16 Best Ways To Earn Lots of Choice Privileges Points [2023]

Choice Hotels is one of the largest hotel chains, but with a focus almost exclusively on value accommodations, you very rarely see its properties in travel magazines, blogs, and the like.

Unfortunately, many associate getting “excellent value” with booking ultra-luxe hotels, especially if you’re using points. In this regard, Choice Privileges is one of the most underrated hotel programs in the world.

With 7,000+ hotels spread out across more than 40 countries — including a unique partnership with Preferred Hotels and Strawberry Hotels — it’s easier than ever to redeem Choice Privileges points for phenomenal value.

If you’re able to accumulate lots of Choice Privileges points, you’ll find yourself footing a much smaller hotel bill when you’re traveling — and that’s what this guide is for!

In this piece, we’ll explore the numerous different ways you can earn Choice Privileges points. Let’s get started!

Start by Joining Choice Privileges

Joining Choice Privileges is as easy as visiting this link and filling out the online form! After you submit the form and create an account, you’ll be redirected to your new account page, which includes your member number.

Whenever you have any activity earning Choice Privileges points, you’ll want to make sure you include your Choice Privileges number so that points get credited to your account.

Once you earn the points, you can redeem them for gift cards, hotel stays, or transfer them to airlines!

Earning Points With Credit Cards

1. Choice Privileges Credit Cards

The best cards to earn Choice Privileges points directly are the new Choice Privileges® Mastercard® and Choice Privileges® Select Mastercard®, issued by Wells Fargo.

The Choice Privileges card offers these benefits:

• A welcome bonus of 60,000 Choice Privileges points
• Choice Privileges Gold status after activation
• Earn up to 16x points at eligible Choice hotels
• Earn 3x points at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, and phone plans from landline and cell phone providers
• Earn 1x points on all other purchases
• Cell phone protection
• $0 annual fee

The Choice Privileges Select card offers these benefits:

• A welcome bonus of 90,000 Choice Privileges points
• Choice Privileges Platinum status after activation
• Earn up to 22x points at eligible Choice hotels
• Earn 5x points at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, and phone plans from landline and cell phone providers
• Earn 1x points on all other purchases
• An anniversary bonus of 30,000 points every year
• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee statement credit of up to $100 every 4 years
• Cell phone protection
• $95 annual fee, first year waived

As you’ll find out, holding either of these cards is incredibly valuable because of the ability to enjoy a hefty welcome bonus and earn up to 22x points per dollar on just credit card spending alone.

Bottom Line: The Choice Privileges credit cards earn 3x to 5x points on common purchases, plus 16x to 22x at eligible Choice hotels — what a fantastic deal!

2. Citi ThankYou Points Credit Cards

Citi ThankYou Rewards‘ first hotel transfer partner launched itself out of the gate at a 1:2 ratio, which means you can transfer 1 Citi ThankYou Point into 2 Choice points. This can represent a great value, especially when using Choice points to book pricey hotels in Scandinavia and Japan.

Recommended Citi Cards (Personal)

3. American Express Membership Rewards Credit Cards

Amex Membership Rewards is one of the most incredible rewards programs in the world. With the Amex transfer partners (including Choice Privileges) and so many ways to redeem Amex points for amazing value, there’s a lot to love about Amex Membership Rewards. Plus, there are many ways to earn Amex points easily!

Although it doesn’t really make sense to transfer Amex points to Choice Privileges at its 1:1 ratio, it can make sense if you’re just short of the required amount for a specific redemption.

Recommended American Express Cards (Personal)

Business Owner? Check out our article on the best Amex business cards that earn Membership Rewards.

4. Capital One Miles Credit Cards

Choice Privileges is also a 1:1 transfer partner with Capital One Miles.

Recommended Capital One Cards (Personal)

Earning Points with Choice Privileges Activity

In this next section, we’ll touch on the top ways to easily earn points with direct activity on Choice Privileges.

5. Choice Hotels Stays

On base-level stays at Choice Hotels properties, you will earn 10 points per dollar spent, as long as you’re booking an eligible rate. There are a few exceptions and distinctions that must be made about which hotel rates aren’t eligible to earn points.

Hot Tip: Choice has an alliance with Penn National Gaming, Inc. that offers reciprocal earning and redemption benefits for Choice Privileges members and members of Penn’s mychoice loyalty program.

