DiscoverAmerica.com Daily Getaways offer at 12 noon ET today April 27, 2011 is for sets of Priority Club points. A member may purchase up to 5 sets in each of the four offers for up to 20 total sets. It is possible to buy 500,000 points in this sale.

• 10,000 points for $67 ($60.30 if payment is American Express), 650 sets for sale. Maximum purchase is 5 sets per member.
• 25,000 points for $167 ($150.30 if payment is American Express), 120 sets for sale. Maximum purchase is 5 sets per member.
• 25,000 points for $167 ($150.30 if payment is American Express), 420 sets for sale. Maximum purchase is 5 sets per member. (There are two separate sales for sets of 25,000 points).
• 40,000 points = $267 ($240.30 if payment is American Express), 300 sets for sale. Maximum purchase is 5 sets per member.

There are two good reasons for making a Priority Club points purchase today.

1. Purchased points from this sale count for elite status. Priority Club requires 20,000 points earned in a calendar year for Gold elite or 60,000 points for Platinum elite. These points purchases from DiscoverAmerica count for elite qualification, whereas points purchased through Points & Cash rewards do not count for elite qualification. You can buy your way to Platinum elite for $361 with the purchase of 60,000 points today.
2. If you do not have any Priority Club points, then a purchase today puts you in play for taking advantage of Points & Cash reward nights where the price of a reward is discounted by 10,000 points for $60. All hotels are available for Points & Cash rewards. Crowne Plaza hotels cost 25,000 points per night. Points & Cash takes 15,000 points + $60. Purchasing points for $60 per 10,000 points through this DiscoverAmerica sale drops the price of a Crowne Plaza hotel to $150 to pay with points. Any Crowne Plaza hotel night more than $150 will be cheaper to pay with points.

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club Rewards hotel brand reward nights:

InterContinental Hotels = 40,000 points (high tier) or 30,000 points per night (low tier). There are slightly more hotels at the 30,000 points level.

Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo= 25,000 points per night.

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express = 10,000 points or 15,000 points or 25,000 points. Most hotels are in the 15,000 points tier. About 200 of 3,000 hotels globally are in the 10,000 points tier.

Staybridge Suites = 20,000 points per night.

Candlewood Suites = 15,000 points per night.

Holiday Inn Club Vacations = 27,500 per night.

Another way to buy Priority Club points at a discount

Buying Priority Club points at $60 is a fair market value, but not necessarily a deep discount. Priority Club members can actually buy 10,000 points for $60 through Points & Cash reward nights by making a booking for a hotel, buying 10,000 points and later canceling the booking before the stay.

The way Points & Cash rewards are structured requires the member to buy either 5,000 or 10,000 points prior to booking the reward night. 5,000 points cost $40 or 10,000 points cost $60. The points purchased are added to your Priority Club account instantly. The points purchase is nonrefundable so if you end up canceling the reward night the points remain in your account.

There really seems to be no limit to making points purchases through this method. The primary reason the DiscoverAmerica.com sale is better is points purchased through the sale count for elite qualification. But that is irrelevant if you already have Priority Club Platinum elite status and plan to requalify in 2011 anyway.

DiscoverAmerica.com Daily Getaways has travel sales every weekday through May 13. Here is the calendar for upcoming sales.

Double points or miles is the primary promotion for Priority Club for the next three months from May 16 through August 15. Double points or miles begins with your second stay during the promotion period for most brands, except your first stay counts double if Candlewood Suites or Staybridge Suites.

Advance promotion registration is required for Priority Club Double Points or Miles 2011-Q2 promotion. No retroactive points or miles for stays prior to registration.

Earning Double Points with Priority Club

Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites are the extended stay brands of InterContinental Hotels Group. These two brands earn just 5 base points/$1. Double points means 5 bonus points per $1 for a total 10 points/$1.

InterContinental Hotels earn 2,000 points per stay. Double points is 2,000 bonus points for a total 4,000 points per hotel stay at InterContinental Hotels.

All other IHG brands earn 10 points per dollar and these brands include Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo. Double points = 20 points/$1.

Earning Double Miles with Priority Club

Priority Club has over 40 airline partners for earning miles. There are many earning structures depending on airline and hotel brand. The miles earning rates are shown here.

The US-based airlines of Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways earn miles at these rates:

• 2 miles per $1 spend at Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo. (Double miles = 4 miles/$1.
• 1 mile per $1 spend at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites. Double miles = 2 miles/$1.
• 500 miles per stay at InterContinental Hotels. Double miles = 1,000 miles/stay.

