Eff. Jan 18, 2013 - Changes to points required for Reward Nights

[serfty]

Just received my monthly email statement - interesting box content:

Effective 18 January 2013, Priority Club® will make changes to the number of points required for Reward Nights. Click here to read about the changes happening to Priority Club Rewards.

I am not sure what the actual changes are.

 

[markis10]

The changes will vary by hotel but remain in the band for each brand indicated, mostly up movements are to be expected.

 

[MiLK_MaN]

I noticed for the first time I was required to have a deposit for points on a booking. Has it always been that way?

If I cancel the rewards booking, I will lose 25K points for the first night :/

 

[markis10]

I noticed for the first time I was required to have a deposit for points on a booking. Has it always been that way?

If I cancel the rewards booking, I will lose 25K points for the first night :/

It can happen that way, if you cancel you will get your points back but not the deposit, same goes for a points booking and no show, your card is charged.

 

[markis10]

Looks like they are going to 9 categories, with a guarantee that bookings can be done at the old rate until mid March:

Priority Club Reward Night prices vary per hotel property and are classified per price category. To find the number of points required for your stay, simply check the availability of your preferred location and stay dates.

The Reward Night chart above is effective January 18, 2013. If the hotel that you originally planned to book now requires more points, simply call the to reserve your Reward Night and ask for the original point price. This offer is valid through March 18, 2013.

 

[anat0l]

Looks like they are going to 9 categories, with a guarantee that bookings can be done at the old rate until mid March:

Interesting - this means they can mix and match the categories with property types. For example, you could have a Holiday Inn which is a Category 6, or a Crowne Plaza which is a Category 9. Previously, each property type had nominal points levels.

Hopefully there are some swings and roundabouts here. The prospect of having to check every property through a dummy booking for it's category doesn't sound appealing to me.

 

[markis10]

More details posted by the lurker over on FT, essentially more going down than up and confirmation the brand specific bands are history:

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - new Reward rates effective January 18

 

[burmans]

More details posted by the lurker over on FT, essentially more going down than up and confirmation the brand specific bands are history:

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - new Reward rates effective January 18

More going down than up maybe but probably the ones we really want to get are going up I'd suggest!

 

[markis10]

More going down than up maybe but probably the ones we really want to get are going up I'd suggest!

Perhaps, although to me its rather academic, more often than not I will only use the points for pointsbreaks, which are not changing, the rise last year killed off the local good value ones including all the ICs and the CP Surfers.

 

[anat0l]

More going down than up maybe but probably the ones we really want to get are going up I'd suggest!

This is what I'm more thinking. I'm fact, I'm banking on most of the change to be neutral (i.e. not much happening) for most of us here.

If anything, I wouldn't mind seeing a few properties in Australia, particularly Holiday Inns, drop a level or two, which is more reflective of their upkeep and standard. My gut tells me it won't happen, but eh.

 

[Jama]

Can you still book points and pay and cancel to boost your points ?

 

[markis10]

Can you still book points and pay and cancel to boost your points ?

Yes, although a few hotels are putting in cancellation policys for award stays.

 

[Jama]

Yes, although a few hotels are putting in cancellation policys for award stays.

So choose carefully.....

 

[burmans]

So choose carefully.....

Yes, I daresay a few will be stung with this in early days but word will soon get out on who to avoid!

 

[markis10]

If the priority club benefits letter I was given on check in tonight is to be believe, HI Cairns will be 20K rather than 25k soon, it also mentions CP Surfers, IC SYD and MEL as being at current levels.

 

[JohnK]

Simplicity is much easier to handle.

 

[markis10]

Not good news locally with price rises all over the place, strangely the CP and IC in Melbourne are the same price now, while in HK ip the IC dropped below the Stamford IC cost.

 

[kpc]

Not good news locally with price rises all over the place, strangely the CP and IC in Melbourne are the same price now, while in HK ip the IC dropped below the Stamford IC cost.

Just about every property in Australia has gone up:evil:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=...LL-PCR-MPL-01-11-18.pdf&hl&gpid=1&chrome=true

 

[Pinktommy]

Just about every property in Australia has gone up:evil:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=...LL-PCR-MPL-01-11-18.pdf&hl&gpid=1&chrome=true

Thanks for the link.

Kinda makes one think about maybe moving to a different loyalty program????

 

[anat0l]

If it wasn't for the fact it's still easy to rack up points in this programme, this change is all a bit of a shame. It was hard enough handing over 25k for a Holiday Inn in Australia, let alone 30-35k.

Luckily, bookings can be made with the old rates for a while.

Most of the properties in London have increased by 10k! Some of those rates are bordering insane now. Thankfully, you can pick up some of those rooms on sale at times and they're very reasonable.