Best Western hotels Best Western Rewards Hotel Loyalty 2012-Q2 promotions

Buy up to 50,000 Best Western Rewards points May 7

U.S. Travel Association and American Express sponsored Daily Getaways today offers 10,000 Best Western Rewards points for $67 or $60.30 with American Express. Maximum purchase limit is 5 sets of points for 50,000 points at $301.50 (Amex price).

Presale at 12 noon eastern (Access Code = 03C70) and main sale at 1:00pm eastern.

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  • 835 sets of points available.
  • 160 sets available during presale.

This is a discount on the normal purchase rate of $100 per 10,000 Best Western Rewards points.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

Bottom line is I don’t find these Best Western Rewards points to be a compelling offer. These points might be used for US Airways Grand Slam hits if that offer comes around again in 2012.

In general the exchange rate for Best Western points to frequent flyer miles is 5 points to 1 miles meaning $60 in points will give you 2,000 airline miles. That is not a particularly attractive value.

Points for Hotel Rewards

Best Western hotel reward nights start at 8,000 points, but I have never been in a place where I needed a Best Western hotel stay and the reward rate was 8,000 or 12,000 points. I find nearly all the hotels I consider are in the 16,000 to 20,000 points range in places near National Parks and such where there are few other lodging options aside from Wyndham and Choice.

My basic analysis is a 20,000 points hotel for $120.60 might be a savings, but probably not a big savings on the published rate.

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Friday, July 15, 2012 reward night.

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The AAA rate including tax for this night at a Yosemite region Best Western is $184.30.

Buying 30,000 points from the Daily Getaways sale will cost $180.90 with an American Express payment.

There might be some deals for Europe in places like Paris and there might be some deals in rural places where there are $100 per night rooms and 8,000 or 12,000 points reward nights. My experience traveling around the western states is most of the Best Western hotels in places where I find myself are typically 16,000 to 20,000 points. Buying points might be a savings or perhaps not.

Personally I like to have points for one night in most of my hotel loyalty accounts so I have options when I find myself needing a hotel reward night.

I will try for 20,000 points. I know I will be somewhere this summer where these points will save more than the $121 to buy them today. There are over 4,000 Best Western hotels and they are one of the main hotel lodging choices for rural travel in the U.S.

4 Comments

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    Finally, my first purchase in the entire Daily Getaways offers. All the points I really wanted happened during days when I was not at home to be quick on the mouse.

    I will probably be unavailable for the Hyatt points sale this week too.

  • DJP May 7, 2012

    The other issue with best western is that the cary point value does not correlate well with the hotel retail/AAA price.

    You cfind 2 different hotels at 16,000 points. One retail is $150 p/n whil the other can be gotten for $70 p/n.

    Always compare the price to the hotel.

  • Bill H May 7, 2012

    I already have some buyer’s remorse. Why did I think I need 50,000 points? Oh, well. I’ll probably use them in Europe rather than the US and those hotels can get pricy. I’ll also have some for the Grand Slam if it happens this year. You get Diamond status when you “earn” 30,000 points in a year. Any idea if this works like Priority Club and I’d get the status for buying the points?

  • Ric Garrido May 7, 2012

    @Bill H – I think Best Western only counts base points earned from hotel stays for elite credit.

    @DJP – I’ll be looking for 16,000 points instead of $150 hotels.

Comments are closed.

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