Travel

Your full information to incomes and redeeming with Choice Privileges

March 7, 2023

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Editors’ observe: We’ve up to date this information with the newest info.

Choice Privileges is the rewards program for Choice Hotels. And you may quickly be capable to e-book much more lodges via the Choice Privileges rewards program, because the Radisson Rewards Americas loyalty program will fold into the Choice Privileges program within the coming months.

We do not know what adjustments the mixing of Radisson Rewards Americas will deliver to the Choice Privileges rewards program. But it is presently attainable to get vital worth from Choice Privileges promotions. And it is comparatively straightforward to seek out good worth award evening redemptions utilizing Choice factors.

Today, I’ll information you thru what you want to know concerning the present Choice Privileges rewards program so you’ll be able to determine whether or not Choice Hotels membership is best for you. As we write for a principally U.S.-based viewers, I’ll talk about the Choice Privileges program because it applies to U.S. residents.

Elite standing

Choice Privileges gives 4 standing tiers. You’ll turn out to be a Member when you sign-up for a free Choice Hotels membership. Beyond that, there are three Choice Privileges elite standing tiers: Gold, Platinum and Diamond.

Choice Privileges Member

When you join a Choice Privileges membership, you may robotically get Member standing, which gives the next advantages:

Access to the unique Member charge.

Receive Your Extras on stays that embrace a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening. Your Extras embrace bonus factors, airline miles or a alternative of present playing cards.

On high of those advantages, Choice Privileges Members earn 10 factors per greenback spent at most Choice lodges.

Choice Privileges Gold

You’ll earn Choice Privileges Gold standing after finishing 10 qualifying nights in a calendar 12 months. Only reward nights and nights that earn factors depend towards elite standing, and a few stays at extended-stay manufacturers earn fewer qualifying nights.

On high of the advantages obtainable to Choice Privileges Members, Gold members additionally get the next perks:

10% bonus factors.
Up to 9 elite rollover nights per calendar 12 months.
Welcome present at collaborating lodges within the U.S. and Canada.
Early check-in and late check-out, when obtainable, at collaborating lodges.
Elite reserved parking, when obtainable, at collaborating lodges.
Elite buyer hotline.

Due to the ten% bonus, Choice Privileges Gold members earn 11 factors per greenback spent at most properties.

Choice Privileges® Visa Signature® Card holders presently get Choice Privileges Gold standing as a card profit. However, as soon as the new Choice Privileges® Mastercard® launches later this 12 months, cardholders will get 10 elite evening credit every year (which is able to present you computerized Gold standing and will aid you earn larger tiers of Choice Privileges elite standing).

The info for the Choice Privileges Visa and Choice Privileges Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or offered by the cardboard issuer.

Choice Privileges Platinum

You’ll earn Choice Privileges Platinum standing after 20 qualifying nights in a calendar 12 months. On high of the advantages obtainable to Choice Privileges Gold members, Platinum members additionally get the next perks:

25% bonus factors.
Up to 19 elite rollover nights per calendar 12 months.
Ability to enroll in Avis Preferred Plus.

Due to the 25% bonus, Choice Privileges Platinum members earn 12.5 factors per greenback spent at most collaborating properties.

Choice Privileges Diamond

You’ll earn Choice Privileges Diamond standing after 40 qualifying nights in a calendar 12 months. On high of the advantages obtainable to Choice Privileges Platinum members, Diamond members additionally get the next perks:

50% bonus factors.
Up to 39 elite rollover nights per calendar 12 months.

With the 50% level bonus, Choice Privileges Diamond members earn 15 factors per greenback spent at most collaborating properties.

How to earn Choice factors

There are some ways to earn Choice Privileges factors. Here’s a fast overview of standard methods to earn Choice Privileges factors.

Hotel stays

One advantage of Choice Privileges membership is that you will earn 10 factors per greenback in your room charge at most collaborating Choice lodges. Elite members earn 10% to 50% bonus factors primarily based on their standing tier.

