Must have Choice Privileges Visa. This was on an insert with my CC bill:

"Simply use your Choice Privileges Visa credit card when you make your reservations at choicehotels.com between 4/15/06 and 5/17/06 for any Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, or MainStay Suites hotel in the US.

Complete your stay by 8/31/06 and you'll receive 1000 bonus points when you pay with your Choice Privileges Visa credit card."

Must have Choice Privileges Visa. This was on an insert with my CC bill:

"Simply use your Choice Privileges Visa credit card when you make your reservations at choicehotels.com between 4/15/06 and 5/17/06 for any Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, or MainStay Suites hotel in the US.

Complete your stay by 8/31/06 and you'll receive 1000 bonus points when you pay with your Choice Privileges Visa credit card."Great! I just got my Choice Visa and I'll be doing a lot of nights at the local Quality Inn. And extra 1K per night (I usually stay one night at a time) sure will come in handy.

BTW -- I haven't gotten a bill from them yet (just got the card). It's not targetted, is it?

Must have Choice Privileges Visa. This was on an insert with my CC bill:

"Simply use your Choice Privileges Visa credit card when you make your reservations at choicehotels.com between 4/15/06 and 5/17/06 for any Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, or MainStay Suites hotel in the US.

Complete your stay by 8/31/06 and you'll receive 1000 bonus points when you pay with your Choice Privileges Visa credit card."
Yes, but with any luck the general summer promo (if any) will be another one that only makes sense with miles, and does it say (or does anyone know from experience) what'll happen if you use your Choice Visa but have that stay credited to miles?

Great! I just got my Choice Visa and I'll be doing a lot of nights at the local Quality Inn. And extra 1K per night (I usually stay one night at a time) sure will come in handy.

BTW -- I haven't gotten a bill from them yet (just got the card). It's not targetted, is it?

No code is mentioned, so I guess it's anybody with the card.

1. Must include your Choice number at time of booking.
2. Must book at choiceprivileges.com.
3. Must complete stay by 8/31/06.
4. Must pay with Choice Privileges Visa CC.

Don't book until April 15 or after May 17.

That's all I see.

www.choiceprivileges.com for more details.

BTW, Sam's Club members are supposed to get 30% off at Choice Hotels. Code is 00801650, so try it to see if that helps, too. Sam's Club only costs $35 a year.

Yes, but with any luck the general summer promo (if any) will be another one that only makes sense with miles, and does it say (or does anyone know from experience) what'll happen if you use your Choice Visa but have that stay credited to miles?


Flyer doesn't mention miles, only Choice points.

BTW, Sam's Club members are supposed to get 30% off at Choice Hotels. Code is 00801650, so try it to see if that helps, too. Sam's Club only costs $35 a year.Worth checking, beats the 50+ and AAA rates. However, I can beat it with the GOV rate for which I am eligible.

Sample size of 1, so don't take it as gospel.

Ok, it's on the website now, as if it is their main bonus.

Here's how it works for miles collectors with the Choice Visa or with a regular Visa. First, Choice Visa:

A $70/night one-night stay earns 700 points, then 1000 bonus points if you use the Choice Visa, then 15 * 70 = 1050 points from the Visa itself. That adds up to 2750 points. Miles are 5:1, so that's 550 miles. Minus 70 miles (assuming you otherwise would have used a mileage-earning Visa/MC/Amex) makes for net 480 miles. Not bad, equivalent to about double miles (tho not as good as the effectively triple miles of the last few months).

Now, regular Visa:

Same 700 points, but now 500 bonus points, and no points from the Visa itself. That adds up to 1200 points, or 240 miles, which is worse than if you chose to earn to miles directly! (And then if your only mileage Visa earns only 1/2 mile per dollar, but otherwise you would have used an MC or Amex that earns 1 mile per dollar, then you're down even further, at 205 miles net!)

So the bottom line is, if you want miles (and are doing short stays), don't bother with this promo unless / until you have a CHOICE Visa!!!

First, Choice Visa:

A $70/night one-night stay earns 700 points, then 1000 bonus points if you use the Choice Visa, then 15 * 70 = 1050 points from the Visa itself. That adds up to 2750 points.Are you sure about that? From questions I asked previously, it should be:

10 points/$ = 700 points (regular)
5 points/$ = 350 points (Choice Visa bonus)
1000 points (promo bonus)

Total = 2150 points.

I have nothing against an additional 10 points/$, but I don't think it's gonna happen, unless I've been misinformed.

