 second bag but get a $5 discount by paying ahead of time online
Southwest – no baggage fees
For a full list of airline baggage fees, see this page on About.com.
Related:
Save on hotels by booking a time share or vacation rental.
Going abroad? Top 10 tips to keep it cheap internationally.
Staying home? Earn money by hosting travelers.
If you like cruises, read my resources for cruise deals.
Super fab deals on my WalletPop blog today!
Spirit Airlines is having a major air fare sale with one way flights starting at $16. Holy cow! But you have to book today.
Barbie, Hot Wheels, Toy Story, Dora the Explorer and everything else at Mattel is 20 percent off! Spend $50 and get free shipping,too!
Looking for a free movie rental code from RedBox? Now there is an iPhone app that aggregates all the codes and shares them every 12 hours. Downside is the app costs $.99, but if you use it once it’s a money maker. More info here.
Get a $5 gift card at TGI Friday’s when you buy one for $25 through Dec. 31, 2009.
Here are today’s deals on my WalletPop blog.
Gift card bonuses are leading more shoppers to buy. Yes, getting a kick back does wonders.
Nab a free tote bag from Aveeno, while supplies last.
Sears 15 percent off VIP sale is coming this Sunday.
Save $100 off a 3-night hotel booking on Travelocity.
Lastly, get 30 percent off at Borders plus a $5 gift card.
See all the deals on my WalletPop blog.
Virgin America is getting in on the Cyber Monday action with a flight sale that has a lot of $39 one way fares. Book by Dec. 8 and travel between Dec. 3 and May 23, 2010. A few of these fares have gone on sale for about $10 less, but these are still great prices. If you make your reservation over the phone it costs an extra $15. Your first checked bag is $20 on Virgin America.
$39: SF-Vegas, SF-LA, SF-Orange County, SF-SD, SF-Seattle
$69: LA-Seattle
$109: LA-Boston, SF-Boston, SF-D.C., LA-D.C., SF-Ft. Lauderdale, LA-Ft. Lauderdale, LA-NY, SF-NY, Vegas-NY
Caveats: Some blackout dates apply, including Dec. 18-19, Dec. 26-27, Jan. 1, Jan 3, Feb. 12, and Feb. 15. Must be purchased three days in advance of travel.
Three cheers for airline price wars! These sale fares on Virgin America are so good they are going to go VERY FAST! Sample fares:
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Yes, it’s true. You can get free Internet access while flying across the country. I used it twice flying to and from New York and now I have a coupon to pass onto you!
Use code 2287680956psc, good through Jan. 7, 2010. The coupon works on Gogo-equipped AirTran Airways, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines flights. Not all flights on these airlines have Gogo.
Caveats: the coupon is good for folks who have never used Gogo InFlight before. Use of Gogo requires registration (you set up a username attached to your email).
This is a guest post from Ask Mr Credit Card, who writes about and reviews credit cards.
Today, I’m going to show you how you can actually save money on top of the money you save from coupons with credit cards. If you are a savvy coupon clipper you would be doing the following:
- using store coupon
- using manufacturer’s coupon
- know when to buy in bulk
Just using these techniques will help you save a lot of money. But there is another thing you could do that will save you even more money. And that is by using a cash back credit card.
What are cash back rewards credit cards? They are cards that pay you a rebate for every dollar that you spend on the card. For example, most cash rebate cards pay you a 1 percent cash rebate for every dollar that you spend on the card. Though that is good, you can do much better than that if you are savvy. The better cards pay more than 1 percent (typically 3 to 5 percent) for spending on certain categories like gasoline, drugstore, supermarket, dining and travel.
So here is the formula: store coupons + manufacturer’s coupon + using cash back credit cards = quite a bit of savings
There are a few things you have to watch out for when you are choosing a cash back card. Firstly, you have to watch out for tiers. What is that? Well, some cards require that you spend above a certain threshold before you can earn the highest rebates. Some cards cap the amount of rebates you earn. You also have to consider how you are paid. Some will pay you once a year through a statement credit. Others send you a check when you have made $50 in rebates. Some will debit it into your bank account.
Gas credit cards
The same concept applies when you shop for gas. Pick a gas station near your home that consistently has lower gas prices. Use a gasoline credit card that pays at least 3 to 5 percent rebates for gasoline purchases. If you do a car wash, make use of coupons as well.
To select the right card, all you have to do is to figure out your expenses. Write and split up your credit card expenses into the following categories: supermarket, gasoline, travel, and dining and restaurants.
You could split it up into other categories. But this would be a good start. You then have to do research and figure out which card will give you the most rebates based on your spending habits. This is very tedious, but is a necessary step. So please do it. Last year, I got over $400 from my cash back card.
Online Shopping Discounts
Aside from using card that give you cash rebates, there are some credit card issuers that give you cash rebates or discounts when you shop through their online portal.
Here is how it works. Let’s say you want to shop at Macys.com. You could go directly to your web browser and type in Macys.com and shop there. However, some credit cards have partnership agreements with online merchants. What you then have to do is to log on into your account, go to their shopping portal, and then go to Macys.com. When you shop at the site and use your credit card, you can get anywhere from 5 to 10 percent rebates (I look at them as discounts). You are actually going to the exact same site through your credit cards’ shopping portal. The only difference is that your purchases are tracked with the merchant and the credit card company so you can get the rebates.
There are some fine prints with such arrangements. Some merchants do not give discounts on gift cards. Some do not give rebates if there is already a sale on the item. But in most cases, you can really save a lot if you use these credit card perks wisely.
Travel Discounts
Your annual vacation is one of your biggest expenses. So why not make an effort to save on it. Most of us take at least one family vacation a year. If you are not careful, all the money you saved on supermarket coupons will be thrown down the drain if you are not savvy with your travel plans. Here are a few steps you should take.
1. Plan way ahead of your vacation.
2. Subscribe to the newsletters of the hotels that you are thinking of staying.
3. Get on the mailing list of online travel agents like Expedia.com – if you have used them before, they will send you frequent email promotions.
4. Make use of your frequent flyer miles or credit card reward points if possible.
If you or your spouse or partner travel a lot in your/their jobs, make sure you are using a reward credit card to accumulate either air miles or reward points. They points should be redeemed for airline tickets and hotel stays. There are several factors you have to be aware of when you are choosing reward card.
Firstly, if you fly frequently with one airline (and one airline only), then it probably make sense to get that specific airline credit card. Or you may be a member of a few frequent flier program, you may want to get a card with a reward program that lets you transfer miles to various programs. American Express, Diners Club and Starwood Preferred Guest have such programs. If you are not a frequent flier, then it is best to get a generic reward program from a credit card company that let’s you use points for travel items or one that let’s you book your own travel and then use points to get discounts. This topic about choosing a reward card is much too complex to put it in one post.
OK – I’ll stop here. But feel free to post any questions on the comments below and I’ll try to answer them. Or you could hop over to my site and send me an email. Remember, it is all good and frugal to be using coupons, checking deal sites for great deals. But if you are not using your credit card properly, you are certainly leaving money on the table.
