Secret 30,000 Point + $150 Statement Credit Hotel Card Offer, Earn ANA Elite Status With IHG Status (Targeted), and Choice Hotels Awards Become More Useful!

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Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

Before you head off for a hopefully relaxing weekend, here are the highlights of today’s miles & points news!

1.   New Hyatt Card Offer!  30,000 Points + $150 Statement Credit!

There is a new offer for the The Hyatt Credit Card.  You can earn 30,000 Hyatt points after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.  And you’ll get a $150 statement credit after your first purchase.  The $75 annual fee is NOT waived the first year.

The information for this 30,000-point Hyatt Card offer has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets and has not be reviewed by the card issuer.  We don’t receive a commission for this offer, but we’ll always share interesting deals with you.

To find the deal, log into your Hyatt account and go through the steps of booking a room.  On the bottom of the last page, before you click “Book My Stay“, you’ll see an ad for the deal.

The sign-up bonus on this offer is 10,000 Hyatt points less than the current public offer with the same minimum spending requirement.  Also, with the current public offer the you can earn an additional 5,000 Hyatt points when you add an authorized user and make a purchase in the first 3 months of account opening.

So essentially you must decide whether you’d rather have a $150 statement credit or 15,000 Hyatt points.  If you can get a value of more than 1 cent each from your Hyatt points, then I’d ignore this alternate bonus and stick with the original offer.

I value Hyatt points more highly than 1 cent.  You can easily use 15,000 Hyatt points for a free night at a hotel that costs $300+!  So I don’t think this offer is a better deal for most folks.

The rest of the card perks are the same for both offers:

• 3 Hyatt points per $1 spent with Hyatt
• 2 Hyatt points per $1 spent at restaurants, on airline tickets purchased directly from airlines, and at car rental agencies
• 1 Hyatt point per $1 on all other purchases
• 1 free night at a Hyatt Category 1 to 4 hotel each cardmember anniversary
• Automatic Discoverist status (10% bonus points, 2 pm late check-out)
• No foreign transaction fees
• Earn Explorist status (20% bonus points, 4 club lounge access awards) after spending $50,000+ on purchases in a calendar year with the card

Here’s our link for the original Hyatt Card offer, which earns 40,000 Hyatt points after meeting the same minimum spending requirement, and an additional 5,000 Hyatt points after adding the first authorized user and making a purchase in the first 3 months of opening your account.

2.   Match IHG Status to ANA Platinum Status (Maybe Targeted?)

Link:   Upgrade Your ANA Status!

There is a targeted offer for IHG Platinum members to match their status to ANA Platinum.  This would entitle you to certain lounge access and seat upgrades!  I wasn’t targeted for the offer, but I entered my info and got a message that my request was received.

I’m guessing the status match won’t end up going through.  The promotion doesn’t specify what status level you need with IHG to qualify.  You just need to be an IHG Rewards Club member.  But IHG Platinum status is easy to earn because it comes free with the IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card (and with the older version of the card, too)!

Registration for the promotion is open until June 30, 2018, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.  If your upgrade is successful, your ANA Platinum status will be valid until March 31, 2019.

The terms state:

Offer is valid for recipient only

And additionally:

IHG and ANA reserve the right to cancel a member’s account if fraudulent use of the offer is detected.  To the extent permitted by applicable law, IHG and ANA reserve the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the offer at any time with or without notice.

I took a chance on this not having been targeted, but you probably shouldn’t.  It’s not worth having your account shut down or points taken away!

3.   Book Choice Privileges Award Nights Further in Advance

In the past, you could only book Choice Hotels award nights 30 days in advance for domestic locations (and further in advance for international hotels).  But if you had Diamond elite status, you could book up to 100 days in advance.

Choice has now expanded the 100 day booking window to all Choice Privileges members!  If you want to take advantage, you’ll have to sign-up for the program and log into your account.

I’ve never booked an award night at a Choice hotel.  But with this change, I actually might.  They have locations in some out of the way places where other hotel chains aren’t located.  And in some places (like Norway), they are more common.  So this change will be quite helpful.

AMEX Membership Rewards points transfer to Choice Hotels at a 1:1 ratio.  So they are suddenly more useful (not exactly great though) for booking free hotels!

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