Are you sure about that? From questions I asked previously, it should be:

10 points/$ = 700 points (regular)
5 points/$ = 350 points (Choice Visa bonus)
1000 points (promo bonus)

Total = 2150 points.

I have nothing against an additional 10 points/$, but I don't think it's gonna happen, unless I've been misinformed.
From the Choice Visa signup info page that I get by going to the Choice home page, clicking for more info on the current bonus promo, and then clicking for more info about the Choice Visa:

http://www.bankofamerica.com/choicehotels_site/?adlink=000302A010002855b092

"Earn 15 points for every dollar spent at Choice Privileges locations throughout the US, including Comfort Inn®, Comfort Suites®, Quality®, Sleep Inn®, Clarion® and MainStay Suites®"

Where do you hear only 5 points/$? (I hope for your sake there aren't multiple versions of the card with different earnings!)

From the Choice Visa signup info page that I get by going to the Choice home page, clicking for more info on the current bonus promo, and then clicking for more info about the Choice Visa:

http://www.bankofamerica.com/choicehotels_site/?adlink=000302A010002855b092

"Earn 15 points for every dollar spent at Choice Privileges locations throughout the US, including Comfort Inn®, Comfort Suites®, Quality®, Sleep Inn®, Clarion® and MainStay Suites®"

Where do you hear only 5 points/$? (I hope for your sake there aren't multiple versions of the card with different earnings!)

I think it's

1. 5 points for the Choice Visa.
2. 10 points for Choice Privileges itself, however paid.

I think we went over this once before in another thread.

I think it's

1. 5 points for the Choice Visa.
2. 10 points for Choice Privileges itself, however paid.

I think we went over this once before in another thread.
Oh, boy, how misleading! It's the difference (with the current promo) between being better than any 500-mile hotel and being worse than any 500-mile hotel!

Oh, well, at least I'll get the 8000 bonus miles out of applying if nothing else. (Plus if no other 500-mile hotel promos at good prices come along, I may still use it SOME for this promo.)

EVERY OTHER card I've found that says you get more when using it at a hotel DOESN'T include the points you earn at the hotel, because after all you could be earning miles on that stay!

So IMHO 15 miles per $ spent is an actual LIE if it turns out I only get 5 miles per $ spent (from the creidt card) on stays I credit toward direct airiline miles!

So IMHO 15 miles per $ spent is an actual LIE ...Easy, easy. We have enough rabid ......s in OMNI to whom every typo or difference of opinion is a hate-filled LIE!!.

And related, but slightly OT, I just got the first posting from the stay-2-get-8000 promo just ended. As they appear to implement it, you got the normal points for the first stay and then 8000 for the second. I had thought they gave you 8000 total, which is how I read the T&C's. Now I know they were LYING to me!

Anyhow, to absolutely maximize point activity, pay for the first stay with your Choice Visa, and for the second stay get as cheap a rate as you can; it won't matter since they gross it up to 8000.

Just getting my technique down for when they run it again the Fall (I hope). :)

And related, but slightly OT, I just got the first posting from the stay-2-get-8000 promo just ended. As they appear to implement it, you got the normal points for the first stay and then 8000 for the second. I had thought they gave you 8000 total, which is how I read the T&C's. Now I know they were LYING to me!



Mine have all posted as 8000 total plus 10% elite bonus. Two nights at $75 each come in as 8150 total.

Mine have all posted as 8000 total plus 10% elite bonus. Two nights at $75 each come in as 8150 total.Mine are separate stays, $60 each.

Two weeks later, the first one posted as 600 points.

At the end of the week, the second one posted as 600 points, plus 7400 points bonus = 8000 points.

Total posted, 8600 points.

:confused:

I like my way better.

I think it's

1. 5 points for the Choice Visa.
2. 10 points for Choice Privileges itself, however paid.

I think we went over this once before in another thread.
Ok, I see now, it's a footnote on the page.

And the footnote further explains that you don't even get 5 points for the Choice Visa at non-US Choice properties!

Anyway, at a $70/night property, that therefore works out to:

70x10 = 700 normal points
70x5 = 350 Choice Visa points
1000 = bonus

Total = 2050 points
2050 / 5 = 410 miles.

So only worth it if nobody else that you can afford is offering 500 miles somehow. (Priority Club offers 500 miles for a cheap Candlewood Suites stay, tho only with some European airlines including BA. And they may well double that this summer? And if BW happens to double miles this summer, that would be better too, but right now it's unclear what BW will be doing after May 6.)

