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I smell a Rat!!

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WhiteCollar
Established Contributor

I smell a Rat!!

So, one of the best perks of the SSP is that you can get 20% off flights and hotels when booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Well, every time I check the ultimate rewards site and compare airline ticket prices with orbitz.com, OrbitZ is always always cheaper! How could that be if you get 20% off for booking the ultimate rewards site. For example. Ultimate rewards gave me a price of $1009.50 for a flight to Europe. OrbitZ priced the exact flight, time, carrier and departing airport all the same but their price was $836.00!! That's a substantial difference!!

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Message 1 of 8
7 REPLIES 7
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: I smell a Rat!!

It's certainly possible they increase the price 20% in order to compensate for a 20% discount.
March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 2 of 8
MsLadyRover
Valued Contributor

Re: I smell a Rat!!


@pizzadude wrote:
It's certainly possible they increase the price 20% in order to compensate for a 20% discount.

+1



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Message 3 of 8
fittiger
Frequent Contributor

Re: I smell a Rat!!


@WhiteCollar wrote:

So, one of the best perks of the SSP is that you can get 20% off flights and hotels when booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Well, every time I check the ultimate rewards site and compare airline ticket prices with orbitz.com, OrbitZ is always always cheaper! How could that be if you get 20% off for booking the ultimate rewards site. For example. Ultimate rewards gave me a price of $1009.50 for a flight to Europe. OrbitZ priced the exact flight, time, carrier and departing airport all the same but their price was $836.00!! That's a substantial difference!!

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience?


The fares/rates published through UR may be the standard rate or something...discouted 20%.

 

Try going through Ultimate Rewards and booking through Travelocity or Hotels.com.  Currently, I get an additional 2 points for booking travelocity thru UR Mall (4x total) and 3 points for booking hotels.com thru UR Mall (5x total).

 

This way, you get a discounted price...lower than the UR Mall fares/rates, plus the additional bonus points.

Message 4 of 8
ezdoesit
Valued Contributor

Re: I smell a Rat!!


@WhiteCollar wrote:

So, one of the best perks of the SSP is that you can get 20% off flights and hotels when booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Well, every time I check the ultimate rewards site and compare airline ticket prices with orbitz.com, OrbitZ is always always cheaper! How could that be if you get 20% off for booking the ultimate rewards site. For example. Ultimate rewards gave me a price of $1009.50 for a flight to Europe. OrbitZ priced the exact flight, time, carrier and departing airport all the same but their price was $836.00!! That's a substantial difference!!

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience?


I noticed the same thing when I booked a flight thru my USAA Amex card but the difference it was about $200 for 4 tickets to Ireland  Total $4500.  So total it was like 5% added on which I could live with because of how many points I had.  Out of curiousity check to see if you booked two tickets would it be the apprx. 170 difference for all the tickets or would it be per ticket.

Message 5 of 8
enharu
Super Contributor

Re: I smell a Rat!!

I guess it depends on where you are flying from and to, and what airlines you are looking at.

I looked at international flights on UR and prices were in line with airlines, kayak, orbitz and Expedia.
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Message 6 of 8
CarbonCard
Established Contributor

Re: I smell a Rat!!


@WhiteCollar wrote:

So, one of the best perks of the SSP is that you can get 20% off flights and hotels when booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Well, every time I check the ultimate rewards site and compare airline ticket prices with orbitz.com, OrbitZ is always always cheaper! How could that be if you get 20% off for booking the ultimate rewards site. For example. Ultimate rewards gave me a price of $1009.50 for a flight to Europe. OrbitZ priced the exact flight, time, carrier and departing airport all the same but their price was $836.00!! That's a substantial difference!!

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience?


I think it's not exactly "20% off."

From Chase: "For example, a $500 flight requires just 40,000 points."

So basically, you could use 20% less points to book a flight/hotel. Right guys?

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Message 7 of 8
ryanbush
Valued Contributor

Re: I smell a Rat!!

You get a 20% discount when redeeming UR Points.

 

Basicall a UR Point is worth 1.25C when redeeming for travel through the UR website.

 

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Message 8 of 8
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