Loyalty Traveler analysis:

This is an underwhelming offer. There is not much analysis required for this simple offer.

The more important consideration is what other programs offer at this same time period. Starwood Preferred Guest has a free night for every 3 stays from May 1-July 31 with no earning limit. Hyatt Gold Passport has 10,000 points for 5 nights through June 30 and an additional 5,000 points for every two additional nights. Club Carlson earns one free night for two stays with a limit of one free night through June 15.

Hilton HHonors offers 3,000 Virgin Atlantic miles per stay through June 30.

Keep in mind that your ability to earn bonus Priority Club points can be greatly enhanced by registering for a variety of additional promotion offers. I am writing this from a Holiday Inn Express that is my first paid IHG stay for 2011. I registered for nine different Priority Club promotions yesterday. The base rate I paid should earn 1,030 base points for this hotel stay and 515 Platinum elite bonus points.

I anticipate earning at least an additional 5,000 points from this stay through the nine promotions I signed up for yesterday. These are targetted promotions and not all of them will apply to this stay. But some of them will likely add a load of bonus points to this hotel stay. Most of my paid stays earn over 5,000 Priority Club points. I will update this post with the exact number of bonus points once they post.

How did I sign up for so many bonus offers? Priority Club Insider Current Offers page.

The additional promotion offers should generate a far larger bonus than I would receive if this stay qualified only for double points. That would only be an additional 1,030 bonus points. Double points and miles begins May 15, 2011.

Update Tuesday, April 26: My Holiday Inn Express stay posted yesterday with 8,500 bonus points from 4 of the 9 promotional bonus offers. A $1o3 base rate hotel night after tax was $111 and earned a total 10,045 points in Priority Club. This same hotel requires 15,000 points for a free night.

I Guess I’m Not Ready for an InterContinental Life

Aside: I signed up for InterContinental Ambassador April 2, 2011 and paid for my membership with 32,000 Priority Club points. I have been waiting for my Ambassador membership kit. Yesterday I noticed the 32,000 Priority Club points are back in my account and I am not listed as an InterContinental Ambassador.

Was I rejected from InterContinental Ambassador membership?

Update April 22: Ambassador customer service says they were having website problems earlier this month and they have no record of my enrolling in InterContinental Ambassador on April 2.

I have my Ambassador Congratulations Mr. Garrido screenshot and I actually posted an image of my InterContinental Platinum Ambassador card on this blog.

I am quite disappointed in the customer service response when I called to inquire about the issue today.  I was looking forward to paid stays at the Venetian and Palazzo this weekend. My cash is going elsewhere.

Spending $100 for a night at Holiday Inn earns about 1,000 points at 10 points per dollar in hotel spend.  So why do many members get several thousand additional bonus points for each hotel stay?

Promotion offers make all the difference.

A unique feature of Priority Club Rewards is the ability to sign up for multiple bonus promotion offers, even if not specifically targeted to you, and earn bonus points from some of these offers for a single hotel stay. This is the reason why many Priority Club stays earn bonus points as high as 5 times or more the base points earned from hotel spend.

Over the years I have received numerous offers from Priority Club for a “Stay bonus” or “Come Back” bonus. These are features of many hotel loyalty programs who reach out to former guests with a promotional enticement to return to their hotel brands. Often the incentive is a gift of bonus points. Occasionally it is a free night. Most of these are targeted offers only applicable to the member.

Priority Club, more than any other major hotel loyalty program, allows loyalty members to register for multiple promotions not specifically targeted to the member. All you need to know is a link and promotion code to register for bonus points and other offers.

There are a couple of places where you can search for these promotion offers like FlyerTalk.com (Priority Club promotion code thread and Priority Club promotion discussion thread) and MilePoint.com in the Priority Club thread, and PriorityClubInsider.com for listings of the most current promotions. There are a large number of promotion codes posted.

The general advice you will find is sign up for every offer that lets you register and then wait in anticipation after your hotel stay to see which bonus points appear in your account. To repeat, Priority Club is unique among hotel loyalty programs. This kind of thing does not happen much with Starwood, Hilton and Marriott.

Loyalty Traveler maintains a current loyalty promotions page of the major promotions open to most Priority Club members, but I do not post many of the Priority Club targeted offers listed on the sites above. FrequentFlyerBonuses.com is another good place to find a simple list of bonuses compiled in an easier to read format than the FlyerTalk and MilePoint boards.

Here is a list of offers from just the past month listed on FlyerTalk and MilePoint to illustrate the large number of Priority Club promotions currently out there.

