Pokerstars Vip Store Question

[mark_foley]

Has anyone used the travel gift certificate? If so, did you have any problems with the company that it is set up through. Also, how comperable were the airline tickets prices versus Orbitz or Travelocity.

[NSchandler]

I haven't used them but there are some restrictions you'll want to look into before purchasing them.

Leftover balances on cards get wasted - so if you get a $2000 travel card and only use $1500 on your trip, the last $500 of it is lost.

And I think other people have mentioned that it's a bit pricier than expedia or orbitz.

I think there were some other restrictions, I forget.

Just make sure you know what you're getting yourself into before purchasing them.

[MicroBob]

I just completed my first purchase with them.

I got about the same price I would be able to get on orbitz.com or some place like that.

The main problems are:

1. It takes 3-4 days to receive the card numbers after you order them.
I didn't want to order the cards until I knew that the price for our trip was okay.
By the time I finally got the cards the price had changed a little.

2. You can only get travel-cards for $1k or for $2500.
My trip was $2300-ish total.
So I paid for $300 of it on my credit-card when I certainly would have rather used FPP's.
I could have bought the $2500 travel-card but then would have been paying 'too many' FPP's for our $2300 trip and you don't get to keep the remainder.


Otherwise, the e-platinum group that you book the trip with are decent and professional. Although I found the process of trying to book the trip via e-mail to take a little longer than I would have otherwise expected.

i would be willing to use them again though.


Another issue could be with less expensive trips within the U.S.
Too bad you can't very easily use it for a quick flight to Vegas since that would be well under $1k.
And for 'flight only' trips they say they could be subject to a fee.

My trip is flight-only, but I guess the international travel is costly enough that I didn't have to pay the fee.

[mark_foley]

I was just going to use the $1k travel card for plain tickets to Australia and New Zealand and pay the balance my self. Would using this be more efficient way of using points than doing the reward bonus?

[pyakr]

Can you check pricing and packages before you decide to get the travel card? Anyone have the site and phone number?

[MicroBob]

yes you can check the prices that they offer you (and compare to what you can get on the internet).


Their e-mail address is available on the FAQ's about e-platinum and then they write you back then you have their phone # too.

If there's a price you like though you can't book it right-away.
It takes 3-4 days or so to then order the travel-cards via Pokerstars, and by the time you get them the price for your trip may have changed.
Hopefully not considerably of course.



mark foley - it's probably better than exchanging for cash. But you should probably check the prices of your trip compared to what you could get elsewhere to be certain about this.


My trip cost about the same as what I could get on the internet.
The original price quoted to me was actually cheaper.
But by the time I got the travel-cards 4 days later there was an increase in price for one of the legs of our trip.

[BradleyT]

Could you have used room service and have it put on "the card"?

[InsanePiker]

the other day I was gonna buy something from the VIP store, but then I realized I wasn't VIP, wtf do I have to do, I lose nearly every day and my mom is sick with cancer and it sickens me? LOL WTF OMG it sickens me?

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Could you have used room service and have it put on "the card"?

[/ QUOTE ]


huh?

do you mean the concierge service?

You have to be SN to use that (and I'm not...yet).
And I also thought it was a minimum of $3k (180k FPP's).

My trip only cost $2300 so I got 2 of the $1k travel-cards and paid $300 cash.


I don't know if concierge will book travel for you or not since they already have the travel-agency.

But if I book a trip that goes over the $3k mark (lengthy trip to Europe perhaps?) and I think the price I'm getting from e-platinum is less than spectacular than I will definitely be checking to see if I can have concierge book it for me at a better price on orbitz or something.


Overall though it appears that e-platinum's prices are reasonably competitive with what you can get online.

I still think the leg of our trip from Memphis to Lima, Peru actually cost us LESS than what I could find on orbitz and other sites.

Those sites quoted me $878 each before taxes and processing fees or whatever.
E-platinum gave me $900 each AFTER all the processing fees and taxes and stuff.


Disappointing that you can't buy travel-cards at the exact price of your trip OR at least have part of the balance of your cards carry over for future use.
Basically that ensures that you will ALWAYS either have some travel-card value that you aren't using OR you will have to pay some of your own cash for part of the trip.


Think about the scenario of a trip that costs $1800.
I really wouldn't want to get $2k in travel cards because then I'm just throwing away $200 in FPP's.
But the other option where I have to pay $800 of my own cash to complete the purchase is kind of sucky too.

[BradleyT]

RE: my question -
Could you spend $1800 on airfare + hotel and use $200 in room service at the hotel?