Year: 2012

$100 Travelocity Gift Card for $50 Discover Card Cashback

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I think I need to make my sister a formal InACents deal finder, because she has found some really great offers lately. Do you have a Discover® More Card with cashback sitting in your account, waiting to be cashed in? We currently have a little over $100 sitting in our account, and I have been waiting for just the right situation to cash in.

Last year when Discover card offered $40 Shell gas cards for $20, I cashed in quite a bit of rewards for a stockpile of future roadtrips. So I constantly keep an eye on Discover card’s rewards portal, as there can sometimes be some really lucrative redemptions to convert your cashback into even more valuable rewards.

Yesterday my sister alerted me to a Travelocity promotion, where one can convert $50 of cashback into a $100 Travelocity gift card. At first I was a little skeptical at what restrictions were placed on the redemption of the giftcard. Overall the terms were pretty reasonable.

• Minimum spend of $250 pre-tax required
• Minimum two-night stay
• Limit one voucher per booking (may not be combined with other Travelocity gift cards)
• Limit one room per booking
• If hotel reservation is booked prior to September 30, 2012, it will be good for $100 to spend towards reservations at www.TravelocityIncentives.com
• If hotel reservation is booked after September 30, 2012, it will be good for $50 to spend on hotel reservations

The first thing I questioned was whether TravelocityIncentives.com offered the same hotel pricing as Travelocity? Surprising enough, the couple of examples I chose did show the same exact pricing. Score!

Travelocity Hilton Waikiki Example

Travelocity Hilton Waikiki Example

Travelocity Incentives Hilton Waikiki Example

Travelocity Incentives Hilton Waikiki Example

Second, will we be able to use this reward within the constraints of redemption. Yes! We still need to reserve our room(s) for Williamsburg later in the summer, so this can save us some money. The only thing I am not to fond of is the minimum spend of $250, but still if we can score two nights in a hotel for around $150, I still think it is a valuable offer.

How do I get the Discover Card Travelocity $100 giftcard for $50 cashback?

1) Proceed to discover.com and sign into your Discover® More Card account.

2) After logging into your account, hover over the Cashback Bonus tab at the top, and select Redeem Cashback Bonus.

3) On the left side of the screen you will see a Limited Time Only offer for a $100 Travelocity giftcard for $50 cashback bonus.

March 2012 Discover Travelocity Promotion

Please note, if you try selecting Travelocity through the normal Partner Gift Card option, other offers for redemption come up, but not the $50 for $100. So make sure you select the correct page.

Discover Travelocity Partner Offer

4) Select how you would like to pay for your gift card. Obviously if you have enough cashback bonus sitting in your account, you can redeem it direct. What I love is Discover Card now allows you to pay for the difference if you do not have enough funds in your account. So if you just opened your Discover® More Card and do not have enough cashback bonus to redeem for this offer, you can easily just pay the $50 for a $100 Travelocity gift card.

It is too bad Discover just does not email you the gift card, and you have to wait for it to be mailed to you direct. We are still playing around with dates for Williamsburg, but I think I am going to pull the plug and purchase these gift cards before they are gone. The Shell promotion was only around for a very limited time last year before selling out, so act accordingly on this offer.

5,000 Sony Reward Points for Redeeming in March

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Every once in a while I log into my Sony Rewards account to see what my mountain of points can actually get me. I have to laugh every month because I have found the Sony Rewards card to pretty much be the most worthless card on the planet. I opened the card years ago and really did not bother using it much at first. However, when I was churning the U.S. Mint coin deal between various cards, I often tapped the card because of it’s huge credit limit. Then the U.S. Mint deal disappeared, my bank hated me for the mountains of coins, and the Chase Sony Rewards card converted over to Capital One. So now the card is sitting in the safe making friends with my birth certificate.

The question is, what do I do with all these points? Sony allows members to redeem for Sony merchandise, but typically the items in their rewards catalog are older stock, and the points value is ridiculously high for someone they consider to be a loyal member insider. I have a hard time justifying using points on electronics when I know I can purchase the items cheaper on my own (even though with points it would technically be free at this point). Even worse is their options for gift cards. It used to be one could redeem for reasonable value on gift cards at $0.01/point (i.e. 2,500 points for a $25 gift card, etc.). Then Sony jacked up the redemption rates, and I believe even did so again recently. So even though I have nearly 66,000 in points sitting in my account, there are very few, if any valuable redemption options. Everytime I debate about liquidating all the points in my account, I get further discouraged by Sony’s lack of options.

Until this past weekend when I saw a glimmer of hope, if even for a small amount of points.

March 2012 Sony Rewards Bonus

March Sony 5,000 point promotion

During the month of March 2012, one can redeem 5,000 points and receive 5,000 bonus points back in return. Simply sign into your account, find the offer, and register for the promotion. So while it does nothing to use down my bank of points, we can at least get something for free out of the program. Heck, maybe I will even consider it a higher rate of return when compared to interest I make on my money in the bank.

So what did I get? Well I did not need a shoulder strap for 3,149 points ($31.49) to carry around a puppy, a CD cassette radio for 8,996 ($89.96; maybe I should have hung onto my box of Mariah Carey tapes), or a copy of Sanford and Son, the Second Season for 1,799 points ($17.99); well that was a doozy of a season. Hmm.

As of right now, I have not found anything worth getting. Wonderful. The worst credit card and reward program ever!

Terms of the offer are below.

*Offer Details: Offer available from 3/1/12-3/31/12. To qualify you must enroll in the 5,000 Bonus Points Offer on www.SonyRewards.com. Once enrolled, if you are an active Sony Card member in good standing, and you redeem 5,000 points for any Sony electronics, music, movies or PlayStation item (excludes all Gift Cards and movie tickets) within the Sony Rewards online catalog between 3/1/12-3/31/12, you will qualify for the 5,000 bonus points offer. Only one 5,000 bonus points offer will be awarded per Sony Card member. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. Reward points redemptions before 3/1/12 are not eligible for this 5,000 bonus points offer. The 5,000 points will be awarded 2-4 weeks after the promotional period has ended. Excludes Purchase Credit Requests. Products featured in this email are subject to availability and may be replaced with comparable products. Discounted price is already reflected in the Rewards Catalog price. Must be logged in as a Sony Card member to view Insider Specials and discounted pricing.

Audience Rewards Trivia Update for Free Delta Skymiles (3-6-12)

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This morning the Delta Audience Rewards questions were updated to earn you free miles.

Now, without further ado, we proudly present this week’s trivia questions.

  • True or False? There is a brother/sister team that has starring roles in Newsies and Peter and the Starcatcher this spring on Broadway. True
  • Magic/Bird is about what? Basketball
  • Who wrote A Streetcar Named Desire? Tennessee Williams
  • Jessica Phillips, of Leap of Faith, was most recently on Broadway in what show? Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
  • True or False? Playwright Gore Vidal has run for political office a few times. True

As a reminder, for all things Audience Rewards, including all the latest free points and miles from the Points Play trivia questions, see my Audience Rewards page.

Save Money, Travel More!