Conversion Rates: Hyatt Residence Club Points to Hyatt Gold Passport / World of Hyatt Points1/20/2017
In addition to being an avid timeshare owner, I also am very involved with various hotel points and frequent flyer miles. Hotel points and frequent flyer miles are essential to have in your travel arsenal if you want to travel for free or at least open up destinations that you would not travel to due to the exorbitant costs.
I have shared some basic strategies to get hotel and frequent flyer miles but there are plenty of other interesting and unique ways to get them and use them to travel for free or close to free. Most of the major timeshare brands offer the ability to convert your timeshare points into their hotel loyalty points. Since the Hyatt Residence Club just came out with their 2017 chart, I thought I would start by assessing their conversions.
As shown in the chart above, Hyatt owners has the ability to convert their timeshare week into Hyatt Gold Passport points. These points can be used in various Hyatt hotels around the world. Hyatt has recently announced a material change to their loyalty program and it will now be called the World of Hyatt as of March 1, 2017.
There are some significant changes to the program but the redemption values has stayed the same for the time being. Per the chart, owners of Fixed Weeks and owners of Floating Weeks have different values assessed. The amount of Hyatt Gold Passport Points given will depend on the season of ownership and the size of the unit. For example, owners of a 2 bedroom unit in a Gold Season have the opportunity to exchange their 1,880 Hyatt Residence Club points to 77,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points. I put together the chart below to access the various conversion rates from Hyatt Residence Club to Hyatt Gold Passport.
As you can see, the amounts vary but are generally around 1 Hyatt Residence Club point converts into 40 Hyatt Gold Passport Points.
Also, you should note that owners of Mountain weeks are not given the ability to convert. This is most likely due to the low values associated with those weeks. Hyatt Gold Passport Points are fantastic! They can be extremely valuable if you know how to maximize their value. In regards to the stated conversion rates, it is almost certainly a horrendous deal. For example, if you own a Studio unit in Diamond Season, you are able to reserve one week in a studio at various Hyatt Residence Clubs during prime seasons. If you convert to Hyatt Gold Passport Points, you are given 30,000 points which can give you six (6) nights in many category 1 Hyatt Place’s (lowest tier) or 1 night in a Category 7 hotel (highest tier). While some Hyatt Place's are nice, category 1 Hyatt Places are generally airport hotels, small towns or not in highly trafficed tourist destinations. Additionally, back in September, Hyatt formalized the ability to redeem Hyatt Gold Passport Points into Hyatt Residence Club properties. If you converted your Diamond Studio week (7 nights) and wanted to convert back into a Hyatt Residence Club property using Hyatt Gold Passport Points, (not sure why you do this) you would only be able to stay 1 or 2 nights, depending on the property. The nightly point requirements for Hyatt Residence Club properties are below. Overall, converting you Hyatt Residence Club points to Hyatt Gold Passport points is a horrendous deal. It will generally make no sense to do if you wanted to maximize their value. I think that the Hyatt Residence Club offers the conversion to provide more flexibility since it opens up a vast amount of additional properties and gives the allure of opening up more destinations. However, it does not make a lot of economic sense. There are tons of additional ways to earn Hyatt Gold Passport Points. Hyatt is a transfer partner with Chase Ultimate Rewards so there are many ways to get Hyatt Gold Passport points through credit card signup bonuses, everyday spend with credit cards or various other offers. If you want a good review of how to earn tons of Hyatt Gold Passport Points, I would start here: upgradedpoints.com/how-to-earn-hyatt-gold-points/ I highly discourage any conversions from Hyatt Residence Club points to Hyatt Gold Passport points. There are much better ways to use your Hyatt Residence Club points. Make sure to subscribe below!
A common theme of this blog is that you need to be flexible and plan early in order to exchange into great timeshares. This general strategy is key to making great exchanges and truly maximizing timeshare ownership.
