I've been shopping around for airline tickets recently and I've realized that although a lot of the major sites will give you basically the same results. However I noticed that each site has a different Cash Back agreement with Fatwallet depending on what you're booking. My idea for this thread is to consolidate where you'll get the highest CashBack amount in the category you want to book (hotel, airfare, etc.).
Why does this matter? If you're looking for the highest CashBack one site may be the better choice over the other depending on your ticket price.
If your ticket costs $200 you can expect $3 CashBack from Expedia or $2.4 from Orbitz. Therefore Expedia is the better choice.
If your ticket costs $500 you can expect $3 CashBack from Expedia or $6 from Orbitz. Therefore Orbitz is the better choice.
I also noticed different sites give different percentages for different category bookings so hopefully consolidation on this thread will make it easier for everyone to get maximum CashBack.
I will start the initial edits to the quick summary and I encourage anyone to continue to update the QS to keep it current.
Things to note:
Keep in mind that just because a particular site offers the highest CashBack doesn't mean you will get the best price. So try out a couple sites first to see which one gives you the lowest price and then usually a couple will give you the same quote and then narrow it down to the one that gives you higher CashBack.
Don't use the links below to book your travel purchases. You must go through the Cash Back page on Fatwallet in order to get credit for CashBack.
Thanks, OP. Great idea. I updated the summary to list Priceline under more than just Airlines, since you can also book hotels and cars through them. Feel free to re-edit this if the revision doesn't fit what you had in mind for the list.
doerrb said: Thanks, OP. Great idea. I updated the summary to list Priceline under more than just Airlines, since you can also book hotels and cars through them. Feel free to re-edit this if the revision doesn't fit what you had in mind for the list.
Hmmm, I dont see any edits, did you remember to save/submit?
I was looking at the OrbitzCashBack on FW and it says 1.2% for retail hotels and 3.0% for merchant hotels. It then states "Merchant Hotels require pre-payment. Retail Hotels do not."
Doing a couple of sample searches it seems there is no way to tell which hotels are merchant hotels or retail hotels until select the hotel and review details to see if prepayment is required.
Does anyone know of a easier way to tell which hotels are merchant or retail?
A couple other things to throw in the mix, if you are signed up for the "Thank You" point at Expedia, you get points for the airfare when booked in conjuction with a hotel booking. I think you get both Cash Back and Thank You points when going through Fat Wallet.
Ebates seems to offer a flat 1% for anything on Expedia (except special web fares and event tickets), also 1% for Orbitz and Travelocity at ebates.
For sites like Jetblue which offers a flat $2 CashBack per booking you can book your flight heading out in one transaction and your return flight in another for a total of $4 CashBack per person. If you are traveling with others you can do the same per person. For my family of four I will be getting $16 back. Ya, lots of work but this is FatWallet. The only thing I was scared of doing it this way was not being able to get seats together.
JudyJFLA
Member
posted: Oct. 27, 2009 @ 11:34p
But you don't get hotel points thru any hotel programs, which can negate the rebate.
JudyJFLA said: But you don't get hotel points thru any hotel programs, which can negate the rebate.
That's true that some hotel chains don't let you earn points in their frequent stay program but chances are you'll be paying a lower rate where it wouldn't make sense to book directly through the hotel chain just for the points.
Most people that book on discount travel sites generally don't stay at one particular hotel chain enough to warrant loyalty over cheaper prices.
For sites like Jetblue which offers a flat $2 CashBack per booking you can book your flight heading out in one transaction and your return flight in another for a total of $4 CashBack per person. If you are traveling with others you can do the same per person. For my family of four I will be getting $16 back. Ya, lots of work but this is FatWallet. The only thing I was scared of doing it this way was not being able to get seats together.
Be careful with that because sometimes they charge you more for two "one ways" than for one "round trip" ticket.
One other thing to note, when you're booking international tickets with children between 2-11 (which on international airfare you get a discount), then you might want to avoid Hotwire and Priceline as they don't allow you to specify age for children and children get charged the same amount as adults. I ended up booking with Expedia because of the discount for kids fare, the CashBack and thank you points.
There are websites that list various rewards from multiple sites. The benefit is to see what other sites offer better CashBack than FW. Granted it does not cover one category (if you just want FW), but it can be helpful.
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