The 2010s are in the books, and what a decade it has been!
10 years ago I was still wondering what I was going to do for a living. It’s been quite a fun ride since then with over 200 million site visits over the decade, as I said in my birthday post, sometimes I need to pinch myself 🙂
The Yated asked me what my favorite deal was and I avoided the question. But here is a sampling of amazing deals from the 2010s:
2010:
- Expedia.ca $300 off $300 coupon for travel to select cities. I was glued to my computer, completely unaware that there were dozens of people waiting for me to show up at a surprise birthday party. Unsurprisingly, that was my last surprise birthday party, but I wound up booking all of the guests free vacations to Las Vegas. I went with a friend to Vegas just 2 days later and we had free airfare, a free Bellagio suite, free kosher lamb chops, and free Cirque du Soleil tickets.
- Hyatt offered their final “Faster Free Nights” promo that offered a free night at any Hyatt with every 2 paid stays. For $100 I was able to make 2 stays to earn a free Hyatt night and earn 13.5K United miles and 6,000 Hyatt points. As more and more travel blogs started launching around this time and as the economy improved, the annual promotion dating back to 2002 was no longer sustainable.
- BMI offered free elite status and then took it away when too many people signed up, but not before people were able to match the status to other airlines.
- Transfer 50K AMEX points and get 90K Delta miles and 25K Delta elite qualifying miles.
- Transfer 20K Starpoints into 33,750 AA miles, back when those miles counted towards lifetime elite status
- Expedia $400 off $400 Bahamas Vacations.
- JetBlue airfare+hotels for just $99.
- JetBlue offered a $499 pass that allowed you to fly as much as you were able to!
- Free Webcam
- There have been countless free stuff over the years, who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch?
- Small Business Saturday was launched and all AMEX primary and secondary cards got a $25 off $25 credit!
2011:
- The gravy train of ordering dollar coins from the mint came to an end. My local banks must have been thrilled. For years I bought dollar coins on my credit card and deposited them into my checking account. The irony of driving $60,000 of coins at a time in a rusting Chevy Venture bought at a car auction for $2,000 was amazing.
- I got tens of thousands of free Pampers diapers thanks to Amazon’s war on Marc Lore’s Diapers.com. Amazon won the war and was able to force them to sell their business to Amazon prematurely. Marc Lore eventually took over Walmart’s e-commerce and would return the favor years later.
- Fairmont offered lifetime Platinum status and luckily they even spelled out that it meant a lifetime of free annual nights in a suite and free spa certificates. I wound up with 9 lifetime Platinum accounts with 9 annual free nights and thousands of dollars in annual spa credit thanks to Living Social’s refer 3, get it free promo. Both Fairmont and Accor have tried to kill this off, but I’ve fought tooth and nail to make them honor their promises.
- The first 100K credit card signup bonus.
- JetBlue flights from across the country to NYC or Boston for $25.
- Delta flights to Europe for $150 round-trip…in the days before basic economy.
- Amazon Payments allowed users to send and receive $1,000/month via credit card payments. Those were the days! The gravy train ended in 2014.
- I got hundreds of free gift cards thanks to the AMEX Gift Chain.
- Borders offered 50%+10% off the Artscroll Shas, and they even awarded up to $390 in rewards dollars afterward!
- JetBlue offered $25 transcontinental flights.
- BA Miles became BA Avios and domestic flights could be had for just 4,500 Avios.
- Small Business Saturday returned and was valid on all AMEX primary and secondary cards for a $25 off $25 credit!
- Continental released tons of business saver awards
2012:
- El Al had $336 tickets from NYC to Tel Aviv. They even allowed upgrades to nonstop flights.
- In a DDF only deal, BMI offered unlimited Avios for opening account. We flew to Vancouver in Cathay Pacific first class for free!
- In another DDF only deal, HP sent out $200 off $200 coupons to everyone who purchased an item from a price mistake.
- Delta offered nonstops from NYC to Tel Aviv for $550.
- Alitalia’s Japan site offered $316 tickets off any ticket, making for bargain travel to Europe and Israel.
- Miami to Argentina for just $291 round-trip
- A free RV and free gas in Canada
- Aegean made it so easy to earn Star Alliance Gold status
- I missed part of my firstborn son Rafi’s first birthday party when United offered first class flights to Hong Kong for just 4 miles. United cancelled most of these, but several DDFers booked close-in tickets and wound up flying for just 4 miles!