While I firmly stand by this general rule, there are times when some great exchanges or getaways become available at the last minute. Sometimes other travelers cancel at the last moment or the exchange company releases inventory at the last minute hoping that someone will fill an empty room. I am sure that we all know that Christmas vacation is happening next week so most of the world will likely be traveling. Scoring a christmas week in a luxurious destination is generally difficult which is why you need to put in requests as soon as possible, generally at least one year in advance. While planning in advance is absolutely key, one of my favorite timeshare strategies that I employ when I do not get a week through requesting early is through the use of booking a hotel and searching timeshares that get released at the last moment. The general strategy is as follows when I do not get the desired resort or week: 1. Book a hotel at the destination that you desire to travel to. Try to get the best rate possible or ideally book with points. Make sure that the reservation can be cancelled 24 hours in advance. Booking with points is generally ideal as they can likely be cancelled 24 hours before check-in. Additionally, even if this strategy does not work, the vacation would be free! 2. Put in a Interval International Getaway alert for the desired timeshare week. If and when something becomes available, it will alert you. Book immediately if it is at a comfortable price book. Do not wait, as these will disappear in seconds! 3. Constantly search for exchanges up until the very last minute where you can cancel your hotel reservation. As stated, Interval International and RCI will sometimes release very desireable resorts for key weeks at the the very last second. Here are a couple that I found this morning. A prime ski week in Park City for less than $500 for the week!
While I strongly advocate planning far in advance, there are times that great weeks and destinations become available at the last minute. These last minute deals can be a fantastic value especially if you were prepared to book a hotel room.
I have personally used this strategy many times and have easily saved thousands of dollars for booking a getaway instead of a the hotel stay. In addition to saving money, we are generally happier with the additional space and cooking facilities. Specifically, I was able to use this strategy in St. Kitts. The Marriott hotel and timeshare are part of the same complex. We booked hotel rooms for approximately $2500 per room but kept looking for availability through Interval International. We were able to book a 2 bedroom timeshare for approximately $1,000 for the week at the last minute, saving us $1500 and giving us a 2 bedroom units instead of a small hotel room. In conclusion, BOOK EARLY but if that does not work out, have a plan to keep searching. You could be very surprised with some last minute availability!
As I stated over and over, there are tons of ways to maximize timeshare ownership to travel in luxury for significantly less than booking hotels, vacation rentals and even airbnb. Outside of complicated strategies, I have found that one of the easiest ways to maximize timeshare ownership is booking timeshares for a ski vacation.
If you ski, you know that accommodations during the ski season can be exorbitant in costs. The ski season generally lasts only about 4 months and most hotels will make the vast majority of their money during this season. Booking a week during this time can be prohibitive to most people including myself. It is not unheard of for a hotel to cost between $3,000 to $6,000 for a ski week. Booking a suite or two bedroom will likely increase this amount by even more. Luckily, there are a lot of very high quality timeshares that are located in highly desirable ski locations. Park City, Beaver Creek, Vail, Aspen, Whistler, and others are just a few examples. Generally, I would assume that most maintenance fees for timeshares run between $750 to $1500 for the year so if you can exchange your one timeshare and all of your points for a one week ski vacation that would normally cost over $3,000, you would come out significantly ahead. I am a big fan of Park City, Utah and generally take a few ski trips per year. A couple of years ago, Canyons and Park City Mountain, the two main ski locations in Park City, were bought by Vail Resorts. Last year was the first season where both resorts became connected by a Gondola ride to create the largest ski area in North America. Here is a good article on the development. Park City has many things going for it but for timeshare owners, it is actually a great destination since there are multiple timeshare properties that are ski-in/ski-out or within easy access to the lift. Interval International is one of the two large exchange companies where you can exchange your points or timeshare week for other weeks. Interval International (II) does offer various membership levels. II recently offered a great deal for upgrading your membership level for 50% off. I discussed this offer here. As a quick reminder, II offers three membership levels, General membership, Interval Gold and Interval Platinum. Due the offer, I upgraded my membership and I am now a Platinum member. While platinum membership does not help you with giving you priority trades, there are some decent benefits that you should be aware of. The first benefit is that each Interval Getaway is discounted $50. Interval Getaways allow you to book weeks with cash instead of using your points or weeks. There are often times some significant weeks that can be had for under $300 for the week. I have seen prime weeks in Cancun, ski weeks, Caribbean weeks and others. Now, in addition to those great prices, you will receive $50 off making it an even better deal. The second benefit is the ability to issue guest certificates for free. These guest certificates usually cost $59 per reservation but it is now included as II platinum member. If you have friends or family, you can reserve getaways and issue a guest certificate for free. This can be a great way to give vacations to friends or bring friends with you on vacation. Getaways can make travel really affordable! The third benefit is what II calls Platinum Escapes. Every now and again, II runs a promotion that offers significant discounts on available weeks. These are only offered to platinum members. I have seen entire weeks for under $150 for the week. The fourth benefit is Priority Getaway Viewing. II claims that you can see different inventory than others for Getaways. I have not seen this benefit in action but it is an advertised benefit so I assume it must happen every so often. The fifth benefit is shortstay exchange. Shortstay exchanges allow you to reserve rooms by night instead of by the week. If you do not normally travel by week, this may be a decent benefit but the exchange rates are generally higher than booking by the week. At times, this may come in handy but generally, I