However, taxes, restaurant or different incidental costs normally will not earn factors. You additionally will not earn factors at WoodSpring Suites properties or in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. And stays of seven nights or longer at ImportantStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel and Everhome Suites earn 5 factors per greenback spent as much as 30 nights (subsequent nights will not earn any factors).

You normally will not earn Choice Privileges factors except you e-book instantly with Choice Hotels or certainly one of its properties. Specifically, the Choice Privileges guidelines and rules state which you could solely earn factors on stays booked via:

The toll-free specific reservation line.
The Choice Hotels web site or cell app.
Directly with the resort (aside from Ascend Hotel Collection all-inclusive resorts and on line casino places).

Most stays booked via these strategies are eligible to earn Choice Privileges factors. However, the next sorts of stays aren’t eligible:

Rooms utilizing an ineligible charge plan.
Room charges beneath $40 per evening.
Certain hotel-initiated promotions.
Reward evening stays and Points Plus Cash reservations.
Complimentary rooms and rooms paid for as a part of a conference or assembly.
Rooms booked via a journey agent or third-party on-line retailer, together with on-line journey companies, wholesale packages and group excursions.
Stays booked utilizing the worker low cost or the chums, household and affiliate low cost.

You can earn additional factors throughout stays via the Choice Privileges Your Extras program and Choice Privileges promotions.

Credit card spending

If you ceaselessly keep at Choice Hotels properties, it’s possible you’ll wish to get a cobranded Choice Privileges bank card. Luckily, Wells Fargo is launching a brand new Choice Privileges Mastercard this spring that can earn Choice factors as follows:

5 factors per greenback on qualifying stays at collaborating Choice lodges (together with non-Choice branded lodges you e-book via Choice’s web site, app or service heart) and once you purchase Choice factors.
3 factors per greenback on purchases at gasoline stations, grocery shops, residence enchancment shops and telephone plans.
1 level per greenback on different purchases.

Related: Best resort bank cards

Transfer factors from different packages

You can even earn Choice factors by transferring rewards from the next transferrable currencies:

However, earlier than finishing the switch, you must fastidiously take into account whether or not Choice Privileges is the most effective switch accomplice in your transferrable rewards.

Buy Choice factors

Buying Choice factors is one other method to enhance your Choice Privileges stability. However, the fee per level varies relying on what number of factors you buy and whether or not there’s a low cost supply. Without a reduction supply, Choice factors sometimes value 1.03 cents every once you buy a minimum of 10,000 factors per transaction.

Earn with companions

With a Choice Privileges membership, you’ll be able to earn Choice factors with the next companions:

Choice Privileges Eat & Earn: Enroll a number of credit score or debit playing cards in Choice Privileges Eat & Earn after which earn Choice factors once you pay with an enrolled card at collaborating eating places and bars.
Avis and Budget automobile leases: Get as much as 35% off and earn as much as 1,000 Choice factors once you lease with Avis or Budget.
Choice Privileges Cruise Partners: Earn 5 Choice factors per greenback spent once you make a brand new reserving for a qualifying cruise via Choice Privileges Cruise Partners.
Golf by Choice: Earn Choice factors when buying tee occasions, golf gear and attire via the Golf by Choice program. Gold members earn 10% extra factors, Platinum members earn 15% extra factors and Diamond members earn 20% extra factors.
eRewards: Earn Choice factors by taking surveys.

Refer a good friend

You can earn 500 Choice Privileges factors once you refer a good friend to the Choice Privileges program. Specifically, you and your good friend will every earn 500 factors after they be a part of this system and full their first points-eligible keep. There’s no cap on the variety of buddies you’ll be able to refer.

Planner Rewards

Through the Planner Rewards program, you’ll be able to earn Choice Privileges factors once you host occasions at participating Cambria Hotels. To qualify, your occasion should embrace a minimum of 10 visitor rooms on a single evening.

You’ll earn 3 factors per greenback on eligible costs, together with resort rooms, meals, beverage, assembly rooms and gear. However, you will not earn factors on taxes, charges, incidental costs and gratuities. To make sure you earn factors as a gathering planner, it is best to get a written assembly contract with the resort that specifies that you will earn factors via the Planner Rewards program.

