Last Days to Get a $200 Gift Card on a $400 Flight!

If you have not yet used the travel site Upside, they are offering a great deal for booking your first travel package through them. Through the end of day August 31, 2017, if you spend $400 on a flight (or a travel package), you’ll receive a $200 gift card. The gift card can be redeemed for many merchants, including Amazon, CVS, Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Target, Uber, Netflix, Staples, Gap, Panera, plus many many more. You can create an account and book a flight using this link and code yfw8f0.

If you are able to take advantage of this deal and if you spend $400 on the dot, you are ultimately paying $200 for your flight. I consider Amazon gift cards the same as cash since I shop there quite often! If the flight you are looking to purchase is LESS then $400, you can purchase a package deal and add on Uber credits to get to the $400 minimum. You can also book a hotel (or hotel package), but I found the hotel selections to be limiting and over priced. The best deal is probably the flight + uber option, or just a flight if it is expensive to begin with.

Getting the $200 Gift Card Deal

To take advantage of this deal, you MUST sign up for an account at Upside and book through a persons referral link. It seems that only select members have the $200 gift card offer, so make sure to only use a link that has the increased offer, not the $125 offer. I personally have the $200 offer, so here is my link for those that would like to use my referral. Enter code yfw8f0 if it requires you to do so. Thank you in advance! 

My Experience Booking with Upside

I personally took advantage of a different gift card deal and booked a flight through Upside a few weeks ago. I had a flight I needed to book from Boston to Chicago and the flight was pricing out at $433 so this was the perfect opportunity to save some money. While I paid $433 upfront, after I take my flight in November I will receive the gift card. The flight also cost the exact same price if I booked directly through Upside or JetBlue, so booking through Upside did not cost me anything extra.

Booking through Upside was extremely easy. The interface is very user friendly and makes the booking process seamless. Although, I did find a few issues that might cause this site to not work for you:

• You cannot book a flight on Southwest.
• For many city pairs, a flight on Delta will not display.
• You cannot book one way flights.
• You cannot book two different airlines for your departure and return. If you want to take a JetBlue fight to your destination and a United flight home, for example, that will not work. This is a huge con as many times it is cheaper to book two different airlines depending on how they are pricing out.
• If you are looking to book a package deal with Uber, you can only purchase the Uber certificates in the following increments: $50, $100, $200, and $300. Not only that, they come in $25 credits so if your Uber only ends up costing $7, for example, it will use the entire credit, you will not receive the difference to use on another ride.

After booking with Upside, I received an email from them letting me know exactly what seat they reserved for me and asking for my Known Traveler Number. I could have entered it during the booking process, but I didn’t have it with me. They told me they’d work on getting me a different seat if I prefer window, aisle, middle, back of the plane, front of the plane, etc. I can also go directly on the JetBlue site and hand select my seat as well, which I will probably do. While I absolutely am able to handle getting all the information into my reservation myself, I do like the personal touch and I know there are many business travelers out there that like someone else doing the leg work for them.

Overall, this is a great opportunity to save some money on a flight you are looking to book over the next 2 days!