So only worth it if nobody else that you can afford is offering 500 miles somehow. Don't fall into the trap of narrowly focussing exclusively on miles. I used to do that with Priority Club until I found out that points can be much more useful, and the bonuses typically don't include miles.

Anyhow, I value the hotel points as more useful to me. The current bonus is generating points for me at an incremental cost of about a quarter of a cent a point. By incremental, I mean the cost I pay over and above basic, no program lodging.

At $0.0025/point, even a 40,000 point hotel is only $100/night, which is much better than I could do, even on Priceline.

I'm waiting for the Fall/Winter 2 -> 8000 promo, and I'll be hopping my drawers off. :)

Don't fall into the trap of narrowly focussing exclusively on miles. I used to do that with Priority Club until I found out that points can be much more useful, and the bonuses typically don't include miles.

Anyhow, I value the hotel points as more useful to me. The current bonus is generating points for me at an incremental cost of about a quarter of a cent a point. By incremental, I mean the cost I pay over and above basic, no program lodging.

At $0.0025/point, even a 40,000 point hotel is only $100/night, which is much better than I could do, even on Priceline.

I'm waiting for the Fall/Winter 2 -> 8000 promo, and I'll be hopping my drawers off. :)
Obviously, you have to do your own math, and it can vary depending on your situation.

In my situation, the places where I stay 100ish times a year (one night per stay) there are no no-program hotels any more nearby (I'd have to really search far and wide for them). The standard of comparison for me thus is the cheapest hotel in the area, which doesn't have miles to speak of (it does have Delta, but at an awful transfer rate), but does have points: Red Roof Inn. If I pay ($55ish/night) for staying in its dumpy room 10 times, I get enough points to stay in its dumpy room once free. Whoopee (not).

Meanwhile, I like to fly internationally a few times a year, but being on the US west coast EVERY overseas destination is a 10+ hour flight, and I'm tall, so I can't stand to fly all that in coach seats. Thus I use my miles only for upgrades or outright business class awards. As such they're WAY more valuable than even 2 cents per mile. (Basically, I couldn't afford to travel internationally if I didn't earn all those miles, but I can still afford to stay in hotels everywhere despite "wasting" all those points on miles.)

This is because with miles you get the "magnfying" effect (when using them for above-coach seats) where the increase in miles is totally disproportional to the cost in cash: Business class flights may cost 5x more than economy in cash, but only 2x more than economy in miles typically.

Genearlly there is no such "amplification" effect in hotel points from my perspective (because I don't need luxury rooms, I "fit" in normal decent rooms just fine), and thus the greater value of miles to me than points. (There are some OCCASIONALY amplification effects in hotels, but not forever: The most obvious one I can think of is the way that EVERY Scandic hotel was 10000 HHonors points a night for the last few years, but that's changing this fall as so often Scandics will no longer be particularly worth getting on points.)

(Meanwhile, over at Priority Club, you're comparing apples to oranges. You're talking about bonuses not applying to miles, which means you were ONLY looking at earning miles directly. Whenever I mean miles, I mean looking carefully at both earning miles directly and earning points and then transferring to miles. Until last September, Priority club to AA gave you 2 to 3 times more miles by earning points then transferring to miles, as earning miles directly. However, multiple "devaluations" at Priority Club over the past year make it worse than Choice for miles now, at least for US airlines.)

Clearly you've done your homework. And you're right; what works for one is not necessarily better for others.

If your cheapest no-bennie place is $55/night, it shouldn't be that hard to find a place like with Choice or IC at about $65/night, but I could be wrong. Anyhow, the way I look at it, what I'm really paying for the points is the delta between what I get at the bottom end and what I'm paying for at a better place.

I haven't ben everywhere, but almost everyplace I've been staying I've been able to negotiate a rate at, say, a Marriott for which the delta is less than $10/night, sometimes as low as zero. In those cases, the points/miles are really free or extremely cheap.

In my current location, I haven't been able to do that which is why I looked elsewhere and landed with Choice. My delta is down around the $10 range and that's what I use to calculate the points value. And even that wouldn't have been so attractive without the connection with Preferred Hotels. I mean, why go out of your way to get enough points to stay in a 10,000 point property when you can book a room off the net at the same place for $70?

I used to be a real miles whore, but they're a lot harder to earn for me, and I can stand 6-8 hours in Coach (east coast) and put my effort into getting two weeks free at a very nice hotel.

To each his own.