Priority Club has a special offer of 20% to 50% bonus points for points purchases made online from M

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Priority Club has a special offer of 20% to 50% bonus points for points purchases made online from March 30 April 30, 2012. IHG Priority Club Platinum elite can be yours for $460 along with 60,000 points in your account through this sale offer. This offer allows a member frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands to buy 75,000 points for $575. The normal limit for buying frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands points is 50,000 points per year.
[April 2, 2012 Update : Daily Getaways is a travel sale offering the opportunity to buy up to 500,000 Priority Club points on Monday April 9 .  This sale allows you to get 75,000 points for $461 and Priority Club Platinum status. My April 2 post in the link discusses strategies for buying points through the Daily Getaways flash sale.]
The lower purchase rate at 26,000 points means you can buy 33,800 points for $299 with the 30% bonus compared to paying frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands $312.50 for 32,500 points when buying 25,000 points at $12.50 per 1,000 during this sale.
There is always the Points Cash trick for buying frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands points at $60 per 10,000 points by booking a Points Cash Reward frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands stay, buying points and cancelling the stay. The points go into your account. But Points Cash purchased points do not count as points for Priority Club elite status.
The advantage frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands of buying points through this bonus points frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands sale is these points purchases count as qualifying points for elite status . Priority Club members earn Gold elite after earning frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands 20,000 points or Platinum elite after earning 60,000 points in a calendar year.
$460 to buy 40,000 points with this special offer will result in 60,000 points posting to your Priority Club account and you will attain Priority Club Platinum status for the remainder of 2012 and all 2013.
So many of the comments to this post mention the Points Cash trick to buy 10,000 points for $60. Here is how that works for those of you not familiar with the Priority frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands Club Points Cash Rewards process.
Priority Club members have the option when booking a standard reward to buy 5,000 points for $40 or 10,000 points frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands for $60 towards frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands the reward night cost. This is allowed if you are short points (you only need 15,000 points in your account to buy a 25,000 points reward night) or even if you have loads of points in your account.
frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands Another advantage of booking a reward night is many hotels offer higher category rooms for the same reward price. The $193 room was a standard room on a prepaid nonrefundable rate. I can book a King Bed Executive Suite using a Points Cash reward for 45,000 points + $180 per night that would have cost $826 using the Best Flexible Rate that has the same cancellation terms as the Points Cash reward.
The Points Cash trick comes into play when I cancel the reservation. I paid $180 for 30,000 points and that purchase is nonrefundable. 45,000 points were taken from my account to complete the 75,000 points reward transaction frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands for this stay at the HI Express Hollywood.
After cancelling the stay I get to keep the 30,000 points and I effectively paid $60 per 10,000 points. I get back the 45,000 points from my account and my account frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands balance goes from 73,724 to 103,724 points.
Priority Club Rewards Points Cash is an option for obtaining a Reward Night. You may choose to redeem Priority Club points for a Reward Night in three ways: using your existing points frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands for all required points for the desired Reward frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands Night; using your existing points and 5,000 points purchased for US $40 to total the required points; or using your existing points and 10,000 points frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands purchased for US $60 to total the required points. The total purchase on any single day may not exceed frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands $240 US. Points Cash Reward Nights may only be redeemed online at www.priorityclub.com . Point purchase amounts are subject to change by PCR. You must use a valid credit card for points purchase. Upon completion of the points purchase, frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands you agree that the total dollar amount will be immediately charged to the credit card you specified. The cost for the points purchased is non-refundable. If the Reward Night is cancelled in accordance with these Terms Conditions and with each hotel s cancellation policy, the purchased Priority Club points will be re-deposited into your Priority Club Rewards account. Cash components of this award that are paid in currencies other than U.S. dollars will be adjusted by Priority Club Rewards, as needed, to reflect the USD equivalent frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands of the non-USD payment at that time. All other Reward Night terms and conditions apply.
2. Isn t PC really frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands grumpy about reward stays, ie no upgrades, frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands no counting as stays for elite status, etc. It seems that if you re using these 60K points and are only put in a standard room even if you are a plat. that diminishes the value quite a bit.
