Priority Club Double Points or Miles, May 16 – Aug 15, 2011

Double points or miles is the primary promotion for Priority Club for the next three months from May 16 through August 15. Double points or miles begins with your second stay during the promotion period for most brands, except your first stay counts double if Candlewood Suites or Staybridge Suites.

Advance promotion registration is required for Priority Club Double Points or Miles 2011-Q2 promotion. No retroactive points or miles for stays prior to registration.

Earning Double Points with Priority Club

Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites are the extended stay brands of InterContinental Hotels Group. These two brands earn just 5 base points/$1. Double points means 5 bonus points per $1 for a total 10 points/$1.

InterContinental Hotels earn 2,000 points per stay. Double points is 2,000 bonus points for a total 4,000 points per hotel stay at InterContinental Hotels.

All other IHG brands earn 10 points per dollar and these brands include Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo. Double points = 20 points/$1.

Earning Double Miles with Priority Club

Priority Club has over 40 airline partners for earning miles. There are many earning structures depending on airline and hotel brand. The miles earning rates are shown here.

The US-based airlines of Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways earn miles at these rates:

• 2 miles per $1 spend at Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo. (Double miles = 4 miles/$1.
• 1 mile per $1 spend at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites. Double miles = 2 miles/$1.
• 500 miles per stay at InterContinental Hotels. Double miles = 1,000 miles/stay.

 

Loyalty Traveler analysis:

This is an underwhelming offer. There is not much analysis required for this simple offer.

The more important consideration is what other programs offer at this same time period. Starwood Preferred Guest has a free night for every 3 stays from May 1-July 31 with no earning limit. Hyatt Gold Passport has 10,000 points for 5 nights through June 30 and an additional 5,000 points for every two additional nights. Club Carlson earns one free night for two stays with a limit of one free night through June 15.

Hilton HHonors offers 3,000 Virgin Atlantic miles per stay through June 30.

Keep in mind that your ability to earn bonus Priority Club points can be greatly enhanced by registering for a variety of additional promotion offers. I am writing this from a Holiday Inn Express that is my first paid IHG stay for 2011. I registered for nine different Priority Club promotions yesterday. The base rate I paid should earn 1,030 base points for this hotel stay and 515 Platinum elite bonus points.

I anticipate earning at least an additional 5,000 points from this stay through the nine promotions I signed up for yesterday. These are targetted promotions and not all of them will apply to this stay. But some of them will likely add a load of bonus points to this hotel stay. Most of my paid stays earn over 5,000 Priority Club points. I will update this post with the exact number of bonus points once they post.

How did I sign up for so many bonus offers? Priority Club Insider Current Offers page.

The additional promotion offers should generate a far larger bonus than I would receive if this stay qualified only for double points. That would only be an additional 1,030 bonus points. Double points and miles begins May 15, 2011.

Update Tuesday, April 26: My Holiday Inn Express stay posted yesterday with 8,500 bonus points from 4 of the 9 promotional bonus offers. A $1o3 base rate hotel night after tax was $111 and earned a total 10,045 points in Priority Club. This same hotel requires 15,000 points for a free night.

I Guess I’m Not Ready for an InterContinental Life

Aside: I signed up for InterContinental Ambassador April 2, 2011 and paid for my membership with 32,000 Priority Club points. I have been waiting for my Ambassador membership kit. Yesterday I noticed the 32,000 Priority Club points are back in my account and I am not listed as an InterContinental Ambassador.

Was I rejected from InterContinental Ambassador membership?

Update April 22: Ambassador customer service says they were having website problems earlier this month and they have no record of my enrolling in InterContinental Ambassador on April 2.

I have my Ambassador Congratulations Mr. Garrido screenshot and I actually posted an image of my InterContinental Platinum Ambassador card on this blog.

I am quite disappointed in the customer service response when I called to inquire about the issue today.  I was looking forward to paid stays at the Venetian and Palazzo this weekend. My cash is going elsewhere.