have not found this to be an exciting perk. The sixth benefit is called Interval Options. This allows you to trade your week or points towards the purchase of a cruise, tour, golf or spa vacation. I will look into this benefit more closely in other posts. I personally have not used it since I value exchanges very highly. The seventh benefit is a hotel discount of 10% for hotel stays booked with Orbitz. In other posts, we can look to see whether this is truly a perk. The eight benefit is bonus points on Hertz rentals that are good for 2 free days. If you book through II, you will get 550 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards with your first rental and another 550 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards with your second rental. This can be redeemed for 2 free days or you can accrue your points for other rewards. The ninth benefit is discounts through Saversguide. There are dining discounts such as 50% off or BOGO offers. We'll look into this benefit further but on a quick review, there does seem to be some decent offers. The tenth benefit is Airport Lounge Membership. II includes a standard priority pass membership which can get you access to some lounges. This is decent but there are a lot of credit cards that offer better access but in any event, it is a good perk. We can discuss the Priority Club membership in other posts but lounge access can make traveling a lot easier. The eleventh benefit is VIP concierge. The offer a personal assistance for dining, activities and others. The twelfth is called the Golf Connection. As an II platinum member, you can get access to private golf courses. A 15% discount on golf equipment is also available. The thirteen benefit is called Dining Connection. We can take a closer look at this benefit in other posts but they claim to offer you special amenities including tours, complimentary appetizers and desserts and other special items. The fourteen benefit is called City Guides. II has compiled guides for you to review and use while you travel. Overall, I think that there are some significant benefits to getting II's Platinum Membership. I generally use the $50 discount off Getaways and the free guest certificate. Using just these two perks can easily make up for the fee. The other perks can be beneficial at the right time. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe below! Comparison of Marriott, Hyatt and Vistana programs for exchanging in Interval International10/21/2016
As I explained in my other post found here, there are multiple timeshare strategies to utilize in order to maximize ownership and get multiple weeks in very nice resorts. In this post, I want to explain why you can purchase a timeshare solely for exchange purposes and how the different programs compare.
For this post, we will compare a timeshare for the Marriott Vacation Club, the Hyatt Residence Club and Vistana Signature Experiences (Formerly Sheraton and Westin Vacation Club). These three timeshare systems all trade through Interval International. In addition, all three of these programs have point components. Marriott is now an all point system whereas the Hyatt and Vistana systems are hybrid systems meaning that you own a specific week that can be converted to points. In this analysis, I want to compare ownership of 2 bedroom units. These are by far the most common in most timeshare systems and provide the most flexibility. Owning a 2 bedroom unit allows you to reserve 2 bedroom units, 1 bedroom units or studios.
Planning far ahead is one of the best tools to use to grab high demand weeks in high demand resorts. It can be difficult to plan so far in advance but if you want the opportunity to grab prime Christmas weeks, you need to plan as far in advance as the system allows.
Interval International generally allows you to search 12 months in advance. You can search for available weeks 12 months from the date of search. You can also put in a Request First or Deposit First search 12 months in advance of the desired travel dates. This is great way to get in line to grab a prime week when it becomes available. I recently discovered a new trick within Interval that will allow you to search for 2 years from the date of the search. This can be extremely helpful since you can now see weeks 2 years in advance. In order to use this trick, you need to reserve a week as far in advance as possible. You should search for any weeks that are 12 months from the date of search. You go through the process of reserving that week and paying the exchange fee. YOU MUST GET E-PLUS EXCHANGE. I have talked about the tremendous benefits of E-Plus and this is one additional perk that makes this a no-brainer to get!. Once you reserve a week and you get E-Plus, you can then go through your history and do a E-Plus retrade. As discussed above, E-Plus allows you to retrade the reserved week up to three additional times. When you go to retrade using your E-Plus, the system defaults and allows you to search for an additional 12 months from the date of arrival. For example, assume that I begin a search on October 1, 2016. Interval International's system will allow you to search for exchanges for check-in dates of October 1, 2017 or before. If I found a week for a check-in date of October 1, 2017, I can choose E-Plus as part of the exchange fee. When I confirm that week, I can use E-Plus to search for a re-trade of my October 1, 2017 week. When I search using the E-Plus, the system allows me to re-trade my confirmed week for a check-in date of October 1, 2018 or before! By choosing E-Plus and going through these steps, I have now increased my ability to see availability for 2 years from the date of search. It can be hard to fathom on planning a vacation for 2 years in advance, but it is essential to do so to get these highly desirable weeks. As discussed earlier, one of the best benefits of the E-Plus is the flexibility. While you can now reserve a week 2 years in advance, you have the option to re-trade that week up to three times without any additional fees. Even though you are potentially planning a trip 2 years in advance, you still have the flexibility to change the week, destination or resort. Being able to search inventory for 2 years in advance is fantastic. Since most members do not have that capability, there could be some very desirable weeks that you can reserve before the general members. The downside to this approach is that you lose the ability to do a Request First or Deposit First where you provide Interval with the desired resorts and weeks and they will reserve it for your prior to it becoming available to the general population. This can be a downside but since you can now see inventory that most people cannot see or cannot even put in a request for, this method provides you with a distinct advantage in the system and sets you up to find those fantastic weeks at fantastic resorts. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe below for unique exchange opportunities and travel deals!