@The Deal Mommy, if you don t already have the Chase PC card, you can apply for it (there is a FT thread frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands that contains the 80k bonus points link). They recently added a new benefit lifetime Platinum status for as long as your have the card. First fee of $49 is waived, and it comes with a free night on every anniversary. No FX fees, either. My wife and I each got one in January, frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands and plan to keep it.
2. Only HHonors, Choice and SPG count award stays for elite status so that isn t a major comparison. I have had upgrades on most of my IHG stays at Crowne Plaza hotels in the past year. I have also received frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands bonus points and some free breakfasts and lounge access at some hotels and other discount offers as a Platinum member.
3. Club Levels are not too common and free breakfast is not that common, but it does happen. I have received over $100 in additional frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands benefits in the past year as a Priority Club Platinum member and I really frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands have not stayed many nights frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands in IHG hotels (fewer than 10 nights).
Thanks for the in-depth consideration. I actually got a goodie bag at a highway rest stop Candlewood Suites a few months ago for being a lowly gold it cracked me up! I can definitely frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands see where we could use the nights with 60k up front and think I might pull the trigger on this one. Jimmy, I like your idea too, but just did the Chase Hyatt. Think I ll hit the PC next round. BTW, enter IHG to buy them through UR portal and get 4X UR points too!
Crowne Plaza 25,000 frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands points per night is $150 in points if you buy points using the Cash Points method. At $460 for 60,000 points with this current bonus points offer the rate is $7.67 per 1,000 points and the 25,000 points reward night = $191.75.
Reward frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands nights cover tax so basically the published room rate needs to be over $175 ($175 + 10% tax = $192.50) to get a better deal with a 25,000 points reward buying points with this bonus offer compared to paying cash. And I am ignoring frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands the points you get with a paid night that you do not earn for a reward frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands night stay.
The disappointing change with Priority Club Rewards frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands is the program added higher frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands tiers of 35,000 points for Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo in January 2012. InterContinental Hotels can be 50,000 points per night. Hundreds of Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels are 25,000 points per night. Many hotels now cost 10,000 points more in 2012.
The best values in Priority frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands Club Rewards are their discount rewards. Priority Club has Last Minute Reward Nights at 50% off. PointBreaks hotels which just posted today are sometimes 80% off where a 30,000 or 40,000 points InterContinental is only 5,000 points frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands per night.
In the past couple years I have paid about $150 for 25,000 points for reward nights by always buying Points Cash reward nights when the published rate at Crowne Plaza hotels in Chicago and Washington, D.C. was about $300 per night. Priceline might have been $35 to $50 cheaper, but I knew in advance exactly where I was going to stay.
So I got a bit lost in the analysis in the previous comment, but it sounds like this deal is marginally worth doing speculatively? so if you re selective, you can get $10 for 1000 points, while you can by them for about $7.70 per 1000 under this deal? can you use the points at intercontinental hotels, and would that help the value proposition at all?
I recall showing an InterContinental Hotel Geneva rate in 2010 or 2011 where the redemption value was over $100 per 1,000 Priority Club points. Published rates were over $4,000 per night and reward nights were available.
Thanks Ric. I think it may be worth it since I would like to get the Platinum without wasting a Chase App on this right now. Then use it to leverage CC to get Gold to diversify my status in the hotel chains. It never hurts to have top status especially with the summer months coming with the kids. The only down side is that status at PC seems to be lacking and suspect depending on where you go.
PC PointBreaks promotion suck in general (for Canada frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands at least), but if I know I have upcoming trips that need hotels in US, then, if there are good deals, I don t mind paying $460 for Platinum, and hopefully get 3+ nights out of it
Is the Priority frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands Club Platinum elite status = InterContinental Ambassador status or InterContinental Royal Ambassador status? Which one is more valuable frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands if they are not the same? thank you in advance.
Its quite unusual when buying the points with any of these methods turns out to be a good deal with IHG. The Holiday Inn Express on the outskirts of London I favor is $30 cheaper at the AAA rate than the points rate, and $40 cheaper frequent flyer jan airlines continental arena meadowlands than the points plus cash rate.
I just checked the Crowne Plaza in Washington DC for a June weekend, and the AAA rate is $150. Buying the points is going to cost $210. And the former gets me additional points and credits toward elite status as