Choice offering college gameday ticket packages, some with $1,500 of gift cards

Choice Hotels has been a partner of college football for a few years now, offering ticket packages through its Experiences site. They released a batch of new gameday experiences yesterday that are all, sadly, auction-style rather than ‘buy now’ style, but some packages could be appealing nonetheless.

That’s because in addition to the tickets, hospitality passes, etc. that you’ll receive, some of the packages also come with $1,500 of gift cards. Depending on the final auction price, that could be an excellent deal.

The Deal

• Bid on college gameday packages through Experiences by Choice.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Various expiry dates.

Quick Thoughts

There appear to be two main types of ticket packages, both of which are auction-style. Bidding on some packages starts at 80,000 Choice Privileges points, while other packages start at 150,000 points.

The appeal of each package will largely depend on which college team you support, although even for neutrals there are some eye-catching games like Michigan vs Oklahoma and Texas vs Ohio State.

From a value perspective though, some packages are potentially much better than others. That’s because the packages that have bidding starting at 150,000 points include two night hotel stays and, even more valuably, $1,500 in gift cards. In previous years, those were Visa gift cards and so pretty much as good as cash.

In past years, those types of packages were listed on a ‘bid now’ basis which means that if you redeemed points before the packages sold out, you were guaranteed the package. That’s not the case this year though because of the auction-style nature of them. Although the opening bids for each of those packages were 150,000 points, they’ll likely end up going higher than that by the time bidding ends.

If you don’t currently have sufficient Choice points in your account to place a bid, that makes it a tricky decision as to whether to transfer points, particularly from Citi or Wells Fargo seeing as they transfer on a 1:2 basis. You’ll need enough points to place a bid, but that means transferring points that’ll subsequently be stuck there if you ultimately get outbid. If you’re content with being able to redeem Choice points in other ways in the future, that might not be so bad; just be aware that it’s a very real possibility.

Another option for getting enough points to place a bid is to buy Choice points. Some people are currently able to buy points for as low as 0.52 cents per point. Depending on the final winning bid cost, buying points could still be a profitable endeavor based on the value of the gift cards, even if you have zero interest in the game tickets, hotel stay, etc.

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