Two things to keep in mind with Priority Club quarterly stay bonuses:

1. Not all offers are created equal. Priority Club Offer code 6576 earns 5,000 points after three nights, but offer code 6577 requires four nights to earn 5,000 points. Offer code 6596 earns 10,000 bonus points after 7 nights, but offer code 6594 requires 12 nights to earn 10,000 bonus points.
2. Choose carefully. There are many bonus variations. Priority Club only applies the first offer you register for to your account of the “Stay X nights/times and Earn X Points” bonus promotions.  These targeted stay bonuses are generally offered every calendar quarter.

Priority Club Quarterly Stay Bonuses

3,000 points for next stay April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Milepoint.com)

Stay 3 nights, earn 5,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer Code 6576) (FlyerTalk.com)

Stay 4 nights, earn 5,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer Code 6577) (FlyerTalk.com)

Stay 7 nights, earn 10,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer code 6596) (FlyerTalk.com)

Stay 8 nights, earn 10,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer code 3577) (FlyerTalk.com)

Stay 10 nights, earn 10,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer code 3592) (FlyerTalk.com)

Stay 12 nights, earn 10,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer code 6594) (FlyerTalk.com)

Stay 18 nights, earn 15,000 points April 1 – June 30, 2011 (Offer code 6594) (FlyerTalk.com)

Other current Priority Club offers

Weekend Stay 5,000 Bonus Points for a 2-night stay Friday-Sunday or Saturday to Monday within 90 days of registering. (Offer code 3782) (FlyerTalk.com)

1,000 bonus points for every stay in next 60 days. (Offer code 6778) (FlyerTalk.com)

5,000 points after 50 nights by November 30, 2011 (milepoint.com)

Apart from the stay X get Y, I get the impression that the following 5 still work for everyone:

New member bonus 1500 pts. (8853)
Elite member next stay bonus 3000 pts. (2697)
Next stay bonus 1500 pts. (1848)
Welcome back bonus 1500 pts. (7830)
Anniversary bonus offer 1000 pts. per stay for 90 days (2775)

FlyerTalk March 9, 2011 Hannibal Lecter

PriorityClubInsider does a good job of picking out the best offers and providing working links for registration. Here is one PriorityClubInsider.com page with many of the best offers that will require reading pages of FlyerTalk to locate.

I have been getting my Priority Club promotion registrations in order this week. I have several more hotel nights to stay before the end of May to earn my 91,000 Priority Club bonus points for last year’s Crack the Case promotion offer.

PriorityClubInsider.com is good site for promotions and tutorial

The newly branded InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Las Vegas – The Venetian and The Palazzo – have an introductory “6,000 Bonus Point Package” rate offer for hotel stays of three nights or more. Bonus Priority Club points are in addition to the 2,000 points normally earned for InterContinental Hotel stays for 8,000 points total per stay (about a $50 value). InterContinental Ambassador members receive benefits at these properties.

Book your stay by June 30 and receive these additional rate benefits:

• 20% off Breakfast or Brunch provided by Morels
• $30 off a bill of $60 or more provided by Zine
• $35 off 50-min Massage or Facial provided by Canyon Ranch SpaClub
• Complimentary line pass and admission provided by LAVO Nightclub
• 2-for-1 well drinks provided by Salute Lounge

This offer requires first night deposit at time of booking and is fully refundable for cancellations at least 72 hours in advance.

Rates I checked for the 6,000 Bonus Point Package were $10 per night over the Best Flexible Rate.

Tip for finding the lowest hotel rates:  

Travelocity.com has a nice feature for seeing hotel rate information for the next 90 days by using the Flexible Dates feature. Simply look up any date for Las Vegas and click on the rate for the Venetian or the Palazzo. Travelocity has a Flexible Dates tab at the top of the page that shows the hotel rates for 90 days. This is much quicker than random date checks on IHG websites for finding low rate dates over a 3-day period and avoiding high rate dates when planning your trip.

Travelocity.com Flexible Dates calendar for The Palazzo

Another tip for Las Vegas – Travel packages for airline + hotel often drop the hotel rate down to about $100 or less for the first night or two at many of the fine hotels in Las Vegas like Wynn, Encore, Bellagio, Mandarin Oriental, Venetian and Palazzo.

The hotel rate savings might be worth more than the points.

**Be sure to go back to the IHG website to make your hotel booking since Travelocity bookings do not earn Priority Club points.

Priority Club members can earn InterContinental Ambassador status after three stays at InterContinental Hotels by July 31, 2011.

Free InterContinental Ambassador status promotion link.

But, 32,000 points for InterContinental Ambassador is a Better Deal.

