Choice Privileges is the reward program by Choice Hotels. Generally, this isn’t a program I pay much attention to, but this month they launched a rather lucrative promotion.
Choice Hotels launched a double airline miles promotion, rewarding Privilege Members with double Qantas Or Velocity Points. Here’s the deal:
Choice Privileges, the loyalty program from Choice Hotels Asia-Pac, is kicking off Autumn with the launch of its Double Airline Miles offer. For the month of March, Choice Privileges members can transfer their points to receive double Velocity Frequent Flyer or Qantas Points.
For members, this means for 2,000 Choice Privilege points; they will receive either 1,600 Qantas Points or 1,600 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points. The double points promotion is just another way Choice Hotels Asia-Pac is supporting the reinvigoration of the travel industry, encouraging Australians to explore the country and take advantage of this incredible airline partnership offer.
How To Buy Qantas Points At A Discount
Ok, you might not have any Choice Rewards, or you may have never heard about the program; no problem! Like many hotel loyalty programs, Choice Rewards sells its points via Points.com. All you need is a Choice Privileges account (free) to get started.
Buying Choice Rewards is easy, and luckily for us there is currently a 40% bonus sale bonus sale on, you can now simply purchase Choice Rewards and convert them to Qantas or Virgin Velocity (not sure why you would send points to Velocity, but it’s possible).
Since we now get double points until the end of March, the conversion rate from Choice Rewards is 1 Choice Reward for 0.8 Qantas or Velocity Points.
How To Buy Choice Rewards & Convert Them To Qantas Points
- Sign up for a Choice Rewards membership
- Log in and click “my account”
- Copy your membership number
- Click “buy points” or visit: https://www.choicehotels.com/en-au/choice-privileges/buy-points
- Enter your Choice Privileges number and purchase the points required.
To transfer Choice Rewards to Qantas or Velocity, follow these steps:
- Log in and visit: https://www.choicehotels.com/choice-privileges/rewards-exchange-partners
- Click on the airline partner you want to send points to.
- Link your Qantas or Velocity number with Choice Privileges and select the amount you wish to transfer.
Example: Buying 100,000 Choice Rewards
Let’s do a quick example so you can work out if buying points makes sense for you! Choice Rewards are sold in USD so make sure to use a card that doesn’t charge you a 3% markup (most do!). I use my Revolut Debit Visa since it has no fees, and I can fund it with my credit card. You can sign up to Revolut for free here.
Buying 100,000 Choice Rewards should net me 140,000 points with the 40% bonus which convert to 112,000 Qantas or Velocity Points once converted. That’s assuming we transfer 140,000 points during the double points promo.
The cost of 100,000 Choice Rewards is US$990, so the effective cost per QF/VA point is US$0.0088, which is around 5X cheaper compared to buying points directly from Qantas. The maximum amount of Choice Rewards you can buy in a calendar year is 180,000 (excluding bonuses), and purchased points will be credited to your account within 24h so keep this in mind if you plan to transfer them to Qantas or Velocity.
Click here to buy Choice Rewards.
Sample Itineraries – What Are These Points Worth?
- Sydney to Perth with Qantas on the A330 in business: AU$515 one way taxes included.
- Amsterdam to Dubai with Emirates on the A380/B777 in first class: Eur 763 one way, taxes included.
- Dubai to New York with Emirates on the B777 first class suite: US$1536 one way, taxes included.
- Haneda Japan to London with Japan Airlines in first class: US$1353 one way, taxes included.
Summing up – Worth it?
When it comes to buying points, you have to make sure you work out if it’s worth it for your own use case. If you have a specific redemption in mind, buying Qantas Points could mean you are booking business or first class tickets ate a reduced price. For example, Perth to London in Business will cost you 126,500 Qantas Points one way + taxes. A cash fare with Qantas in business comes to around $9,000 return. The same fare booked with points would cost you US$2227.5 + taxes, so you’re looking at a significant saving if you were to use them for a ticket like this.
Of course, buying points speculatively is never a great idea, and in this particular case, it’s not exactly dirt cheap but rather an arbitrage opportunity for those that need it.
Note: I wrote this post right before I noticed Choice Rewards had launched a bonus sale of 40%, I consider the current deal pretty lucrative and might buy some miles speculatively!
Looking at this,150k maximum points transfer to airline. Do you know if this is per transfer, per year etc.
Hi Phil, I couldn’t see any restrictions to the maximum amount of points allowed in the transfer t&c? https://www.choicehotels.com/choice-privileges/rules-regulations
I gave it a dry run on 252K (max point purchase including bonus) and it said you have exceeded the maximum transfer amount and took it back to 150K? I was going to max it out but am now concerned. Being left with Choice reward points isn’t really appealing. I’m wondering if it was some random data left in my account from last time I purchased points through them, as I also cannot see anywhere it mentions maximum transfer limits?
My assumption is that this might be the limit per transfer. I bought 140k worth to but will probably buy some more to see if it limits.
Was able to transfer 151K to Qanats, so the 150K limit must have been a glitch? But I do note in your screenshot above the slide bar is at 150K at the end.
Nice find Immanuel, last time this deal aligned, I got 200K United points.
