[Expired] Choice points back on sale: Buy United miles or hotel points cheap

This week, from today through November 17th, you can buy Choice Privileges Points at 30% off when you buy 5,000 or more. Whether you’ve got a choice redemption in mind or you are looking to buy United MileagePlus miles on the cheap, this is a nice promotion.

The Deal

• Through November 17th, save 30% on Choice Privileges points when you buy 5K or more points
• Prices are $7.70 for every 1K points when you buy 5,000 or more (i.e. 5K points = $38.50; 27K points = $207.90, etc)

Key Terms

• Transactions must be completed by 11:59pm ET on November 17, 2017 to qualify
• Points will post within 24 hours
• Price includes all applicable fees
• May buy or receive up to 50,000 points in a calendar year

Quick Thoughts

First of all, at a rate of .77 cents per point, this can be a pretty good deal. Choice points can be pretty valuable for hotel stays. For example, I had an overnight in Oslo earlier this fall. Cash rates for the Clarion and Comfort Inn by the airport were as crazy as everywhere else — north of $240 a night.

I used 16K Choice Privileges points and got a nice free breakfast at the Clarion (though not dinner — I would have had to have gone to a location in the city to have gotten free dinner also, which is an amazing value in Norway).

You won’t get north of a penny a point in value every time, but you can often get great value in big cities / during peak times. The downside of using Choice points for hotel stays is the very limited booking window: non-elite members can only book 30 days in advance for stays within the US and 60 days in advance for international stays.

Of course, if you’re not looking to use these for stays, they can still be valuable in conjunction with the current United MileagePlus transfer bonus. Through that bonus, you can convert 5,000 Choice points to 3,250 United miles. See Greg’s post Easier point alchemy via Choice (buy United miles for 1.1 to 1.3 cents each). Through that offer, it was possible to be targeted to buy United miles as cheaply at 1.1 cents each. However, if you weren’t targeted for that offer, you can buy United Miles for about 1.18 cents through this offer — which can still be a terrific deal with the right redemption in mind. I wouldn’t stock up on points/miles speculatively, but if you have a plan, this might work out.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

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