InterContinental Hotels: Priority Club & Inter-Continental Ambassador - Query on non-stay point earning

Do non-stay points (e.g. sign on bonus on a credit card and purchasing points) count towards membership status.

E.g. If I purchased 20k miles, does that automatically get me Gold status?

Cheers

Sure does....

Ok, so is this possible and if not why not, or can it be made better?

New member, opened an account:
Sign up for uk credit card - 10k points
sign up for points.com - 0.2k points
purchase 20k points - 22k points (as bonus) and costs US$200 and upto gold status.
Register for quad points offer.
Stay one night at a $95 property (near Sydney). Gain .95k +0.095k gold bonus +1.5k for first stay, costs $95.
register for 4 nights bonus, and then stay further four nights at that property at $95 per night - gain 15.2k after quad points +10k + 0.380k gold bonus.

Total points 60.325k, platinum status and spent $675.

Ok, so is this possible and if not why not, or can it be made better?

New member, opened an account:
Sign up for uk credit card - 10k points
sign up for points.com - 0.2k points
purchase 20k points - 22k points (as bonus) and costs US$200 and upto gold status.
Register for quad points offer.
Stay one night at a $95 property (near Sydney). Gain .95k +0.095k gold bonus +1.5k for first stay, costs $95.
register for 4 nights bonus, and then stay further four nights at that property at $95 per night - gain 15.2k after quad points +10k + 0.380k gold bonus.

Total points 60.325k, platinum status and spent $675.
I think (not totally sure) the 30k CC bonus is still alive. I just got the card in Sept. That would reduce the spend necessary by quite a bit - you could probably do it with 2 stays + 20k pts purchase. Roughly $400.

I haven't double checked your math, but in general I think Priority Club does in fact make it too easy to make Platinum level, probably thus partially explaining why they don't lean as hard as they could on franchisees to treat Platinum members consistently very well. I made Platinum without trying very hard this year, and will end the calendar year with at least double the number of points earned as would be required to re-qualify for Platinum.

I would just carefully read through some of the forum's posts to see if the Platinum benefits you'd be getting would be worth hotel-running. If, on the other hand, you really do need to stay those 5 nights, then yeah, it's probably worth some effort to set yourself up so as to earn the 60K+ points and become Platinum in the process.

I think (not totally sure) the 30k CC bonus is still alive. I just got the card in Sept. That would reduce the spend necessary by quite a bit - you could probably do it with 2 stays + 20k pts purchase. Roughly $400.

Unfortunately, I think that card is US only. I would only be able to get UK credit cards and Aus credit cards (and am currently Sydney based).

very good. there's also an extra 1000 points if u enrol for priority club through the delta skymiles website. unfortunately, i enrolled last week and missed this one!

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/ways_to_get_miles/earning_miles_partners/hotel_partners/hotel_lto/index.jsp#priority_club_1

ian. :)

Why not just do four nights somewhere fun during the current promo and get something for your $675?

Example if you will:

4 Nov 2007 2 nights
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS AMSTERDAM CITY CENTRE

Qualifying Stay 8294 pts.
platinum bonus 4147 pts.
q4 triple points/miles 2007 16586 pts.
book online quadruple points 8294 pts.

total 37321 pts.