Choice Hotels used to have a nice little benefit for military members and their spouses. They offered lifetime Gold status in their Choice Privileges loyalty program, as well as 2,500 bonus points after their next stay.
Those benefits have now sadly been downgraded.
Rather than offering lifetime Gold status, Choice now offers limited time Gold status to active-duty military members, veterans and their spouses. Choice also seems to have removed the feature awarding 2,500 bonus points on your next stay, but they do still offer discounted room rates for military members.
This change from lifetime to limited time Gold status is presumably only applicable for military members who hadn’t yet updated their account with details of their military service; I don’t believe that those who’d been awarded lifetime Gold status have had that taken away.
If you’re an existing Choice Privileges member, you can update your account here to note which branch of the military you currently or previously served with, along with your current military status.
Quick Thoughts
It’s hard to know what to make of this change by Choice. Ultimately, Gold status in the Choice Privileges program isn’t particularly rewarding. You earn 10% bonus points on paid stays, you’re eligible for room upgrades (although I wouldn’t count on anything spectacular), you get a welcome gift of bonus points or a drink and snack at check-in, you’re eligible for early check-in and late checkout (but neither of those is guaranteed), a match to PENN Play Advantage status with PENN Gaming and a few other minor benefits.
You’re therefore not likely to lose out on too much by only having limited time Gold status rather than lifetime Gold status. Choice is – to the best of my knowledge – the only hotel chain that offers some kind of status to military members in the first place, so they are – notionally – more generous than other chains like IHG, Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt.
Having said that, I find it to be a curious, ahem, choice that Choice has downgraded the length of the complimentary status and removed the 2,500 bonus points feature. 2,500 points are worth $15-$20 and they were only awarded after a military member or their spouse had booked an eligible paid stay. If someone was new to the Choice program, getting a nice little points boost like that after their first stay might give them more incentive to stay with Choice in the future, engendering longer term loyalty. This therefore didn’t cost Choice much in the short term, but could have had longer term rewards.
Similarly, I doubt that the long term cost of offering military families lifetime Gold status was that significant, particularly because in order to maintain lifetime status, members had to have some kind of activity on their account every 18 months. The lifetime status was therefore, in effect, a use-it-or-lose-it status which meant Choice either got to stop offering it (in the event of inactivity) or had to maintain it, but as a result of someone booking one or more paid stays with them.
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To the best of my memory, this benefit came from the La Quinta program when Choice acquired that program. I believe the status endured even without activity within the last 18 months.
Best Western also offers automatic Gold status for US and Canadian military members: https://frequentflyerbonuses.com/bestwestern.html#elite