Choice Privileges - Points expire on last day of the year

I had 26,000 points that I had in Choice. I know I shouldn't have dragged it out but I did log in on 12/31/11 to redeem them. I called customer service and they said that points are expired as of that date, not on 1/1/12. This seems contrary to all normal expiration periods. I don't know a single program that operates this way and in terms of coupons, licenses in the like it's always presumed to be valid until the last minute of that day.

Anyway, I wanted to give people heads up to other forum members for the future and was wondering if this was worthy of complaining about to customer relations or Better Business Bureau.

Ouch! That's a tough lesson to learn. But I find CP to not be very customer friendly so not surprised. The company I use to contract for did the same thing with their access system. You card failed to work on your last day of contract. Since I was hourly, I billed the time I had to spend waiting for someone to show up to let me in.

I'm in the process of dropping CP and burning my points (mostly by transfers and not stays), so if you will allow me, I will say it's due to your bad experience. :)

Happy New Year, good bye CP.

Yeah, I am in the same boat . Had 23000 points expire yesterday because I was also under impression that they expire at the end of 12/31/11 - not at the beginning of the day.

Not a big loss, but still a rather annoying and customer-unfriendly setup on their part.

Agreed, and their T&C could be clearer, somthing as simple as "points must be used by 11:59PM on 12-30 or they will expire" would eliminate any question. I think many if not most people understand "expires on" to include that day up to 23:59.

This is a snare.

Choice Privileges needs to fix this with a keystroke.

There can be no net benefit to them worth the ill will it generates.

What a horrible policy.

The more I deal with this company the more I dislike them.

I had the same thing happen to me last year. i lost 36k points with CP
I have been using Award Wallet to keep track of all of my points and their expiration dates. If you would like a referral PM me your email address. With a referral you get more privileges.

So was I . The problem is that everything on the Choice site (including the data passed to AwardWallet) clearly states that the points expire on the 31st .

The part Choice doesn't mention anywhere is that instead of expiring the points at 23:59 on the 31st like nearly every other company out there, they expire them at 0:01 on the 31st .

Not a big loss, but still a stupid, pointless, annoying policy on their part.


I had the same thing happen to me last year. i lost 36k points with CP
I have been using Award Wallet to keep track of all of my points and their expiration dates. If you would like a referral PM me your email address. With a referral you get more privileges.

Ridiculous. The best way to solve this problem is for Choice to abandon point expiration all together.

Pretty unfriendly.

Yes, this is unfriendly.

But wait, there's one hotel program that's even less friendly about expiration out there!

WyndhamRewards points "hard expire" after 4 years. Yet there's no way to look back more than 18 months in your account, nor is there any way (like there is on Choice's site) to see how many points will expire this year. Nor is it made clear when more precisely than "4 years" they'll expire. (And yet they have for some people.)

(This is totally separate from the "soft expire" than WyndhamRewards does after 18 months of no activity. That one can extended by activity. The 4 years expiration can't be extended by any means.)

WyndhamRewards points "hard expire" after 4 years. Yet there's no way to look back more than 18 months in your account, nor is there any way (like there is on Choice's site) to see how many points will expire this year. Nor is it made clear when more precisely than "4 years" they'll expire. (And yet they have for some people.)
Yikes! That is much worse.

I would be so pissed. And they keep getting away with it right?

You're right, soitgoes. But the best answer is that for both programs, one really should do it the old fashion way: call. I don't think Choice is all that up front about when an actual point actually expires. Sure, they're clear in the t&c, but one has to drill to find it applied. Reminded by this thread (when it was all over but the crying, anyway) I called Saturday and found that all mine are good through 2013, but I needed to be reminded here, and then by the CSR about how to find it online. Higher maintenance than it should be, IMO. And even then, to find out that they've turned it into a gotcha... :mad:

Just a thought but can't a person like Randy "talk" to the Choice Rep or at least review this issue at the next Freddie awards?