Membership Period
Aug 2023-24
Why am I posting these WayAway Plus Cashback Updates?
Even for travelers who only take 1 vacation a year or weekend getaways, WayAway Plus is one of the best deals out there if you’re already making bookings online.
But I don’t think people are convinced. So, I thought I’d be transparent in what we get back so people can visualize their potential benefits.
We paid 44.99 USD for this year’s membership with our discount coupon.
Here’s the discount link, saving you 54 USD
And they also have a 7-day risk-free trial. So you can test it out before you commit.
I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to make the most of that trial.
And here’s my comprehensive WayAway Review, where I break down the different aspects of the platform.
Why You Could Earn Back Even More Than US
1. We only book cheap accommodation. If you stay in 4- and 5-star hotels, you will earn your money back dozens of times over a year.
2. We rarely book full-service flights. Budget airlines have very little cashback
3. We rarely hire cars. If you rent a car while on holiday, you could earn quite a bit of cashback back in addition to finding the best prices.
4. Ditto with group tours, airport pickups, eSims, flight compensation and more. We don’t use those things much, but if you do, your cashback will add up even more quickly.
Here’s that WayAway Plus DISCOUNT CODE again.
July 2024
Since the June update, there hasn’t been any action, because we haven’t needed to make any bookings. We are fully occupied housesitting, with no accommodation, flights, car rental, or tours required.
June 2024
Since the May update, there hasn’t been much action. See key points
Key Points:
1. We’ve withdrawn another 93 USD to our PayPal account (Total withdrawn = 408 USD). We have $26 to be cleared from previous bookings for a total of 434 USD.
2. As mentioned last month, we’ve been stationary for the whole of May and into June, so we haven’t needed transport.
3. Our trip planning for the Northern summer season has been efficient, and we are now fully booked with housesits from the moment we land in the UK. This means we don’t need to book accommodation until at least mid-July. (And probably won’t need to then either.)
May 2024
Since the April update, we’ve added $18 to our cashback for a total of $434
Update on getting cashback for flights:
- We made a booking from Bangkok to London on Qatar Airlines via Trip.com on WayAway. So, we did the search through WayAway and thought Trip.com had the best overall deal among the third-party providers.
- NOTE: Trip.com was NOT the outright cheapest at first glance, but once I got through to the checkout on a couple of others, added fees (cc fees, service fees) made them more expensive. Unless you add any extras (insurance, seat choice etc, what you see first up with Trip.com is the price you pay at the checkout.
- Trip.com was also $3 dearer than if I’d booked directly with Qatar. However, when I subtracted the cashback, we came out with 15 USD in front. It’s not a huge amount, but we’ve booked through Trip.com several times before, and they are excellent.
Key Points:
Despite not booking much at all this month as we are housesitting in Thailand, we still earned cashback and withdrew another 39 USD to our Paypal account (which is almost the discounted 12-month membership fee)
As mentioned last month, we probably won’t book too much more before the end of the membership period as we are busy housesitting, although we may need a few nights’ accommodation in between.
April 2024
Since the March update, we’ve added $65 to our cashback for a total of $416
Update on the missing flights:
- The Wayaway Support team couldn’t find two of the flights in the system. The first one was probably my fault, as I had about six tabs open when checking prices and may have accidentally booked. The second one, I may have done the same. The last one, was a super budget airline and came back as zero cashback.
- I have booked a flight through them since and almost immediately got the (2$) cashback credited to my account. Better yet, the flight was 20 USD cheaper than booking directly through the airline website.
Key Points:
Despite the glitch with the flights above, we’ve earned over eight times the discounted membership price back with four months to go.
And we’ve managed to accumulate over $2800 in savings all up. I’m pretty happy with that and will definitely start another membership this year.
We probably won’t book too much more before the end of the membership period this time around, as we have a 10-week housesit in Thailand and then several lined up in Europe. although we will need flights from Thailand To the UK or Europe soon.
March 2024
Since the February update, we’ve added $46 to our cashback.
BUT…it should be more:
- I’m missing cashback from three budget flights that should be around $20 in total. It appears to be a glitch with the app (or maybe I screwed up – not sure), and the Wayaway Support team is on the job.
- I’ve also also had a subscriber say they were missing cashback on one of their accommodation bookings. I’ll follow up on that and report back next month.
If you look closely you’ll see I’ve added another data point to the spreadsheet showing the amount we’ve saved from deals and discounts plus cashback through the app.
So far, it’s almost 2700 USD. Most of that’s from finding fabulous accommodation deals, but the recent deals I’m finding on flights are pretty good, too.
Key Points:
Despite the glitch above, we’ve earned over seven times the discounted membership price back with five months to go and a lot more travel planned.
February 2024
Since the January update, we’ve actually gone backward!
What????
Easily explained.
- Firstly, we’ve made very few new bookings in the last month as I had most already sorted up to our departure from Vietnam on the 18th of February.
- We often get up to 2 x (or more) cashback than what is mentioned in the original booking.
- The booking confirmation for our three-week stay in Saigon stated we would get the equivalent of 43 USD cashback. (Remember, this booking was canceled after we checked in.)
- When the transaction first appeared in my WayAway Plus pending transactions, it was 100 USD.
- So once we got the resolution, it reverted to the original cashback (-57 USD) on all our booking documentation.
- I’m okay with that, as the extra is always a pleasant surprise, and the 43 USD was what was promised initially.
