Celebrate national train day with free companion tickets (on May 10th) from Amtrak

by Grant Martin on

Oh how festive. In honor of the “national train day” that Amtrak has arbitrarily chosen as May 10th, the ailing national rail carrier is offering up free companion tickets for passengers. That’s a Saturday, in case you’re wondering.

You have to book your ticket today, April 4th though, for travel only on May 10th, so if you’re planning on booking a round trip with a return on a different day, you may have to book a separate ticket. But if you’re just heading out for a quick Saturday jaunt to New York City or Chicago, or want to take your mother up the coast real quick for Mother’s Day, this might work well for you.

Use coupon code H768 only on April 4th to cash in on the deal.

Still, it does seem to be a bit difficult to participate in and take advantage of this offer. You would figure that for a seriously ailing industry who can’t seem to manage competing with Chinatown Buses let alone even operate in the black that you would have a more wily or aggressive marketing crew. But hey, what do I know?

Interested in other coupon codes that you might be able to use on the way back or instead? Try out this thread on Flyertalk.

Travel Alert! $50 off Expedia coupon code

by Grant Martin on

[Edit — this deal has expired! Congrats to those who got in!]

Tooling around for hotels in Japan (I still haven’t found anything, Firestone) this morning, I stumbled upon a mistake discount code good for Expedia.com

Code ELITEPLUS50 takes 50$ off per night for what appears to be any hotel room in the database over 50$. I’ve been pandering around all morning pricing out various rooms over various periods. For starters, my girlfriend is leaving town early Monday morning next week, so I booked a hotel room for under 10$ near the airport so we can wake up as late as possible.

Hotels in Chicago, Tokyo and everywhere else I looked seem to work as well.

It crossed my mind that I could enroll in one of those hotel rewards jobbers and try too book a month straight of 4$ hotel rooms. Show up the first day, get the key and let the points roll in. After a month or so, show back up and check out.

But I suppose that would be unethical, wouldn’t it?

So if you do make use of this coupon code, try to keep it under control. I have a feeling once Expedia gets around to finding out their error that the code won’t last more than a couple of hours anyway. Happy booking.

More sales to Central and South America on American

by Grant Martin on

As Airfarewatchdog dutifully pointed out earlier today, American Airlines just released another coupon code for 20% off Central and South America.

In and of itself, the discount is pretty substantial, but when you add the fact that American already has some of the lowest prices on the market to several destinations, the savings really start to pile up.

Take San Jose, Costa Rica. I’ve been fighting several of my friends trying to schedule a bachelor party in early April and domestic tickets across the board to somewhere warm are upwards of 300$. But using this coupon code I’ve been able to price tickets to CR in around the 225$ range.

Tickets to Central America this cheap don’t come around very often.

Use coupon code DFNNWLAT by December 19th to take your discount, then travel between December 13 and May 14 ’08. More details about the discount can be found at the airfarewatchblog or AA.com

Go to Costa Rica, for me at least, and I will live vicariously through you.

Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean sale codes from American Airlines

by Grant Martin on

Our tireless friends over at Airfarewatchdog have found a couple of handy coupon codes today for reduced fare on American Airlines from the 48 into Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean.

DFALOHAGO should get you 15% off a ticket to The Aloha State while

DFDECMXCRPL should do for the latter bloc.

As usual, there are oddly juxtaposed terms and conditions that I could spend the next half hour breaking down and laying out for you, so I’ll give you the quick summary. You need to travel to Hawaii between December and March 6, in contrast to travel between now and December 20 for Mexico and the Caribbean. You also need to book pretty soon. If you want the full terms and conditions, check the AA website.

Be sure to bounce over to the airfarewatchblog as well; they have a team of staff and writers working full time finding us these codes and fares.

More codes from Virgin America: Fly a friend for free!

by Grant Martin on

The battle the transcontinental market continues. Earlier, I mentioned that Virgin America (VX) released a coupon code for 25% off flights. In their latest marketing ploy, tickets are now buy one get one free with the coupon code DIGGNATION. Restrictions obviously apply, but if if you tinker around with their search engine you should be able to find some competitive prices for you and a favorite friend to get across the country.

As usual, don’t assume that just because you used a coupon code that you’re getting the best deal. Make sure you plug your same itinerary into Kayak, Jetblue and Southwest to make sure that VX isn’t inflating their prices.

Book before the end of the day on December 7th to take advantage of the offer. Check Virgin’s promo page for term’s and conditions.