- JetBlue had mystery coupons worth up to $300 each. I flew my family to Aruba for free!
- Small Business Saturday returned and was valid on all AMEX primary and secondary cards for a $25 off $25 credit!
2013:
Haha @DansDeals pic.twitter.com/AEaS9QP1nh
— Shooty shoot (@THE_SHEESER) February 27, 2014
Thank you @DansDeals. On our way to Hawaii. pic.twitter.com/emJdmL8m4c
— Naftali Levenbrown (@nlevenbrown) March 2, 2014
Look how many ppl on the aircraft r @DansDeals fans the plane was delayed over an 1 due to many strollers pic.twitter.com/meZKuxdLuS
— Ls Reports (@iPostFeed) January 26, 2014
- Delta had most of their domestic tickets, including Alaska and Hawaii, for just $50 in first class! Thousands of DansDeals readers packed Delta flights. You can read some of the aftermath in this anniversary post.
- In a DDF only deal, we flew first class to Argentina for free with just an hour lead time before the flight when BA was not charging for award tickets.
- $50 off $50 hotel coupon
- On Mimi’s 26th birthday, USAirways offered flights from NYC to Israel for $461 and from Chicago to Israel for $302.
- For my 29th birthday, Norway’s Widerøe Airlines sold tickets on United to Europe for $127 and to Tel Aviv for $287. Price mistake? It turned out that Widerøe executives actually leaked the price mistake onto online forums in order to drum up business. Widerøe struck again a couple weeks later.
- A free hotel night in Times Square
- A free suite at the Intercontinental New York Barclay
- JetBlue offered 80% off flights from NYC.
- Load a Paypal Mastercard for a $4.95 and get $50 to spend at CVS.
- JetBlue’s 90% off sale for flights from NYC made for insane bargains.
- Gift Cards became pinnable, which created opportunities to cash them out.
- The good old days of Vanilla Reloads and no 5/24 rules.
- Chase actually sold Visa gift cards with no fees and awarded miles for buying them. You could even load it to an AMEX Bluebird card to cash out. What a country!
- Walmart.com had lots of price mistakes one morning.
- 50%+33% Off Chicco Products From Amazon
- We started a DansDeals Conga to get free credit card processing from Google…and Google loved it!
- Verizon allowed grandfathered unlimited data lines to upgrade their phones for free
- Small Business Saturday returned and was valid on all AMEX primary and secondary cards for a $10 credit
2014:
Dan from @DansDeals swiping his Amex at a small business on "small business day". pic.twitter.com/RlirDUb4TN
— Life Saver (@Willihock) November 30, 2014
- Etihad offered tickets to the Middle East for just $187 round-trip.
- I joined ISIS for free credit card spending…they wisely decided to rebrand.
- United Plan B lives on and offers a path to saver business awards even when they’re not available.
- When Uber launched they gave away free rides like candy.
- Target REDcard made it easy to load $5,000 every month from your credit card onto REDcard and then right back into a bank account.
- American released tons of first class award space to London
- AT&T Wireless offered $150 off $150 with AMEX Offers
- Children’s Place Price Mistakes
- Hotels.com offered free hotel nights
- The good old days of Citi Executive cards.
- A suite in Cancun for just $7
- Gap price mistakes
- A never ending supply of Dove Dry Spray Deodorant
- A suite at the Omni Berkshire Place NYC for just $49
- Alitalia had dirt cheap tickets from the US to Europe and Israel
- Transaero had tickets from the US to Israel for just $282-$352 round-trip.
- I signed up for years worth of free subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal and other magazines.
- Saks OFF 5th and Living Social discounts stacked for 90% off
- Small Business Saturday returned and was valid on all AMEX primary and secondary cards for a $30 credit
- Amazon had a price mistake on Green Toys
2015:
@DansDeals worked for me! Took twice today #Uber #TheRoyals pic.twitter.com/QqmmUTeFG6
— Michael Cabasso (@MIKEcabasso) March 16, 2015
- American/USAirways offered wide open business class space to Israel on nearly every date. They did it again just a month later and I booked my whole family to Israel for Purim, where I ran the last public DansDeals Seminar.