How to redeem Choice factors

Now that you understand how to earn Choice Privileges factors, let’s take into account the other ways you’ll be able to redeem Choice factors. You’ll normally get essentially the most worth once you redeem Choice factors for resort stays, however we’ll additionally talk about different choices.

Redeem for a free evening

Choice Hotels properties aren’t aligned into classes. And there isn’t any set award chart. But you will discover the present and upcoming redemption charges on every property’s webpage.

Generally, a Choice Privileges reward evening will value 6,000 to 35,000 factors. Based on TPG’s valuations, 6,000 factors are price $36 and 35,000 factors are price $210.

However, the window for reserving reward nights is comparatively quick. Specifically, you’ll be able to solely reserve a room utilizing factors 100 days earlier than deliberate arrival.

And, since you’ll be able to e-book premium rooms at some properties utilizing the identical variety of factors as normal rooms, you may wish to snag these quickly after the reserving window opens.

You can even redeem Choice factors for stays at collaborating Preferred Hotels and Resorts worldwide. Award nights at Preferred Hotels and Resorts properties value between 25,000 and 55,000 factors per evening. You can examine availability on-line, however you need to name to e-book.

Redeem utilizing Points Plus Cash

Booking a Points Plus Cash charge could seem interesting if you wish to preserve factors. But you will not earn factors on these bookings.

To see in the event you can e-book a specific property utilizing Points Plus Cash, seek for a reward evening and see if a Points Plus Cash charge is beneath the reward evening possibility.

You’re successfully buying factors in the event you e-book utilizing the Points Plus Cash possibility. In the case proven above, you may e-book a refundable charge with free cancellation till shortly earlier than your keep for $461, 30,000 factors or 6,000 factors plus $204.

In this instance, you’d purchase 24,000 factors for $204 with the Point Plus Cash possibility — successfully buying Choice factors for 0.85 cents per level (larger than TPG’s valuation of 0.6 cents per Choice level). But, in the event you redeemed 30,000 factors for the $461 evening, you’d get a redemption charge of 1.54 cents per level — so this is likely to be an excellent time to purchase Choice factors in your keep.

If you cancel a Points Plus Cash reserving, you may be refunded solely in factors. So, you’ll be able to basically use Points Plus Cash bookings to buy Choice factors. However, you’ll be able to’t buy greater than 250,000 factors in a calendar 12 months via Points Plus Cash bookings.

Redeem for faculty sports activities experiences

You can redeem Choice factors for faculty sports activities experiences. The choices change ceaselessly, however you’ll be able to see what’s presently obtainable on the Choice Hotels web site.

Buy a present card

You can redeem your Choice Privileges factors for bodily present playing cards, though you’ll be able to solely make one redemption each 48 hours.

For most sorts of present playing cards, there are $25, $50 and $100 choices, with the $100 possibility costing double the $50 possibility and 4 occasions the $25 possibility.

Most $25 present playing cards value 8,000 factors, so you may solely get a price of 0.31 cents per level. As such, we sometimes suggest different redemption choices.

Donate your factors

There are presently six choices if you wish to donate your Choice Privileges factors:

American Red Cross, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Executive Leadership Council, Hotels for Heros and Operation Homefront: $5 donation for 1,000 factors, $10 donation for two,000 factors, $15 donation for 3,000 factors, $20 donation for 4,000 factors and $25 donation for five,000 factors (0.5 cents per level).
Polaris Project: $10 donation for 1,000 factors, $20 donation for two,000 factors, $30 donation for 3,000 factors, $40 donation for 4,000 factors and $50 donation for five,000 factors (1 cent per level).

As you’ll be able to see, donating your factors gives a good redemption worth. If you select the Polaris Project, which works to forestall and fight human trafficking, you may get a redemption worth of 1 cent per level. As with present playing cards, you’ll be able to solely make one donation transaction each 48 hours.

