FlyerTalk Forums - Did Choice devalue its loyalty program?

Quote:

Originally Posted by thunderdeacon (Post 37275823)

I stay in hotels domestically about 300 nights a year. Choice is one of my big players, and the new point system has its plusses and minuses. The max point redemption for any hotel used to be 30K. This was awesome when I could snag hotels in tourist and/or high-demand times when I could get a 300 or 400 per night hotel for 30K points. Now I am seeing hotels at 40K+.

I am still seeing some good point redemptions at the 8, 10, 12, and 15 K redemption levels at well-maintained budget hotels. I can sometimes get a $0.01 per point value, but it is not quite as common as it was before the change.

With the new limits on promotional points, I don't stay at Choice quite as much as I used to. I still stay with them quite a bit and find some value in the points. I have found myself to be more of a free agent and exploring highly rated non-chain budget motels as the bonus point promotions have become less lucrative across the board across all chains.

I typically do 40-80 nights a year in hotels and my main programs are Marriott, then Choice. I have Platinum through the Choice Hotels CC but I just requalified Platinum with Marriott by stays last week. It would be another 24 (25 - 1 night I already did) nights to hit Titanium with Bonvoy, but at this point I'm only 15 nights away from Diamond with Choice. I would like to use up my orphaned 75k from Wyndham this year but it might make more sense to try and make Diamond happen. I'm not sure if I have another 15 nights to go for the year, but I am sure I have at least 8 or 9.

Sometimes Choice has really great award rates. It may be that the cash prices for hotels in a city are just stupidly high (looking at Scottsbluff, NE for example), so the points value is artifically inflated. But when it works, like my stay in Phoenix last week, it really works.

-J.