InterContinental Ambassador membership costs $200 or 32,000 Priority Club points for new members. Membership year is 12 months after you enroll and expires last day of enrollment month.

A new InterContinental Ambassador member on May 10, 2011 enrollment has a membership period ending May 31, 2012.

Annual renewal is reduced to $100 per year.

I favor the 32,000 points payment for immediate InterContinental Ambassador status rather than making three InterContinental Hotel stays for free status. The net cost to buy Ambassador with points is 27,000 points since you get 5,000 points back in a coupon included with your Ambassador membership packet. This is a point value of $7.40 per 1,000 points ($200/27,000 points) which is as good as most hotel night redemptions.

Completing three stays at InterContinental Hotels to earn free Ambassador status with this promotion will mean a minimum of three paid nights stayed without receiving Ambassador benefits.

• No confirmed room upgrade on three InterContinental Hotel stays (likely more than $200 value).
• Nights stayed at InterContinental Hotels before you are Ambassador will not count towards the Ambassador Accelerator promotion for 20,000 bonus points after 15 nights. You miss out earning 1,333 bonus points per night or a minimum 4,000 points when staying at least three nights at InterContinental Hotels without Ambassador status. You can also think of the Ambassador Accelerator points earned as reducing the cost to buy Ambassador membership with points by at least another 4,000 points making the net cost 23,000 points or less if you simply pay 32,000 Priority Club points for Ambassador membership rather than going for Stay 3, Ambassador free.
• Missing the opportunity to use the BOGO free weekend night certificate available as an InterContinental Ambassador when you pay for the first night. The paid night for the BOGO weekend counts for Priority Club elite status and points.

Important to note: InterContinental Ambassador status is a membership program specific to InterContinental Hotels brand and Ambassador membership has minimal benefit for hotel stays at all other hotel brands of InterContinental Hotels Group.

InterContinental Ambassador Hotel Stay benefits

• Guaranteed room upgrade to superior room.
• Fresh fruit and daily water.
• 4pm late checkout.
• Complimentary pay TV film per stay.
• Welcome gift.
• 20,000 bonus points every 15 nights at InterContinental Hotels (registration required)
• Note: Incidental spend at InterContinental Hotels does not earn additional base points. 2,000 points per stay is it.
• Complimentary Club access (hotel executive lounge) is not a benefit of Ambassador membership, although some hotels offer discounted Club access upgrade rate to Ambassadors.
• Free breakfast is only an Ambassador benefit if given Club access upgrade.
• Free internet for Ambassadors is only a benefit at these few InterContinental Hotels.
• InterContinental Hotels with hotel stay bonuses including bonus points, breakfast, etc. For example, InterContinental Montreal offers 4,000 points, free breakfast and free internet (1 Dec 2010 – 30 April 2011). 

InterContinental Ambassador Membership Packet benefits

• Complimentary weekend night with Buy One, Get One Free membership certificate. Second night is free on weekend stay at an InterContinental Hotel or Resort. Free night valid on Friday and Saturday night stay or Saturday and Sunday night stay. In Middle East Thursday and Friday or Friday and Saturday. The paid night is the rate for first night only, not an average of two nights. Valid for 12 months and expires on last day of enrollment month.  You must book the ‘Ambassador Certificate’ rate (IBAMB), which is usually equivalent to the Best Flexible Rate.
• Complimentary Gold elite status (10% bonus points on all IHG stays is only real benefit).
• Membership packet has 5,000 Priority Club points certificate with code. You can add these points to your own account or gift the voucher code to another Priority Club member.

InterContinental Ambassador FAQ

InterContinental Royal Ambassador is an invitational elite status with additional privileges.

• Top 1% of Ambassador members are invited to Royal Ambassador membership.
• Royal Ambassadors receive a referral certificate for each year of RA membership. The RA Referral allows member to gift RA membership to another person. RA referral certificate is the route to Royal Ambassador on less than 50 IHG nights. These certificates sell on eBay for $600-$1,000 (although Ebay and IHG rules forbid these transactions).
• Royal Ambassadors receive complimentary Priority Club Platinum elite status.
• Membership year expires on Ambassador membership expiration date. Renewal is dependent on total hotel stay pattern.
• Referred members who become Royal Ambassador through referral certificate do not receive a Royal Ambassador referral certificate in membership packet. 

InterContinental Royal Ambassador qualification criteria are unpublished, but anecdotal evidence indicates Ambassador member needs 50 to 60 nights at any IHG hotels (Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites) with at least 3 hotel stays at InterContinental Hotels during the Ambassador membership year. Some Ambassador members with 50 nights and 3 stays do not get Royal Ambassador invitations and some people get invited on less. Again the actual criteria are unpublished except to say

How do I achieve Royal Ambassador status?

