When Kim and I are searching for hotels and can’t find one using points or for a decent price, we’ll often turn to Hotels.com.
We find Hotels.com to offer lots of smaller hotels at good prices. We also like that they offer various promos where you can save even more. They also have their own rewards programs where you earn one free night (in the form of a credit) for every 10 nights you book with them.
When we’re booking or buying anything (travel related or not) we always look to shop through portals to earn more miles & points or cash back. It’s also nice to double up and combine the earnings.
For some purchases, we buy gift cards at Staples to earn 5X miles & points. We do this by paying for our purchases with a Chase Ink card which earns 5X points at office supply stores.
I love coming across more ways to take advantage of this offer, especially when it comes to travel.
Staples has sold Southwest Airlines gift cards for a while now.
Last year I came across a couple of other options:
I recently came across another option.
While stocking up on Amazon.com and Whole Foods gift cards recently at Staples, I noticed gift cards for Hotels.com!
In the future, when I need to make a booking at Hotels.com I’ll definitely head over to Staples to purchase gift cards so I could earn 5X miles and points!
Do you go out of your way to buy gift cards to earn extra miles and points for the businesses available at Staples?
Seems like you should be able to stack this method with a points or miles portal like https://www.cashbackmonitor.com/cashback-store/hotels.com/
AB- I don’t see why not. Paying with a gift card is like paying with a credit card as far as I know.
Chris- That’s awesome. We don’t have those stores in the New York City area…
Al- That sounds like a great deal. Wish we had a Kroger close by!
I always stack up on gift cards at Kroger when 4x fuel points promotion is on. For $250 in gift card purchase, I get $35 back in free gas. That’s 14% return, far better than 5x. Also Kroger has a huge selection of gift cards.
I consistently see Delta, Southwest, airbnb, hotels.com, and Hyatt gift cards for sale at giant eagle grocery stores and gas stations, a good way for me to take advantage of the rotating categories on Chase Freedom or any other similar card (for those who may not have a business card). You also get so many cents off per gallon of gas with every $50 spent on gift cards whether buying in the grocery store or the gas station, so it’s kind of a no brainer for me
I had not realized that Hyatt gift cards were sold outside of Hyatt. I will check some other grocery stores/office supply stores.
Using a 5x card to buy a Hyatt gift card is better than 4x using the Hyatt card.
PS I routinely buy Airbnb gift cards.
Hyatt cards sometimes preclude you from participating in promos.
“12. Are there any restrictions on the form of payment in order to participate in this promotion?
Eligible methods of payment include cash, Points + Cash, check, or major credit cards or debit/bank cards. Eligible methods of payment exclude, without limitation, hotel “House Accounts,” charges settled by a company or organization, charges billed to a guest room/folio or unit at a Hyatt-branded residence, Hyatt-branded gift cards, Hyatt gift cheques, or property-specific gift card/certificates. “
are these hotels.com gift cards eligible for the hotels.com rewards program (a really good rewards program btw) ?
Yes they are. Just booked yesterday