I love Daily Getaways, a yearly promotion where you can purchase hotel points for a discount. In my opinion, one of the best deals is actually next week, where you can purchase Choice Privileges points on June 27th.
Even though the promotion says that you are purchasing nights (Comfort Suites, stay 2 nights for $134), you are actually purchasing Choice Privileges points. You also get 10% off by using your American Express card. You are allowed to purchase 2 sets of points per offer. Here is what is offered.
| Package | Choice Privileges Points | Price | Price if use Amex | Cents per point (with Amex discount) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comfort suites | 32000 points | $134 | $120.60 | 0.377 |
| Comfort Inn | 36000 points | $156 | $140.40 | 0.39 |
| Sleep Inn | 20000 points | $102 | $91.80 | 0.46 |
| Cambria Suites | 40000 points | $166 | $149.40 | 0.374 |
So, for $502.20, you could get 128,000 points. Since you are allowed 2 sets of each, for $1004.40, you could get 256,000 points. To put that in perspective, Choice privileges charges $11 to buy 1000 points on its website up to a maximum of 20,000 points.
So, why are Choice Privileges points valuable through this promotion. Well, they are valuable when you transfer them to Southwest Airlines.
Get 22% to 25% discount on Southwest Airlines
To give an example with easy math, suppose I just bought the 36000 point package for $140.40. 6000 Choice Privileges points convert to 1800 Southwest Rapid Rewards Points. So, when transferred to Southwest Airlines, 36,000 Choice Privileges points would become 10,800 Rapid Rewards points. When used for “Wanna Getaway Fares”, Rapid Rewards are worth at a minimum 1.67 cents, so 10,800 RR points would equal $180.36. This is easy arbitrage as you are buying $180.36 for $140.40, a 22.2% discount. With this package, you are buying Rapid Rewards for 1.3 cents each. With the Cambria package, the discount is approximately 25%.
I don’t know of any other way to buy Rapid Rewards points at such a steep discount. Southwest sells Rapid Rewards points for 2.5 cents each. You can buy Ultimate Rewards for 2.5 cents each for transfer to Southwest.
Rapid Rewards points may be the most flexible mileage currency. When you book a Southwest flight with points, you can change or cancel the flight with no penalties. If the fare drops, you can change to a lower fare. You can do this as many times as you want. If you cancel, the points are immediately redeposited back in your account.
Choice Privileges points transferred to Southwest count toward qualifying for the companion pass
Points transferred from hotels to Southwest Rapid Rewards count toward qualifying for the Companion Pass that allows you to have a companion fly free with you.
When compared to Choice Privileges, other hotel partners such as Hyatt, Marriott, Best Western, and Club Carlson do not have favorable transfer ratios to Southwest Airlines.
Last year, I was able to buy 176,000 Choice Privileges points through the Daily Getaways deals. I then converted 168,000 of those points to 50,400 Rapid Rewards points to get me closer to getting the companion pass.
If you don’t have the companion pass and are seeking one this year, this promotion can certainly help you get it along with the 50,000 point bonuses currently available on all four of the Southwest Airlines credit cards.
If you already have the companion pass, then getting in on this deal could be even more lucrative as the Southwest Airlines points earned from transferring Choice Privileges points are worth double to you.
I already have a companion pass that expires this year. In addition, I already have the personal Southwest Airlines Premier card. However, I will try to get in on this deal and buy as many Choice Privileges points that I can. I will not transfer them to Southwest this year because if I get the pass again this year, it will expire next year (2014). If I get it early next year, it will not expire till December 2015. So, I will transfer these points to Southwest early next year and participate in other qualifying activities to get the pass again.
Getting in on Daily Getaways deals is not easy as quantities are limited and everyone is trying to get in on them. However, I feel like people have a fairly decent shot at these since there are higher quantities for the Choice Privileges packages compared to some of the other available deals.
Good luck to everyone. Hope you get in on some of these great deals!