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Priority Club Points & Cash – The Pointbreaks Anomaly!

Priority Club Points & Cash is a way to conserve points on Priority Club Reward nights. Basically the cost of the reward night is reduced by 5,000 points in exchange for $30 cash. Pay $60 and reduce the cost of the reward by 10,000 points.

PointBreaks Anomaly

[Update: November 15, 2010 – This glitch has been closed down by Priority Club. Nice while it lasted.]

PointBreaks are Priority Club’s special 5,000 points per reward night limited time offers at select hotels.

While searching for hotels in the Chicago area I came across a Points & Cash rate anomaly through the Holiday Inn site revealing the option for $30 hotel nights.

The Chicago Do is being held at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove in the Chicago suburbs around the vicinity of Chicago O’hare Airport.

On the ichotelsgroup.com Priority Club Rewards website the Reward Nights option looks like this:

a close-up of a hotel

a close-up of a reservation

But, when I check the Chicago-Elk Grove hotel website link I find a Points & Cash anomaly.

 

a screenshot of a hotel

a screenshot of a casino
Holiday Inn Elk Grove has Points & Cash $30 rate + 0 Points

The PointBreaks rate of 5,000 points per night is actually combined with a Points & Cash offer to pay $30 in exchange for the 5,000 points. The hotel is available for 0 points + $30 per night even for a Priority Club member who has no Priority Club points.

Even better yet, there is the Pay $60 Points & Cash offer. You can book the hotel room at this PointBreaks hotel for $60 and receive 5,000 points for the reward night. You get a $30 room night and the ability to buy Priority Club points for more than 50% off the normal purchase rate.

a screenshot of a casino
Holiday Inn Elk Grove Pay $60 and buy a room night and 5,000 points

Points purchased through Points & Cash do not count toward the 12-month 40,000 points purchase limit. But remember, Points & Cash reward nights also earn no points or promotion credit. That is a big consideration currently with the option to get a free night at any IHG hotel after two stays.

But for a last minute booking for a late Chicago arrival, a $30 Holiday Inn hotel night near O’Hare certainly beats Priceline. And the $30 rate is 75% off the regular $109 room rate for the same night.

8 Comments

  • Anton October 14, 2010

    -5000 points + 60$ is not working for me 🙁 Says “contact service center”

  • Ric Garrido October 14, 2010

    Anton – The problem with sharing deals is the possibility that they go away rather quickly once revealed for thousands to see.

    I tried other hotel brands and I couldn’t get this to work for Crowne Plaza or InterContinental PointBreaks hotels I selected.

    Everything looked the same today as when I booked the -5000 + $60 Points & Cash rate yesterday through HolidayInn.com, all the way through to the final booking screen.

    I don’t want to find out if it says “contact service center” after hitting the final button since I do not want another Holiday Inn night.

    Holiday Inn Elk Grove was not the initial hotel where I found this anomaly PointBreaks rate, so it was not a unique situation for the Holiday Inn Elk Grove.

    There are probably some Priority Club fans hating me for shedding light on this deal.

  • No1vickfan October 18, 2010

    The list of Point Break hotels was updated about 2 weeks ago, and this anomaly only appears with those hotels appearing on that quarterly-updated list:

    http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/c/2/content/dec/pc/0/en/points/us/hre/pointbreaks.html?rateCode=IVANI

    After about 14 days, and several blogs as this, Priority Club has obviously caught on, and fixed the issue. Points + Cash are no longer are being offered at any of the PointBreak hotels, due to the incredible situation mentioned above.

  • Ric Garrido October 18, 2010

    “several blogs as this” ?

    Who else wrote about this deal?

  • ThePriorityMaster November 3, 2010

    Come on… this is old crap! Get a hotel for 15000 points (for example!), select “5000 points + cash”, pay the cash and book the hotel… then: cancel the booking, and you will have the full 15000 points on your account…

  • Ric Garrido November 3, 2010

    PriorityMaster – works if you have points. But assume the member has 7,000 points and the Holiday Inn is 25,000 points. Even Points & Cash option will require 15,000 points + $60. The member needs 8,000 more points.

    A savvy Priority Club member might find that 15,000 points hotel reward you mention and book a Points & Cash reward night for 5,000 points + $60.

    Then cancel the reward. The 10,000 points purchased for $60 remain in the Priority Club member’s account. The member now has 17,000 points to spend.

    The member can now book the 25,000 points Holiday Inn for 15,000 points + $60 cash (if Points & Cash still available).

    Anyway – the point of this article was not to show how to get around the system by booking reservations with the intent of cancelling them for the purpose of acquiring cheap points.

    This post shows that a person with no Priority Club points at all can pay $30 for a hotel night. And for $60 the person can get a free hotel night and 5,000 points.

    And there is nothing deceptive about this strategy. Priority Club is offering this Points & Cash option when a member books a PointBreaks reward night.

    The option is still available despite comments made above. I used it two more times last week.

  • […] awards and then cancel to keep all the points you bought. I just did it today. Here is the PointBreaks loophole that is likely being closed. The Points & Cash cancellation option will hopefully remain unchanged. __________________ […]

  • Ric Garrido November 15, 2010

Comments are closed.

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