Can I transfer those points to purchase a ticket for my partner or is it best to set up a Choice account for them?
You can book flights for your partner using your personal Qantas account.
Hi guys, anyone lucky enough to transfer more than 151.000 to Qantas?, I need a total of 151.000 Qantas points for a First and Business ticket or 180.000 for a full first class ticket. And because I just joined Qantas today, I’m unable to buy Qantas miles directly through them. Just bought 154000 Choice points (123.200 Qantas points) for USD 1089. I’m planning to fly in Emirates Business to Dubai and return in First for their First lounge in Dubai, and the new amazing first class suite.
Thank you again for this amazing travel hack Immanuel.
There should be no issue doing multiple transfers. There’s nothing in the T&C that indicated there’s a limit on how many points you can transfer from Choice Rewards to Qantas.
Just transferred 252K to Qantas in one transfer.
Order was cancelled by choice, dissapointing! Guess they had too much take up?
Points.com have a rather sensitive fraud detection process so it’s very likely the case. Usually, it’s because something doesn’t match up ie: billing address not matching your account etc. It could also be because your account is very new? Personally I didn’t have an issue but heard similar reports from a few people.
We had to place the order twice as the first time wasn’t successful. Turns out their reason was that the name & address info we input didn’t EXACTLY match what our particular banks had on file for us ie. my bank has my middle name on file but I didn’t include that on my order. If your order bounces back, just double check your details and replicate your bank’s data. Once we did that, it worked. We bought the max allowed and tried again to see if we could get even more but we were informed there’s an annual max. Points came through the next day and are now safely in our Qantas accounts.
Nice work Dane, yes the points.com fraud system is VERY sensitive… I’ve never had a problem but many people experience what you have. Glad to hear the second attempt was the lucky one! And yep, there’s an annual limit as per my article 🙂
Can I do it as a person registered in Europe? Or do I have to be Australian?
Yes, just make sure the address on your Choice account is Australian.
Hi, Emmanuel.
Does Amex charge a ‘Cash Advance’ fee to top up a Revolut Debit Visa?
Hi Crawford, you can’t load funds using Amex onto Revolut. It only accepts Visa/MasterCard. Some banks do issue a cash advance, other’s don’t 😉
Quick Q…If I transfer funds to Revolut with a points earning visa card eg Qantas Premier Plat or ANZ FF do I earn points? Or is it treated as a cash advance?
Hi Mike, depends on the bank. Personally, I haven’t tried ANZ/QF Money but I’ve heard mixed results.
I used ANZ FF platinum and received QPs for the choice point purchase.
Yep, it counts as any other purchase. Just keep in mind that you would have also paid a premium of 3% which is the foreign currency surcharge most card providers slug us with.
Hi Immanuel, Is it typical for the points transfer to take 8 weeks from confirmation date of points conversion? As this is what qantas have advised but thouht I would check with others here who seem to have successfully transferred (unless you have just processed it but it hasnt actually hit your QFF account yet?
Hi, for me it took 24h to get the points after transferring them from Choice Rewards. Don’t think 8 weeks is normal!?
I would chase this up with Choice (not Qantas) since they are the ones sending the points. Shouldn’t take 8 weeks.
Apologies for the late reply as I didn’t get a notification for this. Long story short, I am still chasing this up now and it was been escalated. Apparently my QFF account wasnt linked to my choice account at the time of transfer (which I know isnt the case otherwise it wouldnt have allowed me to process the transfer in the first place). Both parties advised they wouldnt action anything for 8 weeks as this was a typical processing time (although I can see it has gone through a lot faster for everyone else). Anyway, fingers crossed for a positive outcome. Luckily I dont have an immediate redemption in mind (not that we can anyway 😛 )
The current rate seems to be 20,000 Choice points for 3,000 QF points, does anyone have any better information?
Hi Lesh, standard transfer rates should be 800 QF or 2000 Choice Rewards. Unless they changed it? I transferred all my points out during the promo so having none in my account, I can’t see the transfer rate.
I’d like to see what’s the exchange rate choice to Qantas before buying it. Can anyone see it? I can’t find a calculator or any info about it.
Hey Kat, this deal was posted last year. Unfortunately, it expired in April 2021. When there’s something new like this, I will post about it. To stay up to date, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter or follow along on social media for quick updates. Cheers, Immanuel.
Hey Kat, turns out you were onto something! The deal is back on, 2000 choice points will get you 1600 QF points.
Looking at the t&c’s it states that 20,000 choice rewards equals 3000QFF. Has the transfer rate changed?
Their PR department emailed me a press release which reads: “For members, this means for 2,000 Choice Privilege points, they will receive either 1,600 Qantas Points or 1,600 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points.” So I think the rate remains the same as last year under the double promo.
20000 Choice are now 8000 Qantas points.
It is cheaper and easier to but them directly from Qantas.
It took 45 minutes on the call with the US to convert them over.
Not worth the time or effort.
Hi JE, as per the article, this only works/makes financial sense when 2 events align. These are: a double points transfer bonus to Qantas/Velocity + a sale on the purchase of Choice rewards. While there is a discount sale on right now, there’s no double points transfer promo so this deal won’t work.
As for converting them, you can do this online (the article shows you how). I’m not sure why you would call up?