The Deal Mommy

Image courtesy Voice of America News

We’re headed to New York this weekend to cross off one of my bucket list items: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Here’s how I found an affordable room, and how you can too for a last minute Thanksgiving or Christmas trip to New York City (or anywhere else you are dreaming to go).

My strategy for this trip involves Priority Club is the rewards program for IHG hotels: Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, and related brands. In New York City they have 18 hotels whose redemptions range between 20000-50000 points per night. I used the 50% promotion below to buy my points, so the net cost of my 25,000 point hotel room is $175/night, which is actually $152 a night when you consider NYC’s crazy 14.5 percent sales tax. I found a room at the Holiday Inn near Columbus Circle that sleeps 4, so we’re all set for three nights on the busiest time of the year, when rooms at even bargain basement motels go over $400/night including tax.

I just checked over Christmas break and was surprised at how much availability I saw! At least 15 hotels have rooms that sleep 2, and five or more had rooms that slept 4. Even for Thanksgiving, there are still a few reward rooms left if the sight of Snoopy leaves you swooning.

The best part about this deal is that purchased points count towards elite status, which gets you upgrades and all sorts of other fun benefits. You need 60,000 points to get platinum status. With this deal, you only need to buy 40,000 (for $460.00) to get 60,000 points and instant platinum status for all of 2013.

What if your plans change? Rewards nights are cancel-able up to 48 hours, and Priority Club points do not expire, so no need to rush to use them. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is a back door method to buy Priority Club points for .7 cents each, but they don’t earn status which I value highly, especially since you can use it to status match. This deal comes to .0077 cents a point, so that .0007 is worth it to me for Platinum Status!

Points.com is the service Priority Club uses to sell their points. Points.com is currently showing the following special:

Priority Club Rewards
Buy Points
Buying Points is the easy way to top up your account to get the award you want!

Limited time offer: 50% Bonus!*
Buy Priority Club points between Nov 15-22, 2012 and automatically receive a 50% bonus on the number of points purchased. Top up your account and buy your Priority Club points today!
Buying Points is the easy way to top up your account to get the award you want!

You may purchase points in 1,000 increments:

1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
11,000 – 25,000 points for $12.50 per 1,000 points
26,000 – 50,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points

You can buy them and your spouse can buy them as well if you need more points than 75,000.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Get a Priority Club account if you don’t have one yet.
2. Get a Points.com account if you don’t have one yet.
3. Add your Priority Club Account number to your Points.com account.
4. Click the Tab marked “Trade, Exchange, and Buy points”.
5. Scroll down, and on the right you’ll see “Buy Points”. Select Priority Club from the drop down menu.
6. Buy your points and you’re good to go!