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cardsvistas · 4 years ago

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The Five Secrets About Citi 112 Cash Back Only A Handful Of People Know | citi 12 cash back

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davewakeman · 5 years ago

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Guest Post: Eric Fuller--Ticketing 2020. New Decade, Who Dis?

Eric originally published this post on Medium. I wanted to share it with y’all because he highlights the utility of loyalty programs. I’ve been a huge fan of those going back to the years when Howard Schultz owned the Sonics and had a loyalty program that is still a decade beyond what any entertainment property is offering now.

Welcome to the camp

I guess you all know why we’re here

My name is Tommy and I became aware this year

…….

Tickets, tickets, tickets. What’s new, what’s old and of what should you become aware? Well, let’s start here: everything you learned in the past decade is going out the window. The combination of big data, dynamic pricing and the blurring of the primary, secondary and ancillary ticketing sources into one big amorphous mass combined with the accelerating bias toward knowing just exactly who is in each seat is rewriting everything we once thought we knew.

First, the U.S. government hasn’t yet given up investigating how ticketing really works. There’s a new set of hearings by the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee in Washington D.C. on February 26, 2020. (Live stream at 10 am EST link: http://bit.ly/37ZNkjM)

It’s part of Congress’ ongoing efforts to figure out what’s lurking behind the curtain and under the hood of the major ticket markets.

The hearing, titled: In the Dark: Lack of Transparency in the Live Event Ticketing Industry is discussed in this article from TicketNews:

https://www.ticketnews.com/2020/02/house-ticketing-industry-hearing-february-26/

The house committee on Energy and Commerce summoned leaders of the biggest ticketing companies to the hearing:

https://files.constantcontact.com/7c26540f001/ddf566f8-5694-4804-933f-540fcb95b722.pdf

The leaders anticipated are truly powerful:

Amy Howe President & Chief Operating Officer Ticketmaster

Bryan Perez Chief Executive Officer AXS

Stephanie Burns Vice President and General Counsel StubHub

Ryan Fitts Vice President, Legal Affairs Vivid Seats

Don Vaccaro Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer TicketNetwork

Joe Choti President & Chief Executive Officer Tickets.com

At the same time, in the EU (or what’s left of it) there is a new push to outlaw the secondary market:

https://www.thesun.ie/news/5123468/legislation-ticket-touts-eu-approval/

And, Pearl Jam is trying to crash the party by writing its own letter about how to best regulate ticketing:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/huddle/2020/02/18/what-pearl-jam-wrote-in-a-letter-to-rep-frank-pallone-488349

But, Representative Bill Pascrell isn’t interested in what they have to say:

https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/pascrell-rejects-pearl-jam-criticism-boss-act/

The biggest wild card to start off these hearings may be the now complete acquisition of StubHub by Viagogo. How big a deal is this? Think if Uber were bought by Tesla. Two disruptive companies, consolidated, led by Eric Baker, a man who doesn’t just march to his own tune — he composes it and makes you sing it even if the refrain is disharmonious. This company combines scale, global reach and a complete ferocity in approach. They won’t just move fast and break things. I predict they’ll invent new paradigms of how to blur primary and secondary markets, consolidate their own acquired inventory and that supplied by broker feeds, and create new pricing mechanisms to break away from the rest of the industry who’s only move to date has been to keep bumping up their fee percentages.

We’re not gonna take it

Gonna break it

Gonna shake it

Let’s forget it better still

……..

Blaming “scalpers” for high prices isn’t new for 2020, but it’s still surprising given that the global resale market for tickets will likely exceed $20 billion this year. Even more surprising, once fierce opponents such as Rage Against The Machine are “scalping” their own tickets in a strange blend of allowing both Platinum pricing into the primary distribution of their tickets while they hold back 10% of their ticket inventory in order to sell them for extra high prices with the excess money collected donated to charity.

This is an interesting take on “if you can’t beat them, join them.” It’s reminiscent of Metallica putting 92,000 tickets directly into the secondary market, but enacted with a social conscience. What’s not to like? If you want a ticket to the show, and you have the extra money, buy what’s left which are these highly inflated tickets and soothe yourself knowing the excess cost you paid went to do good rather than into the pockets of the half demented, lecherous spawn of Satan or however the media today wishes to portray those entrepreneurs who place their own capital at risk to take ownership of tickets which hold no value once an event takes place. Just one small problem though, the secondary market pricing runs purely on supply and demand. Hi demand, low supply equals high prices. Low demand, high supply equals low prices. Because, you know, math.