Interval International uses various designations of its members resorts to show the quality of the accommodations. When exchanging into different resorts, these designations are very helpful to ensure that you are getting a quality resort.
Additionally, it is a must to review tripadvisor's reviews before booking. As taken from Interval Internationals magazine, "the Interval International Elite Resort status is awarded based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative scoring elements, including: A Quality Rating System (QRS) resort inspection conducted by LRA by Deloitte, a leader in the field of customer experience measurement Elite Qualifying Criteria (EQC) points, based on multiple combined factors from location to luxurious features and appointments at the resort A high Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI) score Additional considerations, such as positive consumer reviews on external travel and leisure sites." After staying at many timeshares, all timeshares are not created equally. There are some awful properties as well as some fabulous properties. You need to do your research but generally, the Elite Designation is a great tool to make sure that you are picking good exchanges. My goal is to travel at luxury properties for significantly less than booking directly or at other comparable properties. I tend to always look for the Elite Designation as I feel more confident that these properties will be stellar. As stated in this post here, you can perform one search to find all the great properties. In going one step further, you can follow the instructions in the previous post and you can do one search for all properties. At times, I was receiving an error on Interval in doing this search so if that occurs, take some of the properties off the list and do two separate searches. Here is the list of all Interval International's Elite Designation properties: CEU,BUR,MAO,MSU,KTH,MSK,CXP,MFC,GVR,WSJ,WE2,WQ1,RWM,VRM,TYL,LBP,MPN, VGR,WLR,ITZ,VDT,LX2,LQL,VDF,SPZ,AZB,FVE,FVA,AZS,GKR,GBM,GBN,LXR,MCZ,DI8, MBE,GSE,HEC,RCQ,RDI,WKO,VLS,IPS,ITD,SMW,SMY,GP8,GP7,WGC,WGX,SCT,ITV,BLK ,ITB,CWX,TRM,HYI,VBL,VB2,MDS,MPD,MRD,MR2,WDL,WMH,WMX,FSA,NCV,WSM, HWP,HCC,MMI,MCP,MGV,MGR,HYK,MVO,MKI,MAW,MA1,HKB,MMO,MM1,KAA,KAN,MKO MK1,HSL,MGA,HNS,WNL,MGC,MC1,WRB,MCU,VTF,HYA,HMS,HBK,PPB,PMT,PM3, HRP,WRF,MOU,MSW,HVB,MBY, MGO,MSF,MMC,MSE,MCV,WKV,HYN,HYS Make sure to subscribe below to learn more tips and tricks on how to maximize timeshare ownership.
Exchanging your timeshare can be one of the best methods to maximize its ownership. Today, I wanted to explain how I am able to use one low demand week to create three luxury vacations in prime seasons.
