Update: It now costs 0.7 cents per Priority Club point.
I love Priority Club — the hotel loyalty program for Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) — which includes familiar hotels like Holiday Inn, InterContinental and many others.
Why? Because they make earning points so darned easy.
For example, I earned over 200,000 Priority Club points and 2 free nights at any IHG hotel for only $70 out of pocket which I used at the Williard InterContinental in Washington, DC a few weeks ago!
Buying Priority Club Points
Priority Club sells their hotel points for between 1.15 and 1.35 cents per point (depending on the quantity purchased) up to a limit of 50,000 per year.
That’s not a great deal, because:
Firstly, 50,000 points is not a lot of points, especially when you consider that 1 night at some InterContinentals is 30,000 to 50,000 points.
Secondly, there is a known way to get unlimited (really 40,000 points a day) Priority Club points for 0.60 cents per point!
You can then use these points, for example, to stay at ANY IHG hotel for, at most, $300 a night.
Or as subsection 15 of the Rewards Night sub-chapter of the Priority Club Terms & Conditions puts it:
Priority Club Rewards “Points & Cash” is an option for obtaining a Reward Night. You may choose to redeem Priority Club points for a Reward Night in three ways: using your existing points for all required points for the desired Reward Night; using your existing points and 5,000 points purchased for US $40 to total the required points; or using your existing points and 10,000 points purchased for US $60 to total the required points. The total purchase on any single day may not exceed $240 US.
Aren’t you glad that I like reading complex Terms & Conditions!
You’d get a good value by redeeming 50,000 points bought for $300 at the expensive InterContinentals in London, Paris, and Amsterdam which routinely sell for $500+, or the fancy Willard in Washington DC, or the InterContinental in Bora Bora which costs $1000 a night!
That’s a 76% discount for a room in Bora Bora. That’s truly Big Travel with Small Money!
Have a look at the table below to see what a GREAT value this can be. You can stay at any InterContinental hotel for $180 to $300 or any Crowne Plaza Hotel for $150 to $210!
You can also use these points to redeem for PointsBreaks nights, where you can redeem a hotel night for only 5,000 points, which is perhaps the BEST redemption rate of any hotel reward program. That’s $30 per hotel night if you buy Priority Club points using the Points & Cash trick!
Use Priority Club “Cash and Points” Reservations To Buy Points at 0.6 cents Per Point
Priority Club also offers you the option to make “cash and points” reservations. Here’s how it works:
1) When you make the “cash and points” reservation, the CASH part of your reservation is used to buy points (at 0.6 cents per point) which are then used towards your reservation.
2) Now – here’s the trick! - when you CANCEL your “cash and points” reservation (before the cancellation deadline) you don’t get your money back, but you do get your points back, INCLUDING the points which you bought in step 1) above!
So the net result of making a Priority Club “Points & Cash” reservation and later cancelling that same reservation is that you’re buying points for the price of the cash component of your reservation. This works out to 0.6 cent per point or a 48% reduction over the price which Priority Club themselves sell points.
However, you do need to have at least 5,000 points in your Priority Club account before you can make a cash and points reservation.
It does take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for the points to appear back into your account, so this “trick” may not work if you need a last minute reservation.
If you don’t have 5,000 Priority Club points you can either buy them from Priority Club for $67.50 (at the regular price) or sign-up for the Priority Club credit card which gives you 60,000 free Priority Club points.
This is a great card to have because you get 1 free night at any IHG hotel which alone is worth the fee for the credit card. Keep a look out for my review later on! Be aware that there is a targeted version of the Priority Club Credit card, which is emailed to selected members, which offers 80,000 bonus Priority Club points, instead of 60,000 points in the link above.
“Point & Cash Trick” Example With Screenshots:
Remember that the goal of this exercise is to buy Priority Club points at a much lower rate (0.6 cents per mile). If this is tricky — and it is! — please stay the course. I promise it will be worth your time by the end!
Step 1
Log into your Priority Club account, click on “Reservations” and enter any city, say Indianapolis, IN for a 1 night stay. Under “Rate Preference,” select “Rewards Nights” and then click “Find Hotels.”