RATM is putting their embellished tickets (“now, with a free capital infusion to the worthy cause of our choice”) on sale for a price which is higher than that at which the free market is trading their tickets. In this truly convoluted world, the tickets being scalped by real scalpers are a better deal than the tickets being scalped by the band trying to block scalpers. Or, more cynically, the professionals who assess risk and value in the secondary market and move prices to balance supply and demand like a Vegas sports book moves odds are better at pricing at scale than a band whose intention is to completely dominate their own ticket distribution when they might be better served working on their chord progressions.

It was Kid Rock who really did this one right. Remember a few years ago when he paired up with Wal*Mart, dictated to Ticketmaster what their fees would be and put all the tickets in the arena for sale at $20, except for the best 3,000 or so which he simply sent into the secondary market to fetch whatever the market would bear? You can’t micro-manage prices on a tour of 10,000+ seat venues. It’s better to let most of the people get a $20 ticket and, if I recall, the beer prices were also capped at very friendly prices. For those who just absolutely have to be close to the front, they were welcome to pay what that cost. For everyone else, it was welcome to my house where the “Cowboy with the top let back and the sunshine shining” could “give a toast to the sun, drink with the stars, get thrown in the mix and tossed out of bars.”

See me, feel me

Touch me, heal me

See me, feel me

Touch me, heal me

…….

Moving front and center this year is a new focus on an old friend: loyalty programs. I keep hearing more and more about markets building out programs to mimic airline frequent flyer incentivization. There’s discounts, free returns, early access, discounts, vouchers — you name it, someone’s got it. The only thing I haven’t seen yet is the companion pass, but undoubtedly somebody has a power point slide ready to go arguing one way to fill an partially sold arena is to offer a free companion ticket. That, in venue speak, is how to bring in one more mouth to fill with liquor, salty snacks and one more body on which to hang a newly purchased t-shirt, hoodie or ball cap. Because no one likes to go to live events alone, an extra ticket is almost as good as a puppy for getting attention among the singles or not so singles given this new age of polyamory. I won’t ever forget once in the day selling an Insane Clown Posse ticket to a fellow over Craigslist who was so excited to go that he offered me his girlfriend for the evening. When I declined he was truly crestfallen to discover that, although I like the band, I didn’t identify as a Juggalo, wasn’t really in the mood to fly to Detroit for some curious version of tit for tat, and although I’m always open to adventure, really thought I’d prefer to preserve the relationship I held dear.

I’m a huge fan of incentive reward programs. I was there at the inception of the AA Advantage and UA Mileage Plus programs. These programs tilted all the assumptions of travel planners. Executives who would have never thought to make a stop enroute to their destination now spent hours charting out a five segment roundtrip so they could earn a free first class airline ticket to Disneyland.

Truly, airline miles presaged crypto. Miles acted as a store of value which could be exchanged for cash by selling to a broker, or for travel benefits such as airline seats or hotel rooms. It took years before the airlines figured out what governments have long known: currency devaluation. But, once the genie was let loose, publishing new and less favorable award charts requiring higher and higher numbers of miles to redeem a flight became standard practice until the newest trend of simply publishing no chart at all began to take hold. Now, on certain airlines like Delta, the price to convert miles to a seat is whatever the price is that day. There’s no longer a chart like in the old days to tell you that first class roundtrip is 100,000 miles, while coach is only 45,000.

Loyalty programs work. But, they have to be carefully designed. People are smart and they quickly figure out the loopholes and ways to maximize their benefits. One major food company to put codes redeemable for mileage beneath the peel off foil of pudding cups. It seemed like a great idea. The company drove sales and the participating airlines got money to participate. But, there’s little value in a small number of airline miles. Somebody bought enough cups to earn 1.2 million miles and donated the pudding within to charity in return for receiving their help to peel off the labels.