- This one wasn’t honored, but it sure was one to try for United first class tickets for $45.
- Delta offered $590 nonstop tickets from JFK to Tel Aviv
- Uber offered free Rolls Royce rides
- Getting paid to rent an Audi from Silvercar
- Getting paid to take paper from Staples. I still have reams of paper from this deal!
- Getting free Hyatt nights from Rite Aid
- Free diapers from Sam’s Club with AMEX Offers
- Free messenger bag from Florsheim
- Free shredder from Staples
- With AMEX Express Checkout you were able to get a $10 account credit for making a $0.01 purchase, up to 11 times per card! I called it Small Business Saturday in July.
- Transaero had tickets between the US and Israel from just $302.
- On Talia’s 2nd birthday, Air Canada had tickets to Israel for just $163 round-trip.
- American had business class tickets to Asia for just $442 round-trip.
- Airbnb had $100 gift cards for $50 with AMEX Offers. I stocked up big time!
- Iberia had $398 tickets to Israel.
- British Airways and offered business class tickets to London for $440+30K Avios, with a rebate of 37K Avios. We booked. FiAAsco ensued. It took 8 months to resolve.
- Free stuff from Jos A Bank
- Free headphones
- Free toilet paper. A throwback to the post that started it all!
- The final Small Business Saturday was only valid for targeted cards for $10 or $20 in credit. Over the years I was able to rack of thousands of dollars in gift cards to local grocery stores, restaurants, and was even able to get a diamond ring set in platinum for Mimi to replace her engagement ring that was falling apart. Those were the days!
2016:
at least he's got the look down. pic.twitter.com/Ll17aApXro
— Michael (@freetravelguys) November 3, 2016
- 26K Starpoints for an overwater pool villa at the incredible S. Regis Maldives? I was there in no time!
- Delta first class award tickets to Canada for just 250 miles and no tax
- Delta flights to Vancouver for $10
- The Islanders gave away free tickets to get people to the arena
- Virgin Australia flights from Sydney to LA for just $148
- JetBlue handed out 75K points for completing a single round-trip if you had Virgin America points. I took my whole family on a cheap flight and pooled our bounty of easy points together for many years of free flights on JetBlue. Virgin America account holders then got 10K free Alaska miles and a 30% bonus when their points were transferred to Alaska.
- JetBlue had transcontinental flights for just $64.
- The Sapphire Reserve 100K offer was one of the best signup bonuses of all time.
- Using Starpoints to fulfill a lifelong dream of being called up to the mound for Game 7 of the World Series in Cleveland
2017:
- Uber offered flat-fare packages from just $1.99 per ride.
- JetSmarter offered free private jet membership. I couldn’t believe it really worked! We flew to NYC for dinner and I took Rafi to an Indians game in Minneapolis for Father’s Day.
- Toys R Us had free Bugaboo strollers, video game systems, playgrounds and more.
- Amazon offered 80% off Handyman services on Prime Day. I had my backyard playground set up for cheap!
- JetBlue Vacations had a $250 off coupon, which made for free flights and hotels.
- Sprint offered free cell phone service in an effort to boost subscriber numbers
- On Mimi’s 30th birthday I went down to bank some waffles and got sidetracked for the entire morning as Air Canada had flights to Tel Aviv for just $150 round-trip. Readers shared what they booked and we went to Israel the next Shavuos with family that booked the deal.
- On my 33rd birthday, the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos had all-inclusive 2 bedroom suites for $291 after $900 off.
- A couple of days later, Home Depot had a price mistake on LG appliances, which they honored.
- Airbnb had a $200 off $200 coupon.
- Ukraine Air had $170 tickets to Israel.
- Emirates had tickets from the Maldives to JFK for $100. The deal made the WSJ. Emirates first cancelled bookings, then decided to honor them.
- Walmart had insane discounts when you selected in-store pickup. They went nuclear against Amazon and ultimately discovered that Amazon would beat their pricing on everything so they ended the discounting.
- The Presidential Suite at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego was bookable for the same price as a base room.
2018:
- Banana Republic had a $50 off $50 coupon that made for tons of free clothes.
- On Mimi’s 31st birthday we were in Miami when Hong Kong Airlines had $550 round-trip business class tickets to Asia. They honored the deal and asked travelers to spread the word.