WoodSpring Suites aren’t eligible for points accrual at all. Plus, several regions do not participate:

• Asia-Pacific region (except for Japan)
• Caribbean
• Central America
• Europe (specific countries — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden)
• Middle East
• Mexico

As you can see, there are quite a few regions that don’t allow you to earn Choice Privileges points. The following Choice Hotels rates are also ineligible to earn points:

• Rooms booked at rates below $40 per night
• Certain hotel-initiated promotions
• Reward night stays
• Complimentary rooms
• Points Plus Cash reservations
• Rooms paid for as part of a convention or meeting
• Rooms booked through a travel agent or third-party online retailer, including online travel agencies, wholesale packages, group tours, and stays booked using the employee discount or the friends, family, and associate account (except certain Egencia rate plans)

In essence, you can only earn points if you make a reservation through Choice Privilege’s toll-free express reservation line (800-521-2121), the program website, mobile app, or directly with the hotel.

You may earn points for up to 4 rooms per night at the same hotel, but the rooms must be in your name and the reservations must include your Choice Privileges member number. You will only receive elite status bonus points on 1 room per stay, and you must stay in one of the rooms with the rooms paid in full to earn the points.

Bottom Line: Overall, it’s important to pay close attention to the terms and conditions of Choice Privileges to ensure you’re not missing out on earning any points! But doing so will guarantee you earn at least 10 points per dollar on eligible rates.

6. Bluegreen Vacations

Bluegreen Vacations is a vacation ownership and timeshare company based in Boca Raton, Florida. Bluegreen Vacations is the official vacation ownership partner of Choice Privileges.

There are currently more than 40 Bluegreen Vacations properties, all of which fall into the broader Ascend Hotel Collection brand, which is one of the most upscale brands in the portfolio.

While Bluegreen Vacations isn’t currently participating in the Choice Privileges program, you can earn Choice Privileges points by booking a special .

These promotions are typically structured as a massively discounted hotel stay whereby you attend an approximately 2-hour sales presentation and tour of the property you’re booking.

Objectively speaking, this is an excellent deal — if you can sit through a persuasive sales pitch that lasts around 2 hours while you’re at the resort. There are a few criteria to qualify for these deals. You have to:

• Have at least $50,000 in gross annual household income (income requirement may be waived if you’re 62 or older)
• Have a minimum FICO credit score of 600
• Have not filed for bankruptcy or been adjudicated bankrupt or insolvent within the last 7 years

When you book your stay, you’ll usually be able to choose an extra bonus — a prepaid gift card or Choice Privileges points. And you can often get as much as 20,000 Choice Privileges points on top of an excellent deal for a resort stay.

7. Choice Privileges Elite Status Bonuses

Choice Privileges, just like most other hotel brands, has elite status/membership tiers that come with a slew of benefits. And although it’d be easy to see the immense value from its elite tiers, we’ll focus on the elite point bonus.

Depending on your specific Choice Privileges status level, you will earn elite bonus points on your stays. Currently, the elite point bonus is broken down as follows:

• Member (0 to 9 nights per calendar year): No bonus
• Gold (10 to 19 nights per calendar year): 10% bonus
• Platinum (20 to 39 nights per calendar year): 25% bonus
• Diamond (40+ nights per calendar year): 50% bonus

As you can see, achieving top-tier Choice Privileges Diamond status is a bit easier than other hotel brands — it only requires 40 nights!

If you can swing that, you’ll receive a sweet 50% bonus on your points earnings. That means you can earn up to 16 points per dollar on Choice Hotels stays, and that number goes up to 21 points per dollar if you have the Choice Privileges card.

Earning 21 points per dollar is equal to a 12.6% return, according to our valuations!

8. Choice Privileges for Business Meetings and Events

When you’re traveling with Choice Hotels, you can earn a ton of points by utilizing event-ready spaces at select U.S. and Canada properties for your meetings or events via the Choice Privileges Planner Rewards program.

You will earn 3 points per $1 on eligible charges, including meeting space, guest rooms, and food and beverages with no minimum spend requirement!

You can earn a maximum of 150,000 Choice Privileges points through this program, which equates to a maximum of $50,000 in spending as a meeting planner.

“Qualifying Events” are at least 10 rooms on a single night reserved by the meeting planner. Whether you’re booking a wedding, sports travel, or corporate travel, you’ll rest assured that your transactions will earn Choice Privileges points.

You’ll also have the convenience of using the Choice Hotels Group Management Platform, which allows you to easily manage, edit, and review reservations in 1 place when you book 10+ rooms.

Hot Tip: Don’t book your next big event until you see what kind of bonus points you could be earning at major hotels worldwide! We’ll show you how to maximize your earnings in our article on how to earn points and status by holding business events.