Redeem for magazines

You can redeem your Choice Privileges factors for a journal subscription. Subscriptions vary from 300 factors for 12 problems with NewsChina to 4,000 factors for 12 problems with Fortune.

If you wish to learn any of the obtainable magazines, this might be an affordable use of your factors.

Exchange your factors for miles

You can even trade your Choice factors with the next loyalty packages on-line via the Choice Privileges Rewards Exchange program:

Air Canada Aeroplan: Exchange 5,000 Choice factors for 1,000 Aeroplan factors.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: Exchange 5,000 Choice factors for 1,000 Alaska miles.
Qantas Frequent Flyer: Exchange 2,000 Choice factors for 800 Qantas factors.
Radisson Rewards Americas: Exchange 1,000 Choice factors for two,000 Radisson Rewards Americas factors.
Southwest Rapid Rewards: Exchange 6,000 Choice factors for 1,800 Southwest factors.
United MileagePlus: Exchange 5,000 Choice factors for 1,000 United miles.
Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer: Exchange 2,000 Choice factors for 800 Velocity factors.

Choice Privileges sometimes gives switch bonuses. For on-line exchanges, rewards will typically submit inside 48 hours. But, in some circumstances, it might take as much as seven days.

There are some extra packages to which you’ll be able to switch Choice factors by calling Choice Privileges Customer Service:

Aeromexico Club Premier: Exchange 5,000 Choice factors for 1,600 Premier factors.
Czech Airlines OK Plus: Exchange 5,000 Choice factors for 1,000 OK Plus miles.
Spirit Airlines Free Spirit: Exchange 5,000 Choice factors for 1,000 Spirit factors.

However, it’s possible you’ll want to attend two to 6 weeks for the rewards to succeed in your account.

Redeem for golf gear

You can redeem Choice factors for golf gear and attire via the Golf by Choice program. For instance, you may get a Taylormade Stealth Driver for $580 or 193,330 factors (providing you with a redemption charge of 0.3 cents per level).

Redeem for a cruise credit score

Finally, you’ll be able to redeem your Choice Privileges factors for a cruise credit score from Cruises for Choice Privileges (powered by Cruise411).

Specifically, you’ll be able to redeem 85,000 factors for a $250 cruise credit score. This gives a redemption worth of 0.29 cents per level. Or, you’ll be able to redeem 160,000 factors for a $500 cruise credit score, which gives a redemption worth of 0.31 cents per level. These redemption charges are effectively below TPG’s valuation of 0.6 cents.

Award reserving course of

To use your Choice Hotels membership and e-book a reward evening keep, go to Choice’s web site and log in to your account. Then, enter your vacation spot, dates, variety of rooms and variety of visitors. Finally, earlier than clicking “Find lodges,” click on on the drop-down for “Special charge” and choose “Use Choice Privileges factors as a substitute.”

Once you click on “Find lodges,” you may get a outcomes record. You can filter these outcomes by facilities, distance out of your vacation spot, manufacturers and worth vary. You can even kind the outcomes by relevance, worth, distance, score or low cost.

To evaluate resort places on a map, you’ll be able to click on “Map” to see resort info and a map on a break up display screen.

Click “See availability” for a property to see the obtainable room sorts. Generally, you may see a number of room sorts.

If you click on “Rates & particulars,” you may be taken to a web page the place you’ll be able to evaluate the award charge with paid charges. In this case, you’d get a redemption charge of two.67 cents per level (a lot larger than TPG’s valuations).

If you click on “Book room” subsequent to the award evening possibility, you may attain a closing web page earlier than confirming your reserving. This web page will present helpful info, together with the cancellation coverage and any extra charges you need to pay on-site. To finalize the reserving, click on “Make reservation.”

Maximizing Choice Privileges

As you may see on this part, there are a number of methods to maximise the Choice Privileges program.

Maximize promotions

The Choice Privileges program ceaselessly gives promotions. One recurring promotion means that you can earn a minimum of 8,000 factors after each two stays. Based on TPG’s valuations, 8,000 Choice factors are price $48.