- Booking fake Iberia tickets for $27 to get 90,000 Avios.
- Toys R Us had 50% off Bugaboo strollers, video game systems, playgrounds and more.
- Alaska Air had tickets to Hawaii for $98
- Carter’s had buy 1, get 3 free sitewide.
- Amazon’s Prime Day sale had free diapers after stacking coupons.
- Amazon’s Prime Day sale had free shampoo, wipes, and lots of other free products.
- A 20% off AMEX Offer stacked to offer a discount on the original price on Prime Day items, making for some incredible bargains. For example $429 Samsonite luggage was just $33 after stackable savings!
- The Angsana Velavaru Maldives has 2 bedroom overwater villas for just $300.
- Ashley Furniture Price Mistakes
- For my 34th birthday, QVC gave away free stuff.
- And Lowe’s gave away free gift cards
- And I got way too many free Google Home Minis
- And Google Fi offered gift cards equal to the price of any phone purchase, essentially making a Pixel cost nothing. I even made an extra $100 thanks to an AMEX Offer!
- SAS: Pay For 1 Adult’s Airfare And Send Up To 8 Kids To HEL For Free!
- Levi Benjaminson got the deal of a lifetime when he won 2 free tickets on the first and only kosher cruise to Antarctica of the 21st century. He even printed a Tanya on our Falkland Islands detour.
2019:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0g15gEFJxY/?utm_source=ig_embed
- Cathay Pacific had $30,000 first class tickets for just $845. You were also able to earn enough miles for another Cathay Pacific first class flight! They honored the deal with class.
- Air New Zealand had business class tickets to Australia for $1,500. JJ was thrilled when they told him they were honoring the deal as he took his family down under for a whole month.
- The Shoes.com and ELEVTD deal of the decade all started when DDF member EliJelly noticed last Wednesday that a pair of ECCO shoes was on sale for just $24.95. This was the first mention of the deal anywhere online! I posted a roundup of ECCO shoes on sale for $24.95 shipped followed by a roundup of other shoe brands also on sale for $24.95. Then came a post about down jackets on sale for $24.95. Then DansDeals commenter Mountain Man noticed that there were Ferragamo shoes on sale for $24.95 and we made a post on all of the designer shoes on sale from sister site ELEVTD for $24.95. A 20% off code then came out, dropping the price to just $19.96 shipped! Readers traded shoes and shared their insane hauls.
- Qantas had a 44% stackable transfer bonus that made for incredible bargains for travel on El Al.
- Amazon had mirrorless cameras and DSLRs for just $94 after insane Prime Day discounts.
- Amazon had the Ring Pro and an Echo Dot for just $64 (or $14 with AMEX) for Prime Day.
- American had tickets to Australia for just 10,000 miles round-trip
- American had tickets to New Zealand for just 10,000 miles round-trip
- American had tickets to Hawaii for just 10,000 miles round-trip
- JetBlue had tickets nationwide from just 200 points
- Frontier had free flights…if your name was Green or Greene.
- Amazon Fire 7 and a case for $21 or free with AMEX Offers
- CLEAR membership was available for a free year.
- Free stuff from Lenovo
- 4 stacking Kohl’s codes meant $55 of items cost just $15
- Kohl’s had 3 appliances for $6 shipped, plus you earned $15 in Kohl’s Cash
- For my 35th birthday, American and Delta had business class tickets to brazil for just $1,193 round-trip.
- HP had a Black Friday sale on a 10th Gen Core i7 Laptop for as low as $349.99, plus that stacked with a 20% off Chase Offer
- Alaska Airlines offered transcontinental tickets for just $56 and tickets to Hawaii for just $75.
- Blade offered helicopter rides between Manhattan and NYC airports for just $72.
- United offered $421 nonstop tickets from Tel Aviv to NYC if you also took a short train ride. Enterprising readers even managed to get United to cancel the train ride.
- Go Everywhere offered yearlong activity passes across the country for a mere $20.20.
Don’t forget the rules of the deal before the next amazing deal pops up!
Looking back at hundreds of incredible deals, it certainly helps me take a step back and appreciate all that I’ve got to do and experience in the past decade.
None of it would have been possible if not for my amazing readers, I’ve said it before, but I don’t say it enough. You guys are amazing, and when you read my blog, use our links, and support our advertisers, it means the world to me and makes all of this possible.