9. Choice Privileges Car Rental Partners

Choice Privileges has exclusive partnerships with car rental companies. And while the list may grow or shrink from time to time, its main car rental partners are Avis and Budget.

When you book your Avis or Budget car rental, you have the potential to enjoy 2 unique benefits:

1. A discount off of your base rate (up to 30% off)
2. The ability to earn Choice Privileges points on your rental (up to 1,000 points)

To book your car rental with Avis, you will need to enter offer code O418908 to receive the discount.

To book your car rental with Budget, you will need to enter the offer code T134904 to receive the discount.

10. Choice Privilege Cruises

Choice Privileges Cruises is a partnership with Cruise411 whereby you can book cruises directly and earn Choice Privileges points. You can book cruises on the following partners:

You’ll earn 5 Choice Privileges points per dollar spent on Choice Privilege Cruises, plus any other available deals like cruise credits, discounts, and more.

Hot Tip: Earning points is great, but make sure you’re getting the best deal! We detail the best websites to book cruises at the cheapest prices.

Earn Points With Special Offers

11. Golf by Choice

Golf by Choice is a unique program set up by Choice Privileges to use and earn Choice Privileges points for golf-related activities. There are 3 main areas where you can earn Choice Privileges points:

1. Shopping for golf equipment and apparel
2. Booking tee times
3. Using golf apps

To find the Golf by Choice shop, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Visit the Golf by Choice website
2. Click the orange button that says Sign In
3. Enter your Choice Privileges login information
4. You’ll be redirected to the Golf by Choice catalog, where you can shop for golf merchandise

You can buy anything from golf clubs to shoes and even apparel. You’ll earn 4x Choice points per dollar with every Golf by Choice purchase. Choice Privileges elites earn up to 20% more and closeout items earn 6x points per dollar.

You can also earn Choice points by booking tee times. To do this, you’ll want to follow the steps above to shop for golf merchandise, then:

1. Scroll down to the GolfNow section
2. Click the button that says Reserve Now
3. Book tee times as you wish

When you book tee times at various courses around the world, you can earn 4x Choice points per dollar.

All golf-related points will be posted within 45 days of your purchase.

12. Shop for Gourmet Gift Baskets at 1-800-BASKETS.com

If flowers aren’t a common purchase in your life, you can also earn lots of Choice Privileges points for purchasing gourmet treats at 1-800-BASKETS.com.

You’ll earn 15 points per dollar spent here. Simply quote your Choice Privileges number during the checkout process to earn your points.

13. Join Vinesse’s American Cellars Wine Club

When you join Vinesse’s subscription club, the American Cellars Wine Club, you can earn 1,000 Choice Privileges points with your first shipment.

After that, you can earn 7 points per dollar spent on subsequent shipments!

Other Ways To Earn Choice Privileges Points

There are a couple of miscellaneous ways to earn Choice Privileges points:

14. Radisson Rewards Americas

Choice Hotels acquired Radisson Hotels Americas in 2022 and added the ability to transfer points between the 2 programs in early 2023. Points transfer at a rate of 2 Radisson Rewards Americas points to 1 Choice Privileges point.

15. Refer a Friend to Choice Privileges

By referring your friends to Choice Privileges, you can earn 500 points after they complete their first points-eligible stay. Plus, they will earn 500 points after their first points-eligible stay is completed, too!

16. Buy or Gift Points

The very last method to earn Choice Privileges points is to simply buy them! You can buy or gift up to 250,000 points before any bonuses. The purchase price is anywhere from 0.99 cents per point to 1.21 cents per point.

If you buy 1,000 to 4,000 points, you will pay 1.21 cents per point. If you buy 5,000 to 9,000 points, you will pay 1.1 cents per point. If you buy 10,000 to 180,000 points, you will pay 0.99 cents per point.

Also, Choice Privileges has, in the past, offered a bonus of up to 50% when purchasing points, so you’ll definitely want to wait for one of these promotions if possible because this can reduce your price to as little as 0.73 cents per point!

We generally don’t recommend buying points, but it can be worth it if you need to top up your balance for a redemption.

Final Thoughts

There are tons of ways to earn Choice Privileges points. From spending on the co-branded Choice Privileges card to booking stays at Choice Hotels and even downloading golf apps, there are tons of unique ways to rack up a respectable balance of Choice Privileges points.

We hope that you’ve found this guide useful to show you some of the more out-of-the-box ways to earn Choice Privileges points. Happy earning!

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