Travel Blog

Ask for Senior Discounts While Dining

May 5th, 2015 ernie Posted in Reduce Travel Costs No Comments »

This is not a complete list of discounts that are available to seniors, however as you can see we should always Ask for Senior Discounts While Dining. The worst they can say is no there is not a discount available. You might save money more often than you think.

Applebee’s: 10-15% off senior discounts (varies by location)

Arby’s: 10% off (55+)

A&W All American Food: 10% Senior discount varies by location

Backyard Burger: free drink with purchase

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – Yum! Ben & Jerry’s: 10% off for seniors (60+)

Bennigan’s: discount varies by location (60+)

Bob’s Big Boy: discount varies by location (60+)

Boston Market: 10% off (65+)

Burger King: 10% off (60+) plus additional discounts on coffee and soft drinks

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co: 10% off for AARP Members

Captain D’s Seafood – Senior Discount Wednesdays Happy Wednesday Offer choice of 8 meals + drink for $4.99 or less- varies by loc. (62+)

Carrabba’s Italian Grill: 20% off on Wednesdays to AARP Members

Golden 55 Menu at Carrows Restaurants Carrows Restaurants: Golden 55 Menu offers discounted bfast, lunch & dinner (55+)

Chick-Fil-A: 10% off or free small drink or coffee (55+)

Chili’s: 10% off (55+)

CiCi’s Pizza: 10% off (60+)

Country Kitchen Senior Discount Menu Country Kitchen: Great Senior Menu (55+)

Culvers: 10% off senior discount (60+)

Ask for Senior Discounts While Dining

Senior Discounts at Dairy Queen Dairy Queen: 10% off for seniors (15% for coaches) varies by location (free small drink at some locations)

Denny’s: 10% off, 20% off for AARP members (55+)

Dunkin’ Donuts:  AARP members receive a free donut with the purchase of a large hot coffee (at participating restaurants)

Einstein’s Bagels: 10% off baker’s dozen of bagels (60+)

Ask about senior discounts at El Pollo Loco El Pollo Loco: 10% off senior discounts varies by location (55+)

Friendly’s Restaurants: Breakfast discount varies by location (60+) Senior List readers to confirm

Fuddrucker’s: 10% off any senior platter (55+)

Gatti’s Pizza: 10% off (60+)

Golden Corral: 10% off (60+)

Hardee’s: $0.33 beverages everyday (65+)
55+ Menu at IHOP Restaurants IHOP: Great discounts on senior menu items (55+)

Jack in the Box: up to 20% off (55+)

Kagle’s Barbecue: 10% off (50+)

KFC: Free small drink with any meal (55+)

Krispy Kreme: 10% off (50+)

Long John Silver’s: Various discounts at locations (55+)

McDonald’s: discounts on coffee everyday (55+)

Mrs. Fields: 10% off at participating locations (60+)

Outback Steakhouse 15% off AARP members for meals Monday through Thursday (alcohol excluded)

Daily Senior Discounts at Old Country Buffet restaurantsOld Country Buffet: Daily discounts for seniors (55+)

More Ask for Senior Discounts While Dining

Papa John’s: 25% off (55+) for online orders. Enter the code “AARP25″ when placing your order

Senior Discount Menu at Ponderosa Steak Houses Ponderosa Steak

Houses: Senior Discounts Vary- Senior menu available (60+)

Shoney’s: 10% off Sonic: 10% off or free beverage (60+)

Sonic: 10% off or free beverage (60+) varies by location

Steak ‘n Shake: 10% off every Monday & Tuesday (50+)

Subway: 10% off (60+)

Sweet Tomatoes: 10% off (60+)

Taco Bell: 5% off; free beverages for seniors (65+)

TCBY: 10% off (55+)

Tea Room Cafe: 10% off for seniors (50+)

Traditions Restaurant in E. Texas offers a Great Senior

DiscountTraditions Restaurant (East TX): Senior platter meal for $4.71 (50+)

Village Inn: 10% off (60+)

Waffle House: 10% off every Monday (60+)

Wendy’s: 10% off (55+)

Whataburger: Free drink w/ purchase of a meal- varies by loc. (55+)

White Castle: 10% off (62+)

Readers, providers and publishers: Feel free to share our list with attribution, and a link to this updated post. OK- Your turn to add to the list!  Shout Out in the comments below.

For more travel related discounts and savings, click here.

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Save Money on Parking Meters

December 21st, 2013 ernie Posted in Reduce Travel Costs No Comments »

Save Money on Parking MetersThe cost of parking in downtown areas in most cities in North America has become the incredibly expensive.  For example if you are parking using parking meters it can be as much as three or four dollars an hour.  If you use a parking lot that is maintained by a parking authority is not uncommon to pay $20-$30 a day.  Whether you are going to work or a tourist visiting the city it makes sense to plan your parking so that you can save money and reduce your overall cost for your vacation.

Parking meters

if you have to use a and one of the passengers is staying with the car you can often wait until you see the reader coming down the street before putting money in the parking meter.  Often people leave their parking spot with the meter still running and if you’re lucky you can score an empty spot with a running parking meter and save a few dollars.  Parking meters are suitable for short term parking, however if you need more than a couple of hours it makes sense to just use a parking lot or find some other alternative.

