The major hotel chains sometimes sell discounted gift cards, which is a great way to lower the cost of hotel stays. For the past few years Fairmont has been offering bonuses on gift card purchases at least twice a year.
They typically offer one of these promotions around Mother’s Day and one around Black Friday, and this year will be no different. This actually doesn’t appear to specifically be due to the current circumstances (though we’ve seen that from other hotel groups).
Between 2PM and 5PM ET today (Wednesday, May 6, 2020) you can buy a Fairmont e-gift card with a 20% bonus.
Historically each person can only take advantage of the promotion once, though you can purchase up to $5,000 worth of gift cards under the offer, which would lead to a $1,000 bonus.
Each gift card can be worth at most $2,000, so you’d want to load your shopping cart with a few gift cards if you wanted to maximize the offer.
You can choose whether you want to buy gift cards in USD or CAD. While you can use the gift cards in currencies other than the ones they’re issued in, the conversion rates used for those purposes may be unfavorable.
The gift cards don’t expire, and you don’t have to stay at a Fairmont hotel to use a gift card — they’re also valid for restaurant and spa purchases.
I know Tiffany used this for her stay at the Fairmont Kea Lani a few years ago, and it saved her quite a bit of money.
Bottom Line
In general these Fairmont gift card deals are worthwhile, as getting a 20% bonus card represents a very nice offer.
This is a promotion that Fairmont has consistently been offering throughout the years at least twice a year, so for some people this will make sense, especially as the gift cards don’t expire.
If you’re interested, get ready, because you’ll have just a few hours to take advantage of this.
Do you plan to take advantage of this Fairmont gift card offer?
I bought last year to stay at Banff and Calgary. In addition, I stacked this discount with hotels’ offers so got even more discounts. It was worth the hassle to buy multiple gift cards. This year I’m gonna pass. Who knows when we won’t have to be quarantined for 14 days in Canada when crossing border? Although I suppose there are Fairmonts here in the US.
Until recently (March or so), Costco.ca sold C$100 Fairmont gift cards for C$75 that could only be used in Canada. I emailed Ford and his colleague said they should be able to be used with Virtuoso rates.
Surprised that they’re not bulking up the discount a bit this year to say, 25%, given that I’m sure they could use the cashflow right now.
I’m so disappointed. I set an alarm to look for this around Mother’s Day each year since we always go to Fairmont. I checked their site on Monday. Even checked again Tuesday when they sent me an email. Nothing. Checked again today. And I missed it. -shakes fists in rage- I literally have a kid home full time and am also working full time from home and can not devote more of my life to things like this. It’s hard to stay loyal when you do everything you can and still miss opportunities like this!! And it’s only spring and fall they do it!