Does Choice do Status Match?
 

I'm holding Priority Club Platinum, Best Western Diamond, Marriott Silver Status.

Does anyone know if choice will match my status to Choice Diamond??

How to do that?

Markus

Choice doesn't do any status matching that I have ever seen. Do hotels do this on a regular basis?

Russ

any luck OP?

sent the fax last week. nothing happened until now.

keep you updated!

I am not sure status is worth much. Sure you get 10% or 25% point bonus. But, that is about it. Upgrades? I never received one. Anyone else?

I have received upgrades quite a few times with choice hotels because of my status I presume. When I say upgrades I mean booked standard room and received a king suite or sometimes hottub suite. Only happens when hotels not near capacity though.

I don't believe that status with Choice is worth much, just as Priority Club Platinum is completely worthless (I do have PP Platinum and just list it under "Assorted Junk Memberships in my profile"). Heck, I will end the year with 9 nights at Choice and don't even consider investing the money for an additional night that would take me to Gold.

If you care for status benefits, try HHonors (very good at Gold Level) or Starwood (brilliant at Platinum, otherwise Ho-Hum).

I already have HH Gold and SPG Gold, PC Plat.
I thought I have some upcoming stays at Choice and wanted to get the Elite-Goodies.

Anyway, changed the hotel to CP and HI.

Regards,
Markus

The biggest Choice Diamond benefit, IMHO, is being able to book 90 days in advance on awards.

I agree, status with Choice is not valuable at all. Especially since they don't care to persue issues about properties not folllowing the program. I wrote about one property that stated flat out they do not upgrade Diamonds. Choice's response was it is up to the guest to deal with the property, and this was from a "Director"? Choice has become LAST Choice for me and I do over 300 nights a year!

I agree mostly, except with the last statement. Choice is not my LAST choice. I prefer Choice over many Holiday Inn (Express or otherwise), so I basically work like this:

What is the rate for Hilton / Starwood / ICH Group / Choice? (Compare all their brands)

Do I know the property?

What are the amenities of the hotel?

Where do I want/need nights credited?

Taking all this into consideration, I make my choice.

For example, when I needed a room near Seattle last month and had the choice between paying at least $120 at a Hampton Inn (any other Hilton Group Hotel was much higher) or paying $75 with full breakfast at the quite acceptable Clarion in Federal Way, it was a no brainer for the Clarion, even though I prefer Hilton.

Any update on this?

I just bought a bunch of Choice points on the Daily Getaways promo, and I wouldn't mind having some elite status. The benefits seem minimal, but having a few extra days to book some award stays would be worth a phone call or email for me. Anyone ever get a status match?

During the Continental to Amtrak to Choice to Southwest promo for some, fiasco for others, I faxed Choice twice for match to Starwood platinum and never got a response, they said no when I called, but YMMV and that was 2008, I think.

You can often get upgrades with the same amount of Choice points, unlike other programs. Elite status does not worth too much.

I am actually in the process of trying to get a status match from PC PLat to Choice now. I emailed to ask and the response was a request to see a current statement to show my platinum status with PC. We'll see what happens. I used to stay at Choice properties more often, but the company I'm with now typically books books us into IHG or Hiltons.

Wow! A completely different response from what I received, and I tried two different agents. I even told them I was Choice gold, but lost that status when they temporarily discontinued their credit card. I also told them I had more than 500,000 Choice points. All to no avail.

Could you please send me the contact information for the agent you've spoken to, once you have successfully completed this transaction (by PM, if you prefer)? Thanks! I'm just looking to get a slightly expanded reward booking window to help my travel planning.

Absolutely, I'll PM you the info. I was given a match up to Platinum Elite today. I ended up hearing from two CSRs. The first person who answered my original question of whether or not they would honor the match and then another agent who responded to the fax I sent with my PC Platinum info. Keep in mind though that these agents are use the same primary CS email address for Choice, so I have names, but no direct contact info. I'll also send the fax number they sent to me as well. I'm assuming you could send a similar fax to what I sent and they would upgrade you based on that.

Wow hit me up with this info too as i've been told they don't status match in the past too.

I'm interested in the same info too so please do PM with the info as well.

Can you please PM me this info as well. Thanks.

PMs sent. Good luck!

so here's what they said to me...... (like the previous reply i got from them)

Thank you for your email Simmo,

We are currently unable to match your elite status from another reward program. We would love to still have you as a member of our free program.

