First United, now my airport parking garage. It’s a sad week in travel.
I’ve written several times about the great discounts at WallyPark, including a post about a month ago with a list of discount coupons that you can print and use depending on your home location. But here in Seattle, the deal is especially good since I can buy half-price gift cards at Costco, add on a 25% AAA discount, and still use a coupon for a free third day.
Combined with the WallyClub frequent parking program, my effective cost is close to $4 a day for some of the best airport parking at Sea-Tac.
Those days are coming to a close as Carl has told me in a few emails over the past week. First he noticed that they denied him the ability to stack the coupon with the AAA discount. That’s not surprising, and I’ve had it happen to me, too.
But now, they’ve also started issuing new gift cards to Costco that explicitly forbid applying any additional discounts. This means the most you can save is 50%. Fortunately the value of the gift card still counts toward credits with WallyClub, but it’s not quite as good a deal as it used to be.
I still think it’s the best deal for me. It’s actually walking distance to the A gates, they have great shuttle service and free bottled water, and the covered parking stalls are nice in the winter. The new prices don’t actually make WallyPark much more expensive than the competition — the just make them comparable. Before they were so cheap there was no reason to park elsewhere.
I’m glad at least that the gift cards are still being sold. I happen to have about $200 of the old cards since I keep forgetting how many I have when I go to Costco. That will probably be enough to last me through the end of the year, at which point I will either be moving to another city or closer to downtown, where I can take the light rail to the airport.