Note that we withdrew another 95 USD into our PayPal account with a further 95 pending.
Key Points:
Despite the glitch above, we’ve earned over six times the discounted membership price back with six months to go and a lot more travel planned.
January 2024
Since the first post, I’ve updated the list with all the bookings we made in December.
Note that we withdrew the cleared amounts and now have 115 extra USD in our PayPal account.
I’ve added a few more columns to give clarity.
- Date of the booking
- The status of the Cashback
- Total spend on bookings
- Total Cashback withdrawn and in our PayPal account
- Total Cashback pending (Remaining)
In the future, I’ll try to be a bit more diligent in showing the discounts we often get, especially for accommodation.
Key Points:
We’ve already made over 6 x the membership price with 7 months to go.
We made a booking in Cambodia before we flew to Vietnam. We never intended to use it but hoped that if we were asked for tickets out (which we didn’t have) we could show intent to leave.
We’re still trying to resolve the weird cancelation (not cancelation) in Ho Chi Minh City I mentioned last month. I’ll add the update to the January Travel Bug Times.
Massive discounts plus Cashback makes traveling so much cheaper
December 2023
This was the first post, including all bookings from August to the end of November 2023.
Subsequent months will show updates from that smaller time period.
Key Points:
We’ve already made our membership price back multiple times over, and there are still 8 months to go.
We had a weird cancelation (not cancelation) on our booking in Ho Chi Minh City. I told the whole puzzling story in the December newsletter. You can find it in the Travel Bug Times Archives.
The first one. I'll make improvements as we go along.
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haha, so if I get this right, i can literally hop on a plane more cause of this? like a travel superpower?
Yes! I love these kinds of super powers!
For those questioning the legitimacy, I did a quick check on WayAway Plus. They partner with reputable companies. Always best to research before you commit though.
Thanks for that. I did my due diligence, too, before joining and recommending. Here’s our disclosure and approach to affiliate partners. https://catchourtravelbug.com/how-our-readers-you-help-fund-our-travels/
omg, this is just what i needed for my travel blog. Can definitely promote this to my followers, good way to earn and save!
Join Travel Payouts. That’s where you’ll find all the info to promote them. Here’s the link: https://www.travelpayouts.com/?marker=375216
does this cashback thing work with crypto payments too? would be cool if it does.
Not at the moment!
Finally, a way to save some cash on our family trips, totally signing up for this, who wouldn’t want to save money right?
Right. Every little bit helps. don’t forget to use the discount code: TP-COTB50% to get your discounted membership and save even more.
All these cashback programs are just traps to make you spend more. Don’t see why this one would be any different.
I only spend what we normally would. The great prices and cashback are a bonus.
Wait, so if I join this, does that mean i can travel for free or what? kinda confused here lol
Nope. You can’t ttravel for free. but the cashbacks and great prices mean you can travel more for the same amount of money!
Interesting article, timshazz. Could you please share more on how WayAway Plus tracks and calculates the cashbacks? Transparency in processes is key for trust.
I’m not sure how it works in the background, but all the pending transactions usually appear in your account less than 48 hours after a cnofirmed booking. They then get confirmed and are accessible to withdraw a short time after you’ve completed the trip (stay/flight/tour). Each transaction has its own identifier and date of booking. If something doesn’t appear, Support will chase it up for you.
this sounds so cool! finally something that makes traveling a bit cheaper, cant wait to tell my friends about it!
Please do send them to this blog to get their discount!
Here’s the real question: How much do you actually have to travel to make any of this worth it? Seems like a lot of hoops for minimal gain.
Of course we travel more than most. But one annual holiday with modest accommodationwould probably put you in front. Why not test it out with their 7-day free trial before commiting? Plan your next holiday or plan your dream holiday using the app and then see if you would come out in front. Here’s how I did it. https://catchourtravelbug.com/get-the-most-from-the-wayaway-plus-7-day-free-trial-try-save-travel/
Umm, I don’t get it. if u save more than u spend, isn’t that good? what’s the gimmick in actually saving through cashback? someone explain pls.
No gimmick. You get great prices and then the cashback is the bonus. I have already received multiples of the discounted membership price and still have months to go. but I always recommend you test it out yourself to ensure you would get the same value. check out this blog to see how I did it. https://catchourtravelbug.com/get-the-most-from-the-wayaway-plus-7-day-free-trial-try-save-travel/
Oh great, another cashback scheme. Because that’s what we need, more ways to spend money to ‘save’ money. Tell me, timshazz, how is this not just a marketing gimmick?
I actualy did a thorough test before I committed to esnure it would save me money and I would get the best prices. I suggest you do too. they have a 7-day free trial and I have documented how I tested it in great detail here: https://catchourtravelbug.com/get-the-most-from-the-wayaway-plus-7-day-free-trial-try-save-travel/
hey timshazz, i was just wonderin, how did you even figure these cashback things work for wayaway plus? seems kinda confusing to me lol
I don’t have to figure it out. It tells you an estimate before you book, and then the transactions are clearly listed in your account. I did do A LOT of research before I paid my money, which is why I recommend using the 7-day free trial period to give it a good workout before you commit. check out this blog. https://catchourtravelbug.com/get-the-most-from-the-wayaway-plus-7-day-free-trial-try-save-travel/
I think it’s all about the deals they got with the travel companies. Kinda cool if you ask me.
Exactly, it’s like getting free money for trips!