Choice Hotels is out with an extended offer to buy Choice Hotel points with an up to 30% discount. Let’s examine it to see if / when it might make sense. It’s a tiered offer where different accounts get a 20, 25 or 30% discount. You can check your offer here – I got a 25% discount offer. In all cases, the discount expires November 2nd (Saturday)
Normally, Choice points cost $11.00 to purchase 1,000 points (tax included), for a purchase price of 1.10 cent per point. That might seem cheap, but remember, Choice points are only worth about 0.6 cents each, so at the normal rate, you’re paying a premium on the value. At the normal rate, it doesn’t make sense to buy Choice points.
What about with the discount offer? This time the bonus is tiered –
If you buy the full 120,000 points, then with a 25% discount offer it will cost you $891, which brings the purchase price to 0.7425 cents per point, which is closer to the normal redemption value, but still slightly higher. A 30% discount would cost you $831.60 which brings the purchase price to 0.693 cents per point. This is roughly analogous to a 50% bonus on purchased points.
While I’m generally against buying points speculatively, if you need some points for your next redemption, it could be worth topping up your account.
(SEE ALSO: When is buying miles worth it? Only in these 3 instances)
You can find the link to this promotion here. I actually bought Choice points for the first time before my trip to Sweden a year or so ago. We were looking at staying at the Clarion Hotel Sign in Stockholm. Choice was running a 10% off promotion then, so I paid $99 for the 10,000 points.That let me book the hotel for 10,000 points / night instead of paying USD$249 / night! It’s only for situations like these when I recommend buying points.
Will you buy Choice points with a 20-30% discount offer? Or will you wait for a better offer to come back?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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