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Offers for the Choice Privileges® Mastercard® and Choice Privileges® Select Mastercard® are not available through this site. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers
Choice Privileges can provide tremendous value for hotel award stays, but what if you don't have enough points to pay the entire award price? That's where the Choice Privileges Points Plus Cash option comes into play.
As the name suggests, Choice Privileges Points Plus Cash lets you combine points and cash to book a stay while using fewer points. Here's how it works.
What Is Choice Privileges Points Plus Cash?
Choice Privileges points can be used to book award stays across Choice's hotel portfolio, which spans more than 20 brands. However, if you don't have enough Choice points and/or want to save your points for a larger redemption, using Choice's Points Plus Cash feature makes sense.
Unlike some hotel programs that let you choose any mix of points and cash, Choice offers a limited number of preset combinations for eligible stays. Options start at 6,000 points plus $17, but can increase depending on the specific hotel and date. For example, we've seen options ranging from $17 to $289.
More importantly, to use Points Plus Cash, you must be a U.S.-based Choice Privileges member.
From the program's terms and conditions:
Points Plus Cash is valid only for U.S. Members at Participating Locations and Members do not earn points on Points Plus Cash stays. The cash portion of Points Plus Cash reward nights are shown in U.S. dollars.
Related: Do Choice Privileges Points Expire?
How to Make a Choice Privileges Points Plus Cash Booking
Head over to the Choice Hotels website and type in a desired destination and date. Then, set the rate to “Reward Points.” Note, you must be logged in to your Choice account for the Points Plus Cash rate to appear.
For this example, we'll use Foxborough, Massachusetts during a weekend in late September.
You'll see that MainStay Suites Foxboro–Mansfield prices at 15,000 Choice points for that weekend, or you can do Points Plus Cash for 6,000 points plus $77.
Now, toggle back to the all-cash price for that same room: $364!
With a Points Plus Cash booking in this scenario, that makes those 6,000 Choice points worth almost 5 cents per point, which is an incredible redemption.
Recent AwardWallet user redemptions have netted 1.24¢ per point. But that's heavily skewed by AwardWallet user redemptions in Japan. In general, you want to get at least 0.8 cents per point from your Choice redemptions.
Related: Choice Just Devalued One of Its Best Hotel Award Sweet Spots
How to Earn More Choice Privileges Points
Choice has a couple of co-branded credit cards on the market. The Choice Privileges® Select Mastercard®(Rates & Fees) earns:
- 10x points on stays at participating Choice Hotels® properties plus on Choice Privileges point purchases
- 5x points on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, and on phone plan services
- 1x points on other purchases
Rates & Fees
- 10x points on stays at participating Choice Hotels® properties plus on Choice Privileges point purchases
- 5x points on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, and on phone plan services
- 1x points on other purchases
And the Choice Privileges® Mastercard® (Rates & Fees) earns:
- 5x points on stays at participating Choice Hotels® properties plus on Choice Privileges point purchases
- 3x points on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores and on phone plan services
- 1x points on other purchases
Rates & Fees
- 5x points on stays at participating Choice Hotels® properties plus on Choice Privileges point purchases
- 3x points on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores and on phone plan services
- 1x points on other purchases
You can also transfer to Choice from several transferable rewards programs, the most valuable being Wells Fargo at 1:2. That means the 6,000-point minimum requires as few as 3,000 Wells Fargo Rewards points.
- Apply Now to take advantage of this offer and learn more about product features, terms and conditions.
- Earn 60,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 in purchases in the first 3 months - that's $600 toward your next trip.
- Earn unlimited 5X points with hotels, 4X points with airlines, 3X points on restaurants and other travel, and 1X points on other purchases.
- $95 annual fee.
- Book your travel with the Autograph Journey Card and enjoy Travel Accident Insurance, Lost Baggage Reimbursement, Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection and Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver.
- Earn a $50 annual statement credit with $50 minimum airline purchase.
- Up to $1,000 of cell phone protection against damage or theft. Subject to a $25 deductible.
- Find tickets to top sports and entertainment events, book travel, make dinner reservations and more with your complimentary 24/7 Visa Signature® Concierge.
- 5X points per $1 spent with hotels
- 4X points per $1 spent with airlines
- 3X points per $1 spent on other travel and restaurants
- 1X points per $1 spent on other purchases
Bottom Line
Choice Privileges Points Plus Cash can be an excellent way to conserve your points while still locking in an award stay. It's especially valuable when cash rates are high or you're just short of the points needed for a standard award booking.
Choice Privileges is easy to overlook, but features like Points Plus Cash can help you stretch your points further and get more value from the program.
Have you made a Choice Privileges Points Plus Cash booking?
