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Loyalty Lobby reports on what could be an interesting promotion for those who enjoy the Preferred Hotels & Resorts I Prefer program. With the “Unforgettable Moments” promotion, you can earn 20,000 bonus points for a minimum 2-night stay booked by May 19, 2024 and completed by August 31, 2024. Note that you’ll need to use promo code MKTUFM, which results in slightly increased rates, but the points could certainly be worth the difference in price.
The Deal
- Preferred Hotels & Resorts is running a summer promotion whereby you can earn a bonus of 20,000 I Prefer points with a single stay booked by May 19, 2024 for travel through August 31, 2024. You’ll also get daily breakfast for two and a room upgrade based on availability.
- Direct link to this deal
Key Terms
- Minimum stay of 2 nights to use the promo code
- Each member can only earn this bonus one time
Quick Thoughts
This could work out to be a really good rebate, though it isn’t mattress run-worthy.
There are a couple of things to consider in deciding whether this dela is worth it to you.
First, the value of I Prefer points is hard to pin down. If you redeemed points for Preferred Hotels vouchers, then 12,500 points would buy a $25 gift card — meaning that this bonus would only be worth about $40 that way. However, when used for reward nights, you can get significantly better value. We found a range of about 0.5c per point to 1cpp in test searches (in many cases, it really just depending on the cash rate of an individual property since the award prices seemed fairly constant regardless of cash price). If we guestimate that points are worth about 0.75c per point when used for award stays, then the bonus here is worth around $150. That could be a really nice rebate on a two-night stay in some cases.
Of course, getting that much value means that you need to accumulate enough I Prefer points for an award redemption. This 20K bonus can only be earned one time, so you’ll need to have other points with which to combine — and I Prefer is not a transfer partner of any of the major US transferable currencies.
The other thing to consider is the fact that the promo code is good for a qualifying rate code, but that won’t necessarily be the best rate. For instance, I looked up a sample two-night stay at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The total for the “Unforgettable Moments” rate came to $384.14.
If you really do value the points from this promotion at about $150, that’s an excellent rebate of around 40%.
However, the Unforgettable Moments rate wasn’t the best rate for that hotel when booking direct. There was also an “Amex family rate” that had to be paid with an Amex, but it brought the price down to $345.73.
Booking the “Unforgettable Moments” rate would therefore cost an extra $40 in this case to earn that 20,000 points. That could clearly still be worth it, but it eats into the value of the rebate significantly.
Note that there are some more reasonably-priced properties overseas where the rebate here could be more attractive. Depending on where your summer travels will take you, this certainly could be a worthwhile promotion. Personally, I’ll probably skip it as I’m not terribly interested in collecting I Prefer points with no reasonable way to top them off.
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