ntle

I was wondering when is the next opportunity to purchase 20% FPC GCs would be

CanadaDH

Difficult to predict. In the fall, it has been consistently on Black Friday for the past few years. In the spring, the dates have been more variable, with the most recent years being May 4, June 24 and July 16.

So, your guess is as good as mine!

will5404

If you are looking at Canadian properties, one is available right now via Life Experiences and CostCo. These certificates don't work for non-Canadian properties though.

ntle

Thanks for the heads up! I tend to visit Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper fairly often in the winter so this is ideal. I'll wait to the regular sale to pick some up for my other travels.

Brendan

For GCs that work worldwide & are denominated in US$: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/fairm...rmont-gcs.html
For cert.s denominated in CAD & are valid only in Canada per Will5404 above, still available from costco.ca after Feb. 13:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/fairm...b-13-17-a.html

vthokiekristen

We've used the 20% off gift cards in the past. I am assuming that this deal from lifeexperiences has to be booked directly through them? We have current reservations at 2 properties later this spring, using the CAA/AAA rates. I don't think I can combine them, but wanted to ask in case someone could confirm.

Jasper2009

Welcome to Flyertalk!

You can actually book whatever rate you want and then use the GCs purchased from Lifeexperiences.

vthokiekristen

Thank you for the welcome and the advice! I'm glad I asked :-). It looked like I had to book through life experience. Now to see if I can manage to do this since I'm in the US. My next hurdle. If only they'd do the GC deal at the start of April vs. May like last year....

CanadaDH

You should be able to purchase lifeexperience certificates directly from the lifeexperience site when they have their next sale. However, I don't know if you can take advantage of the Costco 25% option. While Costco is an international membership, I'm not sure if USA Costco members can shop on Costco.ca, and vice versa? Costco.com doesn't sell them. Please do let us know.

Jasper2009

Another note: Neither I (nor any of my clients) were successful in buying GCs on the Lifeexperiences website using a non-Canadian credit card.

(It may be possible to do so calling their CS, though their hold times are apparently terrible)

vthokiekristen

I talked to Costco.ca today and can order online so I'm crossing my fingers that this works.

escape4

Can gift cards be used in combination with certs such as 3rd night free or a Gold/Suite upgrade?

codesinvan

Absolutely, consider them as cash that you apply when you check out. Only caution is that they cannot be used on prepaid rates. I bought some gift cards to go to the Grand Del Mar and selected a prepaid rate because it was much lower than the other available rates. When I checked out and tried to use gift cards was told there was no solution to the prepaid rates. Confirmed this with the President's club line.

CanadaDH

That's not entirely true. I've booked rates that included a prepayment before, and was able to get the hotel to refund the prepayment to my credit card on check-out so I can then use gift cards. Each time, I've had the hotel confirm in writing in advance that they will do this, but I haven't run into problems.

At some hotels, this is unavoidable. I think Chateau Whistler requires a full prepayment of the entire stay 2 weeks before check-in, even when booking BAR. If they didn't allow refunds of prepayments, gift cards would be pretty much useless there, except for food and incidental purchases.

However, you might not want to do this, if refunding a charge for a stay in a different currency than your credit card. You may end up with a loss on exchange conversion, due to the spread on the purchase and refund exchange rates used by your bank.

escape4

So if the GCs are like cash, I do not see any reason to use anything but GCs to pay at Canadian properties? I guess paying with the Chase credit card gives you 5 pts per dollar spent but the value of the points is nowhere near 20%.

If buying from Lifeexperiences, is there a name on the vouchers? I am not a canadian resident but I could ask someone else to buy on costco.ca on my behalf, right?

Those GCs will end up saving me quite a bit of money!