Originally Posted by christianj
I would really be interested in finding out how easy it is to actually do this and if there are restrictions and blackout dates for the redemption. Preferred Hotels has some great properties that would be a good and dare I say cheap option for Choice points redemptions.
Choice is a little strange in that you can't book (domestic) awards more than 30 days in advance, and 60 days internationally.
I'm not sure if that 60 days applies to Preferred Hotels or not, but since you mention it, I have enough for one night so maybe I should try booking it.
My current plan is to get enough Choice points for 2 nights in London and I'm about 2/3 of the way there right now. I was planning on having to wait for the two months out, but maybe not.
At any rate, their literature says no blackout dates, no capacity controls, just like the regular Choice properties. However -- I have noticed that, for those Choice properties that have things like suites, your are not offered them when you try to book an award. I would assume with Preferred, you would just be offered a standard room. OTOH, for a lot of these places, that might well be good enough.
Incidentally, there was a thread in the Other Hotels forum asking this very question, and IIRC, there were no definitive answers. Check it out
here.
I'll report back what I find out.