Step 2
You will see a list of hotels which looks like this. I’ve highlighted the cash and points options in red below (click image to enlarge).
Let’s scroll down until we find, for example, the Candlewood Suites in the “Indianapolis Dwtn Medical Dist”
It offers us the following choices:
“15000 Priority Club Points
or 10000 Points + $40
or 5000 Points + $60
per night ”
This means that you can book 1 room for 1 night at the Indianapolis Downtown Candlewood Suite for either:
- 15,000 Priority Club points or
- 10,000 Priority Club points + $40 or
- 5,000 Priority Club points + $60 (this is what we’re interested in)
Option 1 is a simple redemption of Priority Club points for a free hotel night.
But, option 3 is another way of saying that you’re paying $60 (the cash in “points & cash” ) for 10,000 Priority Club points or 0.6 cents per point.
These 10,000 purchased points + the 5,000 points which you need to get started when using the points & cash trick = 15,000 points.
And 15,000 points is enough to book a room at the Candlewood Suites using only points (per option 1 above)!
Note: If you reserve the room for 10,000 points + $40, you are, in effect, buying the 5,000 points for 0.8 cents per point.
0.8 cents per point is a good price, but you can get 1 Priority Club point for 0.6 cents per point by by selecting option 3 above (5,000 Priority Club points + $60)!
Tricky, isn’t it! But we can use it to our advantage 
Step 3
Select the “5,000 Priority Club points + $60” option.
You are then prompted to choose a room.
Step 4
After you have selected a room, you move to the final step which is to PAY for the 10,000 points which you have purchased. Note that this is a NON-REFUNDABLE transaction.
If you cancel your reservation (before the cancellation deadline, of course), you will NOT get your money back.
Instead you will get the full point redemption value of your hotel night back (in our example, 10,000 purchased points + 5,000 for a total of 15,000 points).
But that’s exactly what we want since by cancelling your reservation, you have, in effect, bought 10,000 Priority Club points for $60 or 0.6 cents per point!
Step 5
Cancel your Points and Cash reservation and get 15,000 Priority Club points back in your account - 10,000 (purchased) Priority Clubs points + the 5,000 points which you had initially.
Step 6
Keep on making points and cash reservations and cancellations until you have accumulated the number of points you require. The Priority Club redemption chart is here.
Note that there is a limit of $240 worth of points purchase per day, per the Priority Club Terms and Conditions. That means that you can’t buy more than 40,000 Priority Club points per day, so plan ahead for multiple night stays!
Step 7
Once you have accumulated enough Priority Club points, redeem them for the hotels you want. See the chart at the beginning of this post to see just how much you save by using the Priority Club Points & Cash trick!
Be sure to check that there is a reward night available BEFORE you buy points using the Points and Cash trick.
What’s Next?
I’ve placed a link to Hotel Reward Night Charts ” in the ‘Mile and Point Resources” section to make it easy for you to look up different airline and hotel award charts and figure out where your miles and points will take you. Just bookmark Million Mile Secrets instead of the gazillion different airline and hotel award charts in your browser!
I shared this trick with my friend Mike who saved $300 for a 2 night stay at a Holiday Inn in Omaha. All the hotels had hiked their rates because of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting this May, but Priority Club reward nights were available!
*If you liked this post, why don’t you sign-up to receive free blog posts in your email or in a RSS reader …because that way you’ll never miss out on a way to go to Bora Bora for less!
Have you used the Priority Club trick before? Tell us about it in the comments!
Related Posts:
- Use The 2-Browser Trick To Earn 150,000 Free AAdvantage Miles
- 3 Steps To Save Up To 30% Off Hotels With The IHG Friends & Family Rate
- 40+ Powerful Ways To Complete Your Credit Card Minimum Spending Requirements
I have earned and redeemed millions of airline miles and hotel points to travel the world for free. Now I'm blogging to help more people do the same! 
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@ay – You get charged when you make the booking, so you’ll get the points.
@Karl – You’re not doing anything wrong. Priority Club changed their award chart and increased the points required for certain hotels.