Royal Ambassador status is extended by invitation only to a small percentage of InterContinental Ambassador guests, based on the number of nights they have stayed during the past year.

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/ambassador/faq

Royal Ambassador Benefits

• Typically a two-category guaranteed room upgrade to Executive Room or even a Suite. This does not necessarily apply when booking suites like a guaranteed upgrade from paid full-suite to Presidential Suite.
• Complimentary in-room mini-bar. Some hotels may not have complimentary snacks in mini-bar. Check first. Mini-bar should be refilled daily.
• Guaranteed 8am check-in.
• 3,000 points per stay (additional 1,000 points over other members).
• Benefits like Club access, early check-in and complimentary mini-bar are not guaranteed for award stays.
• Club access is not guaranteed. Free breakfast only if given Club access.

Downgrading Royal Ambassador Elite Status in Steps

This FlyerTalk thread and posts by member Raffles (Ambassador and Royal Ambassador) are source for most of this information.  I have updated the dates in Raffles description of Royal Ambassador downgrade process.

What happens if I lose RA status?

You drop down to Ambassador, and receive a free year of Ambassador, saving the usual $100 renewal fee. You will then drop down to Priority Club Gold if you do not pay your Ambassador fee the following year.

You will also retain your Priority Club Platinum status for the remainder of the calendar year following your demotion. So … in January 2011 you may be a ‘Platinum Royal Ambassador’. If you lose RA status in March 2011, you will drop to ‘Platinum Ambassador’ until December 2011. From Jan-March 2012 you will be ‘Gold Ambassador’ (assuming you don’t earn 60,000 points to retain Plat) and from March 2012 onwards (assuming you don’t pay $100 to retain Ambassador) you will be a simple ‘Gold’ member until December 2012. If you don’t retain Gold you then drop to ‘Club’ member in January 2013.

In conclusion:

I followed my own advice during the writing of this post and enrolled as an InterContinental Ambassador member using 32,000 points. I have wanted to try Ambassador for several years, particularly since the InterContinental Clement Monterey is a couple miles from home and two IC properties are nearby in San Francisco. And the new partnership with the Venetian and Palazzo will expand my Las Vegas Strip options when visiting family in Sin City.

Now a quest for making a friend with a Royal Ambassador referral! 

Links: PriorityClubInsider.com – good blog for Priority Club promotions and additional descriptions of Ambassador/Royal Ambassador.

FlyerTalk – Please post your Royal Ambassador experiences (Thread is 279 pages to date).

New RA Qualifying Limits Since June 2009 (Thread is 50 pages long and RA members typically publish their qualifying  stay activity with hotel nights and brands.)

Please post your Priority Club elite experiences (Thread is 174 pages to date).

Milepoint.com – Royal Ambassador Qualification Helpful tips

Priority Club has a limited time offer for 7,500 bonus points when booking Spring Break hotel stays for a minimum 2 nights at more than 100 hotels in Florida, California, Texas and other locations.

Priority Club Rewards Spring Break promotion web link. Rate Code = ISGSB

The Spring Break promotion page lists these destinations:

• San Diego, California (22 hotels)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
• Miami, Florida (27 hotels)
• Orlando, Florida (28 hotels)
• Panama City, Florida
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• South Padre Island, Texas
• San Jose, Costa Rica
• Cancun, Mexico
• Los Cabos, Mexico

Terms and Conditions

• Requires stay of two or more consecutive nights.
• Cancellation policies are liberal, generally day before arrival with no penalty.
• Rates are higher than advance purchase and Best Flexible; generally $10 to $30 per night more.
• 7,500 points per stay.
• Available for stays through May 15, 2011

Loyalty Traveler Analysis:

Panama City, Florida Holiday Inn Select

Wed Mar 16 – Fri Mar 18, 2011 (2 double beds)

Spring Break Rate $119/night = $253.48 (after tax)

• Cancel up to 6pm Mar 16 with no penalty. 

Best Flexible Rate $109/night = $232.18 (after tax)

• Cancel up to 6pm Mar 16 with no penalty. 

Discount Rate $95.99/night = $204.46 after tax

• Cancellation will be charged first night rate.  

Advance Purchase $92.99/night = $198.06 after tax.

• Cancellation forfeits entire prepaid room deposit.  

AAA rate $92.99/night = $198.06

• Cancel up to 6pm Mar 16 with no penalty. 