Man Gets Millions of Air Travel Miles from Pudding Cups

David Phillips of Davis, California, really did rack up millions of frequent-flyer airline miles as described in a…

www.snopes.com

Mileage times a million is significant. Nobody saw that coming. Well, almost nobody. There is a small group of people who made a market in those miles, me among them. I bought and sold 20 billion miles while I went to graduate school. That was really fun.

Want one more? The U.S. mint sells rolls of collectable coins which have never been circulated. You could buy them with your credit card and the mint would ship the coins to you for free. How long do you think it was before people with a mileage credit card began buying coins $10,000 at a time to get 10,000 miles. Then, when the coins arrived, still in their wrappers, took the coins to the bank, deposited them, and used the $10,000 to pay off their credit card. Do that twice a month and you’ve got 240,000 miles for free. Ultimately, the mint caught on, so that game’s over but there’s always another way to play.

Listening to you, I get the music

Gazing at you, I get the heat

Following you, I get climb the mountain

I get excitement at your feet

…….

DEMAND ( demand.area120.com ), the new product from Google is another lightning strike at the established order. Ticketing has not yet truly had a tech disruption. Yes, I know that mobile tickets are rapidly making paper stock tickets irrelevant, and that electronic secondary markets have broadened distribution, but let’s pull back the lens. Ticketing is still a tug of war where acts, shows and teams seek two things: fans and venues. There is an entire industry built of people and companies who have built the relationships to route tours, secure venues, assure the stages get built and the sound systems function and handle the mundane day to day problems when there are people and trucks moving from city to city.

What happens when technology replaces much of the work these people — the promoters — have done old school? It is still the promoter who sets ticket prices by giving the primary market the marching orders of when and how to move pricing. And, it is the promoter in conjunction who is making the decisions of which cities to play and at what sized venue. These are still “gut” decisions.

But, DEMAND and similar data driven tools may change the game. What happens when all of the pertinent information which used to take a lifetime in the business is available on a smart phone? There is an instructive example: when’s the last time anyone used a travel agent? It used to be that if you wanted an airline ticket, it was the travel agent who got it for you. They had the special computer system that could reserve a flight and issue the ticket on the special ticket paper which the airlines required they keep locked in a safe at night. And, they booked your hotel room by calling the phone numbers listed in a directory which weighted about ten pounds and listed contact information for every significant hotel in the world. Then, the internet and computers made public the ability to book flights and hotels yourself. Making reservations for planes and rooms became self-serve friendly. In March, 2002 most airlines told the travel agents who had served them since their inception that, thank you very much, we won’t need you anymore. Instead of paying agents a 10% + commission for each sale, these airlines would now pay nothing. It was up to the travel agents to add a surcharge to the price of the tickets to cover their services. As you might expect, once their “free” service was no longer free, most people quit using agents and went to the internet to book their own flights.

What does this mean for live event promoters? Well, the parallels are pretty clear. If demand, pricing and routing can be divined by easily available technology, then promoters have only two remaining virtues: the upfront money it takes to build the tour and the capacity to manage the day to day decisions which have to be made with so many moving parts. If there’s data to predict a tour’s profitability, then there will probably be risk capital available to fund it, particularly in a world with tiered distribution: primary and secondary prices can be made to work together rather than against each other. Assuming the act can secure funding to mount their tour, they can hire a tour manager to handle the issues which arise on the road.

What happens next? I think the venue owners have the most risk. Their building are a lot like hotels. They have no value unless they are filled. And, as more companies compete to build venues, there are more and more choices around the world. If promoters get marginalized, the next domino to fall is the ability of venue owners to maintain their margins. Ultimately, it only takes two competing similar venues to start a bidding war. Three venues would assure one. Again, here’s an example: in Los Angeles AEG owns Staples Center and MSG owns the Forum. Either is a great venue for an act looking to sell 12,000 + tickets. They are fighting hard to confirm acts, offering benefits at other similar venues they own in order to get the L.A. show. But, here’s the twist: Steve Ballmer (Microsoft billionaire) owns the Los Angeles Clippers and he wants to build them their own arena very close to the Forum. MSG is fighting in every forum: politically, in court, lobbying the neighborhood to prevent that venue from being built. Why? Because then there would be three similar venues competing in L.A. and we’re only one step away from someone building the venue equivalent of Priceline.

