25
May
Priority Club has a Memorial Day weekend special over the next four days, May 25-28, to redeem points for gas gift cards at a 25% discount. Three gas retailers participate. Each gas company has their own gift card so you must choose your pumping preference.
GAS Gift Card Denominations and point redemption values: Read More…
Priority Club Points & Cash Rewards have increased to $70 for 10,000 points from the previous $60 rate. This is a relatively minor 17% increase on the reward cost.
This post looks beyond the Points & Cash Reward nights to examine how Priority Club Reward Nights have increased by as much as 63% in the past six months using $7 per 1,000 points as the fair exchange rate for points. Read More…
The Global Traveler Silent Auction 2012 crashed yesterday just as the auction for 1,000,000 Priority Club points was minutes from ending. The price was $3,810 when the auction site server crashed and the bid is still at $3,810.
About a dozen items, mostly flights, that were ending bids yesterday have now been extended to tomorrow for bids.
Thank you for your patience as we restored our 2012 auction. We apologize for the inconvenience this afternoon as we resolved unforeseen technical issues caused by an overwhelming number of bids. The bids were received at a much higher volume than in previous years. Please note, all auction items affected by the earlier problems are being extended. Bids will be accepted for an additional 24 hours and new close times have been posted next to each affected item. All other items will close as originally scheduled.
Here are some of the auction leading bids at this time 3:00pm Pacific Thursday May 3.
Hotel Auctions ending Thursday May 3 in the next three hours:
Hotel auctions ending Friday May 4
The hotel deals are the best value in my opinion.
Here is my previous post Instant Karma got me at the Global Traveler Silent Auction 2012.
There are 86 hotels listed on this month’s Priority Club Last Minute Reward Nights. The deal with these offers is the first full Friday to Sunday weekend of each month the hotels listed are 50% points for a reward night.
There are eight InterContinental Hotels on the list including Foshan China, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Tahiti and Caracas.
Crowne Plaza St. Paul, Minnesota appears to be the premier property offered in the USA. Read More…
The first full weekend of April means Priority Club Last Minute Reward Nights are available this weekend Friday April 6, Saturday April 7 and Sunday April 8 at 50% standard reward cost. 103 hotels worldwide participate this month with 86 of these hotels in the U.S. Read More…
Priority Club points packages for sale Monday April 9 are the first offer of the five weeks of Daily Getaways travel sales sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association and American Express. This post covers details of how Daily Getaways sales work and analyzes the value of the Priority Club points offers.
Friday, March 30 I published a way to buy 60,000 points and Priority Club Platinum status for $460. On Monday, April 9 you can buy 75,000 points and Priority Club Platinum status for about $451 through the Daily Getaways offers. Priority Club points purchased through the Daily Getaways offers are elite qualifying points. You can buy just 60,000 points and lower the cost of Platinum status to $361 if you want to take a gamble there will be availability to buy from two different Priority Club offers during the Daily Getaway sale.
It is possible to buy 500,000 points for $3,000 through the Monday April 9 Daily Getaways, but perhaps an unlikely probability that you can be fast enough to buy the maximum set of points from each of the four offers before they sell out.
Although Priority Club points in the past two years did not sell out as quickly as other hotel loyalty points that do not have backdoor options for cheap points purchases. I explained the Points & Cash procedure for buying 10,000 points for $60 in the March 30 post. Daily Getaways is a good opportunity to acquire a large number of Priority Club points, up to 500,000 points, at relatively low cost ($60 per 10,000 points) in perhaps a more acceptable method than booking and cancelling Priority Club Points & Cash reward stays to build your account balance.
Buy cheap Priority Club Rewards points at Daily Getaways April 9, 2012
There are four offers to buy points from Priority Club on the first day of this year’s Daily Getaways beginning at 1:00 pm eastern time April 9.
Presale starts at 12 noon ET. You only need to Like IHG Facebook to gain access to Presale where a specific number of sets of points are available.
