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Frugal Travel Guyrugal Travel Guy - March 25, 2016, Caroline Lupini
Tired of paying full price or full mileage for your flights? Here is an opportunity to get 50% off flights for a major US airline.
Evaluate It by SQM is primarily a Canadian mystery shopping company, but they do have some opportunities in the US, primarily in the form of 50% off of flights and free tickets from a major US bus transport company. This all sound great, but let’s focus on those plane tickets!
You will need to make a profile with Evaluate It and wait until you are approved to be a Mystery Shopper in order to start booking tickets, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple days.
There are a few things that you need to be aware of in order to fully take advantage of this offering.
1. Only one mystery shopper is allowed per flight, that means that you should get your requests in early so you can get the flight that you want. I haven’t requested too many flights, but in general, I’ve found that there isn’t too much competition with other mystery shoppers. This also means that if you are traveling with other people, everyone else in your party will still have to pay the full ticket value and those tickets must be booked separately through the airline.
2. You will not earn frequent flier miles. This is a little bit of a bummer, but I would rather get 50% off than earn frequent flyer miles, especially when frequent flier miles for certain major airlines have a fixed value anyway.
3. You will have to fill out an evaluation of your flight. This is the whole reason you are getting 50% off. I haven’t yet mystery shopped so I’m not exactly sure how long the evaluations are. I have done a bit of mystery shopping at restaurants, however, and have found that it is usually possible to complete the evaluation in 20-30 minutes. Even better in the case of a flight, you can actually work on the evaluation in the air if you so choose (this isn’t possible at restaurants).
4. You have to book your ticket directly through SQM. This is how they ensure that only one person is on each flight, that you get 50% off, and that you don’t earn frequent flyer miles on your ticket. Overall, the experience with Evaluate It is mostly positive, with the minor caveat that you won’t earn frequent flyer miles on your ticket which is a trade that I would gladly make to save some money on my upcoming flights.
Would you be willing to mystery shop a flight to save some money?