Paid parking lots

The hotel we’re staying they charge a fee for parking and if you have not negotiated the parking is part of your hotel bill when you made your reservation you will pay the full fee.  Some hotels upon negotiation will offer up a discount on parking or in some cases free parking if it is a slow period for them.  If you are driving into the city many parking lots offered early bird rates which are 20 to 25% lower than rates offered later on in the day.

In many parking lots you’ll have to arrive prior to 9 AM to get the early bird rate.  Another approach is to park at a free parking lot at the mall somewhere in the urban areas of the city and then take the mass transit into the downtown area that you are visiting.  Usually the cost of mass transit is lower than a parking brake at a downtown parking lot plus the cost of gas it used to get there.

Airport parking rates

Airports are notoriously expensive for parking overnight, by the week or even longer by the month.  There are a lot of alternatives to parking at the airport.  A friend can drive you to the airport, you can take a taxi to the airport, or in many cities you can even take mass transit and save a bundle on parking.  If you are going to need parking for a week or a month, usually the long term parking lots are a better place to park your car at lower rates.  For most people the best approach is to have someone driving to the airport and pick them up when they return home.  Even if you have to pay the person and the cost of gas is still would be cheaper than paying for parking.

Plan your trips carefully taking into account your accommodations, the cost of accommodations and the parking at the hotel where you will be staying.  Many hotels on the outskirts of the city will offer free parking and shuttle service to downtown areas as well as to airports.  This is another excellent way to reduce the overall cost of parking.

If you know of other ways to reduce the cost of parking, please leave a comment and we’ll be glad to add them to our list.

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Drury Inn Springfield Missouri

June 14th, 2013 ernie Posted in Reduce Travel Costs No Comments »

Drury Inn Springfield MissouriTonight we are staying at the Drury Inn Springfield Missouri,. If you’re not familiar with the Drury Inns, they are a very nice hotel chain. They are mainly in the southwest and northeast of the United States. They offer normally fantastic prices for a hotel room In addition they also offer a hot breakfast. The best feature is the kickback hour or happy hour in the evening.

This includes three drinks beer, wine, and liquor plus a hot bar food that includes chicken fingers, pasta, potatoes, chips, popcorn, soup, and salad.

Drury Inn Springfield Missouri – Price

All of this for a price that is less than the normal price that you would pay at a Hampton Inn, or the Holiday Inn express. We strongly recommend that you look at the Drury Inn this as an alternative for your travel reservations. You can save the price of a dinner meal just in the hotel room reservation. Enjoy their kickback hour and enjoying a few drinks.

If you really do not want to eat at the Drury Inn, they seem to always have a local bar next door. It is usually one of the chain bars / restaurants. You can get a decent meal in a relaxed atmosphere.

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Travel Discounts

March 30th, 2013 ernie Posted in Reduce Travel Costs No Comments »

I have friends who actually brag about how expensive some of their trips are and we believe that they are paying the highest prices for all of their travel plans. We just do not understand why someone would not ask for a discount or actively seek out travel discounts. Some people think that you only get what you pay for and this can be true in many situations, however when it comes to travel, you need to be very careful how much you are paying and what you are receiving in return even if you are paying for a trip that is really expensive.

Our motto is that if you do not ask, you will never get a discount. The worst that can happen is that they say no we will not discount your trip, your hotel reservation etc any further. But many times they will offer 10% or even more off the cost and 10% is far better in my pocket than someone else’s!  Always ask and if they will not offer you anything further then you can decide to accept their initial offer or move on and try another location.

Recently a friend of ours followed this approach on a cruise they had recently booked. They had reserved the cruise about 3 months ago and noticed that prices for the same cruise, room etc had declined. They called and asked their travel agent to follow up. Unfortunately they had to be a little bit pushy with the agent. She did not want to waste her time. Besides the commission would be smaller as well, plus she has to do more paperwork for nothing.

My friend saved $1500 on a two week week trip on a cruise from fort Lauder-dale to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal, Talk about discounts and savings!

Travel Discounts – Always ask

We stay in hotels a great deal and they are by far the best at offering discounts. If you do not get a seniors discount, AAA discounts, group discounts,  a corporate discount etc, then you are paying too much for your hotel room. Always ask for these discounts, the worst they can say is we do not offer any discounts. Compare prices and know what your market should be charging for the travel service that you are receiving. A good example is as follows.

We were checking into a hotel one night with no reservation and were quoted a price $50 higher than what we had previously paid at this hotel and this new price was at least $50 higher than this chain usually charges. Turns out that there was a festival going on and they felt they could charge more due to the increased business. This is perfectly legitimate, but we did not want to pay this higher fee, so we asked if we could use their phone. I called the central reservations number of this chain with the idea of finding another hotel in the same area at a better price.

Imagine my surprise when they quoted me the regular price for the hotel I was standing in at the lower price less discounts for senior rate and triple A. I immediately asked for a reservation and went back to the front desk and checked in. The manager was a little upset, but there was nothing he could do.