The Hyatt Vacation Club is one of my favorite programs since they have very nice resorts, their hotel reward program is one of the best and the point value associated with their weeks are very beneficial to trade outside of their program. In another post, I explained Mountain Season and showed how you can turn one week into over a month of stays. This is definitely one of the sweet spots of the program but you are traveling during very low season. In contrast to this, I want to explain how to take one 2 bedroom Hyatt unit and convert that one week into three weeks at luxury resorts. I have done this many times before and it a great way to maximize and leverage timeshare ownership to get multiple weeks of vacation at a cost of less than one week in a hotel. As explained in the complete guide to Hyatt Vacation Club, Hyatt is a hybrid system where you own one specific week. You can use that specific week or convert that week into a certain amount of points. Depending on the size of the unit, resort, week owned and demand for that week will determine the amount of points allocated. In my example, I own a 2 bedroom unit that is located in Bronze season. Bronze season is fairly low season with only copper and mountain season below. A 2 bedroom unit during bronze season is allocated 1300 points. 1300 points is not a lot of Hyatt points and you will be significantly restricted if you exchange your points in the Hyatt internal system. For example, you will never be able to exchange your points for ski weeks at Hyatt High Sierra Lodge or summer weeks at Hyatt Siesta Key Beach. In contrast, if you use those allocated points and exchange the points through Interval International, you can use 1300 weeks to get three prime weeks in a studio units!
As you can see in this chart, the left column explains the TDI index which is the travel demand index. The highest TDI correlates to top row and the amount of points required for travel in prime season is listed on top.
As you can see, you can exchange 1300 points for one week in a 2 bedroom or you can exchange 430 points for one week in a studio during the highest demand weeks. You can exchange 1290 points (430 x 3) for three prime weeks in a studio! You could even obtain more weeks are lower demand weeks! For example, you could exchange 1300 points to obtain 5 weeks in a studio during low season! Studio units are generally the size of a hotel room but can be slightly bigger. They usually have some a small kitchenette or at least a fridge. A 1 bedroom or larger unit generally comes with a full kitchen. In comparing timeshares to hotels, I would view a studio unit as a direct comparison. For a couple, studio units are more than sufficient and are generally even nicer than standard hotel rooms. The economics of using a 2 bedroom low season week and converting it to three studio weeks during prime season can be absolutely tremendous. As stated else, the ongoing maintenance fees for the 1300 points costs approximately $1200 per year. In order to exchange with Interval International, it costs $179 per trade. Therefore, the aggregate amount spent to receive three weeks of prime vacation is $1737 or $579 per week! $579 per week can be a decent value but can really be a tremendous value depending on the weeks you exchange into. Additionally, if you exchange your 1300 points for low demand studio weeks, you would obtain 5 weeks of vacation. The aggregate amount spent to receive five weeks of vacation is about $2100 or $419 per week! In the past, I have used this exact strategy to reserve a studio unit in Park City, Utah during January, reserved a studio unit in Kauai, Hawaii during the summer and a studio unit in Aruba during Thanksgiving break. These units were reserved at the Westgate Park City, Marriott's Waiohai Beach Club and the Marriott Ocean Club. All three of these properties are extremely nice and are comparable to the top tier hotels in these locations! You can literally exchange one week into three weeks at very luxurious properties for a total cost of $579 per week. If we simply reviewed similar weeks, we can see that retail cost of these vacations are many times this cost. One Week in a Studio in Park City
As you can see above, one week in a studio at the Westgate Park City during ski season is $437 per night, almost the cost of the entire week. This week costs over $3,000.
One week in a Studio in Aruba
As you can see above, one week in a studio at the Aruba Marriott Resort in Aruba during Thanksgiving is $300 per night. This week costs about $2100.
One Week in a Studio in Kauai Hawaii
As you can see above, one week in a studio at the Kauai Marriott Resort in Kauai Hawaii during the summer is $329 per night. This week costs about $2300.
If you take all these weeks together, you would have spent $7400. I fully understand that there are deals to be had and you could likely whittle down these weeks to something lower than $7400. Even so, I do not foresee how any of these types of weeks can be had at 4 or 5 star hotels for less than $579 per week. Most nice accommodations generally run at least $200 per night ($1400 per week) and they will tack on taxes, resort fees, and other expenses. I love to travel but would never be able to travel as much as I do if it was not for these types of opportunities through timeshares. Timeshares are not for everyone as they require a lot of diligence and planning but I think that the rewards more than justify the time spent to learn the systems and plan far in advance. This is just one mechanism that can be done to get multiple weeks out one timeshare! Getaways, Accommodation Certificates, Bonus Weeks and other items are also available to get even more weeks for the same maintenance fees. Make sure to subscribe below to learn more tips and tricks on how to maximize timeshare ownership.
It is hard to believe that it is September and labor day weekend is upon us. For many, it marks the end of summer. It is definitely bitter sweet that the end of summer is here, kids are back in school and the weather is about to turn into winter.
