Originally Posted by
sdsearch
It's not hard in many areas (especially outside of city centers) to find $60/night or even less (it helps a bit if you can use one discount or another). Where can you (more than once a year for a few seconds) buy 8000 Choice points for $120ish???
Besides, it's not "buying" 8000 points for $120 if actually needed those two $60ish/night stays, is it??? So it's only if you're "mattress running" that this would be a comparison, I would think...
Might be confused a bit by your presentation of facts here although I certainly agree with your overall argument. Standard price for Choice points is $11 for 1000, so you can buy 8K for $88 (currently there's a 10% bonus promo that would actually make that 8800 points). But the annual purchase cap is set at 20K. So, of the eleven routes (that I can think of) to get points (purchase, receive via a purchase/transfer from someone else, transfer from Amex MR, purchase during the Discover America promo, transfers from e-miles/e-rewards, credit to Choice for renting a vehicle rather than to the rental car program, a possible wildcard transfer from an airline/hotel program through some sort of barter site at a horrible exchange rate, make a purchase through the Choice mall, credit card bonuses and spending, pure mattress runs, and necessary stays), buying points is exhausted the quickest, is certainly more worthwhile than using a barter site, and seems only a little more efficient than a pure mattress run.
My stays are exclusively necessary stays. I guess if I were on 19 stays at the end of a year, I'd consider doing a mattress run to get the twentieth night (perhaps that miserable Rodeway Inn in Virginia Beach could still serve some purpose for me), but the last two years, I've stayed enough for Platinum but well short of Diamond. In some instances, Choice is my first choice anyway; in some instances, I will consider trading out a stay at another chain that might be more conveniently located for a Choice property, especially when this promo is running.
And
BigLar stay tuned. I may stay at the Irish properties in Limerick and Sligo when I go this summer in addition to the Dublin IFSC--more likely Sligo as the world-class County Sligo Golf Club is nearby but possibly Limerick if my travels take me that way.
But first, my March trip to Italy and stays at the Choice Fiumicino and the Clarion Hotel Principessa Isabella plus a return to the Bolivar to see if there are any significant good or bad changes.
And, maybe all of those stays for little more than a one-night redemption at a top-level Hilton property under the newly announced changes to HHonors.