Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
| Sorry, this deal is no longer available. Do you want to be alerted about new deals as they’re published? Click here to subscribe to Frequent Miler's Instant Posts by email. |
Choice Privileges (the loyalty program of Choice Hotels, which includes brands like Clarion, Cambria Suites, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, and more) is offering a sale on points good for 25% off on purchased points. While I wouldn’t recommend speculatively buying points, you can certainly save money in some instances with strategic use of points.
The Deal
- Buy 5,000 or more Choice Privileges points and get 25% off
- Direct link to this promotion
Key Terms
- Must buy 5,000 points or more
- Transactions must be completed between 9 AM ET November 12th, 2018 and 11:59 PM ET November 26th, 2018 to be eligible for a discount on points.
- Points will be posted to your Choice Privileges account within 24 hours after your transaction is complete.
- Purchased points do not count toward Elite Status or Lifetime Elite Gold Status.
- Price includes all applicable fees.
- Members may buy or receive up to a total of 50,000 points in a calendar year.
- Purchased points are not refundable and are applicable towards all Choice Privileges awards.
Quick Thoughts
While I wouldn’t go purchasing 50K points for no reason, this can be a decent deal for some properties. Choice hotels typically go for 8K-30K points per night, with values to be found at both ends of the spectrum. That means that through this sale you might be able to buy enough points for a free night for $66.00. That’s a rate of about 0.825c per point.
It’s not too hard to get north of 1c per point in value out of Choice points if you’re traveling to the right places. I’ve stayed in Scandinavia for 16K points before, and at $132, that would represent a sizable discount over the cash rate. Additionally, some properties in Scandinavia include not only free breakfast, but also free dinner. If you’ve ever gone out to eat in Oslo, I don’t need to tell you what a value that represents.
The major hang-up of the Choice Privileges program is that awards can’t be booked far in advance, so you can’t buy these points and know that you can use them for your vacation six months from now. For that reason, I recommend only buying if you have high confidence in your ability to use them for high value and/or you have an immediate use. If so, this can be a deal.
Also keep in mind that members may only buy or receive up to 50K points per year, so the savings is capped.
H/T: Deals We Like
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] Hotels is currently running a new promotion every day for five days. Yesterday’s offer was a 25% discount on purchased points, while today they’re offering 5,000 bonus points when booking a stay that takes place by […]
Good Article Nick. Can you transfer points from any program (e.g. UR) to Choice?
Yup – Membership Rewards.