While this is definitely unfortunate, this is a great time to think about the past summer and what was great and what you would want to do differently next week. Perhaps you didn't take a vacation or didn't get the requested week off from work. Maybe you didn't do all the things that you had planned to do. With all these memories fresh in your mind, this is actually the best time to begin making plans for Summer 2017!! A lot of people just can't plan that far in advance but if you have any desire to get prime weeks and prime resorts, now is the time to begin the planning. Believe it or not, most of my entire summer is currently planned with various options laid out which will ultimately depend on whether certain exchanges comes through with my timeshare. As explained in this post concerning timeshare planning, it is essential to plan far ahead and have multiple options so that you can get the desired vacation and be able to travel to luxurious destinations in luxurious accommodations on a tiny budget. If you want to achieve this, here is what you need to do! STEP ONE: SET UP AN EXCHANGE REQUEST If you own a timeshare and want to make excellent trades, put in a Request First with Interval International or do an Ongoing Search with RCI. For Interval International, you can do a search for the desired week and include the specific resorts that you want to travel to. THINK BIG! Put in a request for the Four Seasons property in Carlsbad, California or the Marriott property in St. Thomas or the Westin in St. John or the Marriott properties in Hawaii. Request the ultimate vacation of your dreams. This is the fun part of vacation planning! When you make the Request First reservation, Interval will charge you the exchange fee of $179 and I highly recommend getting E-Plus as discussed here. This can give you even more flexibility down the road. Remember that this is fully refundable if the exchanges does not occur. The fees are refunded and your deposited points or week is refunded. For RCI, in order to do a Ongoing Search, follow these steps:
Again, THINK BIG and try for the Hilton in Waikoloa, Hawaii, Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta or the Pueblo Bonito in Cabo San Lucas - all highly rated luxurious timeshare properties. STEP 2: SET UP AIRFARE ALERTS Use Hopper. As discussed here, Hopper is a great tool for monitoring airfare. Put in the various times, dates and destinations for the specific weeks that you requested above. Hopper will track the cost of all these flights. Ignore the cost of the flights for the moment as you will continue to monitor them until the point that the airfare reaches a price point where you are comfortable spending. Put in multiple destinations so that you can track costs for all potential options that you chose in Step 1. STEP 3: BOOK BACKUP HOTEL PLANS Book hotel accommodations for the desired weeks. If you end up booking airfare first, you will need to have a good backup plan in case the desired timeshare does not go through. Again, ignore prices at the moment but do make sure that the reservations are fully cancellable. I will discuss various methods on how to get hotel accommodations for reasonable prices so that you can truly have a good backup plan in case the the timeshare does not get confirmed. If you have hotel points, this is a great time to book a speculative week on points so that you are assured a free week of accommodations. Again, getting these points are achievable and we can discuss various methods to do so in other posts. STEP 4: SET UP GETAWAY ALERTS Set up Interval Getaway alerts if you are an Interval International member. I currently have a saved searched called "Summer" for 2017 where I inserted all the top properties within Interval so that I can view when availability comes up and I can make a decision on whether to book with cash immediately or continue to wait for the desired week or timeshare property to become available. Using this method, I already saw a prime week in Hawaii for a Marriott property where the one bedroom cost under $600 for the week. I didn't grab it and it disappeared within a few minutes. If you see a deal like that, book immediately. Be aware that these Getways are non-refundable and non-changeable so make sure you can actually use it before booking. STEP 5: RENT A CAR AND USE AUTOSLASH Use Autoslash if you will be wanting to rent a car. As discussed in this post, Autoslash is the ultimate car rental reservation tool. You can make a reservation without using any credit card and Autoslash will automatically track the reservation and either alert you of a lower price or automatically rebook you for the lowest price available. Make multiple reservations that coincide with the various destinations that you chose in Step 1. Since there are no fees, credit card requirements or cancellation fees, book multiple weeks and once everything comes together, you can cancel the unused rental reservations. STEP 6: MONITOR EVERYTHING Monitor everything. Since everything is generally now on autopilot, just monitor everything so that when a exchange gets confirmed or a Getaway becomes available, you can quickly review the flights and determine if the costs are doable. In other posts, I will explain how to obtain and use frequent flyer miles so that the flights will be free but for now, the above steps should work well in order to set yourself up for a fantastic summer for 2017. STEP 7: SIT BACK AND RELAX Remember the summer that just passed and be excited for next summer. Travel planning can be difficult but when you plan ahead, you have a much better chance of getting awesome vacations in luxurious places and resorts for a fraction of the retail cost. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more ideas, tools, opportunities and information. Also, subscribe below!! |
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