toomanybooks

Must have Choice Privileges Visa. This was on an insert with my CC bill:

"Simply use your Choice Privileges Visa credit card when you make your reservations at choicehotels.com between 4/15/06 and 5/17/06 for any Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, or MainStay Suites hotel in the US.

Complete your stay by 8/31/06 and you'll receive 1000 bonus points when you pay with your Choice Privileges Visa credit card."

BigLar

Great! I just got my Choice Visa and I'll be doing a lot of nights at the local Quality Inn. And extra 1K per night (I usually stay one night at a time) sure will come in handy.

BTW -- I haven't gotten a bill from them yet (just got the card). It's not targetted, is it?

sdsearch

Yes, but with any luck the general summer promo (if any) will be another one that only makes sense with miles, and does it say (or does anyone know from experience) what'll happen if you use your Choice Visa but have that stay credited to miles?

toomanybooks

No code is mentioned, so I guess it's anybody with the card.

1. Must include your Choice number at time of booking.
2. Must book at choiceprivileges.com.
3. Must complete stay by 8/31/06.
4. Must pay with Choice Privileges Visa CC.

Don't book until April 15 or after May 17.

That's all I see.

www.choiceprivileges.com for more details.

BTW, Sam's Club members are supposed to get 30% off at Choice Hotels. Code is 00801650, so try it to see if that helps, too. Sam's Club only costs $35 a year.

toomanybooks

Flyer doesn't mention miles, only Choice points.

BigLar

Worth checking, beats the 50+ and AAA rates. However, I can beat it with the GOV rate for which I am eligible.

Sample size of 1, so don't take it as gospel.

sdsearch

Ok, it's on the website now, as if it is their main bonus.

Here's how it works for miles collectors with the Choice Visa or with a regular Visa. First, Choice Visa:

A $70/night one-night stay earns 700 points, then 1000 bonus points if you use the Choice Visa, then 15 * 70 = 1050 points from the Visa itself. That adds up to 2750 points. Miles are 5:1, so that's 550 miles. Minus 70 miles (assuming you otherwise would have used a mileage-earning Visa/MC/Amex) makes for net 480 miles. Not bad, equivalent to about double miles (tho not as good as the effectively triple miles of the last few months).

Now, regular Visa:

Same 700 points, but now 500 bonus points, and no points from the Visa itself. That adds up to 1200 points, or 240 miles, which is worse than if you chose to earn to miles directly! (And then if your only mileage Visa earns only 1/2 mile per dollar, but otherwise you would have used an MC or Amex that earns 1 mile per dollar, then you're down even further, at 205 miles net!)

So the bottom line is, if you want miles (and are doing short stays), don't bother with this promo unless / until you have a CHOICE Visa!!!

BigLar

Are you sure about that? From questions I asked previously, it should be:

10 points/$ = 700 points (regular)
5 points/$ = 350 points (Choice Visa bonus)
1000 points (promo bonus)

Total = 2150 points.

I have nothing against an additional 10 points/$, but I don't think it's gonna happen, unless I've been misinformed.

sdsearch

From the Choice Visa signup info page that I get by going to the Choice home page, clicking for more info on the current bonus promo, and then clicking for more info about the Choice Visa:

http://www.bankofamerica.com/choiceh...A010002855b092

"Earn 15 points for every dollar spent at Choice Privileges locations throughout the US, including Comfort Inn®, Comfort Suites®, Quality®, Sleep Inn®, Clarion® and MainStay Suites®"

Where do you hear only 5 points/$? (I hope for your sake there aren't multiple versions of the card with different earnings!)

toomanybooks

I think it's

1. 5 points for the Choice Visa.
2. 10 points for Choice Privileges itself, however paid.

I think we went over this once before in another thread.

sdsearch

Oh, boy, how misleading! It's the difference (with the current promo) between being better than any 500-mile hotel and being worse than any 500-mile hotel!

Oh, well, at least I'll get the 8000 bonus miles out of applying if nothing else. (Plus if no other 500-mile hotel promos at good prices come along, I may still use it SOME for this promo.)

EVERY OTHER card I've found that says you get more when using it at a hotel DOESN'T include the points you earn at the hotel, because after all you could be earning miles on that stay!

So IMHO 15 miles per $ spent is an actual LIE if it turns out I only get 5 miles per $ spent (from the creidt card) on stays I credit toward direct airiline miles!

BigLar

Easy, easy. We have enough rabid ......s in OMNI to whom every typo or difference of opinion is a hate-filled LIE!!.

And related, but slightly OT, I just got the first posting from the stay-2-get-8000 promo just ended. As they appear to implement it, you got the normal points for the first stay and then 8000 for the second. I had thought they gave you 8000 total, which is how I read the T&C's. Now I know they were LYING to me!

Anyhow, to absolutely maximize point activity, pay for the first stay with your Choice Visa, and for the second stay get as cheap a rate as you can; it won't matter since they gross it up to 8000.

Just getting my technique down for when they run it again the Fall (I hope).

John_OHST

Mine have all posted as 8000 total plus 10% elite bonus. Two nights at $75 each come in as 8150 total.

BigLar

Mine are separate stays, $60 each.

Two weeks later, the first one posted as 600 points.

At the end of the week, the second one posted as 600 points, plus 7400 points bonus = 8000 points.

Total posted, 8600 points.



I like my way better.

sdsearch

Ok, I see now, it's a footnote on the page.

And the footnote further explains that you don't even get 5 points for the Choice Visa at non-US Choice properties!

Anyway, at a $70/night property, that therefore works out to:

70x10 = 700 normal points
70x5 = 350 Choice Visa points
1000 = bonus

Total = 2050 points
2050 / 5 = 410 miles.

So only worth it if nobody else that you can afford is offering 500 miles somehow. (Priority Club offers 500 miles for a cheap Candlewood Suites stay, tho only with some European airlines including BA. And they may well double that this summer? And if BW happens to double miles this summer, that would be better too, but right now it's unclear what BW will be doing after May 6.)