This Spring Break offer for 7,500 bonus points will cost $55 more than the AAA rate for a two-night stay at the Panama City Holiday Inn Select with the same cancellation policies.

You can save $55 now and simply buy 10,000 points for $60 when you book your next reward stay.  

7,500 bonus points is only a good deal if you would otherwise book the Best Flexible Rate and you do not qualify for AAA rate and you need bonus points now.

I do not recommend this Spring Break promotional offer for most guests since the rates are higher.

Keep in mind that when you redeem points for a free hotel stay, there is usually the option of Points & Cash whereby you can pay $60 and reduce the reward cost by 10,000 points for your hotel stay.

The ability to buy 10,000 points for $60 makes paying more than $45 extra to earn 7,500 Priority Club points not such a good deal.

The primary advantage to paying a higher rate to earn Priority Club bonus points is the fact that these bonus points count for elite qualification. Priority Club Gold elite is reached by earning 20,000 points in a calendar year and Platinum elite takes 60,000 points. If you need points for elite status then paying $45 for 7,500 points is a fair exchange.

But, if you already have Priority Club elite status and you do not need points to earn elite status, then save your money. This deal is really only a good deal if you do not have many Priority Club points and you need more points for a planned redemption.  

For example if you only have 10,000 Priority Club points, then you can’t afford a free Crowne Plaza reward night for 25,000 points, even with the option to buy 10,000 points.

Account Balance = 8,788 points. Book the Spring Break package for $253.48 and you earn $119 x 2 nights x 10 points/$1 = 2,380 points + 7,500 Spring Break bonus. Earning 9,880 points now opens up the possibility of booking a Crowne Plaza 25,000 points hotel reward night with 18,668 points.

You can book a Crowne Plaza using Points & Cash with 15,000 points + $60 to purchase the remaining 10,000 points.

The majority of IHG hotels cost 15,000 points for a free night at a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express (popular locations require 25,000 points, but the vast majority of hotels in the chain are 15,000 points per reward night).

A person with no Priority Club points can book the Spring Break 7,500 bonus points offer and have enough points after the stay to book a Points & Cash night at any of nearly 2,000 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels for 5,000 points + $60.

Holiday Inn Orlando Convention Center (Wed March 2- Friday March 4, 2011)

Spring Break Rate = $79/night = $182.76 after tax

Advance Purchase = $56/night = $131.00 after tax

AAA rate = $63/night = $146.76 after tax

7,500 bonus points for $36 over the AAA rate is a good deal and the cost is only $15 over the prepaid, nonrefundable rate. Of course, the prepaid rate is a better deal if the nonrefundable conditions are acceptable for your risk tolerance.

Priority Club launched a new promotion today – Win it in a Minute. Each weekday for the next 12 weeks offers Priority Club members the chance to answer 5 questions for points. This is a timed trivia contest providing 12 seconds to answer each question. The quicker you answer correctly, the more points you win for the correct answer.

• Top 50 scores each weekday win 5,000 Priority Club points.
• Top 100 cumulative scores each week win 15,000 Priority Club points.

Priority Club Win it in a Minute Trivia Challenge link

I answered the first question incorrectly, but I picked the answers to the next four questions correctly.

Speed matters.

The questions were geographic questions, but not hotel-related.  

My score was the third highest of the day today, even with missing one question entirely. The day is still young and I will surely drop in the rankings. But maybe I will hold on to a top 50 finish.

Ric Garrido's Win it in a Minute score 1-24-11 (but is it high enough for Top 50 daily prize?)

Now I just have to remember to return each weekday and play ‘Win it in a Minute’ to build up my weekly cumulative score.

15,000 points can be redeemed for a free night at more than 1,500 Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Candlewood Suites hotels globally. Link to Priority Club reward night chart.

Trivia brainiacs can potentially earn 120,000 points for just about 15 minutes of your time each week over the next few months. There are weekly and monthly winner limits of one 5,000 points daily prize per contest week and one weekly prize of 15,000 points per calendar month. Priority Club ‘Win it in a Minute’ official contest rules.

• 15,000 points x 4 calendar months (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr) in Top 100 points total = 60,000 points.
• 5,000 points x 12 daily prizes (limit of one 5,000 points prize per week) = 60,000 points.

All that seemingly useless trivia sloshing around your head might reward you three or four free nights at an InterContinental Hotel this summer.

‘Win it in a Minute’ continues Priority Club’s string of clever loyalty promotions.