As we enter this next decade, the convergence of big capital, artificial intelligence, mobile ticketing and the increasing demand for live entertainment by a generation which gets all its needs served by smartphone in milliseconds will be transformative. In every instance where prices get out of hand, or supply and demand are imbalanced the markets correct and there’s reversion to the mean. For me, when I’m unsure of what to expect next, I look to the sages of the past, like Pete Townshend who wrote the song threaded through this piece. Ultimately, in commerce as in politics, all power resides with the people. I can’t wait to hear them.

Right behind you, I see the millions

On you, I see the glory

From you, I get opinions

From you, I get the story

We’re Not Gonna Take It — The Who

Let me know what you think.

I’m a consultant advising leading companies in the live event space. If you are an investor, artist, promoter, team, producer, venue operator, primary or secondary market of ticketed events or have comments on this article, please don’t hesitate to contact me:

[email protected]

#FullerFacts

Please follow and like us:

Guest Post: Eric Fuller–Ticketing 2020. New Decade, Who Dis? was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

#Eric Fuller #tickets

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krystangreen-blog · 6 years ago

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When I saw the opportunity to redeem systemwide upgrades from business class to American Airlines 777-300 first class from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, I lept at the chance. We usually fly Cathay Pacific on this route (we used to live in Hong Kong and return often), but airfare on AA was so much lower that I decided to give our primary domestic airline a shot.

I wanted to love it. It was certainly lovely, but if you have flown Cathay Pacific first class on the same route, you will notice differences which are essential given that first class on both airlines can retail for nearly the same cash price.

Cathay Pacific First Class Lounges at Hong Kong International Airport

Oneworld Alliance (of which American Airlines is a member) Emerald members and first class passengers on Oneworld Alliance airlines can use the glorious Cathay Pacific first class lounges at HKG. These are some of the best airport lounges in the world.

While I prefer the Champagne bar and view at The Wing, First lounge near customs, our flight left right next to The Pier, First lounge at gate 63 and we didn’t have time to enjoy both (which I have done in the past).

Arrive hungry because the food is good. Our go-to Cathay Pacific lounge order (going on seventeen years now) is dan dan noodles. They are just so dang good especially when paired with a glass of Perrier Jouet.

Dishes in the sit-down restaurant arrive at the tables shortly after ordering to accommodate tight flight schedules. A grab-and-go buffet area with desserts, sandwiches, charcuterie, cheese, drinks, and snacks is located near the bar area.

The mini spa in this lounge is a highlight for sure, but I’ve never been lucky enough to score an appointment. They book up quickly.

Boarding

First class may board before other classes but not through a designated aircraft door. Our entire plane boarded through the same door, which was inconvenient given that we soaked up a little bit too much time in the lounge. We found ourselves waiting in line on the jetway with everyone else.

After we arrived at our seats, the flight attendant came around with newspapers, pajamas, Bose headsets, and Champagne, juice, or water.

I declined the pajamas on our outbound American Airlines business class flight but should not have. I took them in first class (where I’m told they are the same) and they are nice. I appreciate their shorter, cuffed leg style (no one wants to drag PJ pants on an airplane bathroom floor, even in first class) and pockets on the front of the shirt. I admit to wearing them at home though wish the cotton was ever so slightly softer.

I took the Champagne, obviously.

American Airlines 777-300ER First Class Seats

These are regarded as the best seats in the entire American Airlines fleet, and I would have to agree. I was comfortable throughout the whole flight.

A digital remote control operates the seats. Mine proved a little fussy to use. Turn on the massage feature if you like. Swivel the chair to use the side area like a desk. This might come in handy should you need to work with the person seated next to you in a middle seat.

Speaking of middle seats, I wrongly assumed that the middle seats would be permanently divided, based on prior experience in first class on other airlines. Had I known, I would have placed my daughter right next to me in the middle seats instead of across the aisle. You can manually raise a small divider between the middle first class seats if necessary.

First class seats offer more space than in business class on the same plane, but it didn’t feel like a massive difference. Carry-ons go into the overhead compartment versus a cabinet on the ground. Every seat receives a comfortable bedding kit with pillow, duvet and a mattress pad if you’d like the flight attendant to help you place it on the seat.