4 Priority Club points offers. You may buy up to 5 sets from each offer.
This Daily Getaways offer is advertised as “Stay 1 night at a Crowne Plaza for $167.” The sale is for 25,000 points and these points can be used for any Priority Club reward you choose. The points are valid for reward nights at 4,500+ hotels in all IHG brands: InterContinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. Priority Club and other hotel loyalty programs selling points use the Daily Getaways to promote their hotel brands within the loyalty program
Presale Registration through Facebook Likes
A new feature of the Daily Getaways sales for 2012 is the opportunity to register for a Presale by liking the Facebook pages of participating vendors. This is really easy since the link is right on the sale page. The Presale offers begin at noon eastern time zone for one hour before the regular sale. There are a specific number of packages offered in the presale hour and the regular sale.
Priority Club Points Offer #1 – 10,000 points for $67 (AmEx = $60.30)
650 sets of points. 130 sets of points available during pre-sale.
Buy 10,000 points for $67 or AmEx $60.30. The price for all Daily Getaways offers is 10% less if payment is made with an American Express card.
You can buy up to 5 sets of points for 50,000 points with this offer.
Priority Club Holiday Inn Offer #2 – 25,000 points for $167 (AmEx = $150.30)
420 sets of points. 90 sets of points available during pre-sale.
The Holiday Inn sale has more sets of points so this is the best link if you want to buy a large quantity of points. You can buy 25, 50, 75, 100 or 125,000 points through this single offer. The Crowne Plaza deal below is the same offer and price, but fewer items for sale so your chances are better to try this link first, unless you want more than 125,000 points, in which case, you should try the offers with fewer items first and then come to this sale.
Priority Club Crowne Plaza Offer #3 – 25,000 points for $167 (AmEx = $150.30)
120 sets of points. 25 sets of points available during pre-sale.
This Crowne Plaza page sale has the fewest items for sale. Start here and buy fast if you want to maximize purchases and try to buy more points from the other offers. Remember you can use the points for any IHG brand hotel and there is no requirement to Crowne Plaza your hotel stay.
Priority Club InterContinental Hotels Offer #4 – 40,000 points for $267 (AmEx = $240.30)
300 sets of points. 75 sets of points available during pre-sale.
This is a good offer if you want a quick 80,000 points and Priority Club Platinum elite without messing around in two Daily Getaways Priority Club sales. This is also the offer if you want to buy big at $1,200 and go for 200,000 points in a single purchase.
200,000 points is a nice safe deposit box of points for hotel stays. I generally recommend you have a plan in place when buying points. But since IHG Priority Club just increased the points needed for hundreds of hotels in January 2012, you can be fairly confident the points won’t devalue much this year. There are several hotels around the globe where 200,000 points will save far more than $1,200 on a 4 or 5 night stay.
Priority Club also regularly offers discount hotel reward nights at 50% and more off with PointBreaks, Last Minute Reward Nights, and the one day sales they tested in the past couple of months.
Here is the calendar that currently displays the first two weeks of Daily Getaways offers. I’ll blog about many of these offers over the next six weeks.
Strategies for the Daily Getaways sales:
The aspect of these sales I did not see mentioned in most of the blog posts this morning is how few people can take advantage of these deals. If there was a one item limit per person, then about 1,800 different people could buy some Priority Club points at a discount through the Daily Getaways.
The actual rules allow a single person to buy 5 sets of points from each of the four offers. Everyone trying to maximize these offers could result in fewer than 400 travelers buying these cheap points.
My point is you need a plan and be quick on the mouse when the sale starts if you want to get the best deals.
Last year when Hyatt points were on sale for $250 ($225AmEx) for 24,000 points, the sale was locked up within seconds and the points sold out within a minute. It then became a matter of reclicking and a few people got into the sale over the next few minutes while for most buyers the Hyatt Daily Getaways were over by 1:01pm.
Daily Getaways Strategy
1. My experience from the past two years suggests once you click on the Daily Getaway offer to purchase an item and you actually get into the purchase webpage, then you are locked in with the option to buy up to the maximum number of items for sale with the offer. Usually once you access the purchase page, then you can relax and breathe as you make your purchase, unless you are speed buying and planning to try and buy from more than one offer.
It appeared to me the past two years that getting access to the purchase page is the primary challenge, but once you are in, then at least one set of points is reserved for you while you enter your credit card payment information.
2. There are a limited number of points sets available and a maximum quantity limit for each offer. The number of items plays a strategic role for the buyer. If you want to maximize points purchases then try for the items with fewer sets for sale first and then go to the items with more sets. Some of these sales are gone within the first minute and you may find it difficult to buy the maximum number of items before they sell out.
