Free 1-Year TripAdvisor Plus Membership from Target Circle ($99 Retail + Tested Results)

Target Circle is Target’s rewards program (free to join) and 3/5 to 3/11 is “Target Circle Week” where they have special offers. Standard perks include 1% back on your Target purchases if you don’t get the 5% back from REDcard, and you get a 5% off single purchase coupon on your birthday.

One of the Circle Week deals is a free 1-year membership to TripAdvisor Plus ($99 cost usually). This premium subscription service offers the following:

• Member-only discounted hotel rates at 100,000+ hotels worldwide.
• 10% Off every bookable experience (tickets, tours, and attractions).
• “Access member-only perks and benefits from Tripadvisor’s travel partners”
• “Get complimentary travel advice from experts via SMS with Trip Text.”

When you sign up, you must provide a valid credit card number or PayPal. However, by default, the free trial does NOT auto-renew automatically.

Is it worth signing up? I’m really not sure how useful the last two things on that list are, but 10% off activities is clear and the first can at least be tested. I tried out a test booking, and TripAdvisor Plus did offer a significantly better deal than if I chose book directly from the hotel as a basic free member.

Direct from the hotel was $276 + taxes:

Direct from regular Tripadvisor was $278 + taxes:

Direct with TripAdvisor Plus was $217 + taxes ($69 savings):

This just one data point, but a potential $50+ savings per night shows that it is worthing obtaining (for free) and checking when booking a hotel room. Whether it is reliably worth $99 a year is another question. It depends on your personal travel habits and if you don’t mind that fact that you lose some perks from booking directly with the hotel.

I’ll have to also remember the 10% off activities and compare with Viator, etc. One of the partner perks is a $1 membership to something called the Dollar Flight Club, which I have never heard of before.