What about "free" trip offered on Americtrade?
 

has anyone seen this offer? a free trip after buying a 7 night hotel stay. London. hawaii or Mexico. Is this for real? <BR>There is a lot of fine print.

When something seems too good to be true, it generally is. You might check the Better Business Bureau

Great! You pay full rate (i.e, double what you'd pay with a little research) for seven days at a hotel, during a time when the place is half empty. They make so much profit during that seven days that they can easily afford a plane ticket on a flight that's so empty the airline is happy to sell it at way below normal cost. <BR> <BR>There's no trick. It's just that, with a little reading, planning, and phone calling, you could get the same quality hotel stay and plane ticket for less money.

There's no such thing as free, of course, even when it's used as a marketing gimmick!

I think Paul probably has it right. We went to a timeshare presentation once that promised four free airline tickets, including to Hawaii and Mexico. Problem was the hotels that were included started at close to $200 a night, and the minimum stay was 10 days in some of them. I usually try to stay under $100 per night, so I couldn't really use the tickets.

<BR>paul nailed this. There are banks out here that have used this same promotion as a comeon to open an account. The hotel package is so expensive that the "free" airfare is no longer a bargin.