What are your favorite rewards/loyalty programs?

[kork13]

If you make use of AAA's other services it can be well worth it. We travel a lot so the hotel discounts can really add up.

Perhaps... Though as a military member, I also get a variety of 10-25+% discounts at alot of different places (travel, restaurants, airlines, touristy things, etc.), so again, AAA doesn't really offer me (or many of my friends) very much added benefit. Many credit cards and other memberships (such as Costco) also offer alot of comparable discount benefits.

I think AAA gets undercut alot by services/benefits that many people who would be potential AAA customers already have, so they don't see a need to pay for a separate membership service. Many people expect such benefits to be provided free or as integrated parts of other services.

[QuarterMillionMan]

So much for this TD Ameritrade $25 gift card every month.

[ua_guy]

What do non-boomers do for roadside assistance? My daughter is 24 and we signed her up for AAA as soon as she started driving.

I know some cars come with roadside assistance and some insurance companies include it as well, but if you don't have either of those, AAA is the way to go. Plus you get various discounts, travel services, and more.

It's just tongue-in-cheek as it's a very "old" way to cover roadside assistance, same way with pulling out an AAA card and asking for a discount at a restaurant or hotel. A lot of people get roadside assistance as part of their vehicle's insurance policy, and it IS cheaper, sometimes substantially cheaper.

The reason I have AAA is because the roadside coverage is very different compared to what my own vehicle insurance policy can offer. I have the AAA premier plan with RV membership. They cover up to 200 miles of towing to ANY location of your choice, not just the nearest repair facility. For my classic vehicles, I can specify they tow it on a flatbed. AAA/rv covers heavy duty trucks as our motorhome is and can send out a rig that's equipped to change a truck tire and/or be able to tow a 20,000lb vehicle; most motorhomes don't have spares, so this is an important service.

Some of the other little-known benefits is they provide recovery service (heavy wrecker), travel assistance (free rental car and hotel reimbursement for breakdown) and a few other fringe benefits.

It also covers any vehicles I'm riding in, even if I don't own them.

[Drake3287]

As mentioned before, my BofA Travel Rewards Visa card is our go-to rewards/loyalty gimmick. We easy earn around $2,500. back in cash each year, just recently my elderly mother passed away and you guessed it, I put the entire funeral/burial process on my card, easiest $400. in cash rewards I've ever earned, my mom would have been proud! We're also big Open Table fans, sort of a pain using the points for meal discounts so I just use them for a $20.00 Amazon card.

And of course now that stupid Monopoly game at Safeway just restarted again so my wife's busy with that.

[rennigade]

AAA - wife stayed in a hotel approx 120 nights last year. Rates are significantly cheaper if you have AAA.

Costco Visa - Not sure how much we spent but we're getting back $820. Not to mention, extended warranty if you buy stuff from costco.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I searched Yelp's "cash back" restaurants in my area and only Denny's (5% back) was the only restaurant I recognized. Some restaurants offered as little as 4% cash back and up to 15% cash back but I've never heard of them before. No Pizza Hut, no Domino's, no buffets such as Golden Corral, Hometown buffet, Soup Plantation, etc. Yelp's cash back program seems lame to me. Hope others (ie, Disneysteve, etc) have better luck in your areas.

Edit to add: Los Angeles area

[disneysteve]

I searched Yelp's "cash back" restaurants in my area

Where did you find the place to do that search? I can't seem to find anyway to do it. It just asks me to enroll my card but I don't want to do that unless it will be worth it.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Where did you find the place to do that search? I can't seem to find anyway to do it. It just asks me to enroll my card but I don't want to do that unless it will be worth it.

Happy to oblige for you disneysteve.

[scfr]

Best Western rewards program (DH earns points when he travels on business) has been really useful. We got free nights when we took a vacation and when we moved. The pet policy at many locations is reasonable, which makes this one especially appealing to us since we brought our dog with us.

Target Red Card 5% discount has been super useful, mostly when ordering items for my mom. With the discount, the prices on the things she needs are the most competitive, and shipping times are good.

[disneysteve]

Happy to oblige for you disneysteve.

Thanks. I took a look. There are tons of places in our area but really only a couple that we go to. Also, the terms say that if you are registered with other similar programs, you won't get credited for both. I may still sign up because I'd think if the place isn't participating in the other programs it would still count.

[disneysteve]

We're also big Open Table fans, sort of a pain using the points for meal discounts so I just use them for a $20.00 Amazon card.

I actually have yet to redeem points. What about it is a pain? We've built up almost 10,000 points at this point so I was hoping to use it toward a meal sometime.

[Dido]

I use the American Express with 6% back on groceries to pay for my groceries. Even with a membership fee of $75/year, I benefit. I couple this by buying as much as I can at Giant, a local grocery chain, including things like toiletries, greeting cards, cleaning supplies, and pet food that I might otherwise have purchased at CVS, Lowe's, or PetSmart. Oh, and wine too now that PA allows you to buy wine at the grocery store rather than just at the state store. (Not that I buy more than one bottle a month if that!) And of course, I have a card that gives me discounts at Giant itself. The benefits really took off for me when Giant opened a gas station at my local store. By bunching as many non-grocery purchases as I can at Giant, I accumulate points which I then use to reduce my gasoline bill by typically 20 or 30 cents a gallon. Then I pay for my gas with a GasBuddy card (tied to a dedicated checking account that never has more than $200 in it) to get an *additional* 5 cents off on gasoline.

I also belong to Amazon Prime and have a Chase Amazon card which gets me 5% back on most purchases through Amazon, and a Bank of America Cash Rewards credit card that allows you to pick one "3% bonus" category per month, which you can change monthly. That is my default card for paying for meals out, although when I had my roof done back in November, I changed my monthly category to "home improvement" for the month and maxed out the allowable reward. The 3% eligible bonus categories include groceries, wholesale clubs, gasoline, dining, travel, drug stores and home improvement, so if I were traveling, I might also change my default category. Customers who have BoA deposit accounts are eligible for a Premier card that gets them an additional bonus, but that doesn't apply to me.

[james.hendrickson]

Guys - has anyone sat down and thought through how much additional spending you do BECUASE of the rewards programs?

For example, sometimes when I go to Kroger - I just think "oh, I'll buy whatever, I don't need to comparison shop, I'll just scan my receipt with Ibotta), and as a result, I actually think I might be spending MORE, not less.

[disneysteve]

Guys - has anyone sat down and thought through how much additional spending you do BECUASE of the rewards programs?

For example, sometimes when I go to Kroger - I just think "oh, I'll buy whatever, I don't need to comparison shop, I'll just scan my receipt with Ibotta), and as a result, I actually think I might be spending MORE, not less.

That's a great question, James. Certainly, you need to be careful not to do that. I think we're pretty good about it. When we decide we want to go out to dinner, we will preferentially choose one of the places with a rewards program or bonus points on Open Table but those places aren't any more expensive than the other options.

That said, there have been times when we decided to go out to eat because the rewards program had a special - free appetizer or free dessert or double points or BOGO. So if we went out when we weren't planning to, we did spend extra money.

[disneysteve]

We also use Marriott Rewards a lot (now called Bonvoy since the merger). When we are planning a trip, I always check Marriott first to see what they have available in the area and if it meets our needs at a reasonable price. Sometimes we have paid a little extra to stay at a Marriott but only if I felt the value of the reward points we'd earn made up for it. We belong to pretty much every other hotel reward club anyway so if Marriott doesn't have a good price where we are going, we just earn points with someone else that trip.