With all the hype of travel deals for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Travel Tuesday, I figured I’d score a great deal on something. Anything.
But no, I came up empty handed. With all those offers, why didn’t I take advantage of any great travel deals?
My Dates Aren’t Flexible and Close
I have three kids. While I used to pull them out of school for at least a week every school year, I don’t anymore. My oldest is in high school, and it’s really hard for him to miss school. We already have a spring break trip planned, so our next trips have to wait until summer.
Most of the deals I saw are valid only through the next few months. If you have the flexibility to travel in January or February, you probably had better luck.
I tried to work my summer plans into a deal. My family plans to go to Universal Orlando for a day before our Disney trips, and I thought for sure I could score a deal on a Universal hotel. Not so.
I even looked at Amtrak to see if I could work in a “Track Friday” deal to my summer plans. The sale dates did not extend through summer travel.
Some Deals Aren’t Deals
As with any offer, you have to look at these Cyber Monday deals with a microscope to make sure they area really deals. For example, Royal Caribbean advertised a big Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal. However, it runs a similar deal several times throughout the year. Also, the cruise I already have booked was not a better price through this Cyber Monday deal.
Miles and Points Are My Great Travel Deal
Fortunately, using miles and points for free flights and hotels is really the best deal. Using Chase Ultimate Reward points from my Chase Ink card and my husband’s Chase Sapphire Reserve card for free flights to Florida equates to a higher savings than a small percentage off a cash price for a hotel. Using points from my World of Hyatt card to see the USA Gymnastics Olympic Trials this summer is also a fantastic deal! I may not have scored travel deals this past weekend, but my miles and points hobby allows my family to travel more at a greatly reduced price.
Readers, did you score a great travel deal these past few days? Let me know in the comments.
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Nancy – thanks to you, I checked on the Legoland website. We have a couple of California trips planned, and knew we would spend at least one day at that park. Once I saw we could get a yearly pass for roughly the same amount as single entry, I jumped on it. Now if we like it, we can visit more and if we have one rough day and need to leave, we know we can and return another time (without shelling out another 90 dollars). am so glad I did because today it is back to normal. I wouldn’t have looked without reading your update on the deals circulating. Thank you! I also was able to get $15% back from an online portal for our rental car. It’s the only part of our trip that isn’t paid for with miles/points, so I’m excited to get at least something back. I was not able to score any of the other great deals. Like you, we are beholden to the school calendar. My husband and I are both educators with two kids in elementary school. We’ll be paying peak rates forever.
@kelnland I’m glad you were able to get the Legoland deal and a discount on your rental car. I’d call that a Cyber Monday success!
I saw one deal that would’ve shaved $63 off each of my 4 roundtrip airline tickets, but I wouldn’t have been able to use points like I did a few weeks ago plus I got a better itinerary so I felt better that the deal wasn’t much of a deal after all. I didn’t see much else that would work with our schedule.
@Stephanie Sorry that you didn’t find anything either. I think I spent way too much time scouring the deals. Next year, maybe I’ll skip Cyber Monday!
PS They do say the best prices for cruises is in Jan…
i didnt see much either. I was working on pricing some NCL cruises for clients and the prices did not go down that much for Black Friday – in fact one went up!
@Momma To Go Bummer on the Black Friday prices. We’ve cruised three times in January due to the low prices.