3. Some offers suggest points are for a specific hotel brand like Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn or InterContinental Hotels. These are brand marketing efforts only and when you buy Priority Club points you are free to use the points for any hotel brand reward stay on points or other purpose you choose.
4. Daily Getaways prices are 10% less when payment uses American Express card, the travel sale co-sponsor.
Related Post:
Why are Daily Getaways Dealing Travel April 9-May 11? (April 2, 2012)
The new list of Priority Club PointBreaks has been released for hotels stays through May 31, 2012 at 5,000 points per night. Read More…
Priority Club Rewards keeps trying special reward night discounts and this one has to be the most limited time and places sale yet. For today only, Thursday, February 23 through 11:59 pm EST, there are 12 hotels available for booking reward nights with reward discounts up to 75% the standard rate. Some hotels offer dates from February into April and some only for two weeks.
Priority Club 24 hour sale link.
USA
The fourth article in this series comparing the “MegaChain” hotel loyalty programs of Hilton HHonors, IHG Priority Club and Marriott Rewards is a look at the hotel reward options for each hotel chain. Reward nights using points are one of the two primary incentives of being a hotel loyalty program member. The other incentive is additional complimentary hotel stay benefits received during hotel stays like free internet, complimentary room upgrades, hotel executive lounge access and free breakfast.
Comparing hotel rewards is one of the most technical aspects of hotel loyalty programs. The rate of earning points is different in each hotel loyalty program with Hilton members earning as many as 15 points per dollar for hotel spend while Marriott and IHG Priority Club earn as few as 5 points per dollar for certain hotel brands. Promotions offering bonus points also affect the rate of earning points in each program.
And even if the hotel loyalty member earns 10 points per dollar in each program, then is a 25,000 point hotel reward comparable in each program? How does one compare a Marriott Rewards category 5 reward night (25,000 points), Priority Club Crowne Plaza reward night (25,000 points) and a Hilton HHonors category 3 reward night (25,000 points)?
The logical way to compare hotel rewards across programs is to compare the published rate for the hotel night to the reward night cost in points. The problem is the reward cost is a fixed cost while the room rate fluctuates and might be $150 tonight and $250 tomorrow night for the same 25,000 points free night. The other variable is a 25,000 points hotel reward might save $100 at one Marriott Rewards category 5 hotel and save $250 at a different Marriott hotel.
The bottom line is hotel reward redemption value is dynamic and fluctuates depending on date and hotel. The best a member can do is try to use points in a way that maximizes their redemption value.
IHG Priority Club added new reward tiers to its points redemption chart on January 18, 2012. Annoying from the consumer point of view is Priority Club’s decision to withhold publishing a list of some 2,000 hotel reward cost changes with the new tier adoption. I have made an initial analysis of changes to 168 InterContinental Hotels worldwide based on the work posted on a UK website by CaoChong with the former tier level of InterContinental Hotels and the work posted on LoyaltyLobby.com yesterday regarding the changes to reward tiers. I encourage you to check out the InterContinental Hotels data tables on LoyaltyLobby.com to see the data displayed in a different graphic form than provided in my post.
Here are observations I made concerning the changes to InterContinental Hotel reward tiers.
InterContinental Hotels in the USA (25 hotels in 50 states and Puerto Rico).
PriorityClubRepresentative posted the official link for the Priority Club Double Points or Double Miles promotion from January 23-April 30, 2012. The promotion code 6673 is a different code than originally published in my January 13 Loyalty Traveler post. I registered last week using the 2837 code and the new promotion registration page comes back with the message I am already registered for the offer.
The other piece of official news from the FlyerTalk thread is PriorityClubRepresentative states the X stays, for Y points promotion is stackable with this double points or double miles promotion.
Priority Club Double Points or Double Miles (Code 6673 registration page)
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, Delta, United and US Airways earn miles at these rates:
Priority Club Double Points is stackable with quarterly stay bonus points offer.
*** InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club Rewards – Priority Club members may register for one of the quarterly stay promotions running January 1-March 31, 2012. You can only register for one offer so pick the target you are most likely to reach. Stay 3 nights = 5,000 bonus points. Stay 7 nights = 10,000 bonus points. Stay 15 nights = 15,000 bonus points.
