Choice Privileges Devaluation History
A pattern of unannounced cuts
Choice Privileges has one of the worst recent records for quiet devaluation. The program prices awards dynamically across its 7,500-plus hotels with no published chart, which makes it easy to raise prices without anyone noticing. In January 2024 it doubled the minimum for reward nights in Scandinavia from 8,000 to 16,000 points overnight. Members have repeatedly reported prices jumping with no announcement, the hallmark of a program that treats its currency as something it can reprice at will.
The Preferred Hotels escalation
The clearest example is the Preferred Hotels collection, the upscale properties Choice added to its program. Top Preferred Hotels awards cost up to 55,000 points per night, then rose to 87,000 in June 2024, and then climbed again to 118,000 points, more than doubling in a matter of months. At the same time the general cap for award nights outside Asia-Pacific rose from 35,000 to 45,000 points. Each increase arrived quietly, with no chart to compare against.
What Choice points are worth now
Choice Privileges points are worth roughly half a cent to two-thirds of a cent each, modest like most hotel currencies, and the dynamic pricing means value depends entirely on matching points to a high cash rate. The program still has real uses at affordable Comfort, Quality, and Cambria properties and through occasional promotions, but it is not a currency to bank. Earn Choice points through stays and the co-branded cards, redeem promptly at properties where the cash rate is high, and expect prices to keep drifting up. See the case for earn and burn and the broader devaluation overview.
Stop guessing at point values. Look up the real award price and live availability for a specific trip before you transfer.
Search award stays on rooms.aero →Frequently asked questions
Related reading
Find this useful? Add Cardocrat as a preferred source on Google to see more of our honest, independent card analysis in Search.