Fuel Survey
I received an email request to "Please help us improve our fuel program!" by taking a survey. I started the survey. Question 1: Do you use Pilot Flying J as a fuel provider? Answer is yes. ...
Forum Discussion
CA Traveler, thanks for the info on the program.
I'm not knocking the discount program or Flying J/Pilot. Some places I travel I stop at the Flying J because of its location, not the price I get. And I've used them for overnite stops and when I do I always make it a point to fuel up and pick up something in their store. But ...
We all like to save money and $.01 to $.03/gal discount sounds really nice. However sometimes it isn't as much as we may think. For instance, last summer I did a round trip to Alaska in my Class B and used a total of 687 gal of fuel. At $.03/gal that comes out to $21 savings assuming I used nothing by Flying J/Pilot stations. Now I do get good 16+ MPG but even if I only got 8 or 5 MPG my savings would have been $42 or $63 respectively (assuming I did the math right). The question in my mind is would that savings be worth the hassle? Even the $.10/gal discount I've been getting at Kroger sounds nice, but I have to buy a lot of Cheerios, beer and potato chips to maintain it.
I think I'd lean more towards the 5% cash back on CC programs. On my Alaska trip I spent $3058 on fuel which would have given me $153 cash back. More of course had I used more fuel, but obviously at a higher cost. Plus I'd get that cash back regardless of which stations I stopped at as long as they took my CC.
Anyway, the hassle of getting and using the card, if it can be used at the pumps, if you can pay at the pump or have to go inside, etc, etc just don't seem to be worth the savings. At least that's my $0.02 on the subject.
I'm not knocking the discount program or Flying J/Pilot. Some places I travel I stop at the Flying J because of its location, not the price I get. And I've used them for overnite stops and when I do I always make it a point to fuel up and pick up something in their store. But ...
We all like to save money and $.01 to $.03/gal discount sounds really nice. However sometimes it isn't as much as we may think. For instance, last summer I did a round trip to Alaska in my Class B and used a total of 687 gal of fuel. At $.03/gal that comes out to $21 savings assuming I used nothing by Flying J/Pilot stations. Now I do get good 16+ MPG but even if I only got 8 or 5 MPG my savings would have been $42 or $63 respectively (assuming I did the math right). The question in my mind is would that savings be worth the hassle? Even the $.10/gal discount I've been getting at Kroger sounds nice, but I have to buy a lot of Cheerios, beer and potato chips to maintain it.
I think I'd lean more towards the 5% cash back on CC programs. On my Alaska trip I spent $3058 on fuel which would have given me $153 cash back. More of course had I used more fuel, but obviously at a higher cost. Plus I'd get that cash back regardless of which stations I stopped at as long as they took my CC.
Anyway, the hassle of getting and using the card, if it can be used at the pumps, if you can pay at the pump or have to go inside, etc, etc just don't seem to be worth the savings. At least that's my $0.02 on the subject.
