Question
I received this offer if I open a Platinum Plus for business Visa credit card
with mbna.
"Once you make a qualifying transaction,you will get a voucher for two round
trip airline tickets to Hawaii, Mexico or London. "
The qualifying transaction is defined as spending $100.00 or more in a
billing cycle. You also must purchase 7 nights at a hotel they list at standard
rack rates (which I know can be high!). It also says " No blackout dates, for
certain travel dates a one-time $50-150 surcharge may apply. All travel
subject to availability."
Has anyone had any experience using this? I am familar with most of the
hotels and they are nice. The credit card has no annual fee. However, I got a companion certificate from Disney VISA and it is about useless as no dates I want are ever avaliable. I don't want to bother with this if its useless as well.
I did a seach of this forum but could not find anything on this but a trip to
Hawaii or Mexico sounds nice this New Years!
Thanks for the help.
Wintermom
Answer
Don't have any experience with this, but I do receive offers like this from time to time from various sources. I don't respond, as my experience is that I can buy two tickets to the destination and Priceline a comparable hotel cheaper than the 7 day rack rate for the hotels listed. This also enables me to put the mileage on my preferred carrier. If getting credit in your hotel program is more important than getting miles in your airline program, this offer might be attractive. Around New Year's, I would expect the surcharge. If it still sounds attractive to you, and the card has no annual fee, why not give it a try and see. The most you would lose would be the miles/credits you could have had for putting the $100 on another card.
Answer
I have seen this type of offers before. IIRC, they charge the rack rate for the hotel rooms so they are not as bargain as it sounds. Eaveat emptor!
Answer
Thanks for the information, we have been out of town and I ended up not
trying the offer since so one was responding. I guess I may try it when
they send out the offer again. Flying out of Corpus Christi never seems to
offer any bargins so free airline tickets look good.
Thanks
Wintermom