Get Travel Perks from Owning Stock With Shareholder Benefits
Shareholder benefits? We can see you wondering: “What the heck does that mean?”
We all come across new information from many sources, and Jenn recently learned about Shareholder Benefits from a co-worker and how this applies to travel, including hotels, airlines and cruise lines! We had no idea!
Tune in to find out how having some shares in certain companies can lead to benefits and discounted prices, which I think we could all benefit from in this economy!
Looking for new ways to save without spending a ton to be eligible? This Travel Tip Tuesday is for you!
Podcast Transcript
Jenn: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. I am Jenn and joined by my partner in podcasting, Meggan. Hi, Meggan.
Meggan: Good evening
Jenn: Uh, something I love about travel is that I am always learning new things. Just when you think that there's nothing new to learn, there are lots of new things to learn.
And this Travel Tip Tuesday, I learned recently from a coworker who mentioned it, and that is shareholder benefits or perks for holding stocks in certain companies, and travel companies in particular is what we're gonna talk about. So before I go any further, though, I am going to say this is not investment advice of any kind.
This is simply information. You can do your own research and, uh, to learn if this is something that works for you and your financial situation. But, uh, I don't want you to come [00:01:00] at me if you, you know, invest in a company and something happens, okay? It's not, that's not what's happening here.
Meggan: Not on us
Jenn: All right, so with that out of the way, Meggan, did you know that some companies, travel companies, offer discounts, credits, uh, or status upgrades just for owning their stock?
Did you know this?
Meggan: No, I'm also learning something new right as we film.
Jenn: Wow. Okay, so let's talk about it. Here are a few options that I found. So first of all, many cruise lines, including Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Carnival, I'm sure there are others, offer onboard credits for shareholders. So the amount varies, but for example, Norwegian offers a $250 onboard credit per stateroom on sailings of 15 days or more. It's $100 credit on sailings of seven to 14 days, and a $50 credit on sailings of six days or less. So not nothing. You do, [00:02:00] you do have to have a minimum amount of shares. For Norwegian, that's 100 shares at the time of sailing, and you need to submit a shareholder benefit request with your cruise reservation before sailing.
But you can do this every time you sail. It's not, uh, not like a one-time thing.
Meggan: Cool
Jenn: Yeah, so another shareholder benefit with hotel chains, so InterContinental Hotels Group, or IHG, offers discounted hotel stays to shareholders, subject to availability of course. Uh, apparently the info to book this is sent in direct mail that you get as a shareholder.
You get like your, uh... There's like a private website where you book. And having, uh, shares in Accor grants you access to their shareholders club where you get exclusive benefits like gold loyalty status, which can get you room upgrades, early check-in or late check-out, a welcome drink, and a priority welcome.
Usually, you [00:03:00] would have to stay 30 nights in a year to get this, but you get it just for h- being a shareholder. Um, and it also say send out invitations to behind-the-scenes hotel tours, so that's very cool. And Accor is in over 100 countries and has over 5,100 hotels. So you have lots to choose from. And another benefit that I found when, uh, when I was researching was with Sixt, the, uh, car rental company.
This one was a little bit harder to find info on. But according to awardwallet.com, with the Sixt shareholder rate, you can get, uh, up to 20% off the current daily rate, but the exact discount varies by country, vehicle category, and availability. So there's lots of options out there. Meggan, you learned something new today.
Meggan: I love that for me. That's
Jenn: I, I know, I know. This, this pairs perfectly with the cruise episode that we just, uh, recorded with our friend Geoff, [00:04:00] so
Meggan: Mm-hmm.
Jenn: if you haven't listened to that last week, go check that out. And that is it for this week's Travel Tip Tuesday. Like I said, not investment advice, just information for you to have. Uh, and if you want more great information like this, you can check out all of our amazing Travel Tip Tuesdays on our website, uh, travelmugpodcast.com.
All of our longer episodes are also on there, and you can find us, uh, hanging out on social media, Facebook and Instagram, @travelmugpodcast. To support our show here, you can, uh, buy us a coffee, you can leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or you can share the show with a travel-loving pal. And until next time, don't forget your travel mug.
Bye.
Meggan: Bye
[00:05:00]