Hotels.com has brought back their online tool which allows merging multiple gift cards into one. This matters because you can only use one gift card per booking.
It was removed for a while, then came back sometime over the past couple of months.
Update: More details in this comment.
Hat tip to reader Mark
If you combine two cards, you can’t use the website to combine another card. You have to email them or call them and it ends up being basically a 25 minute phone call. To top it off, if you don’t know when you purchased the gift card or how much the original amount was (previous to getting it merged again) they won’t merge a 3rd time.
(Disregard. Maybe my idea is not possible due to Hotels.com’s policies.)
Edit: I wonder, can you make two prepaid reservations with two different gift cards, cancel both reservations, receive newly issued replacement gift cards, and then combine those two with the merge tool?
October 2020, the merge function is Not Working.
I don’t see the option of adding more than one card to the first card (the 3rd card to the 1st card). Where is it?
After I did the first merge, there was no option to add another card.Thanks.
Well, I don’t think you can do it anymore, but there is a link on the page to add more cards, before you press whatever it is tto finalize the merge.
I grant that the choice wasn’t intuitive and didn’t say anything remotely as plainly as “add another card”; in fact, when I was looking at it, I thought it was one of those options that would wipe the number of the card I already gave them out of existence, and have me starting over.
So, whatever option looks worrisome on the page, take two new unmerged cards to start, and select that worrisome option. 😉
Thanks! I did the pixel / google fi deal in 2018 and still havent used my cards. gotta get a vacation going soon.
You might consider waiting until needed before you merge cards.
I merged cards ahead of time, two years ago, for a total of $700
Somehow entire balance was drained from card. Hotels.com showed no interest in even learning how it happened.
What about trip insurance cancellation scenarios when gift cards are involved? For example I use my CSR to book a hotel in Europe 6 months down the road. If my child gets sick and I am not able to make the trip, the CSR will reimburse me up to $10,000 from what I remember. I obviously have to pay with the CSR to qualify for said insurance. So basically I would earn 3x UR points on the booking, and it’s insured. If I buy gift cards lets say at 10% discount and use them to pay for the hotel, I suppose there isn’t a way for me to get it covered anymore by my CSR?
If you avoid booking non-refundable hotel reservations, and cancel before the deadline for full refund, then hotels.com will simply issue you a new gift card for the amount you had applied to your reservation.
Right, but at that point you’re paying more per night. So basically you buy a discounted gift card just to pay more per night, ultimately it might just be a wash in terms of net gain. Am I wrong?
It’s also offset by the rewards night after 10 stays – free night median value of cost of hotel nights.
Great for non-aspirational or in smaller cities, or lacking points or free nights with CC.
Yes I agree with you. It’s just not as lucrative as can be when paying with a CSR. When I pay with a CSR I know I am insured against some sort of unforeseen event like a sickness of a family member. I can’t count on that with gift cards and have to step up to a higher rate to get the cancellation. It just makes the entire thing a less lucrative.
If you’re not able to make the trip, for what are you paying more per night?
Nothing. But if you do end up making the trip, you payed extra for the insurance. The insurance that’s otherwise would have been free if you paid with the CSR.
Y’all know the trick, right? Wash the cards by making and cancelling a reservation. Hotels.com issues a new gift card. Then you can merge already-merged cards and avoid the hitch… I just did this (made/cancelled two reservations) with already-merged cards, got two new cards, and then merged them successfully.
Thanks for that. easy easy.
Now I need to find some deeply discounted hotels.com gift cards. I missed BJs
Thank god. Last time, I had to call and merge 50 $100 gift cards over the phone. Took about an hour.
So P2 and I use hotels.com quite a bit. If you’re merging cards, like others have said, once you’ve merged it once, you will have to talk to CS to do so again.
2) CS will ask for:
-the business name where all cards to be merged were purchased.
-the original load amounts.
-your first/last name.
If you can’t supply the first two (or refuse to supply the third), CS will not merge the cards.
Item: the CS reps don’t actually know where the card was bought based upon the numbers on the card.
Source of this intel: I merged about 15 GCs a couple months ago over the phone, and said they all came from Sam’s Club. I had no idea where any of them came from anymore; so just randomly picked one of the vendors from which I had purchased them in the past. Nobody questioned this; or said “no you did not, Ms. Flea”.
Ummm. Dear CS agent, they are GIFT cards. I received it as a GIFT. That’s all you need to know. Stop asking so many questions.