Hotel Loyalty 2011 Q2 Promotions IHG One Rewards

Priority Club Last Minute Rewards 50% off for May 6-8

This weekend is the debut of Priority Club Last Minute Rewards. I waited for an email on Monday announcing the first set of 50% off reward nights for this new Priority Club feature. The March 29 press release announcing Last Minute Rewards stated the format included an email alert on Monday before the weekend of discount rewards. Instead I find out Wednesday evening through View from the Wing blog.

Last Minute Reward Nights: A hotel industry first, “Last Minute Reward Nights†will allow Priority Club members globally to redeem Reward Nights at a 50% discount off the regular point price, for selected properties.  Members will receive an e-mail on Monday providing a list of hotels where this offer will be available the following weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.  Initially, this program will be offered on the first full weekend of every month, starting with May 6, 7 and 8, 2011.  March 29 Priority Club Relaunch Press Release

I searched my emails and no message from Priority Club this week about these rewards. I guess they are keeping the new rewards low key for this initial set.

The Last Minute Rewards are a moot point in my case anyway. The closest participating hotels to me for this weekend are 350 to 450 miles away in Los Angeles and San Diego. I booked the Holiday Inn Express Merced instead for my Yosemite road trip on what might be the last ever Pointbreaks hotels for 5,000 points per night. That dropped the price of a $120 hotel to $30 which is what 5,000 points cost to buy from Priority Club through Points & Cash reward nights.

Last Minute Reward Nights May 6-8, 2011

127 hotels comprise the first set of Last Minute Reward nights. The hotels are 50% off the standard reward rate. This initial set of hotels only includes hotels in the U.S.

Searching the hotels requires checking by state to determine geographically where the hotels are located. Priority Club allows sorting by points from low to high or high to low, however, the hotels for Last Minute rewards do not show state labels, so unless you know by name where Hotel Indigo Basking Ridge is located you need to click on the link to determine the state location.

a screenshot of a hotel
Priority Club Last Minute Rewards sorted by points level

 

You need to click on the United States link in left column to get a list of states and then you can search hotels by state.

a collage of images of hotels
Sort by State for easier browsing of Last Minute Rewards hotels

The image above shows hotels in a Last Minute Rewards sort for Colorado.

The top tier hotels on this weekend’s Last Minute Rewards are the InterContinental O’Hare and InterContinental Dallas, both at 15,000 points per night. Dallas looks like a great deal. Lucky from One Mile at a Time wrote about the InterContinental O’Hare as being one of the nicest airport hotels in the U.S.

a screenshot of a hotel
Priority Club Last Minute Rewards sort by high-to-low points shows InterContinental Hotels

All in all, I like this new feature for Priority Club Rewards. I’ll like it even more when I find a hotel offered for a city where I need a hotel stay. In the mean time I will savor my PointBreaks night, even though it is a night in Merced, California.

My New Priority Club Platinum Card Arrived 

On a related note: I picked up my newly redesigned Priority Club 2011 Platinum card in the mail today. I find the new layout more visually appealing than the old card.

a close-up of several credit cards
Newly redesigned Priority Club Platinum Card with scenery

6 Comments

  • Oliver May 5, 2011

    > I booked the Four Points Merced instead for my Yosemite
    > road trip on what might be the last ever Pointbreaks hotels
    > for 5,000 points per night

    Probably also the first time you booked a Starwood hotel with IHG points (via Pointbreak), right? 😉

    I think you meant HIX and Suites in Merced. Enjoy your trip to Yosemite! 🙂

  • Ric Garrido May 5, 2011

    Thanks for the correction Oliver.

    Yesterday was my first day of 2011 in upper-80s degree weather. Brain fried.

    I also booked a Four Points hotel, but I think I will find that hotel located in Fresno and not a night booked on points.

  • Oliver May 5, 2011

    I got the new Platinum card two weeks ago. What surprised me was that yesterday my wife received her “Gold” card and it is still the old style. I hope they don’t spend more money/paper/plastic on sending her another one in a few weeks as she’ll never need it. The only reason she’s a Gold member is because she was good enough in the “Win it in a Minute” contest to win 20k points.

    On the topic of last minute rewards, I think I will have very limited interest in those. Pretty much the only scenario I could imagine where this would be useful is when I have already planned a trip to, say, Chicago for the first weekend of a month and I can then cancel my existing hotel reservation and use the discounted PC last minute award instead. Flying to Chicago *because* of the discounted award would likely be prohibitively expensive in many cases.

  • Dave P May 6, 2011

    My new RA card came a few days ago and it’s the same old card as last year.

    Also like to point out that the last minute rewards are only good for one weekend, the first full weekend of each month. So that means they got another three weeks to correct the email problems, etc.. before next months offer comes out.

    http://www.priorityclub.com/hotels/us/en/global/2/offers/lastminute?cm_mmc=IMMerch-_-PC_GL_en-_-LMRN-_-vanity_lastminute#ContentOnly

    “Enjoy a getaway during the first full weekend of every month for 50% less points.”

  • David May 6, 2011

    I went to the link earlier this week and saw the list of hotels. Now when i go to that link there are none. How long is the list up? This will not be a very good promo — if they are only up at the beginning of a week in which you have to book a hotel. I usually plan my trips in advance, and if this is only good for the first weekend each month — that is a small percentage of the traveler’s window for stays.

  • Ric Garrido May 6, 2011

    You have to book by Thursday. That was kind of an important detail I left out of the original post.

    This initial run of Last Minute Rewards is still a trial period of rollout for this new reward option.

    Hopefully navigation links for hotels and state labels will be better the next round. I assume this reward will eventually be weekly offers with the member email on Monday and booking through Thursday for Last Minute Rewards for the following weekend.

    That is a truly a short booking window for a last minute reward night. More an opportunity of proximity rather than an opportunity for a planned trip.

    Allowing a two to three week booking window would be much more useful to the consumer.

    The format used for PointBreaks where rewards are available for 4 to 8 weeks after hotels post is a much better reward option.

    New Priority Club brochure that came with new Platinum card states PointBreaks at both 5,000 points and at least 50% off as a limited time offer.

    “Priority Club PointBreaks
    Here’s your chance to catch a break. With Priority Club PointBreaks, Reward Nights are yours for only 5,000 points per night. Save at least 50% off regular redemption rates during this limited-time offer. Valid at select locations.”

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