McDonald’s has added the ability to convert points into booking.com credit. Currently you can redeem 15,000 points and get $50 off a stay of $150+ on booking.com.
Unfortunately doesn’t look like you can stack the discount and it’s only available on select accommodations. McDonald’s needs to step up its game and add travel partners next. In all seriousness I don’t think this is too useful but interesting that it has been added.
Hat tip to reader Bockrr
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I just did this deal. We get mcmuffins and iced coffee about once a week and my husband had a ton of McDonalds points (and you can only redeem for one thing at a time at the restaurant), so the points would probably have otherwise gone to waste. On the McDonalds app I went to the section for Rewards and this option was at the bottom. I read the fine print and it says its only available for select rooms but when I went to Booking.com they didn't seem to restrict anything. I selected this reward on McDonalds app and was given a coupon code (and they erased 15,000 points) then I went to the booking.com site (there was the URL on the app, something like booking.com/mymcdonaldsrewards) and searched for hotels. We have a trip planned to the Dakotas next month and planned to stay in one city for 2 nights so it was easy to hit the $150 per night minimum. Once I entered the Mcdonalds code on the booking.com page the listings for different hotels all showed a $50 reward. I went through and booked and the money did indeed come off. We will be traveling with our dog so always look at pet fees (that are charged later, not when you book). I initially booked one hotel that booking.com indicated had no pet fees and later found out that was old information and the fee was $25 per night so I cancelled this and booked at a different place on booking.com and the mcdonalds discount still worked (although I had the search screen still open on my computer). This deal is worth a lot more than what you could get with free food (for reference something like 6000 mcdonalds points will get you a free quarter pounder with cheese).
Worth more than 10 McChickens, so I call it a deal.
I wonder if I can manufacture spend Big Macs….
15k points… not sure about the health trade off in earning those points just for the $50 off 🤣🤣🤣 and there’s a min spend too!
I value McDonald's at roughly 0.1 to 0.2 cents a point so this is not a bad deal if I ever used booking.com. Wish it was good for airlines.
Are you saying points from the McDonald’s app? You should really specify because it reads as though you’re suggesting McDonald’s has a credit card
Well we know McDonald’s doesn’t have a credit card… Jesus Christ America would be overly obese.
Careful, McD's gonna take that personally and we're going to be seeing one shortly. Free BigMac meal after 10,000 calori- i mean dollars spent in a year.
I like how you think McDonald’s is doing this specifically for the points and miles community, as if the next big collab will be McDonald's x Bilt.
Hello, fellow 'John,' yes, BILT sure does some odd 'collabs' doesn't it. Gonna get weird in February with their 2.0 thang.
With a Big Mac sandwich currently costing $5 on average and being available for 6000 points as a redemption you could figure one McPoint having a value of 0.083 cents. This Booking.com redemption would give a value of 0.33 cents per point, about four times the normal rate, so there could be some good value here for the right person
This is not permanent. Two months ago, one of the redemption options was a Snapchat+ subscription. The non-food rewards will change again next month.
The whole point of this exercise is to lower reserves for unredeemed McD points, which are a massive balance sheet liability even with rolling expiration dates. 15k points is child's play, considering the six-digit point balance some accounts have from catering orders.
I never recall seeing other redemptions for outside brands. Guess I don't open the app enough!
"The whole point of this exercise is to lower reserves for unredeemed McD points, which are a massive balance sheet liability even with rolling expiration dates." I very much doubt it, not with assets of $55 billion and retained earnings of $67 billion. If the number was material, it would be disclosed. Accounting 101.
Finance nerd factoid -- Never noticed this before, but MCD operates with large negative shareholder equity, due to treasury stock (contra-equity), acquired thru aggressive share buybacks.
+1, but ... McDonald's catering?
What non-fresh hell--
You'd have to buy 55 BURGERS, 55 FRIES, 55 TACOS, 55 PIES, 55 COKES, 100 TATER TOTS, 100 PIZZAS, 100 TENDERS, 100 MEATBALLS, 100 COFFEES, 55 WINGS, 55 SHAKES, 55 PANCAKES, 55 PASTAS, 55 PEPPERS AND 155 TATERS to earn 15,000 McDonalds points. Pass.
who knows, maybe it'll catch on