Priority Club Promo Stacking … it’s even useful in Trinidad.

For those who travel within North America and the Caribbean, staying at hotels is just part of the deal. For consultants like me, it’s part of the job. I’ve written on mileage running and points collecting as one significant method of reducing my travel cost, along with stacking upgrades. My reliable hotel choice has always been the SPG program – not just for the points, but the upgrades and all the free stays I get with their promotions. Unfortunately in Moncton, there are no Starwood hotels, so I have to choose between Priority Club and Marriott. Marriott has been my 2nd choice over the years as they have a significant number of hotels within their chain and throughout the US. I’ve never had a third choice, but recently I’ve discovered that the Priority Club program has been aggressive in the promotions. If you didn’t know … Priority Club is the rewards program for the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) which includes brand names such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, & Hotel Indigo.

Now while I don’t consider Priority Club to be my “go to” hotel rewards program of choice, it’s quickly replaced Marriott in my mind, especially with their Priority Club Promo Stacking opportunities, as there can be some excellent value to be had with this program if you are flexible and don’t mind an extra hour of combing through online codes.

Priority Club always has promo codes that can be added to your account to allow you to rack up points quickly. As an example, I’ve earned the equivalent of two free nights with one three night stay in Moncton. This is quite ridiculous, especially when you think that hotels in Atlantic Canada are in the lower point range of the program. Here is the point total from my stay last week …

Now one might remember from a previous post “How I Afford to Travel as a Trinidadian?” that this is one method in which someone can parlay work travel into a lot more free travel. I’m not advocating that this is for everyone, but if you have a job that allows travel, then you should be strategic about the hotels and airlines that one uses. With the Priority Club Promo Stacking, I have the following output after one week …

I’ve also used my SPG Platinum status to get an upgrade to Platinum status through that lovely status match program. The extra bonus points all count to ensuring Platinum status for 2014. I don’t think that Platinum status with Priority Club is all that valuable, but it is good for either status matching with another hotel program like Hyatt or just getting some complimentary room upgrades.

So for those professional Trinis, who would like to rack up some nights at the Crowne Plaza in Port of Spain or Holiday Inn Express in Trinicity, Trinidad, you can use my method to rack up a number of free nights.