[Expired] Targeted Choice Promo: Earn 3x Or 5x Choice Privileges When Booking Through App

Choice sent out targeted emails a couple of days ago to some (or all) of its credit card holders, offering 5x Choice Privileges points when booking stays through their app. This means you’d be forgoing portal cashback, but 40x bonus points could be worth it.

The Deal

• Earn 5x (or 3x) Choice Privilege points when booking direct on the Choice Hotels mobile app.

Key Terms

• You must book your stay through the Choice Hotels mobile app between 05/31/2019 and 07/31/2019 and complete your stay by 07/31/2019.
• A stay includes all consecutive nights at the same hotel regardless of check-ins or checkouts. This promotion is only valid for qualifying stays, which exclude rooms booked below certain rates, complimentary rooms, rooms paid for as part of a convention or meeting, rooms booked through a travel agent or third party online retailer as part of pre-paid wholesale rates, wholesale packages or senior tours. Stays at vacation rental properties also do not qualify for this promotion.
• After completing a qualifying stay by 07/31/2019, member will be awarded a one-time bonus of five times the base Choice Privileges points, up to a total maximum (all stays included) of 40,000 bonus points.
• Only one room per member per check-in date will be awarded the bonus points.
• The bonus points will be added to the member’s account 4-8 weeks after the promotion ends on 07/31/2019.
• Member must click on or open this promotional email to be eligible. Only available to U.S. residents.
• Valid for the intended recipient of this email only; access or use of this promotion by anyone else will not be honored.

Quick Thoughts

Based on the image included in the email, this offer appears to only be targeted at Choice Privileges credit card holders. However, check your emails even if you don’t have their card in case they’re targeting other members too.

It’s actually a pretty compelling offer, so I’m a little disappointed that we’ll be spending the next couple of months in Airbnbs and Hyatt Houses. Earning 5x on the base Choice Privileges points means you’d be earning a total of 50x per dollar as you normally earn 10x base points. The Reasonable Redemption Value for Choice is 0.81cpp, so the RRV of this offer is 40.5%. That means it’s worth missing out on the 5-10% cashback through a shopping portal (or Ibotta) if you have any use for Choice points.

Even better, this should stack with the current Choice promo which offers at least 5,000 bonus points after two stays. For example, if you were to book two stays through the app costing a total of $500 before tax, you’d earn the following points:

• $500 x 10 base points = 5,000 points
• $500 x 40 bonus points (from this 5x app promo) = 20,000
• 5,000 bonus points from their other promotion = 5,000
• Total = 30,000 points

Based on the RRV of Choice Privileges, 30,000 points could reasonably be valued at $243, or 48.6% of the room rate before tax. Add in the rewards you’d earn by putting that spend on the right credit card (which doesn’t have to be the Choice Visa card), you’re looking at more than 50% in rewards.

Doing this math has me reevaluating our planned Hyatt award stays as 50%+ in value is going to be hard to pass up, although it would mean living in Choice properties for a few weeks rather than a Hyatt House with a kitchen. Hopefully Hyatt will announce their next quarterly promotion ASAP to make my decision easier.

Update: As per comments below, it looks like non-credit card holders might have received targeted offers for 3x points when booking through the app.

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