jumpdogjump

Nope, you'll still get someone saying meester or meesus (insert your first name). You can always request a supervisor which may get you someone from a slightly closer planet.

mnredfox

I got email and mail too. Per other's comments, no mention of 10% back but I doubt they'd take that away.

ranles

My experence as a platinum for over a year is one in 7 upgrades on our 20 or so nights. With this new "give it away" program, I do not expect to ever be upgraded again. One stay, my brother was upgraded (not even a member of PC, at a rate less than I paid, and I was not!

BillyBaloney

I'll take the platinum. But if I still get a martian, then this new phone number is a cruel joke, indeed.

anc-ord772

The rebate is one of the strongest benefits of the card. I earned ~40k points from Q1 award bookings.

sdsearch

If you pick the places that you stay without researching whether they give Plat benefits, that's probably typical results.

However, I've found that by researching ahead of time, in a place where there are multiple properties to choose from, I can greatly increase my chances of getting, for example, Holiday Inns that give free breakfast to Plats (but not to everyone).

On stays in the average hotel, I personally don't care as much whether I get upgraded or not, as to whether I get for free, due to elite status, what "random" guests have to pay extra for.

Having said that, I do tend to avoid Priority Club for "aspirational" stays, though, because it's very unlikely that I'll get as much out of those as with a hotel program where I get elite benefits on every stay.

MDtR-Chicago

Ir would be really interesting to know what % of guests at PC properties are Plat, compared to Marriott or Hilton.

I travel mostly in the US and mostly stay at limited-service properties. I don't think I've ever had a situation at a Marriott (Fairfield, Towneplace, etc.) where a hotel associate was "excited" or "impressed" to have a Platinum-level guest staying. In fact, I know (on a personal level) the GMs of at least two Marriott family properties who tell me that Plats are plentiful at their properties and, while keeping them happy is very important, their presence in the hotel is not a big deal.

Whereas I can remember many times at HI or HIX properties that an associate has seemed genuinely surprised to see a Plat and was quite willing to "go the extra mile", as they say. And thus upgrades, free breakfast, etc.

mnredfox

Good question. What I would say though is that it blows me away how few people are plats, or even golds for that matter.

sdsearch

I think it's hard to compare, because IHG has to separate types of elite programs, while Mairrott only has one.

IHG has Priority Club which goes up to Plat but does nothing at ICs. Then they have Ambassador levels which give perks at ICs, and have PC status as a sideshow.

I assume a lot of the people who are staying at IHG hotels who get status have Ambassador and stay more at ICs, perhaps falling back more to Crowne Plazas. So it may be that HI and HIX properties see fewer Plats than some other brands.

But at Marriott, I see a bit of the same thing. Fairfields tend to more suprised to see me as Gold (mid-level) than, say, a Marriott Suites (where they have tons of breakfast vouchers ready for their Golds and above).

So unless you saty a lot at (different locations of) every brand in Marriott family hotels and (different locatikons of )every brand in IHG hotels, you may be seeing "blind men and the elephant" kinds of effects at least in part.

MDtR-Chicago

Please inform my clients of the research plan - that they should be expecting receipts from Intercontinentals and JW's for a few months. I am a willing participant in your proposed study if you can convince them.

goteed1

Was surprised to see this e-mail today as well:

As a valued Priority Club® member, we are pleased to offer you the Priority Club Select Visa® card which will get you closer to your next vacation getaway.

Earn Points Faster:
• 60,000 bonus points after your first use1
• 5 points per $1 spent at our hotels2
• 2 points per $1 spent at gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants2
• 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases2

Enjoy More Benefits:
• Free Night e-certificate every year, good at any of our 4,400+ hotels worldwide3
• Platinum Elite statusfor the life of the card4
• 10% points rebate—earn points for using points5
• No foreign transaction fees6
• No annual fee the first year—a $49 value


I am a VERY basic member. I think I have 1000 points in my account from various stays last year and was trying to determine if this is a good deal. But looks like with the points and the 1 night, it's worth a few free nights.

NJUPINTHEAIR

If a basic member is being offered Platinum status for the life of the card, then it is likely that they will be introducing a new membership level above Platinum.

As can be seen from the above offering the 10% rebate remains intact from this and other sources -- the newest video they have out.

The positive thing about a potential higher elite level is that they may try to standardize offerings at the various hotels if one obtains that level and the fact that they are eliminating transfers into PC from AMEX could speak to this -- although Diners Club transfers appear to survive this cut off.

Still, the value of the card is self-evident and the lighter bonus points offerings for hotel stays may be offset by Platinum status that the cardholders get which offers a 50% bonus hotel stays.

zornoff

I got this reward offer in email yesterday and am curious but probably not enough to make the jump from HH. Can you transfer Priority Points to airlines? If so that may be a reason to take the offer.

sdsearch

Why "jump"? Why not save the points (other than the 1 free night cert per year) until you go someplace where either the Priority Club property is way cheaper on points (they're sometimes as low as 5K/night with PointBreaks, please show me that in HH!), or, even more importnat, where there's a Priority Club property where you want to go but no HHonors property! (Yes, there are places in the world like that. For example, within just a few miles of Stonehenge there's a Holiday Inn, but no Hilton HHonors property except way back in London, but if you want to go see Stonehenge at daybreak, you may not want to commute all the way to/from London. And, btw, IMHO Stonehenge is only worth seeing late or early in the day, during the middle of day it looks comparatively very drab. And I'm sure there are even better examples of whole countries with Prioriity Club properties but no Hilton HHonors properties, I just can't think of one off the top of my head. But I do know there's tons of countries where Hilton is only in the middle of the biggest city, but Priority Club has properties in other cities or in the suburbs.)

zornoff

Good point SdSearch. I've gotten 4 cards in the past 4 months, 2 of which were Visa Signatures. It may be too soon to apply for another but I may give it a shot. 99% of my travel is company-paid so I usually look for HH because of the double-dip bonus on my Skymiles. I did find that 60K PC points would convert to 12K Skymiles so that alone makes it worth it IMHO as I'm trying to stock up on Skymiles for our summer vacation.