AutoSlash.com helps people save money on car rentals. They’re the only site that automatically applies coupons and lowers your rate when prices drop. If you book anywhere else, you’ll probably end up overpaying.

Today our Deal of the Day is sponsored by AutoSlash and an opportunity to win a $50 Hertz gift certificate. We’ve put up some of our finds, but you now have the opportunity to win for the best overall travel deal submitted. A great mileage run, mistake fare, partner promo, new card sign-up offer, or the special twist you figured out on a deal today. Add it to the comments section of the post (with your first name, last initial, and 3 letter airport code) to be eligible to win. Just add your “find” to the comments tonight by 11:59pm EST. Good Luck and Good Hunting.

Earn up to 3000 bonus miles with a 3-day rental with Avis (Extended through Dec 2012)

Through TripAlertz you can spend a week in a one or two bedroom room for $499 at one of the listed resorts.

If you have a World MasterCard, you can get free SPG Gold status if you spend a night at a qualifying Starwood resort in the Asia/Pacific region.

Rue La La has the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek, from $90/night. If you’ve been looking for a spa getaway, this also gives you 30% off spa treatments at the Allegria Spa.

bookit.com has the 5-star ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for as low as $111/night.

You can enter to win a free ticket to the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit on April 27!

Here is this week’s Top 20 from Travel Zoo

Yesterday’s Winner of the One Year of Premium Service from ExpertFlyer is Victor B. with his tip “Currently American express is offering 30% off pay with points for booking airline fares. Then the bonus is if you have an Amex Platinum you get an addl 20% back. I just purchased two tickets from Atlanta to Fort Myers the were $326 each. I paid 46516 for the tickets (with the 30% discount) they are offering till June 30 to all. Then a day later they put back 9304 points for the membership rewards first program via the platinum card. So for a total 37212 points I had $652 in delta airfare, and as a bonus I still get miles from delta as Amex pays for the tickets!”.  This is a great find if you’ve got Membership Rewards points; you get to book flights SAME AS CASH and get to rack up the EQMs/MQMs. Victor, please email rick@frugaltravelguy.com to collect.

Thanks to everyone that submitted a deal / tip, keep them coming!

Chase Ink Bold Update (Good News / Bad News)

A few weeks ago we saw the sign-up bonus for the Sapphire Preferred drop from 50,000 to 40,000 UR points.  This week with the Ink Bold and the 50,000 bonus point sign-up, we’re seeing links at chase.com that require $10,000 in spend within the first three months to get the full 50,000 bonus points … that’s the BAD news.  The GOOD news is that you get 25,000 UR points after your first purchase.  Small businesses, sole proprietorships, eBay, and Etsy businesses may not be able to do anywhere near $5000 in purchases (the current requirement through the links offered through affiliate channels) in three months to get the full benefits for the sign-up bonus offered anyway!

With the change available directly through Chase now, this card still offers all the great benefits listed below, but you get 25,000 UR bonus points after your first purchase, and the remaining 25,000 after spending $10,000 in three months.  This could mean that the offers we’ve got on the blog here will eventually change to match what is on chase.com (likely), and if the change to the Sapphire Preferred serves as an indication I guess we’ll see something within the next few weeks.

In the end I think this change makes the Ink Bold a viable card for MORE people; a big win.  For those that couldn’t make the minimum spend requirement this opens up the door to reap some great long-term benefits on a fantastic business card, and not have to worry about trying to spend spend spend to get a 50,000 point signup bonus.  25,000 UR points are a nice signup bonus; this is a solid card that I’d recommend with either spend requirement.