Always ask for travel discounts and be prepared to shop around. You will be amazed at how much money you will be able to save!

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Save Money – Penny Pinching While You Travel

December 7th, 2011 ernie Posted in Reduce Travel Costs No Comments »

We recently saw an article about extreme penny pinching and were intrigued by several of the ideas, however, some were clearly off the wall and well beyond what the average person would even consider. We wondered about, Penny Pinching While You Travel? We thought that a more interesting list of penny-pinching ideas that actually save you money while traveling would be interesting to a lot of people.

We put together a combination of our own list of things about penny-pinching while you travel to save money with a few of the items that were on the list of the article that we read. We tend to stay in hotels and rent condos while we travel, so our list is centered around this type of travel. Other people who go camping, travel in an RV, or stay with friends and relatives will obviously have other items to add. Please let us know your items in the comments section and we will add them to our list. Here is the list for penny-pinching while you travel and we follow up with an explanation of each later in the post.

Penny Pinching While You Travel

Saving Money While you Travel

  • We belong to points clubs such as air miles and credit card points collection
  • We ask for a seniors discount
  • We watch for restaurant discounts for seniors
  • We follow senior citizens at dinnertime
  • I join birthday clubs so I can eat for free
  • I hit up fast food dollar menus
  • We eat at subway and share a foot-long sub
  • We order one soft drink and share, refills are free
  • I drink as much as I can during happy hour
  • We eat appetizers during happy hour
  • I pick up pennies wherever I go
  • We eat a large lunch and lightly at dinner time
  • Share Meals
  • We stay at hotels that include breakfast and/or dinner and/or free drinks

We belong to points clubs such as air miles and credit card points collection

This is the most lucrative one for us and saves us as much as several thousand dollars in travel costs every year. We belong to every point collecting system that we can and in some cases will collect double points, once on a hotel loyalty card and secondly on a credit card that pays points for everything charged to it. We redeem the points for hotel stays, meals, rental cars, etc.

We ask for a seniors discount

Whenever we eat in a restaurant, fast food place, or check into hotels we always ask for senior discounts, CAA, AAA, AARP, Corporate, and anything else that works. We usually save a minimum of 10% on hotels and sometimes half-price on restaurants. MacDonald’s even has discounted coffee for seniors with free refills.

We watch for restaurant discounts for seniors

We watch for advertised discounts for seniors and frequent many of those restaurants to offer these discounts. Sometimes the portions are a little smaller, but that is ok too. Smaller portions protect the waistline.

We follow senior citizens at dinnertime

If we are visiting a new town, we sometimes will keep an eye on seniors groups and follow them to a restaurant. They seem to know where the discounts are!

I join birthday clubs so I can eat for free

Some places will give you a free meal once a year on your birthday. Starbucks lets you have a free drink on your birthday too, so we order a large specialty coffee and share.

I hit up fast food dollar menus

Sometimes fast food restaurants will have $1 menus to bring traffic in. These are excellent ways to save a few dollars.

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Splitting Restaurant Meals

April 21st, 2011 ernie Posted in Reduce Travel Costs No Comments »

Splitting Restaurant MealsWhen you go on vacation, you already know you are going to spend a lot of money and you may as well be resigned to this fact. After all you have a limited amount of time and you want to make the most of it. What if you are going on a 2 or 3 or 4 month vacation? Staying in hotels and eating in restaurants and the bills can really add up in a hurry. There are countless ways to manage your costs and one of those ways is to split restaurant meals.

Benefits of Splitting Restaurant Meals

There are multiple reasons for splitting restaurant meals and all of them have a significant benefit to you the consumer. Obviously you save money when you split a meal since the cost is now split between two people. Many restaurants do not mind at all especially if you are ordering a drink with your meal. For many restaurants this is where the profit is anyway.

Another benefit is that you are reducing the calories that you are eating. You might nor order the best food in terms of diet etc, however at least by splitting the meal you are actually eating a lot less than you would other wise.

One of the big benefits for long term travelers is that if you reduce your costs for meals by an average of $10 a day which is actually low considering that you can split lunch and dinner, you can save over $12oo on a 4 month trip, which is money you can use for other activities. Fantastic!

American Meals are Large

We have traveled in Canada and the US. We found that meals are generally larger in the US with portion sizes that are far more than many people should eat and sometimes can eat. We were at a Texas Roadhouse one evening and my wife ordered pork chops with mashed potatoes. The meal came with two large thick pork chops and a load of mashed potatoes. There was no way that she could have finished the meal herself and fortunately we were splitting the meal. At the end of it we were both full and glad we did not order a separate meal for each other!

Meals in Canada

Meals in Canada generally are smaller and they seem to be more expensive. We try to avoid eating out in Canada if we can since the value and the cost is just not there for us.

In addition the service level is really bad. It is almost as if the waiter cannot stand to be doing his or her job and they are not the least bit interested in providing good service. They still want their tip and if you tip according to the service level they gave, they get upset. You cannot win and so we do not eat out while in Canada if we can avoid it.

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