iahphx

Choice seems to have raised the price of their points by about 10%, but that can still be a good deal if you actually stay at their hotels. I'm trying to remember why there was a "frenzy" to buy those points in the past (most Flyertalkers don't seem to be rabid Choice Hotels customers). Was their some arbitrage opportunity to convert them into airline miles? If so, I don't really see one these days as the cost of an airline mile would be about 2 cents each, which is hardly interesting. If I want to buy some of these again (I do stay in their hotels sometimes), I'm wondering how much competition I'll have.

The Wyndham Rewards deal was weakened last year, and remains just "so-so." Kind of like a worse version of the Choice Hotels deal for similar hotels. Of course, if there's a particular Wyndham you want to stay it, it might be a better deal than just buying the room.

The Alamo deal is mildly useful if you rent cars from them and can't otherwise use another coupon. I tend to buy one or two of them and use them opportunistically. I prefer to just rent from their sister company National as the Emerald Club is great, and you can usually (but not always) use codes to get National's rates similar to Alamo's.

The Hertz deal is modestly useful if their award chart works for you. The awards tend to be better for "unusual" rentals (in most cases, using the usual codes works better). You can use these points in some foreign countries where there are fewer deals but, sadly, the available car classes are sometimes limited to manual shift cars.

The Hilton deal seems extremely unattractive unless you've got a particularly unusual reservation in mind and no other way to get the points.

I'm not excited about the IHG deal, as it generally represents good value only for the point breaks hotels. How does the price per point compare to just using the "cancelled award reservation trick"?

The Cesear's deals seem useful for certain types of "splurge" Vegas trips.

I'm curious about the Diamond Resorts offer. It's always been too "sketchy" to me to buy: has anyone tried it before?

Sea World and Busch Gardens could be mildly useful if you were planning a vacation there anyway.

eponymous_coward

Choice has a deal with Preferred Hotels, you can get some nice boutique properties at good price points that way.

Wyndham trashed the big value points: NYC (I ended up in a suite at the New Yorker for 16,000 points a night!) and airline miles (the conversion Wyndham to airline is now about 3 cpm, a far cry from when it was .4 cpm a few years ago).

Alamo's deal is OK. But just that... OK.

iahphx

But no attractive airline arbitrage with Choice, right? Isn't that what drove the demand in the past?

eponymous_coward

Maybe in the past, but right now, the conversion is around 2 cpm. So... meh.

ps9a

I think you may be thinking of Wyndham points... I don't remember there ever being a great transfer rate from Choice to anything, but maybe your memory goes back a lot further than mine.

iahphx

So why did the demand for the points get so "hot"?

Choice points (at this price) can be a good deal in Scandinavia, and in Europe (when they run an offer -- which they haven't this year), and for USA "airport hotels" (which run about $60 with these points) -- but none of these deals would seem to be "frenzy worthy."

gloreglabert

Choice points went in a flash because bloggers hyped everyone into buying them to transfer to Southwest. Simple as that.

yuel

Yes that was the reason, so please no one jump on these deals!

eponymous_coward

It's not that hard to pay $60-80 in cash for airport hotels, without tying up your cash in a program that could be devalued in an instant, as we've found in the past. It's often possible to do this WHILE being in a loyalty program (I've paid $60ish for Hiltons and gotten full benefits + points). Then add in things like Priceline and Hotwire, and... hard to see the value in this, unless there's some "hey, this particular hotel I NEED to be at is mega-expensive". Which I guess does happen...

I've always thought if there's arbitrage, you should use it promptly, or be prepared to lose it. Place not your faith in princes or loyalty programs.

Which is crazy, you're buying WN points at 2.7 cpp. WN cut redemption values from last year's 1.5 cpp to, I guess, something like 1.3? Is a companion pass really worth taking a bath of a few hundred dollars in value, as opposed to just buying tickets for your companion outright? Only if they're flying with you all the time... and WN's made it clear that you can't trust in their value proposition.

Maybe as a topup this barely makes sense, but I don't get it. On the other hand, the CP redemptions make sense in places like the mega-expensive countries in Scandinavia, or using the Preferred Group hotels you might get some price breaks, but this isn't a screamer of a deal.

GUWonder

Less interesting now than previously. And with IHG at least buying points can be done for just about the same price as at other times of the year without locking up cash in points unnecessarily in advance given how devaluation risks rise.

And Choice points can generally only be used for hotel stays within 60 days. In other words, advance planning using those points isn't that easy and the likelihood of being burned is rather real.

yerffej201

Deals are crappy for the first two weeks. Bleh.

Mommy Points

Southwest CP, 8k hotels in Europe (when they run it), and personally I used them to stay at the Comfort Suites Paradise Island next to Atlantis.

gv111

All the weeks are up. Hardly any good deals except perhaps Hyatt (which is very difficult to get anyway). Points have been devaluing and price to buy the points are going up . Was hoping to buy some Carlson points if the price was good. Oh well ..

I expect lots of unsold stuff. YMMV!

iahphx

While a WN Companion Pass is useful -- I have one -- it's pretty easy to get by getting the 2 Chase cards (biz and personal) and then spending a total of 10K. You also wind up with a boat load of points to use.

That must be a better deal than getting it through Choice. Right?

KathinJax

I really would like the Choice Points this year as I am going to Oslo later in the year. Of course, I do not think that they will last until I am able to be online. Hopefully, Club Carlson points will still be a decent deal this year.