I'm glad it's back, just in time for some causal fall weekend traveling:

Bonus points will be added to points earned from every two qualifying stays, with arrival between September 1, 2006 and December 15, 2006, to reach the 8,000 point reward level. Allow 72 hours from check-out for points to post to your account. For program details and point redemption rules, visit choiceprivileges.com.

Oh boy!

They usually run about ten weeks, but this one will run ontil the middle of December. Beautiful.

I have my two Quality Inns all lined up. With my normal hotel-hopping, I think I'm looking at about 150K or better.

Whoo-hoo!

I'm glad it's back, just in time for some causal fall weekend traveling:

Bonus points will be added to points earned from every two qualifying stays, with arrival between September 1, 2006 and December 15, 2006, to reach the 8,000 point reward level. Allow 72 hours from check-out for points to post to your account. For program details and point redemption rules, visit choiceprivileges.com.

Thanks for the info SharonLPK! I will participate in this promo. :)
Happy Travels
747LWW

I'm glad it's back, just in time for some causal fall weekend traveling:

Bonus points will be added to points earned from every two qualifying stays, with arrival between September 1, 2006 and December 15, 2006, to reach the 8,000 point reward level. Allow 72 hours from check-out for points to post to your account. For program details and point redemption rules, visit choiceprivileges.com.
S,
Ty for the heads up. Been quite a while since last one.. ;)

S,
Ty for the heads up. Been quite a while since last one.. ;)Actually, they ran one earlier in the Spring, right on schedule. And some folks got targetted for another round this summer.

I'd sure love to have three bites at the apple, but with "only" two chances, I can still rack up the points while keeping my status in Hilton and Marriott.

Let's say a little prayer of thanks for spreadsheets here. :)

And some folks got targetted for another round this summer.Not only that, but for those of us that did, there's no gap between the end of the summer one (Aug 31 check-in) and the fall one (Sep 1 check-in), except that I would expect that if I only had one of a set of two stays through Aug 31 and had the second post Sep 1, they wouldn't necessarily get matched as a "pair". (So I put one stay next week somewhere else so I don't "waste" a Choice stay on "only" 800ish points!)

I received this email also. I was already in the process of planning a 3 night stay in one hotel. Now I'll be hotel hopping instead and might even add a few extra nights!

I have two reservations at Choice Hotels, and I established that to get these points one needs to get Choice Privileges points for the stay instead of airline credit. These reservations were made with a preference for Southwest credit. I changed my earning preference to Choice on my account; I checked what that did to my reservations; they still show the airline account used in the reservation. I wanted to see if the earning preference could be changed on the reservation and saw that the nightly rate happened to have gone down by $5 so I made that change, but it still shows the airline credit. I know they say you can state your preference at checkin; can I count on this working right when I check in at a Quality Inn after 11 p.m., or am I better off starting a new reservation and cancelling the old?

I have two reservations at Choice Hotels, and I established that to get these points one needs to get Choice Privileges points for the stay instead of airline credit. These reservations were made with a preference for Southwest credit. I changed my earning preference to Choice on my account; I checked what that did to my reservations; they still show the airline account used in the reservation. I wanted to see if the earning preference could be changed on the reservation and saw that the nightly rate happened to have gone down by $5 so I made that change, but it still shows the airline credit. I know they say you can state your preference at checkin; can I count on this working right when I check in at a Quality Inn after 11 p.m., or am I better off starting a new reservation and cancelling the old?
If the rate you get for a new reservation is same or lower as your already have, I would recommend getting a new reservation, and as soon as that's confirmed cancel the old. (I have done this oodles of times and it's worked fine.)

I have not been able to find any way to change an existing reservation to show an updated preference.

And based on past experience, I would not trust the hotel to be able to override it. It depends on the hotel and/or the clerk as to whether they actuallly get it right. And in that direction (changing from miles/credits to points), you can't get it fixed later if it turns out the hotel didn't override correctly. (In the other direction, if it posts as points and you wanted miles or SW credits, you can change it after the fact. But if it posts as miles or SW credits in the first place, it can't be "recalled" so it can't be changed after the fact.)