Priority Club’s 2011 kickoff promotion is the same promotion offered for Q1-2009. Earn 3,000 bonus points for every three nights; up to 30,000 bonus points for 30 nights for hotel stays from February 1 to April 30, 2011.

Miles earners can choose 1,000 miles every 3 nights instead of points; up to 10,000 bonus miles. This is actually the better earning value if you regularly convert points into miles with Priority Club. Points-to-miles exchange in Priority Club is a fixed rate of 10,000 points = 2,000 miles, so this offer for 1,000 miles every 3 nights is equivalent to earning 5,000 Priority Club points. Miles are the better bonus, if you do not need points.

Priority Club 2011-Q1 Bonus Points Promotion registration link.

Priority Club 2011-Q1 promotion for 3,000 bonus points or 1,000 bonus miles every 3 nights.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

3,000 bonus points after 3 nights works out to just 1,000 bonus points per night. This is equivalent to $300 in bonus base spend per 3 nights. That is the same promotional value as last year’s 2010 Q1 offer for 1,000 points per night, up to 20 nights, and an overall relatively low promotional bonus value.

Comparison of Priority Club 2011 Q1 with other current hotel program offers: 

Best Western Rewards – 3 stays = 1 free night at any Best Western in U.S., Canada or Caribbean

• 36,000 points value if free night used at the highest reward category hotel = $3,600 base points spend equivalent or $1,200 per stay. And remember a stay can be just one hotel night.

Marriott Rewards – Two stays = 1 free night at Category 1-4 hotel.

• Category 4 reward night is 20,000 points value.
• 20,000 points = $2,000 hotel base spend.
• $1,000 hotel base spend per Marriott stay can mean $1,000 base points equivalent value for 1 night.

Starwood Preferred Guest – Double Points + 500 points per night on Thursday-Sunday nights.

• $100 Thursday night stay earns $100 base points (double points) + $250 base points equivalent (500 points for Thursday night) = $350 base points equivalent for one night.

Priority Club Rewards – 3,000 bonus points every 3^rd night.

• 3,000 bonus points = $300 hotel base spend. The only real advantage to this offer compared to others is for the person with extended stays during the work week. Best Western and Marriott bonuses are based on stays so the bonus is much harder to earn if you have 4 or 5 night stays. SPG is better, but only if you stay on weekends. It is certainly easier to find a cheap IHG hotel compared to a cheap Starwood.

Hotel Loyalty Programs 2011 Q1 Promotion Value scaled to Base Points Equivalent Value (BPEV)

BPEV = the amount of hotel spend required to earn the same number of base points being given as a promotion bonus. BPEV provides a method for comparing the value of promotions in different loyalty programs using a similar scale correlated to the program’s base points earn rate.

Best Western = $3,600 BPEV for 3 stays ($1,200 BPEV per stay). Assume your free night can be used at a 36,000 points reward hotel with a rate of $200.

Marriott Rewards = $2,000 BPEV for 2 stays ($1,000 BPEV per stay). Assume your free night is at a Marriott Rewards category 4 hotel worth about $200.

Starwood Preferred Guest = $350 BPEV for one $100 paid weekend night. A 3-night stay (Thu-Sun) would earn the equivalent in bonus points of $1,050 BPEV for one stay.  The SPG member would still be about 500 points shy of a 3,000 points category 2 reward weekend night or a category 3 Cash & Points night. 2,500 SPG points are worth about $100 if redeemed for good value.

Priority Club Rewards = $300 BPEV for 3 nights. 3,000 bonus points is about 20% of the 15,000 points needed for most Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels or Candlewood Suites. The new PointBreaks list will be coming out any day now for February and March hotel stays. PointBreaks hotels are only 5,000 points per night and will give the best points redemption value.

Placing 2011 in Recent History Context

The Priority Club 2010 Q1 offer last year was 1,000 points every night – up to 20,000 points after 20 nights. This year’s deal has a higher bonus threshold at 30,000 points, but limits earning bonus points to every three nights. I find that more restrictive and open to leaving points on the table if you find yourself at 4 or 8 nights or something in between multiples of 3 nights at the end of the promotion.

Priority Club’s 2010 offer also included the choice to earn 200 bonus miles every night instead of points. That worked out to be the same rate Priority Club points convert to miles (10,000 points = 2,000 miles). The current 2011-Q1 offer of 1,000 miles every 3 nights is better than the 2010 Q1 miles offer.

My point in showing the 2010 Q1 offer is to place the current offer in the context of the hotel industry occupancy and room rate recovery underway across the industry. Virtually every hotel loyalty program has a weaker offer at the present time compared to their 2010 Q1 promotion with the notable exceptions of Best Western Rewards and Marriott Rewards.