FYI, it appears Priority Club yesterday raised the cash cost to $70 for 10,000 points using cash+points! Now 0.7 cents per point
Also, the Pointbreak list for April & May has diappeared – the link on the Reward Night page now opens the offers that ended 3/31/12. That just happened yesterday also. There was a rumor that pricebreaks would be eliminated or changed – perhaps to a 50% discount instead of a flat 5000. Feels like there may be changes in the works for Priority Club.
@Mike – I just read about the increase from 0.6 to 0.7 cents per point too. Time to update the post! I hope they don’t tweak PointsBreak redemptions.
interesting that the exchange ration is 5:1 (10,000 points to get 2,000 Unites Airline miles for example). At 0.7 cents per point, that works out to 3.5 cents per mile. So, if I have this straight, this is a good deal for hotel rooms but not airline miles??
@Jeff – This is a good deal for Priority Club hotels providing buying the points needed for a room at 0.7 cents per point is less than the regular cost of a room. I wouldn’t buy miles at 3.5 cents per mile, and airlines sometimes have sales where they sell the miles for less.
So what can you do with 2000 Airline Miles exactly? When I was looking at the PC rewards there were a ton of Airlines with rewards of 2000 Airline Miles. Is that enough for a RT ticket somewhere? I am so new to reward points… I am clueless!
@Tammy- the short answer is no. the fewest miles for a rt ticket anywhere would be 9000 and only on british airways. Otherwise fewest miles for a rt ticket is generally 20k or 25k. Lan south american also has smaller amount rewards like british airways. you can get alot of advice on here how to rack up miles etc
@Tammy – What mike said – the minimum is 20 to 25K for a roundtrip ticket. Welcome to the blog!
@mike fein – Thanks for helping out!
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Darius, I was going to try your trick with the Priority Club. I found a hotel that is 5,000 points and $40. If I am understanding things correctly this would be even a better deal than what you posted? Is this correct? Are you aware if this trip is still working? This is kind of tricky and just trying to understand it.
Also Darius, if the place I want to really stay at is 20,000, then if I did the 5,000/$70, would I be looking at $210 to get 3 nights, which would equal $70/night? Hope I am explaining this well enough. Math was never my strong suite!
@Juli - If the hotel costs 20K points you would pay $140 per night if you buy points at 0.7 cents per point.
Hi Darius, I was wondering what is the current limit in purchasing the points? is it still 40ooo a year or 50000? I am reading mixed reviews. We need 80,000 points! Any other alternatives? Thank you!!!
@ay – I beleive there is a 50,000 point limit for point purchases, but you may be able to get more points with the “cash and points” trick.
I’m sorry I was confused. Does this mean that there is no limit if I were to purchase my points through the “cash and points” trick? thanks!
@ay - I believe that you can’t spend more than $280 or 40K points per DAY. http://www.priorityclub.com/hotels/us/en/global/tc/member-terms
Price went up to 40/70 per night… still worth it, IYO?
@Vince – Depends on the hotel! Do the math and if buying the points at 0.7 cents per point is cheaper than the regular price for the hotel, you come out ahead.
For us non-mathematicals, would you mind posting a simple procedure to “do the math”?
@Bucket If you were to buy extra points from PC then it would cost you a lost more than going through Darius’ method. If you see below the chart to buy extra points from PC. 15k of pts would near cost you $187.5 or .0125/pt. With Darius’ method, trading in 5k pts plus $70 is a steal. 5k pts purchased would be 67.50+70=137.50. If you already have 5k in pts (valued at .006/pt) it’s roughly valued at $30 plus $70 or $100/night
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
For me I like to see the value of the hotel and redemption value. I like to trade in my pts if I can get more than .006 a pt. For example Holiday Inn at 25,000/night or $175/night, I’ll get .007 value per point. Formula I use to find the break even dollar value per night is .006=Cost of hotel per night/pts per night, for my example it would be .006=x/25000, x=$150/night
@Bucket – Grant has a great explanation below. I start with the retail price of a hotel (say $400 for an Intercontinental hotel which goes for 40,000 Priority Club points). If I were to buy the points, I’d pay 40,000 points X 0.7 cents per point = $280 which is cheaper than paying $400 + taxes for the retail price.
@Grant – Thanks for helping out!
