This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Summer Break 2022, Part 1
Jul
27
2022
The story of our summer vacation starts a few months before our summer vacation, because that is when I bought the plane tickets.
We had been planning on going to Colorado for our vacation, but that depended on our ability to fly out there for a decent price. I had been watching the fares go up and down and up again, but they eventually got down to something reasonable.
I informed Some Wife that it was time to buy plane tickets, and she had a brilliant scheme. It so happened that the nearby grocery store chain which also includes gas stations (Kroger, in case you’re wondering) was having a promotion for 4-times the fuel points for any gift cards. And they have Delta gift cards. So if we bought a bunch of gift cards, then turn around and use them to buy what we were going to buy anyway, that’s free money in the form of a discount at the fuel pump.
My target price was under $300 per ticket, and there are 6 of us. I didn’t want to cut it too close and leave some money on the gift cards, since we fly once every few years, so we aimed to buy $1500-worth of gift cards.
I wanted to buy quickly, before the price changed again, so that evening we went to the store and bought all the Delta gift cards they had, which was I think 8 of the $100 cards. That was not quite enough, so the next morning Some Wife went to another location and bought their cards. They had some $250 cards, so she didn’t have to buy as many there – 2 of the $100 and 2 of the $250.
I’m surprised we didn’t get flagged by some fraud system, either at the grocery store or credit card company, because in my understanding gift cards are one of the main ways scams and laundering happen. But no one stopped us, so we ended up with $1500 over 12 Delta gift cards, so that night after putting the kids to bed (about 9pm), I got ready to use the cards.
Here is how that went.
When checking the flight costs, I had been watching the dates we wanted – a Saturday to Saturday. The price is still good on those dates, so I select it and then am presented with an array of flight options. I am dismayed to see that the only flight that was the price I wanted was leaving about midnight. I am not about to sign the whole family up to being awake the whole night, as some get grumpy about their sleep.
I normally would have checked with other airlines at this point, but we are locked into Delta. So I have to find a plan B.
It takes a few iterations with the fare calendar, because they don’t let you filter your results by “reasonable time of day” for the flight, but I eventually find one that is Wednesday to Tuesday, a few days ahead of our original schedule. I confirm with Some Wife that the new dates are good, and then I start booking those tickets. Select the flight, make sure there’s room on the plane (some of the other options that are a good price have only 2 or 3 seats left), select 6 tickets, enter all the info for each passenger, get the total, so far so good, and go to the payment page.
This is where the plan kicks in. I grab the first gift card off the pile, scratch off the thing that hides the PIN, and enter the information. Good, $100 off. Next one. I enter its information, and am presented with an error message.
Uh-oh.
I try another card, same problem. It’s March in Michigan, and after sunset, so it is cold. But I am sweating.
I start looking around the FAQs and Help Center and forums and anything else that can give me info about how to use Delta gift cards. I get one definite answer (limit 5 gift cards per transaction) and one suggestion (enter the gift card info at the gift card page of the website, not on the payment page).
The limit of 5 gift cards per transaction is not good news. I cancel the purchase of my 6 tickets, hoping that the system really did release them so A) the flight would be just as open and B) the price wouldn’t increase due to a seemingly suddenly popular flight.
This time, I start in a way that seems backwards. I enter the first card’s info in the part of the website for redeeming gift cards. I half expect that it will tell me I already used that one, but I’m glad to see it takes it, and the next, and the next. I’m doing 4 gift cars per transaction to even them out.
I get the 4 gift cards entered, and I have the expected credit, so I move on to applying that to a flight. I find the same flight for the same price, and I book 2 tickets – Some Wife and the youngest child, don’t want both parents on one flight in case I can’t get the kids on the same flight. There’s about a $50 shortfall, which is good as I don’t want anything left on the gift cards. I put that on the credit card, and the booking is completed.
One pair of tickets down, two to go. My sweating has subsided, but I realize I should have opened and scratched off all the gift cards before starting the purchasing process.
Next 4 cards, same flight, me and Gamma. The older two kids are 16 and 18 so they can handle being on a separate flight if need be.
Final 4 cards, and Alpha and Beta get on the same flight too.
At this point, it is midnight. Three hours just to buy some airplane tickets. But I got everyone on the same flight and for the right price, so it was okay.
The plan did work – we got 6000 fuel points, which meant $1 off per gallon for our next 6 fill-ups. At about 15 gallons per fill-up, that’s $90 total we saved by going through the hassle.
To Be Continued…
Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek the profit which increases to your account.
Philippians 4:17
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:36 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
August 14th, 2022 at 12:07 am
There was something similar for the BX credit card a while ago. You buy gift cards and get cash back, or something like that. But arbitrageurs exploited it too much, so they shut down that benefit. I very much endorse arbitrage.