Preferred Hotel Group is part of the Choice Privilege loyalty program. Their hotels & resorts are split into five different collections for award stays and they have just announced that the cost of award stays is being reduced by 5,000 points for all of these different tiers.
- Collection 1: 25,000 points per night (previously 30,000)
- Collection 1: 35,000 points per night (previously 40,000)
- Collection 1: 45,000 points per night (previously 50,000)
- Collection 1: 55,000 points per night (previously 60,000)
Preferred Hotels & Resorts have some really exceptional properties, but obviously this reduction has the biggest impact on their tier 1 properties. Personally the change doesn’t make a difference to me, as I doubt I’d have an excess of Choice points to begin with.
There are a few ways to earn Choice points quickly:
- Get the credit card (8,000 points after first purchase and 24,000 points after your first stay)
- Transfer Amtrak points to Choice (1:3 ratio, limit of 50,000 Amtrak points per year and must have at least Select status. No limit for Select executive)
- Purchase points (1.1¢ per point)
- Join Choice (4,000 points just for joining and another 4,000 for completing your first paid stay)
Now that you can no longer transfer Chase UR points to Amtrak, most people will find it much more difficult to accumulate Choice points. It’s still nice to see a hotel chain reducing the amount of points their rooms cost, rather than increasing them.
Hat tip to wufinance on /r/churning
