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- iHaveNet.com: Travel
By Ed Perkins
The hotel program for 2010 is down to 33 brand names, drawn mainly from three big multi-brand chains:
-- Discounts at the 10 mostly mid-price and budget Choice Hotels brands are now "up to" 10 percent off, close to a meaningless promise: Ascend, Cambria Suites, Clarion, Comfort Inn/Suites, Econo Lodge, MainStay Suites, Quality Inn, Rodeway Inn, Sleep Inn, and Suburban Extended Stay.
-- Discounts at the nine mostly upscale Starwood brands are 5 percent to 25 percent off the "best available" rate, another vague promise: Aloft, Element, Four Points, Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, Sheraton, St. Regis, W, and Westin.
-- Discounts at the 11 Wyndham brands in all price ranges are 10 percent off:
-- members receive unspecified "credits" and "purchase discounts" at resorts in the Sandals/Beaches group.
Among the other three chains,
In checking out this year's program, I found some minor discrepancies between the deals as posted on the AARP Website and those posted on the hotels' own sites. I list the latter.
Although other big chains and individual hotels do not participate in the program, many of them nevertheless offer senior discounts. Most are in the same range as
Beyond hotels, members get a range of other travel discounts:
-- Up to 20 percent to 25 percent off many car rental rates at Alamo,
-- Reductions of $50 to $75 per person on AMA Waterways, MSC, and Hurtigrunen cruises.
-- Reductions on tour packages up to $200 per person on Collette Tours, DuVine Adventures, General Tours, Grand European Tours, Journeys Unlimited, and Regina Tours, plus 5 percent reductions on vacation rentals from The Right Vacation Rental.
Your strategy for finding your best deal remains about as it has been for several years. Start by looking for special promotions and "sales" available to travelers of any age. You can do that easily through any of the big online search programs, such as Smartertravel's booking engine, kayak, or DealBase, or one of the big online agencies such as
If you're sure you won't cancel -- and will accept a "run of the house" room assignment -- you can often cut your hotel bills substantially by buying through one of the two big "opaque" sites, Hotwire or Priceline. They're even better for rental cars, where you typically don't care which rental company supplies the car. Even if you add in the price of cancellation "insurance," those opaque rates can be a lot lower than the best openly posted deals.
© Ed Perkins
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Travel | Travel AARP Travel Deals 2010: Still Underwhelming