First class on this plane is in a 1-2-1 configuration for eight seats in total. Cathay Pacific first class is a 1-1-1 configuration for six seats in total which means that you have a wider seat, but they are also longer, which makes me suspect that the first class cabin is a bit bigger.

First Class Dining on AA 182 from HKG-LAX

(Apologies in advance for my unusually poor food photos which looked GREAT on the screen of my new iPhone X at the time. I’m horrified by their actual quality so I will use a regular camera next time. While the food onboard was just okay compared to other airlines in first class, my photos aren’t doing the dishes the justice they deserve.)

As our flight left Hong Kong in the evening, the main meal served was a 7-course dinner (or so it should have been). It started with dried veggie straws and olives which are not pictured or mentioned on the menu.

This menu is offered on both the Hong Kong to Dallas and LAX flights.

The flight attendant took our orders but suggested that we withhold our small plate selection until later she said it would be too much food for us. My red flag should have gone up, but it didn’t. My daughter was sitting across the aisle from me, so I didn’t hear her order. Plus, she’s 12. She’s a shy 12 and not one to question an adult telling her that she shouldn’t have the small plate.

American Airlines typically offers an excellent wine list designed to suit palates at 35,000 feet, and this one didn’t disappoint.

We should have been given the option of dining together in the same seat as the flight attendant knew we were traveling together. I assumed this wasn’t an option because the seats are smaller than on Cathay Pacific, where we usually do eat together in first class with one person sitting on the footrest and a table extension applied. It’s a lovely way to chat and pass the time. Later in the flight, I spotted a seat belt on the footrest so I realized it would have been possible. My daughter mentioned after we landed that she saw other people dining together behind me.

The Osietra caviar with savory egg white tartlet starter was a bit misleading as it sounded like you’d enjoy a helping of caviar accompanied by an egg tart. In reality, it was an egg white tart sprinkled lightly with a little bit of mushy Osietra caviar.

The combination masked the flavor of the caviar, which made me think that it probably was added to print “caviar” on the menu. The chilled kale, apple, and celeriac tasted outstanding, and I (unusually) preferred it to the caviar tart by miles.

I did quite enjoy the lobster saffron bisque course and the real lumps of crab meat in it.

Next, the flight attendant served my grilled beef fillet. She skipped my salad course, and I only noticed later after I looked around and saw others eating salad. I checked my menu, which confirmed this course was skipped. She was not the type of person to trouble if you didn’t have to, so I let it go.

The beef dish was flavorful but well-done and tough. Yes, it’s airplane food, but I’ve eaten glorious medium-rare steaks on planes departing from Hong Kong, which means that others who might take this flight probably will have, too.

I adore the made-to-order ice cream sundaes that American Airlines serves in first class on longer domestic routes and international premium classes. So, that’s what I ordered.

We did not take advantage of the snacks and drinks in the galley. My daughter was served the small plate order of beef sliders (she said they were good) that were withheld from her at dinner. I wasn’t offered the meze plate set aside for me despite being awake for most of the flight but wasn’t hungry for it.

I suspect that part of the reason why the small plates were held back is this flight unusually did not offer any made-to-order midflight snacks like other airlines we fly to Asia do.

Flight attendants served breakfast at passengers’ leisure a few hours before landing. Starving by this point, we both chose the Western breakfast, which proved to be a lot of food.

Apologies again for the terrible photo but I want you to see that it’s quite a bit of food.

After indicating that I’d like breakfast, I was handed the tray above and never offered the yogurt starter. I didn’t realize this until I looked at the menu after the fact. I’m not really in the habit of checking the menu during an inflight meal.

The flight attendant either forgot to serve some of my courses, couldn’t be bothered to offer all courses, or didn’t think I’d notice if she skipped courses. Not one of these scenarios is typical (or acceptable) for this route and class of service.

In-flight Entertainment

I think that American Airlines offers a robust selection of movies and television shows, but when you fly a lot in a month, choices become repetitive as they do on any airline. Like most AA flights, the Bose headsets were collected about 45 minutes before landing, so it still pays to bring good headphones. The little loaner earbuds you receive in their place are not great. Do ask for a splitter so that you can hear the earbuds in both ears (they exist on flights in limited quantities).

