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Tuesday, April 10th only, at 1pm Eastern time (about an hour from the time this post publishes), you’ll have an opportunity to buy Choice Privileges Points at well below our Reasonable Redemption Value. You’ll have to be pretty quick with it as this is an item that usually sells out within seconds, though there are more available this year so it’s possible that the packages won’t all go out of stock instantly.
Daily Getaways
If you haven’t heard, the US Travel Association’s Daily Getaways sales are back on right now, with various discounted travel packages available each day for the next month or so. Daily Getaways comes around every year, and we have consistently published a quick-reference guide to know which deals are worth your time. You can see that guide here:
Daily Getaways 2018 Quick Guide
Today’s deal to buy Choice Privileges points might be the best deal of the 2018 Daily Getaways. There are four packages available:
- 55,000 points for $265 (0.481 cents per point)
- 42,000 points for $205 (0.488 cents per point)
- 28,000 points for $144 (0.514 cents per point)
- 14,000 points for $80 (0.571 cents per point)
Each of those packaes are well below our Reasonable Redemption Value of 0.81 cents for Choice points (based on the Hotel Hustle median observed value in November 2017). With strategic redemption, you can do really well with these packages. For instance, this past fall, I redeemed 16,000 choice points in leiu of a ~$250 room rate for an Oslo airport hotel (the Clarion Hotel & Congress Oslo Airport).
Value for Choice points can be terrific in Scandinavia as some of the Nordic Choice brands offer both free breakfast and a free evening meal. In addition to getting a great deal on your room rate, you can save money on food (which can be very expensive in Scandinvia).
The downside of Choice Privileges is that non-elite members can only book award stays 30 days in advance for domestic hotels and 60 days in advance for international locations, so you can’t plan far in advance. That said, I usually find pretty good availability for Choice redemptions.
How to get these packages
The Choice Privileges packages go on sale at 1pm Eastern time, today – April 10, 2018. These packages have sold out instantly in the past, making your odds of getting one roughly similar to buying a winning lotto ticket. This year, there are more packages than usual available, so you may have a fighting chance — though I would still suggest being ready to go as soon as the points go on sale. Generally, the way to get the package you want is to open the link a little bit before 1pm Eastern and then refresh like a madman until you see the “buy” button. Here are the links to the packages again:
- 55,000 points for $265 (0.481 cents per point)
- 42,000 points for $205 (0.488 cents per point)
- 28,000 points for $144 (0.514 cents per point)
- 14,000 points for $80 (0.571 cents per point)
Bottom line
Overall, the Daily Getaways packages just aren’t as exciting as they once were. That’s not to say you can’t get some good values — and if you see our Daily Getaways 2018 Guide, you’ll see there are a number of days with packages that could be valuable to you. Today’s Choice Privileges points packages are probably the best value for the widest range of people as it’s pretty easy to come out ahead, even on an average redemption — and pretty far ahead with some effort.
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[…] wrote about this as it has been one of the best deals of this year’s Daily Getaways: (EXPIRED) Buy Choice points at a great rate if you’re fast (4/10 @ 1pm Eastern). This will almost surely sell out again, so if you’re interested I suggest buying […]
Does anyone have a bunch of points in their account? I am trying to see availability for New York hotels with 2 beds for April 28th, but the site won’t show me because I don’t have the points in my account. Don’t want to purchase points if I can’t use it for this trip. Ugh. HELP!
Sorry, don’t have enough. Everything was sold out when I posted except the 14k is still available.
Right which is the one I’d buy if there was availability…
I looked up a few for you, Cambria Chelsea has 2 queens for 30K, Quality near sunset park in Brooklyn has 1 room left with 2 doubles for 25K, The Paul has several different 2 bed configs for 30k, The Look in Brooklyn has several different ones for 25K, sleep inn Brooklyn has 2 doubles for 25k, Quality inn long island city has 2 doubles for 30K. If you want me to check out a certain one, I can do that.
I appreciate the effort, but I think the flash sale is over. Would have totally jumped on it if I knew the Cabria had the 2 queens, dammit. Thanks anyways, Jul!
sold out right away last year, but are more expensive this year plus more of them. I still bought 2, just not the deal it was the last few years!
Good to know that we are able to get multiple packages per Choice Privileges account. Thank you for the info.
Didn’t see this until 3:30 and was still able to buy one of the $80 packages.
I was able to buy two of the 28K packages a full hour after the start time.
after purchase, do we know when pts will be posted to the Choice acct?
Points will be posted to the account number given at time of purchase within 5 business days of confirmation.
thx, just noted on the receipt which says 10 days
the 42k packages were/are available for at least 6 to 7 minutes after it came online
What timing – the notification for this post hit my mailbox at precisely 12:59 PM Eastern. I was able to click through, refresh ONCE, and get 1x 55k and 1x 28k points packages. Thanks!!!
why not 42k pts instead of 28k?
Because by the time I was done with the 55k, the 42k were all reserved. I wasn’t camped on the page, refreshing and keeping a solid plan of attack in mind. I stumbled into it and ended up with 83k points for cheap. I’m stoked. 😀
Please be more specific in these posts. I have no idea what “privileges points” are and what specific Chase card would honor them. I have 2- a Saphire Reserve and a Business Preferred Ink. Would it have worked for either of those? It reminds me of people who write tech manuals- they assume people already speak much of their language when that isn’t the case. Thanks.
Judi,
Maybe I’m missing sarcasm in your post, but…. I would suggest that the vast majority of readers of this blog understand Nick’s post quite clearly. In addition, Daily Getaways have been around for years, he linked to a guide explaining them, he provides an overview of how Choice Privileges points can be used for great value and gives an example of a hotel booking. Even a little googling like “how to use Choice Privileges points” would bring up extensive guides.
It seems unreasonable to expect more basic detail, and most readers of Frequent Miler are advanced enough with points to need less than Nick gave. It’s just not a beginner focused blog, although there are great resources on the site for beginners. Perhaps start with those resources?
are we missing smth here? did Nick say or suggest anything about use of chase card on his post?