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Today is the fourth day of five weeks of discounted travel packages sponsored by the US Travel Association and American Express called Daily Getaways. Every weekday at 1 PM ET, a discounted travel package or packages will go on sale and will usually sell out in a few minutes. Some of the offers will be awesome; some will be duds.
Today you can buy a up to three Alamo $50 gift certificates for $22.50 each. There are 2,000 available.
“Within 5 business days of purchase, Alamo will send the purchased certificate(s) to the e-mail address you provide at time of purchase. The e-mail will provide detailed information on how to redeem your certificate either by phone or online.”
The simple math is that this deal could save you $82.50 on upcoming car rentals, but the identical deal saved me $120 last year.
- How can this deal save you $120 on car rentals?
The Deal
All Daily Getaways packages offer 10% off each sale price by paying with an American Express card, so that’s a no-brainer, and I’ll always quote prices after the American Express discount.
Today’s deal is $50 certificate toward an Alamo car rental for $22.50. That’s a sweet 55% discount! You can buy three and use them towards the same rental or different rentals for an $82.50 discount.
Last year, I bought three of the discounted Alamo gift certificates and put them toward a weeklong car rental in Los Angeles.
Instead of saving $82.50–$150 in gift certificates bought for $67.50–like I expected, I saved about $120 with the gift certificates.
For my rental period, the cheapest deal was from Alamo at $155 plus taxes and fees for a week.
The taxes and fees were insane of course and added up to about 33% of the base price. Here’s the same car at nearly the same base rate to illustrate the taxes and fees.
The taxes and fees worked out to 22.2% of the base fare + a flat $10.
The best part about the gift certificates was that they dropped the base price, which dropped the variable 22.2% in taxes and fees significantly, saving me way more money than I was expecting.
The $150 in gift certificates (3 x $50) knocked the base price down to $5. That made the 22% in taxes and fees about $1. There was no effect on the $10 Facility Charge, but my all in price was $16.
For comparison, the all in price without gift certificates was $203, so $150 in gift certificates saved me $187.
Because taxes and fees on rental cars are huge and percentage-based in a lot of places, I am now a rental car gift certificate enthusiast! The $67.50 I paid for my three Alamo gift certificates last year saved me $187, meaning about $120 saved by participating in Daily Getaways.
Purchasing the Packages
To maximize your chances of getting in on the deal, I recommend using a site like whattimeisit.com to figure out the official time. This year’s sales all started on time to the second. Keep refreshing for the best chance.
This is what happens if you try to purchase something where all quantities are already in someone’s cart.
This doesn’t mean the deal is sold out. If someone doesn’t complete his purchase, that quantity will immediately become available for someone else. Keep checking until the dreaded “Sold Out” appears.
The sale starts at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT / 7 AM HT. Last year’s Alamo Gift Certificates stuck around at least five minutes, though I don’t remember how long after that.
Do you plan to buy Alamo Gift Certificates? Post your successful or failed attempt in the comments, so we can gauge how quick you had to be to snag a deal.
Alamo $50 Gift Certificates for $22.50
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Terms of Gift Certificates:
- Valid Certificate ID and Contract ID required for all rentals.
- Certificate ID may only be used once and is void upon redemption.
- Offer valid on the rental of any size car, subject to availability.
- Taxes and other surcharges are paid separately.
- Offer valid for rentals at participating locations in the United States.
- Certificate amount will be applied to total base rate for the entire rental period, and may not be applied to taxes, other government-authorized or imposed surcharges, license recoupment/air tax recovery and concession recoupment fees, airport and airport facility fees, fuel, additional driver fee, one (1)-way rental charge, or optional items, which are the responsibility of the renter.
- Must meet standard rental qualifications. You might have to pay extra if you are a driver under the age of 25.
- Check your auto policy and/or credit card agreement for rental vehicle coverage.
- Offer is subject to standard rental conditions.
- Twenty-four (24)-hour advance reservation required.
- Certificate not valid with any other discount, offer, or promotional rate, except you may combine up to three (3) separate certificates per single rental.
- When using more than one (1) certificate, reservations must be made by calling 1-866-626-9102.
- Any unused portion of the certificate will be forfeited, and no residual credit or refunds will be issued if the certificate is not fully used.
- Certificate is not exchangeable, refundable, transferable, or redeemable for cash.
- Void if damaged, defaced, reproduced, bought, bartered, or sold for cash. Cash value 1/100cents.
- Void where prohibited.
- All sales are final.
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I was really unsure about this one. I typically use coupon codes which make a dramatic difference in the price of a rental car. My understanding is that this gift cert cannot be staced with coupon codes and has to be used on the standard rate. I cannot imagine how this would end up saving money over a good coupon code?
@Elaine.. I have never seen a coupon code that will save you as much as the certificates.
I have purchased these since they were first available a few years ago. I have never seen them sell out on the first day. There’s usually plenty to go around.
BTW… This year I haven’t seen an expiration date. Any idea?
And concerning the “base rate”… I have used them and according to the person I talked to, the rate would only go so low and then it bottomed out. Nice that you could get your base rate to 5 bucks.
Yes, you want to get the base rate between $1 and $49 with these. Don’t waste one by getting the base rate to zero because the “extra” part of your certificate can’t be applied to taxes. I got lucky getting my base rate to $5.
Anyone know if these certificates are valid in Honolulu? It says “participating locations” but I can’t find the list.
I bet they are, but just a guess. I don’t know for sure.
Now that you’ve bought them, can you tell me if they list the participating locations on your vouchers?
I’ll receive them in a few days. I don’t have them yet.
Got 3 coupons! Just refreshed the page right at 10:00AM PST, and was able to click right to the checkout page. 4th of July vacation car rental here I come!
I just got three right now, so they are not selling out even though this is a easily a great deal.
Considering that most are concerned about not being able to use this in certain locations, I’m surprised nobody posted a number to call and verify yet. This is the order page:
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How to Redeem Your Purchase:
Within 5 business days of purchase, Alamo will send the purchased certificate(s) to the e-mail address you provide at time of purchase. The e-mail will provide detailed information on how to redeem your certificate either by phone or online.
Please be sure to add alamorentalday@alamo.com to your address book to ensure that an e-mail from Alamo is not blocked by your e-mail system.
If you have not received your coupon via the e-mail address provided at time of purchase within 5 business days or if you have questions regarding using the coupon, please contact David Lawrence at 1-612-723-0972 or david@camdendigital.com.
For general customer service inquiries during or following your rental, please call 1-800-445-5664.
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