The 5,000 point breaks are wonderful! We stumbled on one accidentally a few years ago when we were looking for where to stop for the night. This summer our friends met us in Panama City (Panama), where we stayed a total of 8 nights at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, right in the financial district. The rooms run $150 or 25k Priority Points – so it was a HUGE savings for us. 8 nights for 40,000 points!! I didn’t have enough points so I used the Strategy Blog to buy points. ( http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/06/07/use-the-priority-club-cash-points-trick-to-get-upto-50-discount-on-hotels/) And the fun part of the stay was that since we checked in as Priority Club members, we each got a free welcome drink at the bar, plus the evening Manager’s reception and the morning Breakfast room (it wasn’t much, but it was free, and better than nothing). All in all, it was a fantastic way to use points, and the perks were wonderful!
Dont forget that you also, by using points, will avoid having to pay any taxes. That is another significant savings.
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Thanks for sharing this information Daraius. I just started doing points/reward and I visit your website everyday. Keep up the great work. thanks again
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Just did this, its great. better yet the Aussie dollar is high so it works out at $66 not $70!
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How easy is it to cancel the reservations? Can you do it online? Or do you have to phone in?
Thank you for this trick!!!! I just transferred 5k points from Ultimate Rewards. Purchased a night with 5k points + $70 (now).
Going to cancel tomorrow and use the 15,000 points to book 3 nights in Montreal for November. Out of pocket $70 (using Chase Freedom). Not bad at all!!!
The name of this blog is “Million Mile Secrets”. It’s suppose to help people find great deals. If you want to play by the “rules” then you should just pay full price. I’ve learn many things from this site. PC definitely knows that people can abuse it (meaning ppl who do this a lot). They can easily refund the $70 and not give you any points. Obviously, it’s more lucrative for them to keep your $70 and give you points instead.
@Nathan – You can cancel reservations online.
@Emily Lai - That’s a good deal and thanks for sharing!
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Hello Daraius and fellow bloggers, just tried to go thru the points and cash option and it brings up window saying that I have not enough points in my account so I cannot use your trick. What am I doing wrong? I booked a 2 night stay at an holiday in express which would be 10,000 points but I only have 6,000 in my account but despite clicking on the cash and points option i.e. 5,000 points + $ 70 nothing is moving further in the booking process. I’ve tried this for two days now. Did IHG block that trick now?
THANKS for anyone helping me out with this…..
P.S. Never mind guys, I think I figured it out ….book and cancel ONE night at a time with my 6000 point balance….Thanks
@stefan – Glad it worked out!
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When I click the 80000 bonus link on first page of flyertalk, the URL shows exactly the same as the official 60000 offer, and one applicant on flyertalk also mentioned that her mom only got 60000 after using the link last week. Does that mean the 80000 point deal is dead? Thank you very much!
@Sw D – You may be able to send a secure message or call and ask to be matched to the 80K version.
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I read this today. Is it true?
“points purchased through the above promotion qualify towards status with Priority Club, while points purchased through the cash & points “trick” don’t.”
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2012/09/13/priority-club-offering-a-40-bonus-on-the-purchase-of-points-worth-it/
@ERIC – That’s true.
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First off I love your site it helped me learn so much about cc miles and traveling. I had a few questions though as I’m still new to all of this.
what is the max per year that you can earn by doing this?
is it legal to do this or will they catch on and shut down your account, like how some people manufacture spend on cc.
if i have the priority club card, will i earn 5X points on the cash part when paying the points and cash?
also since spg has points and cash does this work there aswell?
@Royce – I don’t believe there is a maximum, but there is always the risk that an excessive amount could lead to an account closure. You can’t do this with SPG, though. I haven’t recently done this with the Priority Club card, so I can’t say for sure.
Hi Daraius,
I’m not getting this. How is it a saving if let say per night is 143$. cash& pt 15000 +70$. So now I end up with 15000 +10000 pts. So use 10000 ($70)+5000 pt +70$ will be maybe more than paying cash?
Ok so may the above scenario doesn’t work. So I think I kind figure it out. So use the point at more expensive hotel like in Paris or something and compare using point to cash , I will get like about a 30% saving. Is that right?
@leslie - It really depends on the room rate, but it usually works at expensive hotels or when there is a big event in a city.