I’m currently working on a post highlighting some new Choice Privileges sweet spots now that the Radisson Rewards Americas program has been merged into it. That post will be highlighting Radisson properties, but during my research for that I came across an additional sweet spot in the Choice program if you’re interested in visiting New Orleans – the Frenchman Orleans at 519.
One of the great features of the hotel is its location. Although it isn’t in the French Quarter, it’s right on the edge of it and so it’s only a short walk to Bourbon St, Cafe du Monde, etc.
Two of the property’s other key features are its award pricing and the room types bookable with points.
We’ll start off with award pricing. Through September 15, 2023 it costs 30,000 points per night to stay here which can be good value depending on the cash pricing. However, from September 16-November 30, 2023 the award cost drops to only 12,000 points per night. That’s an absolute bargain considering how high room rates can be during that period.
For example, I can imagine Halloween being a fun time to visit New Orleans. If you visited from October 29-November 2, you’d be able to book for 12,000 points per night rather than the $416.69 nightly rate which is a 3.47cpp redemption value. If you have a Citi Premier or Prestige card, you’d only need to transfer 6,000 ThankYou points per night.
What makes this sweet spot even sweeter (or, as Food Network judges like to call it, cloyingly sweet) are the room types bookable with points. There’s a 1 room suite with a queen bed and a kitchen which itself would be nice. However, it gets even better because there’s also a 1 bedroom suite with a king bed and a kitchen bookable with points too. Having a separate bedroom and living room in the heart of New Orleans for only 12,000 Choice Privileges points is phenomenal value.
The kitchen you get isn’t just a kitchenette consisting of a mini fridge and microwave. It appears to be a full kitchen including a fridge-freezer, dishwasher and oven range.
This all sounds amazing, so is there a catch?
Sort of.
The catch is an annoying quirk of the Choice Privileges program. You can only book award stays in the Choice program up to 100 days ahead of time which greatly limits your ability to plan stays far in advance. For example, I’m assuming it’ll cost 30,000 points per night to stay at the Frenchman Orleans at 519 during Mardi Gras. However, that 100 day limit means the hotel won’t be bookable with points until late October/early November, at which point it could be fully booked by people paying cash rates. In the meantime, award availability at other points-bookable hotels in New Orleans might have dried up. When doing a search for February 10-15 at the Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans where we’ve stayed a couple of times before, there’s already no award availability, although the Eliza Jane does – for now – still have standard rooms available.
Still, the ability to book such a nice one bedroom suite with a kitchen from only 12,000 Choice Privileges points per night is a great deal that was worth highlighting, even if you can only book it with points up to 3 months ahead of time.
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even though the details on choice say it s/b 12K a night for the dates I am looking – it is showing up at 30K a night? But, great redemption! I will keep an eye on it as we are only a couple of hours from NOLA!
I’ve only seen 30k as well.
I’m familiar with this property – never stayed there myself but I have friends who have, so I’ve seen several of the rooms. The conversion to a hotel is recent, it used to be short term rental condos or maybe timeshare, which is why you have the room types with kitchens. I agree, that seems like an amazing use of 6K Citi points.
One caveat, though, the hotel is located right in the heart of the Frenchmen St nightlife area. If you’re looking to enjoy that until the wee hours, the location is perfect. But Frenchmen can get loud. Some weekend nights you have as many people drinking and partying in the street as you would on Bourbon. And there’s a brass band that sets up on the corner a half block away and plays till late. Bring your earplugs, especially if you get one of the street-facing rooms.