Love the Amenity Kit

I genuinely adore the new This Is Ground amenity kits in business and first class. They’re both made of beautiful leather. The business class kit is smaller and secures with a snap. The first class kit, zips completely around Allies of Skin moisturizer, lip balm and hand cream in addition to a toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, socks, eye mask, ear plugs, tissues, and some Barclay’s Aviator card (which I have and believe is a less valuable member of my wallet since stripping the EQD benefit) promotional material. However, mine also had a 20% discount code for This Is Ground products which you may want to take advantage of.

I love bringing these kits to the airplane bathroom because they repel water, unlike cloth kits.

The Bottom Line

I am fiercely loyal to American Airlines and Oneworld Alliance. On this route, my brain is acclimated to an overly-solicitous style of service, which is what we receive on Cathay Pacific and even Japan Airlines when we occasionally fly SAN-NRT-HKG. I wasn’t expecting a perfect service match on American Airlines, but room for improvement exists in spades if they want to win loyalty from frequent flyers on this route.

Is first class a good use of a systemwide upgrade? In my case, yes, as we tend to book straight into premium class tickets, so my systemwide upgrades often go unused. Would I use miles to upgrade? Yes, if I wasn’t short on miles. Will we fly American Airlines to Hong Kong again? Probably, if the airfare is such that it’s a significant saving.

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touristguidebuzz · 8 years ago

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Booking Transcon Flights and a Hotel for $7 After Rebates Through Upside

Update 1/18/17 6:15pm: Upside is offering a guaranteed $200 in gift cards on all purchases through 2/28/17 when you click here and sign up with promo code TPG.

Despite airline seats getting tighter and the fact that onboard service is “not what it used to be,” we seem to be living in a golden age of travel. Not only are airfares the cheapest they’ve been in at least a decade, but there are also plenty of travel tools available to help us find and book them. Now there’s yet another excellent site: Upside.

Created by the founder of Priceline, Upside is a new travel tool that helps you book a flight and hotel package for your next trip. In addition to giving you the standard discounts you’re accustomed to when booking such a package, Upside also offers you gift card rebates just for using the service. While this makes it perfect for business travelers — and others who get their travel costs reimbursed — it’s also great for those who are looking for the lowest net travel cost.

Upside promises a triple win: matching airlines/hotel with extra capacity with travelers who have flexibility, while saving businesses on travel costs. Image courtesy of Upside.

Officially launching this week after a few months in beta testing — although the “Beta” indication remains for now — Upside seems to have worked out the bugs and is ready for the big time. Last week, I tested it out while it was still in beta. Here’s my take.

Eligible Routes

As part of the beta process, Upside was clearly trying to figure out where it fit into the already crowded market. After initially allowing you to fly to any destination from any US city, Upside cut back to just booking departures from a few major US cities to about 30 international destinations. A couple more iterations later, Upside has reversed course. You can now book from almost any US airport to almost any US airport or many international airports.

Booking Process

Start your search on Upside’s homepage. Image courtesy of Upside.

To get started, just head to Upside’s homepage and enter your origin, destination and how nice of a hotel you want (from 2 to 5 stars). As one of the more price-sensitive TPG contributors, I went with a two-star hotel.

On the next page, you start narrowing down the options. First you choose your flight class of service. For domestic routes — even routes with three classes — you only have the choice between economy and first class. For international routes, you choose between economy, premium economy, business and first class. Next, choose the trip purpose (work, leisure or both).

Be careful when choosing dates and times. Image courtesy of Upside.

Where it gets a bit tricky is the next part — especially for international and red-eye flights. Since Upside is focused on business travel, rather than picking which date and time you’ll depart, you pick which date you need to arrive. Need to arrive Monday morning for that 9am meeting? Upside makes it easy. Just note that you need to arrive by 7am on Monday, and Upside will retrieve the flights to get you there in time.

Strategically selecting dates and times is also helpful if you’re trying to get Upside to price a particular flight option that you found on a site like Google Flights. As Upside no longer allows you to select airline alliance preferences (as it did at one point during beta), limiting the search to only times that include your airline’s flight will help trick Upside into giving you the option you want.

You’re probably going to want to choose a different location than is used for the default hotel search. Image courtesy of Upside.

