Choice Privileges - Purchasing Choice Points + 10% Bonus. Should I buy?

Hey guys,
Just wanted some opinions on buying Choice Points.

I have about 90K points left, and will be using these in Australia and NZ @ 8K a night.
I'm new to Choice through the discoveramerica deal. Redeemed some stays in Tokyo and Melbourne so far at 8K/night (which is great!)
Now I'm wondering how often these 8K / night rooms come about.

My consideration is for purchasing more points at $220 for 20K points + 2K bonus and that bonus that's ending soon. Should I just buy it up? I'm afraid the 8K redemptions will all disappear. Also are there better ways to earn this points?

I'm not from the US so I can't get the credit card. I'm based in SIN so there's only one Choice hotel here and its not that cheap. I do purchase lots of things online, and the Choice shopping mall rates seem pretty good.

What do you guys think?

If I were going to use the points within 3-6 months and would find them a reasonable purchase value even if used for hotels at 16k points per night that are currently going for 8-10k per night, I'd consider it.

I would also look into the option of using the shopping mall to buy gift cards to merely front-end expenditures that I would have anyway.

Thanks GUWonder,
Will go ahead and purchase them then. It makes a hotel $80/night at 8K points.

I've stayed a few nights at the Clarion Suites Gateway in Melbourne. And the rates are about AU$250/night. So it's incredible value. (The hotel even upgraded me when I had no status back then)

I was eyeing drugstore.com on the mall for 12 Pts /$. But GCs are not allowed for 'pointsback'.

Hey guys,
Just wanted some opinions on buying Choice Points.

I have about 90K points left, and will be using these in Australia and NZ @ 8K a night.
I'm new to Choice through the discoveramerica deal. Redeemed some stays in Tokyo and Melbourne so far at 8K/night (which is great!)
Now I'm wondering how often these 8K / night rooms come about.

My consideration is for purchasing more points at $220 for 20K points + 2K bonus and that bonus that's ending soon. Should I just buy it up? I'm afraid the 8K redemptions will all disappear. Also are there better ways to earn this points?

I'm not from the US so I can't get the credit card. I'm based in SIN so there's only one Choice hotel here and its not that cheap. I do purchase lots of things online, and the Choice shopping mall rates seem pretty good.

What do you guys think?

Is it possible to purchase Choice points with a non-US account? My Swiss account doesn't allow me to purchase points.

Now I'm wondering how often these 8K / night rooms come about. ... I'm afraid the 8K redemptions will all disappear.We think so, too.

The 8K/night rate, if past history is any barometer, is a [welcome] aberration. The points rate normally goes down somewhat during the 'off' season, but 8K is really near the bottom (I've only seen the odd hotel here and there at 6K/night, but there were very few of these). The new Zealand Choice hotels, IIRC, are normally 75K(!)/night, which is ridiculous, but even they are 8K/night.

There has been some speculation (some of it by me :))as to why the cheap rate, but no one really knows.

Bottom line, you probably won't be able to get these redemption rates in the coming years (but I'd love to be proven wrong), so check out their normal rates, which is what you'd likely be paying, and judge accordingly.

Is it possible to purchase Choice points with a non-US account? My Swiss account doesn't allow me to purchase points.
Yes.

Yes.

Do you have more specific information (or other guys)? Is it only for European accounts not possible to purchase points?

Redeemed some stays in Tokyo and Melbourne so far at 8K/night (which is great!)
Now I'm wondering how often these 8K / night rooms come about.
It depends. As far as being almost systemwide outside the US, not that often. But when most other Choice hotels in those cities was more, I've still gotten (in years recent past) one hotel in Tokyo (Higachi-Nihombashi Comfort Hotel) for 8K/night, one hotel in London (one of the two at King's Cross) for 8K/night, etc.

But then I'd look again another time (after my stay) and they would be higher.

So it depends on how flexible you are in your travel destinations and your travel dates. If you are able to jump on a hotel at a place you wanted to go because it's temporarily 8K/night, and you don't care whether any specific location has one, then I think it'd be a bit safer to count on getting 8K/night values still in the future.

But on the wide scope that they've been available in much of the world only recently, I wouldn't count on that going on anywhere near forever.

And speaking of forever, any points you buy (or get otherwise) right now will expire (with no known workarounds) at the end of 2013. So to get the value you need from them, you've got to use them at good rates of return by then.

I'm not from the US so I can't get the credit card. I'm based in SIN so there's only one Choice hotel here and its not that cheap.
First of all, you may not be able to get the Choice card, but you may want to look into whether there's an Amex MR card or Diners Club CR card in your region that can transfer to Choice or not. I can't guarantee there is (the Membership Rewards and Club Rewards programs have different transfer partners in every region) , but it might be worth looking into just on the chance.

Second, just because your one Choice hotel in SIN is not cheap, don't assume they're all expensive everywhere. There'll be places in the world where Choice hotels require many points but are very inexpensive with real money. In fact, here in the US, it's not uncommon to find Choice hotels that want 16k or 20k or 24k points per night, and yet are often available for $70 or $80 a night (in areas where "big name" hotel chains charge 1.5x or 2x that or more!). No reason to waste points, and every reason to earn points, in reward-cost-to-paid-cost ratio cases like this.