But don’t be discouraged yet for 2011. The offers in 2010 Q1 were among the lowest value bonus offers of the year and then Q2 2010 spread free nights galore across the hotel loyalty world.

I do not anticipate a repeat of 2010 free night promotions this spring 2011, however, the slow winter season in North America and Europe tend to have the weakest offers of the loyalty program year and the surge in mid-year travelers tends to get the promotions rolling as competition heats up for frequent guests.         

In the meantime, free nights are currently being offered through Best Western and Marriott. Take advantage of these high-value offers now. There is no guarantee we will see any more free night offers in 2011.

For the interim you may want to check this thread for other Priority Club bonus offers that will certainly add some additional points to your IHG stays.

Priority Club Survey for 300 points

FlyerTalk 2011 Priority Club Master Promo thread

Loyalty Traveler Milestone – on a personal note – I noticed this is my 1000^th Loyalty Traveler blog post since January 2008. Happy Anniversary Loyalty Traveler.

Loyalty Traveler 1000 posts Milestone

InterContinental Hotels in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will earn 12,000 points per stay from November 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011 when booking rate IKPCN. You earn 10,000 bonus points with IKPCN rate plus normal 2,000 points per IC hotel stay. This offer is valid even for one-night stays.  

Rates are about 10% more per night than Best Available, so keep that in mind when booking this offer for more than one night stays. 10,000 Priority Club bonus points is only worth $60 since you can get 10,000 points by booking a Points & Cash award and then cancelling the award.

Five participating hotels include two in Thailand: InterContinental Hua Hin Resort and InterContinental Bangkok, InterContinental Phnom Penh in Cambodia, InterContinental Hanoi Westlake and InterContinental Asiana Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Sample rates eligible for 10,000 bonus points per stay:

• InterContinental Hua Hin, Wed Dec 15 = 6,000 Thai Baht (US$200)
• InterContinental Bangkok, Fri Jan 7 = 6,500THB (US$217)
• InterContinental Phnom Penh, Tue Dec 14 – Thu Dec 16 = USD$130/night
• InterContinental Hanoi Westlake, Fri Jan 14 = USD$160
• InterContinental Asiana Saigon, Fri Mar 4- Sun Mar 6 = USD$209

Las Vegas Holiday Inn has two special offer rates for 10,000 bonus points per stay including breakfast for two at the Forte Grill hotel restaurant or 15,000 bonus points per stay. The 15,000 bonus points rate is available for stays into November 2011 at rates about $50 more than the otherwise lowest available rate.

The 10,000 bonus points is actually the better deal with the breakfast benefit, but appears to be available only for the holiday season through December 2010.

There are no special rate codes to enter. These offers appear in general searches.

Thanksgiving weekend rates are $119 per night compared to an advance purchase rate of $97. An extra $22 for 10,000 Priority Club bonus points and a restaurant breakfast for two is an amazing deal.

The 15,000 points package rate for the same date is $25 more for the extra 5,000 points at $144 per night, however, no breakfast included.

The 10,000 bonus points package if staying in 2010 is the better value.

Rate Rules Fine Print

These rates have lenient cancellation policies at 24 hours advance notice for dates I checked.

Rate rules for these 10K and 15K packages state no other points promotions can apply on top of this package such as a PC Postcard Mailer. I really do not know what this means exactly, but I do not think it applies to the current Sweet Dilemma offer for a free night after two stays.

Please correct me readers if you find I am wrong about the Sweet Dilemma offer and this Las Vegas bonus points offer.

Holiday Inn Las Vegas Thanksgiving weekend 10K rate Nov 26-27

Location

The hotel is located at Paradise Road and Flamingo, two long blocks east of the Strip, near the UNLV campus.

One of the best features of this hotel over most hotels on the Las Vegas Strip is a complimentary shuttle service between LAS airport and the hotel. Hotel shuttle service is rare in Las Vegas and a taxi will run $15 to $25 depending on how much traffic you hit (or your driver can find).

10K Rates

Priority Club offers these 10,000 bonus points packages at a variety of hotels around the country. Locating them is kind of hit or miss. Priority Club has a webpage showing hotels offering bonus points rates, but these 10,000 points hotels are not shown. And 15,000 bonus points per stay is the highest rate I have seen.

To compare: Through Points & Cash it will cost $90 to buy 15,000 points. Through Priority Club “Buy Points” link it will cost $187.50 to buy 15,000 points.

Holiday Inn Las Vegas 15,000 Bonus Points Rate Nov 22, 2010