Update 9/1/24: Looks like another devaluation. Maximum is now 118,000 points, up from 87,000. Hat tip to LiftBroski
Update 6/21/24: These properties are now more expensive. Some that were 25-35k have jumped to 33k-48k. Surprised to see a devaluation so fast. Hat tip to OMaaT
Original post: Choice has added the ability to redeem Choice points at preferred hotels & resorts properties online. Unfortunately not all the Preferred Hotels & Resorts are participating and award inventory seems to be limited, but a full list of participating properties can be found here. There is a lot of potential here though and the redemption rates seem great, especially when you factor in that some credit card programs transfer to Choice at a rate of 1:2 (e.g one credit card point = two choice points. Citi & Wells Fargo both have this 1:2 rate).
Specifics are as follows:
- Point prices are fixed and range between 20,000 – 55,000 points.
- You can book more than 100 days in advance (this normally isn’t possible with Choice)
- Only base rooms can be booked
Overall this is exciting, although I hope the award inventory improves.
Hat tip to FM
Also I must point out that many great properties that offered high cpp not so long ago, e.g., Kohea Kai Maui, have left the program. Friendship ended with Choice. Sonesta is my new best friend.
I’ve stayed at the Kohea Kai Maui and it was marginal at best. Sure, it was worth 30K points +$30 resort fee if everything else was priced really expensively but just barely. This includes staying in their large suites (which was available to book on points). However, if for example, you had a late arrival and an early departure this hotel was (barely) ok for that.
As Choice points are rapidly push towards that 0.5 cpp mark, the Choice privileges card will soon be equivalent to a 0.5% cash back card, with a $95 annual fee. Nobody can ever justify that garbage of a card ever, not even with that 30k anniversary points. Such a shame that Wells Fargo is getting their only hotel credit card nuked so hard.
It isn’t Wells Fargo’s only hotel card: They have the Autograph Journey, which earns 5X at all hotels.
What do you mean by “Wells Fargo… only hotel credit card”???
As Morris mentioned below, Wells Fargo has other cards that earn bonus points on hotel stays.
But the card you mentioned isn’t even Wells Fargo’s only Choice Privileges credit card.
The one with the $95 annual fee is called the Choice Privileges Select card.
There’s a second one without “Select” in the name that has no annual fee.
This chart at Wells Fargo compares the two:
https://creditcards.wellsfargo.com/cards/wells-fargo-choice-privileges-credit-cards/?sub_channel=MCR&vendor_code=LH
And it’s only “nuked so hard” for people who want to stay at Choice’s partner of Preferred Hotels. For people who only want to stay at actual Choice Privileges properties, nothing is changing. The above devaluation is only for Preferred Hotels properties.
Choice doesn’t own Preferred Hotels, it only partners with them, so that’s why the redemptions there can be so different than redemptions for the hotels that Choice owns.
And meanwhile, in case you’re not aware, at Choice Privileges hotels, if you book with points, you can often get any room (even the higher-end suites) for exactly same number of points as the lowest-cost room. So that’s one reason why Choice Privileges points can be so valuable at Choice hotels, because in other hotel program you either can’t book suites (at not-all-suites hotels) with points or you may have to pay much more, but with Choice if you can book them it’s the same points cost as every room in the hotel, because Choice prices whole hotels, not specific rooms, with points. Now, suites may sell out first, so this trick may not always work for last-minute reservations, but booking many weeks ahead, it very often works.
