Travel

AirTran, Walt Disney World, and Downtown Disney Teacher Essay Contest

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In my weekly email I receive from AirTran, they featured a promotion currently going on to reward good teachers. The contest has been active since 1/17/11 and runs until 4/15/11. Seeing as my wife is a teacher, and I think a pretty amazing one, I am all about promoting good education for those that work hard. I, after all, would never have the patience, no matter which age group, to be a teacher.

AirTran has teamed up with the Downtown Disney hotels and Disney World to give away 10 trips for both the winning teachers and their nominating students to go to Walt Disney World. Winners will receive the following:

* 4-day/3-night stays at one of the Downtown Disney Resort Area Hotels
* 4 Roundtrip coach tickets on AirTran Airways
* 4 one-day, one-park passes to one of the Walt Disney World Theme Parks
* 4 tickets to DisneyQuest® Indoor Interactive Theme Park
* 4 complimentary breakfasts daily

Per the official rules, the contest is only eligible to students in grades 1 through 12 as of 1/2011. Students will need to submit a 500 word essay on the official entry page explaining why their teacher deserves an A+.

The only problem I see with this contest is if you win, you will only receive park passes for one-day. Therefore, you will need to purchase additional park tickets if you want to take full advantage of visiting the parks during your 4-day stay. Still if you are a deserving teacher, this is an excellent opportunity to try to get to visit Disney World.

American Airlines Vacations 10% Promotional Discount Code

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American Airlines sent me an email today offering 10% any vacation booked through AA.

Take 10% of instantly on all hotels, rental cars and activities with promo code TAKE10 at check-out! There’s no minimum purchase, not minimum stay and no cap on how much you can save.

Visit the promo page https://www.aavacations.com/specials/all1112-vacation-sale.asp?ADID=AAVA-DNV-ALL-11-12. Offer expires April 10, 2011.

Terms and Conditions:

10% Off Discount Offer
The 10% off discount offer may not be combined with any corporate discounts, credit card discounts, affiliate programs or other promotional discount codes. Any vacation booked from this page will have the TAKE10 promo code discount automatically included. The discount savings will be reflected in the Total Amount box, after selecting a participating hotel. Offer is not valid on flight-only or car-only bookings. Purchase of hotel required. Discount will be applied to total package price, excluding airfare, cancellation and change waivers, taxes, fees and insurance. Offer is valid for new reservations made between March 22 – April 10, 2011 and for travel between March 24 – December 31, 2011. Discount cannot be honored retroactively or applied to existing reservations and is not valid on bookings at any Sandals or Beaches Resort. Discount is not valid on reservations using AAdvantage miles as a form of payment. Discount is only valid for reservations booked through AAVacations.com or by calling 1-800-321-2121.

Groupon Rewards: Best Return on Investment

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This week I learned that Delta Airlines SkyMiles Shopping is teamed with Groupon to offer miles per dollar spent. The standard rate through Delta is 5 miles per $1; however, their current promotion has been stepped up to 7 miles per $1.

Then I figured out American Airlines, through their own AAdvantage eShopping Mall, will give you 8 miles per $1. I am assuming some of the other airlines have also teamed up with Groupon to offer miles per dollar spent, but I have not expounded effort to search for others.

My go-to shopping portal I go to every time I shop Groupon is Discover Card. Using my Discover Card card and by using Shop Discover, I get 15% cash back, on each statement. Occasionally they will bump it up to 20%, sweetening the deal even more. My Discover Miles card only gives me double miles by shopping Groupon, so I have always felt the better option was to get the cash back through my Discover Card card. (In my example below, $3.75 in cash savings is more valuable to me than the 50 Discover Miles I would receive).

I wanted to prove to myself I was getting the best deal with my Discover Card card cash back, so I ran a typical example. Lets assume I spend $25 on Groupon. Using my Discover Card card, I would receive $3.75 cash back, bringing my total purchase cost down to $21.25.

Now lets assume I decided to link through Delta or American Airlines to get miles instead of cash back. My same $25 purchase through Delta or American would currently net me 175 or 200 miles, respectively. The question though is how much do those miles cost me each, and which is the better deal, miles or cash back?

I think the best way to compare this would be the cash back savings divided my the miles. If I am looking at this calculation wrong, please let me know. My Discover Card cash back would be $3.75. Therefore, the current Delta and American promotions would cost me $0.0214/mile ($3.75/175 miles) or $0.01875/mile ($3.75/200 miles) respectively. Anything under $0.02/mile I would say is pretty good, although there surely is better bets with your money.

If you are trying to keep one of your airline mile programs from expiring, then shopping through their referral portals is certainly a viable option. In my situation, unless the number of miles/dollar increases to around 10 miles per dollar spent, I will probably stick with my 15-20% cash back through the Discover Card card.

If you are not yet a member of Groupon, please use my referral link here. Thanks!