Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Westchester Co, NY or Rio Grande Valley, TX or ???
Programs: BA(E)C GfL/GGL, WN A-, Hyatt G, HH D, MAR T, Hz PC, was [UA2P, FL A+Elite, BD G]
Posts: 2,343
I have been thinking about this.
Choice (usually) charges $11 per 1000 of their points, and at present conversions to WN can happen at the rate of 6000 Choice pts to 1800 RR pts. Doing the math:
$66 --> 6000 Choice pts --> 1800 RR pts --> $180/7 value (~$25.70), assuming redemption at 70 pts per dollar of WN fare. $25.70 is ~40% of $66.
In order to be worthwhile, the value from having a CP has to be at least 60% of the $ spent on Choice points. (More if you plan to redeem at worse values than 70/$ or if you think WN will devalue RR pts even further.)
If someone (like nsx) only needs 9000 RR pts to earn a CP, that will cost ~$200 - clearly worthwhile (buy $330 of Choice pts, returrning ~$130 of RR pt value). However, someone who wants to buy an entire CP with Choice pts (getting around their purchase restrictions - see below) would have to buy $4000+ of Choice pts, making their CP cost ~$2400-2500. There are certainly some folks for whom this would be worthwhile over 23-ish months, but I suspect that most people interested in CP would not get that much benefit.
Choice point purchase restrictions: Usually the maximum number of points allowed to be purchased in a calendar year is 50000 (for $550). There are two ways I know of to get around that limit:
1) Make a "points and cash" room redemption, then cancel the booking - the $ is spent buying points at $7.50/1000 to make the booking; upon cancellation those points are put into your account along with the points you originally had.
2) Buy one of the very limited Choice point packages in the annual Daily Getaways promotion at a ~60% discount. Quantities are limited; you have to be very quick as well as a bit lucky to do this.
All in all, especially given the track record of Choice to devalue/change without notice, I would not stock up on Choice points with a plan to hold on to them for more than a week or so. In a case where a limited number of points is needed for a CP, I would wait until I could predict how many Choice pts would be needed and purchase at that time (and then convert to WN RR ASAP).