Apologies for not being clearer earlier – Choice is literally Wells Fargo’s only hotel transfer partner. No matter what WF card you earn points with, if you choose to transfer them to a hotel partner, Choice is your only choice. Plus, unlike Amex and Chase that have multiple actual hotel cards (think, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG) the two Choice Privileges cards are the only true hotel cards in Wells Fargo’s portfolio. Both of these cards earn 1x per dollar spent, equating to ~0.5-0.7 cpp, unless you are cherry picking hotels. That is in essence equivalent to a 0.5-0.7% cash back card, and that is appalling. Add to it the fact that the Select card has a $95 AF, thereby making it worse than a 0.5% cash back card. I wouldn’t value the 30,000 anniversary points at any more than $150-$180, which is worse than what you’d get with the anniversary points/free night certificates that come with comparable IHG, Hyatt and even Bonvoy cards. So all in all, the Choice cards are truly garbage products unless you have exhausted all other hotel programs. Cannot believe someone at Wells Fargo thought these products made any sense.
Actually, it also depends on where you travel. If you travel mostly to national parks and other such remote places (including overseas in places like the fjords in Norway), often in those places there are only hotels in lower end programs like Choice, Best Western and Wyndham, yet cash prices can be high, so for those people, Choice redemptions can make a lot of sense, especially as I mentioned that at Choice for the same points price you can get a suite that would cost much more than other rooms which are the same on points.
But again, that depends on how you travel. I you don’t care about upgrades to better rooms, then you may not care that you can get a suite for the cost as a low-end room at the same hotel. So everyone’s different in their travel needs.
And Chase is the only one that gives free night certificates with $95 AF cards, in those three hotel programs you mentioned. Amex only gives a Hilton program free night certificate with Aspire card which now has a $695 AF, or with a $150 card you have to do $$$$$ spend to get just one free night certificate.
And Radisson (back when it existed in North America, before being absorbed by choice) has a card from US Bank that only gave anniversary points, and they were about double what the Choice Select card has, but on average Radisson hotels needed about double the points that Choice hotels do, so the anniversary points weren’t worth more from that card that the anniversary points from the Choice Select card you have.
And in the Choice hotel program, I’ve used 30000 Choice points for hotel rooms that were costing well over $200 before taxes that night. So you can get much more value than $150-180 from 30000 Choice points at times, just not always. Choice prices hotels according to average use, and when a hotel is high-priced because of temporary high demand, such as because of an eclipse or a temporary heat wave or a temporary local event, the points prices doesn’t go up the way they do at some other hotel programs.
Well said. Paying tonight 35000 points for a $500/night room. Pretty good deal…
Conclusion that points dont vary a lot but $$$ does, so better book with points in the last 2 weeks or friday/Saturday and better pay when sunday to Thursday.
FYI: Booking certain Preferred Hotels with Choice points can only be done online. These online-only properties are not visible to Choice telephone agents. Moreover, if you don’t have sufficient points to cover a stay at these online-only properties, award inventory might not be visible to you. So, you would have to transfer in a chunk of points just to search . . . and then if there actually is no award inventory . . . you’re hosed.
Not surprised. The more these bloggers blab about this the faster these deals will die.
Ironic that you say you don’t want them to blab about sweetspots but still use a blog such as DoC to get the news yourself. You can either
1) Churn and burn more and often so devaluations affect you less and you get to experience sweet spots from the blogs.
2) Find sweet spots that haven’t been posted and don’t share them with anyone except your inner circle.
I would wager you are in the first category like the majority who aren’t in private groups or have a solid inner circle so better get going on 1.
cry karen
Why would I cry? I’m traveling around the world for cheap and it’s the nature of the beast that devaluations will keep happening as more and more people churn. Instead of complaining, just MS more. It’s relatively easy to earn a 3-4 million points in transferable currencies if you know the right plays. Up your game noobie.
Lol, this was a new partnership and you expect it to stay silent? This isn’t some hidden sweet spot that you magically found.
The link for the list of Preferred hotels participating is no longer working
I think Frequent Miler reported that better than base rooms can be booked at the same rate if they’re showing available.
There are “Preferred” hotels that have been listed on Choice for years, for far less than the points cost from Preferred. I don’t fully understand the relationship here
I found availability but the booking screen repeatdley errors out. Tried multiple browsers & devices. Option is not available yet in-app either. Looks like its back to the phone. 🙁