This promotion normally requires that you’ve got a nightly charge of a minimum of $40. But you’ll be able to maximize this promotion in the event you keep in one-night increments at cheap properties with a nightly charge of $40 or extra. And this promotion normally does not cap what number of occasions you’ll be able to earn the bonus. So, promotions like this may be an effective way to spice up your factors stability.

Sweet spot redemptions

There are loads of alternatives to get outsized worth from Choice Privileges factors. For instance, in Europe and Japan, you’ll be able to usually get well-located properties for 12,000 factors or much less per evening.

But, Choice factors can even present nice worth within the United States. For instance, some good-value Choice Hotels are close to nationwide parks and in giant cities. For inspiration, take a look at the lodges presently featured as Choice Hotels’ Sweet Spot Rewards.

Lowest worth assure

Like many resort loyalty packages, Choice Privileges gives a greatest charge assure. Choice’s lowest worth assure applies once you e-book instantly with Choice after which discover a decrease publicly obtainable worth.

You should full the declare type inside 24 hours of constructing your reserving. And there are a number of restrictions and exclusions. So, take a look at the phrases and situations earlier than making a declare to keep away from disappointment.

Within 48 hours of your declare, a Choice Hotels consultant will contact you. If your declare succeeds, Choice will honor the decrease charge in your keep. Plus, in the event you’re a U.S. or Canadian resident, you may obtain a $50 reward card after your keep. Or, in the event you’re a global resident, you may obtain the primary evening free.

Get top-tier Choice Diamond standing

U.S., Canadian and European Choice Privileges members who’ve elite standing with one other resort loyalty program can get top-tier Diamond standing after one qualifying keep at a Cambria Hotel. To request Diamond standing, e mail Status_Match@choicehotels.com with the next info:

Your full identify and Choice Privileges quantity.
Proof of elite standing with one other main resort loyalty program.
A duplicate or screenshot of a folio/receipt from a points-eligible Cambria keep within the final 12 months.

You can count on a response in three to 5 enterprise days. If your request is permitted, you may achieve Diamond standing for the remainder of the 12 months in case your Cambria keep or your request was between January and June. But you may get Diamond standing via the tip of subsequent 12 months in case your Cambria keep and request are each between July and December.

Utilize the Your Extras program

Choice Privileges’ Your Extras program gives one thing additional on choose stays. To earn a Your Extras profit, e-book a points-eligible keep that features a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening.

You should decide into this program and choose which Extra to obtain earlier than check-in. However, the sorts of Your Extras advantages range relying on location and your residency.

Frequently requested questions

How a lot are Choice Privileges factors price?

Choice Privileges factors are price 0.6 cents every primarily based on TPG’s valuations. This valuation considers the worth at which we might purchase Choice Privileges factors and the redemption worth we are able to normally get when redeeming them. However, as you’ll be able to see from the above examples, the precise worth can range relying on the resort and dates of the keep.

How many Choice Privileges factors do you want for a free evening?

A Choice Privileges reward evening prices between 6,000 to 35,000 factors in most components of the world.

Do Choice Privileges factors expire?

Choice Privileges factors expire in the event you do not earn, redeem or buy Choice factors for 18 consecutive calendar months.

What is the most effective Choice Privileges model?

Overall, the very best high quality Choice Privileges model is probably going Cambria Hotels. Cambria Hotels intention to be trendy, approachable and trendy whereas becoming the wants of enterprise vacationers and the needs of leisure vacationers. However, I’ve additionally discovered some Ascend Hotel Collection properties which can be prime quality.

Bottom line

The Choice Privileges program gives a strong worth proposition. Of course, the Choice Privileges program could change as soon as Radisson Rewards Americas is built-in.

But for now, there are sometimes profitable Choice Privileges promotions. And there are additionally plentiful alternatives at each the high and low finish of the reward evening spectrum the place you may get ample worth.

However, the Choice Privileges elite standing ranges present considerably fewer advantages than different resort loyalty packages. So, in the event you’re on the lookout for helpful elite advantages, it’s possible you’ll wish to take into account a distinct program.