After selecting the flight you want, you’ll then select your hotel. There’s some trickiness to keep in mind here too. Right now, it seems Upside will default to searching a rather narrow geographic downtown area in the city you picked. There might be cheaper hotels matching your hotel star choice outside this area that aren’t displayed.

If you’re hoping to stay near an office (for a business trip) or an airport (for a mileage run) or are just looking for the cheapest accommodation, you’re going to want to change the location it searches — maybe multiple times.

My flight+hotel package ended up costing $307.

The package that I ended up with priced out at $307 after Upside negotiated $40 off of the published airfare and hotel prices. Just over $300 for round-trip transcontinental flights and a hotel near the airport is already a great deal… but there’s more!

I was offered an extra $200 in gift cards for making my first purchase.

This trip offered what seems to be the minimum of $100 in gift cards. But, as a first-time user of Upside, I had been emailed an offer for an extra $200 in gift cards. Yay for me, right? Well, stay tuned — we’re working with Upside to get TPG readers the same deal.

After both the $100 and $200 gift cards were “offset” against my $307 cost, I’m ending up with transcontinental flights and a night at a hotel for just $7. See more about the gift cards below.

When booking a package, it’s always important to make sure there aren’t better deals out there.

While this price sounded great, I wanted to make sure that I was actually getting a good deal. So, before I booked, I made sure to check ITA Matrix to find out the actual cost of these flights, note the American Airlines fare code and check the mileage for elite-qualifying mileage purposes.

Ticketing Process

Within a few minutes of completing the checkout process on Upside’s website, my itinerary appeared as “Ticket Pending” on AA.com. Within 15 minutes, the ticket was issued with no problem.

Unfortunately, these bookings probably won’t credit using the AA Special Fares chart.

For those looking for ways to book American Airlines Special Fares flights, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Upside bookings will credit as Special Fares — despite the AA Special Fares chart being designed for flight+hotel packages just like this. Generally, data points show that if the “Cost Summary” appears on your AA.com itinerary, the flights will credit based on revenue rather than mileage. And, the Cost Summary appears on my AA.com itinerary booked through Upside.

For those unaware of the difference, these JFK-SFO-JFK flights will likely earn 2,128 award miles ($193.48 fare x 11 miles per dollar for Executive Platinum elites) rather than 5,689 award miles (5,172 flight miles x 50% rate x 220% rate for Executive Platinum elites) if the flights credited using the Special Fares chart.

My flights were auto-added to the American Airlines upgrade list.

I was automatically added to the upgrade list at booking as an American Airlines Executive Platinum. If you’re an American Airlines Gold or Platinum and want to upgrade your flights, you’re likely going to need to log in and request an upgrade using 500-mile upgrades.

Redeeming Gift Cards

Redeeming Upside gift card credits was remarkably easy.

So far, the process has been easy, but I was worried that I might run into problems when I tried to “cash out.” Not so. The same day that I booked my package, I received an email from an Upside “Navigator” confirming my flight and noting that gift cards had been added to my account — $100 for the package and $200 for being a first-time customer. Note: In addition to the $300 I received from booking this package, I received an extra $50 for providing earlier feedback in the Beta process.

A couple of days later, I logged in to my account and headed to the Gift Cards section. There I was able to confirm my balance and review my options. While there are dozens of gift card options, Amazon is the most like cash to me — especially as you can use this balance to buy other gift cards later — sometimes even at a discount. So, I redeemed my entire $350 balance for Amazon gift cards. Just minutes later, I received an email from Upside noting that my Amazon gift card was ready. A few clicks later and the balance was successfully applied to my Amazon account.

Bottom Line

In my experience, the whole process with Upside was top-notch. Once I managed to get the system to give me the flights I wanted, I was easily able to book my flight+hotel package, confirm my bookings and cash out my gift cards. Now that Upside has expanded to include domestic flight options, I can’t really think of a reason not to start with Upside for future flight+hotel bookings. Of course, I’ll price-compare flight+hotel packages on other websites to ensure that I’m getting the cheapest price after rebates. But, for now, Upside is going to be my go-to.

We’re going to run some price comparisons between Upside and similar package providers. What’s your current go-to website for booking flight+hotel packages?

Featured image courtesy of Jongcheol Park / EyeEm via Getty Images.

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