And in my experience, the average folio does not show clearly what you're going to earn either (so you can't necessarily verify that way if the clerk did it right).

And, btw, in case you haven't figured this out, this is DEFINITELY what you want, because if you earn Southwest credits directly, then two stays will be 1.0 credit total, but if you earn 8000 points and then convert to credits that works out to the equivalent of 3.2 credits! (You can only convert 5000 points at a time, so for the short term you will only be able to "get at" 2.0 of those credits, but even if you never ever stay again, that'll still be double what you'd earn by earning SW credits directly.)

I looked through the T&Cs, but couldn't find the answer...can you only participate in the promo once or can you do it multiple times? Thanks!

I looked through the T&Cs, but couldn't find the answer...can you only participate in the promo once or can you do it multiple times? Thanks!

Yes, you may earn the bonus points multiple times.

"Bonus points will be added to points earned from every two qualifying stays."

In case someone hasn't seen exactly how it posts and is curious, here are my last 4 stays that qualified for the same kind of promo (in my case it was a targeted summer version, but otherwise the same as the new one):

08/30/2006 1 Comfort Suites John Wayne Airport CA800 SANTA ANA, CA 7290
Includes Bonus: Stay 2 Times Special Promotion

08/23/2006 1 Comfort Suites John Wayne Airport CA800 SANTA ANA, CA 710

08/21/2006 1 Comfort Suites John Wayne Airport CA800 SANTA ANA, CA 7200
Includes Bonus: Stay 2 Times Special Promotion

08/16/2006 1 Comfort Suites John Wayne Airport CA800 SANTA ANA, CA 800
In this example, you can see that no matter what the rate is for the first stay and the second stay, you end up with exactly 8000 points. (The only exception would be if your first stay and second stay would have added up to over 8000 points anyway; in that case you would get no bonus at all!)

This example thus illustrates that you might as well do the cheapest shortest stays you can during this promo (except possibly for your last stay if it has to be an "odd" one), because any points you earn normally are "wiped out" by the fact that you get 8000 points for 2 stays no matter how much or how little you paid for each stay.

(If you happen to use a Choice Visa, those points will be counted separately from this bonus, and thus those points will increase if your stay is more. But, frankly, both the Choice Visa points and the "normal" Choice points earnings are fairly "neglibile" when compared up against these bonuses! In my case, I feel I get much more back by paying with another card -- say, a mileage card -- for the rooms, when the bonuses isn't tied to using the Choice Visa.)

Are all the Comfort Inns, Quality Inns, Sleep Inns, and Clarions in the US participating in this promo or are some excluded?

From the Choice Privileges site:

This fall with the Choice Privileges® rewards program, stay 2 separate times in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean or Mexico and you'll earn a free night at over 1,000 hotels. It's just our way of saying, "Go on, get out there!"
There's no mention of any exclusions.

There's no mention of any exclusions.True, but remember, EconoLodges and Rodeway Inns don't count. Too bad, because they are usually significantly cheaper than the Quality Inn/Sleep Inn/etc.

Considerably dumpier, too, I might add. :)

From the Choice Privileges site:


There's no mention of any exclusions.

Good point (and sorry for coming back to this thread so late), but the "more than 1000 hotels" is puzzling because I remember at some point seeing how they claimed to have "more than 2000" hotels". I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with a some of the stays not counting for this promo.

Good point (and sorry for coming back to this thread so late), but the "more than 1000 hotels" is puzzling because I remember at some point seeing how they claimed to have "more than 2000" hotels". I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with a some of the stays not counting for this promo.

The way I understand it is that the '1000' refers to the number of hotels for redemption (@ 8000 pts/night)...the rest of their properties have redemption rates >8000.