[lewko]

I am a member of the "Priority Club" which is the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and a few other hotels. http://www.priorityclub.com.

They let you transfer their points to Qantas (and various other airlines) or keep them within the Priority Club program for room redemptions, room upgrades etc. However (as far as I can tell) not both.

Some detail here: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/.../en/miles.html

Does anyone have an opinion on where the points are worth more? That is, should I keep them with the hotel program or transfer them to Qantas. I appreciate it may depend somewhat on whether I would be staying in hotels or flying, however if one were to assign a dollar value to a typical room or flight... I hope this makes sense.

[Kiwi Flyer]

Welcome to AFF lewko

Just to clarify something you have posted.

Many hotel chains will allow you to earn hotel frequent stay points OR airline frequent flyer points from a stay. Hilton allows the option of earning both (but at lower rates).

Some frequent stay programs, additionally, allow the transfer of their points to airline programs - ie in bulk rather than a stay at a time. I am not familiar with Priority Club as to whether it allows this. Typically these types of transfers lose a lot of value, but can be worthwhile to top up for a frequent flyer award, to prevent frequent flyer points from expiring, or if the transfer option is going to be closed or significantly devalued. Generally it is best to do these transfers only when you actually need the frequent flyer miles, rather than after every stay or so.

If your question is about the first case I posted above, ie whether to credit to frequent stay program or frequent flyer program then the logic is a little different. Not only is there a difference in value of 1 frequent stay point (based on what you can redeem them for - ie it should be a personal judgement) and 1 frequent flyer point (again based on what you can redeem them for - ie personal judgement), but also need to take account of how easy it is or isnt to earn frequent stay points vs frequent flyer points.

While I am not familiar with Priority Club I can explain my logic in respect of Hilton. I earn frequent flyer miles much more quickly than frequent stay points so I am slightly biased to crediting to Hilton HHonors. However, I get 20 Air NZ airbucks for each stay as a minimum, so for short stays I credit as much as possible to the frequent flyer program as generally the HHonors points I would get are worth less than this (to me). For longer stays, or at more expensive hotels, I credit as much as possible to HHonors as this maximises the return I get. There are some complexities due to promos, different options within the programs, and also different earning rates for different hotels within the chain, but this gives an overview of my logic. Others will act differently.

Hope this helps.

[lewko]

Thanks Kiwi Flyer.

As I suspected, it's a bit of a personal preference and there are many variables in terms of points value for different people.

Nevertheless you make some good points and I am now even more undecided

I look forward to hearing others' thoughts.

[NM]

Generally speaking points are most valuable in the program in which they are earned. There may be a few exceptions to this, but it is generally true. Transferring points between programs usually results in a significant devaluation of the value of those points. About the only example I can think of where this is not the case is when transferring from credit cards to various other loyalty programs.

The real benefit of being able to transfer between programs is when you orphaned points in a program in which you are unlikely to gain any real awards, or if you want to consolidate into one program for a specific award.

Please be aware that once points are in your QF FF account you cannot transfer them out to another program if you later decide you have a better place for them. For that reason I generally leave my credit card points in the CC account until I need them in my QF FF account, or when there is a bonus promotion such as with Amex a few year back when they offered a 20% bonus (from memory) for points transferred into QF.

[JamesF]

Hi Lewko,

As the other guys have said, it depends on what you want to do with your points. I personally put my points to Priority Club, as my stays are often long, and international stays only get 600 QFF points per stay, whereas that same stay may earn several free hotel nights. However, if you're only going to stay maybe 2 nights a year in an Intercontinental chain hotel, it might be better to earn the QFF points, rather than orphaning 1500 priority club points (10000 min for free hotel night).

Also, Priority club has some excellent and very generous promos which seem to be running all the time - double points, bonuses etc, which usually only apply to PC points, not miles.

Flyertalk has a whole sub-group dedicated to Priority Club - check it out at http://www.flyertalk.com - theres plenty of information in there that will help you make your decision.

Happy point collecting!

James

[StevePER]

I don't think this is a widespread problem, but you may have trouble getting Priority Club points if your employer pays for your accommodation. Priority Club have told me repeatedly that my stays are not eligible to earn points, but some of my colleagues don't have this problem. When I questioned this with the hotel, they gave me this response:

Dear Mr StevePER, Unfortunately you must pay your own accomodation in order to claim reward points, and at present your accomodation has been routed to Your Employer. If you require any information regaring reward points please don't hesitate to contact reception.

Now I always get a copy of the bill and fax it off to Qantas for 3 points per dollar (it used to be 5 or 6 in the good old days... 30 points per beer). I've never had any problems with this approach, but it means my Priority Club balance is a miserable 4500 points from staying 80 or 90 nights. Even so, the 50000 QFF points have probably come in handy.

Steve

[lewko]

Originally Posted by StevePER

Dear Mr StevePER, Unfortunately you must pay your own accomodation in order to claim reward points, and at present your accomodation has been routed to Your Employer.

Could it be that your employer has negotiated a special deal with the IC Hotel group? I don't know who you work for, but imagine larger companies would do this.

Now I always get a copy of the bill and fax it off to Qantas for 3 points per dollar

I wonder if this would allow me to get Priority Club points AND Qantas points thereafter. Thoughts?

[StevePER]

Originally Posted by lewko

Could it be that your employer has negotiated a special deal with the IC Hotel group? I don't know who you work for, but imagine larger companies would do this.

Possibly. But it seems to work for some people and not others, and my employer knows nothing about it. So I really don't know.

Originally Posted by lewko

I wonder if this would allow me to get Priority Club points AND Qantas points thereafter. Thoughts?

You could try it, but I don't think it would work (and I think it's against the rules). As I understand it, when you claim points with Qantas directly they will contact Holiday Inn or whoever to check that the claim is valid. So in theory you can't claim the same stay twice.

Steve

[Kiwi Flyer]

Originally Posted by StevePER

You could try it, but I don't think it would work (and I think it's against the rules). As I understand it, when you claim points with Qantas directly they will contact Holiday Inn or whoever to check that the claim is valid. So in theory you can't claim the same stay twice.

Steve

I'd be very suprised if this works. In my experience FFPs are extremely thorough in checking with partners - which makes sense as they are looking to be paid for the points and the partner (in this case IC) wont want to be paying twice.