UPDATE: It looks like I goofed. Multiple readers have stated that they have received the full 10% Priority Club points rebate even for Points & Cash awards. I don’t know why my experience (a year ago) was different. Please disregard this post!
If you have the Priority Club Select Visa and you’ve booked a Priority Club Points & Cash award, you should cancel it. Here’s why…
10% rebate
Priority Club Visa cardholders are automatically given a 10% rebate on all award redemptions (up to 100,000 points back per year). If you book Points & Cash, you’re not getting as many points back as you could be. So, cancel your award and then rebook fully with points (make sure of award availability first, though!).
Buy points by cancelling
Chances are, if you booked a Points & Cash award, you did not have enough points to book the room outright. Once you cancel your award, though, you will have enough points! The reason is that when you cancel a Points & Cash award, you do not get your cash refunded – instead, Priority Club credits your account with the full number of points required for the redemption. For example, if you paid 40,000 points plus $70 for a night at the InterContinental pictured below, you would get back 50,000 points when cancelling the reservation. In other words, you would have bought 10,000 points for $70. This is a well known and easily reproducible trick for buying Priority Club points for less than a penny each (.7 cents each).
Book the full award
Now that you’ve canceled your Points & Cash award, rebook the same hotel completely with points. Thanks to your Priority Club Visa, you’ll get 10% of the points back – more points back than you would have before. The value of this trick increases with longer stays. Suppose, for example, you had booked a 5 night stay for 40,000 points + $70 per night. By following the above advice, the total points used for this award will increase from 200,000 points to 250,000. As a result, your 10% point rebate will increase from 20,000 points to 25,000 points.
Is it worth it?
Well, the points savings here are pretty small, so I’d say this trick is really for those strongly committed to maximizing their points. Of course, if that’s you, you’re probably more likely to book Priority Club Point Breaks for only 5000 points per night anyway…
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oh dear, wont the blog-centric public display of this workable back door method possibly ring bells with PC and they will close it? I sure hope not! Wish it werent in here.
OUCH!
Instead, use a combination of cashback portals/credit cards that will give more than .06 value (10% was available last Xmas for Ultimate Rewards)
And just a reminder – dont bother using your Chase Priority club Visa for a cash & points purchase – you’ll only get 1 point per dollar (verified by interplanetary PC call center & personal experience)
I can confirm you get the 10% rebate on the full points, even with cash and points. For example, say the room is 35,0000 points or 25,0000 points + $70 cash. When you use the cash and points option, PC will redeem 35,000 points and then use the $70 to buy 10,000 points, for a net points outlay of 25,000 points. But since the total points redemption was 35,000 points, you’ll get a 10% rebate of 3,500 points.
I got the 10% back on the cash portion of stays that I did late last year, My parents and sister got the 10% on the cash portion of the stays that they did in June this year.
Completely unrelated, and with your current Marriott challenge, you might not be able to take advantage, but I know you’re a Delta guy.
Stay at Hilton – make Delta your double-dip option, get 250 MQMs.
Requires registration at http://www.HHonors.com/deltamqm
I’m 99% sure cardholders get the 10% pts rebate back even on cash&points stays, as that is all I ever book, and have received the rebate in the past.
That rebate will post within 6 weeks AFTER your stay has been completed.
PC platinum: Yes, you definitely get the 10% rebate, but my understanding is that you get 10% of the points part of the reservation, not of the cash part. If you have recent history that can prove me wrong, please do!
Any idea how long it takes for the points to post after cancelling the award?
I’ve always received the 10 percent rebate on the full point value of the award, even when booked with cash and points. Has there been a change in policy?
PSL: I’m basing this on a stay I did about a year ago. At the time I earned 12,000 points back instead of 15,000
mark: I believe the points post right away