Choice Privileges is a free membership program offered to our guests as a “Thank you” for staying with us. You earn points for qualifying stays and even bonus points during our promotions. The points can be used for free room nights, airline miles, gift/gas cards as well as many other benefits.

If you are interested in signing up for this free program, please provide us with the following information;

Your Name -
Address -
Email -
Birthday (month and date) -

Once you are a member you will receive a membership card and a program information packet in the mail within 3-5 weeks.

We strive to provide you with the best customer service possible so please let us know if there is anything else we can assist you with.

Thank you,
******
Email Resolution Desk

I got shot down also. Identical response, word for word, that you received.

Doesn't surprise me. At least they reply in a fairly speedy manner. I replied back explaining my situation but no doubt i won't get anywhere.

Interesting... So, neither of you currently have CP accounts? It's a long shot, but that could be the issue. I have had a CP account for quite a while, just rarely stay at Choice properties anymore.

No I do have an account and gave my account number but it's clear they didn't bother to read my email and just instead sent some template back to me.

Weird. I got an email response from them asking me to fax my Hilton and Starwood statements to them showing that I was gold. I did so yesterday morning, but so far I have heard no response. Nor has my online status been adjusted. I guess I'll give them a couple more days and, if I hear nothing, I'll inquire as to the situation.

I have an account also.

Okay so i replied quite aggressively. It worked got the next standard reply asking for a statement to be faxed to them. First time that an aggressive reply has got me anywhere lol.

Well, thanks Enginero -- after following up, I'm now a Choice Platinum (even though I only submitted gold membership records from Hilton and Starwood).

The benefits are certainly modest, but I now get 60 days to book domestic award travel, which is the primary benefit I wanted after buying a ton of Choice points in the now-expired Daily Getaways offer. Too bad they don't extend the int'l award booking window for plats, which is 60 days for everyone.

It would seem that Choice is being a little picky on who they status match, with a little randomness also thrown in. It may help if you have some "track record" with them. I was a gold in the past through their credit card program, I had plenty of activity back in the CO/Amtrak transfer days, and I now have a lot of points (and a couple of award reservations) in my account due to the Getaways promo.

So now the question is who will match my Choice "Platinum" status. Any ideas? :)

They are very quick to reply. I got matched to Platinum too after the somewhat shaky start to the status match.

I've gone back to ask for Diamond which really has the only benefit for someone outside of US being the upgrades as if you live outside the US you get mostly sweet nothing.

Do you know when this status will expire if you don't maintain it?

Don't know yet but that's another question i asked that they ignored. I'm going to ask them again when they reply to my last email. I'm guessing it will just be to the end of this calendar year seeing as though they are not very status match friendly.

I'm glad to hear that the rocky beginning has ended well. They matched me up to 'platinum' and I'll have more stays because of their generosity as I just found a nice Comfort Suites in an area that I travel to on business often.

Ok now they are having a laugh

What a load of ...... How on earth is their platinum even close to that of other hotel brands top tier? It offer sweet nothing for Platinum especially if you don't live in US.

I can only guess this CSR has never actually looked at other hotels top statuses.

Platinum for me in Australia gets bonus points, able to make reward bookings faster and elite offers. I think even other hotels lowest status offer more than that.

Thoughts everyone?

I thought the same. When I sent in my request, I specifically made mention of having the highest status with PC, so they dind't literally 'match' CP plat to PC plat, but they did. I am not really surprised though and I didn't push them on it.

They now claim they can upgrade me to Diamond after i have some stays in my account. This was in reply to my first email i shot off immediately after they matched to platinum instead of diamond and not a reply their email about how their platinum level compares to other top level hotel elites.

I'll let you know how they reply to my last email then give up. I mean apart from bonus points and being able to book points bookings earlier i dont know what i'm getting. I just found out there are no elite offers in Australia.

Thanks, I'd appreciate the info. I have a Comfort Suites that runs similar in price to an HIX in an area that I travel to often. I would definitely like the upgrade eligibility, and of course the additional bonus points of diamond over plat.

It seems my question has been escalated to the next level management. It's a real shame they don't offer better benefits. It's a bit like priority club i guess.

I sent a second email about 4 days ago requesting a match after I was initially turned down and it's been crickets. I haven't heard a thing.