Well, the travel account balance has had a couple of weeks to build up again now. What better way to celebrate than to spend it all, right?
I went ahead and booked our San Andreas Fault cycling tour in Palm Springs. We are shouting both my parents for their birthdays, so it wasn't a cheap exercise, but I had a 10% discount code with Viator, which eased the pain a little
I was disappointed though, that they now only offer AA points if you spend over $500 in one go
Last time I used them it kicked in at $200!
Next I did our ESTAs. I'm pleased to say that we have been pre-approved for travel
Finally, I thought I'd have another go at Priceline to try and upgrade on my accommodation for those pesky first 2 nights. Still no luck! Actually, I could have got what I suspect was the Marriott Suites for a pretty good price, but I really want to be a short walk from the parks for this time.
You may remember that I had to change my horse riding plans in Phoenix, which meant that the hotel I orginally booked on Priceline was a long way away from my main activity. I didn't mind the idea of driving out there, it was the thought of a long drive back in the dark on my own that wasn't so nice.
So while I was on Priceline I thought I'd just see if there was anything good in the area. There was a mystery hotel deal on what I figured out would be the Carefree Resort & Conference Center, which was about half the price I could get it for anywhere else, but still a little more than I was happy spending (nearly $100 once taxes, conversion fees etc taken into account). So I thought I'd be cheeky and try to bid for a better discount! I was aiming for about $10 less than the price of the mystery deal, and was successful
Of course, it was only after I'd done it that I realised I could have played the system a bit more to see if I could get even more of a discount... But I'm happy enough with that. My drive home will now be less than 20 minutes as opposed to more than an hour
Of course, Priceline deals being non-refundable, I've had to just wear the cost of my original booking. But the good news is, the cost of that and the new booking put together is still about the same as what the new hotel would have cost me anywhere else.
On a side note, I actually did see the Carefree Resort for a similar price on a website called getaroom.com. I'd never heard of that website before, so I did some googling and found a real mixed bag of positive and negative reviews, but no current ones. I ended up not feeling comfortable enough with it to go ahead with the booking. Just wondering if anyone else has heard of it/used it?
At least I've got another 4 weeks to get over it!
. Hope you get over the cold quickly