Thank you!
What are your favorite deals that you took advantage of? Which deals do you regret missing? And what other deals did I forget to include in the roundup above?
Don’t want to miss a deal? See this post to setup deal alerts on your phone!
Definitely the shoes.com/elevtd deal! Got a closet filled with designer shoes and sold some for $$$. Also the Halloween jetblue deal for $31 each way! Went to Disney for the day
YASSSS BEST DEAL EVER!!!! Dan we love you!! Keep it up 🙂 #fangirls
Hands down the Delta glitch. First class RT JFK-OGG for $119.
@dan, and now what was your least deal the last decade, or the most flight nightmare?
It’s in the post 🙂
DD gets me to Israel each year with some winter sale (recently black Friday). These tickets are paid with accumulated amex/chase points. Hotel stays are free with hotel credit cards. All cards and much spend are done with DD’s recommendations. Without you I would never get to Israel.
Thanks a ton !
2012 Going to Israel for $350 via ELAL, and for an extra $150, flew direct. Thanks!
THE ELEVTD STORE IS CLOSED AS OF 12/31/19
FOR QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT SERVICE@ELEVTD.COM OR 1.877.535.8152
Seems we put them out of business!!! @dan
Wow!!!
Maybe it was a going out of business sale?
Dan, when are you launching an app with which we can track how many dansdeals we’ve cashed in on and how much money its saved us?
On an unrelated point, skimming through the article I read “free headphones” as saying “free headaches”. Did a double take and then realized I’d misread it..
The bags of crap
Dan now I know how you have Marriott titanium! Fairmont status match?
Lol, no.
how much do those ferragamo heels elevtd deal retail for?those look very nice
I like how you said to people during the Fairmont Platinum Status sale, you said “congrats to everyone who got one”, but you end up buy 9!! Give me a break. No wonder people were lucky to get one. There was limited amounts for sale and you buy 9. SMH
There was no quantity limit. They killed the deal early when corporate got ahold of what was going on as they had not authorized the hotel to give away lifetime Platinum status. Apparently it was intended to be one year of Platinum status.
I think the Uber ride passes for $5-$10 a trip to anywhere was definitely one of the top deals of the last decade
Yeah the one for 2.99 pool and 9.99 uber x
Think it was $25-35 value on each one.
Remember taking pools worth $25 for 2.99
Memories
Added, thanks!
or taking trips that normally cost a couple of hundred dollars for $10
I must of missed that one. Don’t recall
Mine was canceled, but I’m trying to find reference to that insane deal with Lysol wipes, I think from Officemax…a co-worker of mine basically got a pallet of them on his front porch, and I remember one DDF member joking he added enough to his cart for it to say he was saving roughly the price of a Toyota Avalon.
Great job putting this together! Awesome post and an entertaining walk down memory lane!
Thanks, it was fun reliving the memories 🙂
I got the BA 100k mile offer in 2009 or 2010
The GO everywhere pass might make the 2019 list. On January 2nd I believe they are sending them out.
We will see what happens
Added, thanks!
The quote ” there’s no such thing as a free lunch” means that somebody has to pay for
It, not whether you specifically have to pay for it. So if national is offering free elite status although for you it’s free but they’re going to have to pay for it, so it ain’t a “free lunch”.
2019- Lord and Taylor $100 off $200 black Friday, stackable with Black Friday deals-Brooks Brothers $25 shirts and sweaters,
$25-30 Cashmere sweaters
Not good enough. Looking for remarkable deals
What a shame I didnt hear of you 2 years ago!
Thanks Dan, great post.
So it seems that as time goes on the deals are less valuable..
I think some of the best deals were recent ones.
The flights to SA! took my whole fam to visit the grandparents – something we could never afford on our own! And it was their best trip yet! They are all still talking about it. Thank you!
@Dan
The Yated article mentions that you don’t remember the last time you paid for a flight. Aren’t there promotional or seasonal paid tickets that are not worth using miles or can’t be bought with points?
Not worth it to pay cash if you can use miles – when you have unlimited miles. If you have so many miles that you can never use them up, that is like unlimited.
That’s what Hybrid points are for.
The Google Fi deal. Got my money in hotels.com gift cards.