I’ve been paying less than $5 a day on airport parking for about a year now, going back to a post I wrote in June in which I discussed how to stack half-price gift cards and my AAA discount. WallyPark has locations in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Newark, and Philadelphia.
At the Premier Garage in Seattle, the cheapest published rate is $12.95 a day for the rooftop, but I prefer the $14.95 rate for covered parking inside the garage. In the winter, it can take a while for my windows to defrost, which is the last thing I want to wait around for after landing.
Anyone can sign up for AAA and get 25% off. They even store your membership information in your account profile so you can pay more quickly without showing your card. I pay the final bill using half-price gift cards purchased at Costco. So $14.95 a day becomes $11.21 with AAA and then $5.61 with gift cards. Using my WallyClub loyalty card, I also get the equivalent of one day free for every seven paid days. This 12.5% rebate (one out of eight days are free) brings the net price to $4.92. Port fees and other taxes are on top, but this is a pretty good rate for a garage with no minimum-stay requirement.
Ben recently shared on One Mile at a Time how he works a similar deal using a coupon that can sometimes be found in Alaska’s in-flight magazine or online boarding passes. It requires a 3-day minimum stay and is only valid in Seattle, but he says he has been successful stacking it with the AAA savings.
Don’t fly Alaska or live in Seattle? You can get the same coupon, valid at your home airport, by signing up for the WallyPark email list. When I did this (and I live in Seattle), the offer code next to the barcode was exactly the same (1069271). In fact, I dug a little deeper and found out the URL for each coupon is accessible just by changing the airport code in the URL:
www.wallypark.com/Sojern/SEA/Thankyou.html
To save you the trouble, I’ve provided all eight coupons below. Note that not all offers are for a free day, but Eric M. wrote to tell me that when he tried to print the 25% off coupon for LAX, it changed into a 1 free day coupon like many of the others. So you may want to enter the URL directly on your own browser.
There is also a new discount code I just noticed in United’s Hemispheres in-flight magazine (page 68). It offers 25% off at SEA, ATL, DEN, PHL, LAX, and EWR. Unfortunately, it’s only 15% off at IAH, JAX, and SAN. I was unable to stack it with my AAA discount, but it is a good alternative if you don’t have or want a AAA membership.
My final tip: pay at the counter as soon as you exit the shuttle. Last time I was at WallyPark I faced a line of six cars trying to pay at the gate. I got to zip through the second, unmanned gate by waving the barcode on my receipt. Don’t forget your $2 bills to tip the shuttle driver!
