Waiting to the last minute can pay off: It’s called rush tickets

by Jamie Rhein on

Although, it’s true that living the Girl Scout motto “Be Prepared” can pay off, flying through life by the seat of ones pants also has merit. Take yesterday, for example. Yesterday, I got the urge to see Avenue Q. The touring company is in town for a few days, and because I’ve been busy, getting tickets became shuffled to the background of my life. Then, about 3 p.m., I had to go. I must go, even if no one was going with me. I’d be nuts not to. At 4:45 p.m. I dashed into the CAPA ticket office to buy my ticket.

The guy behind the counter said, “Ya’ know. At 6:00, you can get a $25 ticket. There will be 20 rush tickets for sale.

At 5:30, after a trip to the library to pay off a fine for overdue books, there I was, first in line, at the Palace Theatre box office, By 6:10, I had two tickets. At that price, my husband agreed to go with me when I called to tell him about our good fortune. By 7:50 we were settled into our third- row orchestra seats on the right-hand side, much better and cheaper than the ones we would have had if I had planned ahead.

There are two morals of this story:

  1. If you get the urge to go to a performance, even if it’s last minute, don’t assume it’s too late–you might hit pay dirt.
  2. If you want to plan ahead, find out if there are rush tickets and how to get them.

Here is a link to tips on getting rush tickets for Broadway shows in New York City, and here’s a link to Talkin’ Broadway’s On the Boards that has ticket information including rush ticket policies and standing room only details. Standing room only is another last minute, cheaper ticket option. Here’s Avenue Q’s touring schedule. I highly recommend it, but it’s bawdy. Good natured, clever and terrific, but bawdy.

California: Get to Puerto Rico this spring for under 300$

by Grant Martin on

I’ve been putting off sending an alert about this fare for the past few days because it wasn’t really excellent enough — but today it got excellent. Earlier prices from Los Angeles and San Francisco to San Juan, Puerto Rico, were about 275-300$ for dates in April and May, which, even though is a pretty competitive price, isn’t fall-off-your-chair outstanding.

Today however, I’m picking up prices of about 225$ round trip from San Francisco for dates through May. That’s a pretty killer steal for a 3600 mile trip into the Caribbean.

Ever been to Old San Juan? I’m going for the second time next weekend and it’s a ton of fun. A wealth of casinos, restaurants and bars stuff the colonial streets of Old San Juan, where you can wander between hedonistic drinking, quaint shopping and a relaxing afternoon on the beach in just a few steps.

Get bored? Cross the bay to the Bacardi Rum Factory or drive an hour west to the Arecibo Observatory where they shot parts of the Brosnan Bond films.

Use a flexible search on Orbitz or Travelocity to nail down dates but book ASAP if you want to take advantage of these fares — there’s no telling when these are going to get yanked.

And be sure to check out Jaunted’s guides to San Juan for some ideas on where to eat and sleep in the Old City.

Hey Chicago and New York: Get away to Mexico City this Memorial Day for cheap

by Grant Martin on

People often don’t think about traveling over the holidays before it’s too late and ticket prices have gone through the roof. Good thing you’ve got me around. Just be glad you don’t know me personally, I’m always pestering people to buy tickets and they hate me for it.

Anyway, we’ve been looking for good tickets to buy for my girlfriend and I over Memorial Day, and blogger Jeremy (aka, Yaro, aka SATIJ) stumbled on a great fare to Mexico City over that weekend. For a paltry 280$, you can get yourself into the cultural and economic center of our neighbors to the south from either Chicago or New York, leaving Friday or Saturday and returning on Tuesday, the day after the holiday.

Oh but it gets better. If you want to book today or tomorrow, there’s also a 50$ off rebate that you can use with Northwest. So your ticket price drops to 230$.

Use a month long search on the NWA website to find your tickets out of Chicago or New York. You’ll also find that the fare is good for multiple weekends in April and May as well.

Mexico City to big and dirty and scary for you? It’s actually not as bad as it used to be. Take a gander through their wikitravel page and I think you’ll be impressed at what you see. And if you need any personal advice, ask Yaro for some tips and he’ll hook you up. Ask him about his nicknames while you’re at it.

I’ll see you in Mexico City. Just don’t forget your passport.

Take fifty bucks off any $250 Southwest flight with Paypal

by Grant Martin on

Paypal seems to be trying to get some clout in the financial market. Last week I found a deal where they were offering 50$ off NWA flights booked with their proprietary online money tool. Unbeknownst to this blogger, it looks like they also kicked off the same promo for Southwest Airlines passengers. You need to book before March 27th, and the logistics all work in the same way that the NW deal does.

Check out Southwest’s promo page for additional info.

What they don’t mention on the site is if there are any restrictions on date of travel, so for now you might be able to get away with booking tickets late in the year using the code. So if you need to book anything through the summer (say, for the Fourth of July) when ticket prices are higher, you can plan ahead and jump on this deal now.

If you decide to wait in hopes that the ticket prices will go down, you’re playing a risky game. Tourist and traveler season is over the summer and you’re going to have a hard time finding tickets at reasonable rates. Best book your tickets now.

See Paula? Not all WN news is bad.

Upgrade your Priority Club account with free Ambassador Status

by Grant Martin on

If you travel with any regular frequency, hopefully you’ve started stockpiling rewards points. Whether these are frequent flyer miles with an airline or reward points with a credit card or hotel chain, it’s surprising how quickly things will add up when you’re on the road.

Most rewards programs have tiers of earning and rewards — American Airlines, for example has Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum. At each of these levels, one earns and can redeem their awards at different rates. The problem is that you have to travel a certain amount to obtain each level. In AA’s case, you have to fly 25k, 50k or 75k miles to reach these tiers, so most people won’t reach these levels and be able to reap the benefits.

Occasionally, however, one can sneak into higher brackets by participating in a promotion or being granted “status” by a customer representative. In the case of a new Priority Club promo code that came out, this is the case.

Priority Club is the frequent traveler rewards program of the Intercontinental Hotels system, home to Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and a few other, smaller chains.

Apparently by going to the secret promotion link and plugging in code 5446 you can catapult from your lowly plebeian status all of the way up to Ambassador Status in one, swift, ordinary-traveler-smiting move after staying in an IC hotels group three times before June 30.

And what do you get with this hifalutin Ambassador Status? According to members of the underground, you get “5,000 bonus points along with the usual perks of the Ambassador Status – Weekend Night Certificate, Guaranteed room upgrade to superior, Extended check-out (4 p.m.), Special check-in desk, Gold Elite Reward Status, and fresh fruit and mineral water upon arrival”

Not a bad deal for three nights in the next few months.

I’m not really sure how widespread or publicized this promo goes, or whether it was ever meant for the general public. So if you do decide to indulge, register as soon as you can before they yank the promo.