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Daily Getaways Choice Privileges points are their cheapest in 2018

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Today is Daily Getaways Day 2 for Choice Privileges points on sale at 1pm Eastern time. This is the day to buy Choice Privileges points at the lowest rate in 2018. This post includes a tip on how to see seasonal reward rates at any specific hotel to help you decide if Choice Privileges points might be useful to you for your travels.

My parents asked me if Choice Privileges are points they should buy? Like I would tell anyone, only buy points if you have a specific redemption in mind where you know points will save you money on hotels.

Choice Privileges Buy Points rate is normally $11.00 per 1,000 points with a 50,000 points calendar-year annual purchase limit.

Choice Privileges Daily Getaways offers

$265 = 55,000 Choice Privileges Points = $4.82 per 1,000 points; QTY: 800

$205 = 42,000 Choice Privileges Points = $4.88 per 1,000 points; QTY: 1048

$144 = 28,000 Choice Privileges Points = $5.14 per 1,000 points; QTY: 1571

$80 = 14,000 Choice Privileges Points = $5.72 per 1,000 points; QTY: 3143

Personally, I am definitely a buyer of Choice Privileges points. I typically burn through 100,000+ Choice Privileges points per year. Last year, I stayed 16 nights at Choice Hotels with 14 reward nights in Prague, Stockholm, Malmo and Copenhagen and 2 paid nights in Colorado Springs to earn 8,000 Choice Privileges points after 2 stays. The hotels in Colorado Springs were substandard compared to the upscale and upper upscale hotels I stayed at in Europe using Choice Privileges points.

Choice Privileges points give me the highest return on investment of any hotel points I redeem. Scandinavia offers fantastic value for hotel reward nights with a choice of 180 Nordic Choice Hotels. There is no doubt that you will find great value from Choice Privileges points if Norway and Sweden are in your travel plans. Hotels are expensive there and buying Choice Privileges points for reward nights will almost always be lower cost than paying the prevailing room rate.

But you need to make a comparison and check out the reward rates for hotels in other places to see if buying points will potentially cost less than paying published rates.

And keep in mind that Choice Privileges can change its redemption rates and rules at any time. The past 15 months have seen many programs eliminate and change some of their best redemption values and low booking rates:

Choice Privileges (Eliminated Points Plus Cash rates),

Club Carlson (eliminated 2-for-1 and 4-for-2 rates),

Hilton Honors (changed Points & Money rates),

IHG Rewards Club (changed PointBreaks rates) and

Wyndham Rewards (changed GoFast rates).

Tool to check Choice Privileges seasonal reward rates.

Update April 13: Since writing this article I noticed ChoiceHotels.com now shows seasonal reward rates at the bottom of an individual hotel’s web page. This was not the case for much of 2016-17 when I regularly used choicehotels.ca Canada website to find this infoormation. This is a good consumer-friendly change for Choice Privileges members.

An important tool for Choice Privileges members is the Canada Choice Hotels website. Choice Hotels change reward rates seasonally. You can find the seasonal reward rates for the next six months or so for any specific hotel when you look up a specific hotel on https://www.choicehotels.ca/. This reward night cost feature is not shown on the ChoiceHotels.com website.

Comfort Hotel, Star Inn Wien Schoenbrunn (Canada website)

Points required for Choice Privileges reward night redemption:

  • April 8, 2018 – April 15, 2018:
    • Sun – Thu 10,000/room
    • Fri – Sat 16,000/room
  • April 16, 2018 – June 30, 2018:
    • Sun – Thu 12,000/room
    • Fri – Sat 10,000/room
  • July 1, 2018 – September 15, 2018:
    • Sun – Thu 10,000/room
    • Fri – Sat 8,000/room

Choice Canada Vienna rewards

I might be in Vienna in July and this is one city where I see good value between Choice Privileges room rates and reward rates. Five nights for 46,000 to 50,000 points shows me I can pay $265 for 55,000 Choice Privileges today and redeem for a room that is currently priced at 403.75 EUR ($499 USD) in July 16-21.

$50 per night for a stay in Vienna is probably one of the best deals available in this city in July.

Reward stay booking window

Keep in mind that US members of Choice Privileges without elite status can only book hotels in North America within 30 days of stay and international hotels outside of North America within 60 days of hotel stay. This means waiting until May 17 to even see if reward space is available for Vienna. On the plus side for US members, European members in Choice Privileges without elite status can only book reward nights in Vienna within 30 days of stay.

Another tool for Europe is finding which countries Choice Hotels are located.

Choice Hotels Europe

 

9 Comments

  • Ric Garrido April 10, 2018

    Unable to get the 55,000 points sets. Purchased 140,000 points with 2 sets of 42,000 and 2 sets 28,000 for $698. That should get me through the next year of travel at Choice Hotels in Europe.

    Searched Best Western hotels today and found some good summer deals in Europe that make $55 for 10,000 points a great buy.

    Keep in mind that both Best Western Rewards and Choice Privileges have hotels where you can book suites for standard points rates.

  • Scott April 10, 2018

    Got 1 55,000 and 2 42,000 today

  • Jig April 10, 2018

    Got a 55K set. Could have gotten more and even the 42K, but haven’t been able to use up purchases from 2 years ago yet! Bit nervous about potential devals like you said, Ric.

  • Wendy April 11, 2018

    I’m relatively new to Choice rewards. How to see Choice reward redemption when you don’t have enough points to redeem a free night?

  • Ric Garrido April 11, 2018

    You need to be signed in to your account and have sufficient points for the reward reservation to see if there is reward night availability and types of rooms available.

  • […] article on Tuesday about Choice Privileges Daily Getaways suggested checking the Choice Hotels Canada website to find seasonal reward rates. There was a […]

  • jim juber April 20, 2018

    Just checked the Daily Getaways site today. Saw that Choice Hotels had the 55,000 point purchase option. I was initially going to buy 6 of the 14,000 point option. Not sure what is going on with the site, but I feel lucky about the break.

  • Ric Garrido April 20, 2018

    Thanks for the comment. I purchased more Choice points.

    I had planned to buy another 2 sets of 14,000 points for $160 to buy 28,000 points.

    Certainly prefer 55,000 points for $265.

  • […] Before checking Daily Getaways today, reader Jim left a comment saying Choice Privileges 55K for $265 offer is back. […]

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