While it has it’s downsides, the InterContinental hotel chain and Priority Club reward scheme is one of the most ‘hackable’ for points and discounts in Australia, thanks to it’s wide selection of hotels throughout the region. If I was living in the US my choice might be different for a number of reasons – for example, reward nights at ICH properties are generally limited to the most basic room. which when you’re a sucker for a nice experience at a hotel, that limits the value of the points. Hyatt, Starwood and Hilton properties certainly can be nicer than Holiday Inns, but the sheer network of more local properties in the PC program makes it a worthwhile option for the Australian Traveller.

All hotels across the ICH group (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental) in Australia and NZ can get pretty pricey in dollar terms – especially around peak event periods like the Grand Prix and Open Tennis – and the points you earn have good value in those periods. Certainly, I’d look to use points for InterContinental stays during peak periods to save a few $$, making them pretty good value redemptions.

This guide covers…

Earning, valuing and redeeming points

• Valuing PC Points
• Earning PC Points without hotel stays
• Earning PC Points through hotel stays
• Specific Points Earning Tips
• Specific Points Redemption Tips

ICH Group Discounts / Programs

• Priority Club Elite Status
• Friends & Family Discount
• Europe BOGO Offers
• IC Ambassador Program
• Priority Privilege Program

Valuing Priority Club Points

When it comes to assessing deals for PC points, the usual rules for valuing a point apply – work up some test redemptions that you might like to make through the Priority Club website and put a dollar value against them. Remember that reward nights are flexible bookings, but in the lowest room category – if you value that flexibility, don’t forget to account for it in the rate that you look at. Next, calculate your own rough value of a priority club point based on that information, i.e. booking value (cents) / number of points required. My own point value works out to be about 1c per point, give or take, taking into account the flexible nature of the booking.

Earning Priority Club Points without stays

There’s unfortunately not many options for earning Priority Club points outside of staying at ICH hotels – there’s no direct earn Priority Club credit card for example.

The only major credit card partner in Australia I’m aware of is Amex’s Membership Rewards (MR) scheme (here’s my write-up of Membership Rewards), so any Amex which earns MR points should generally be able to transfer into PC at a rate of 3 MR to 2 PC. This is poor compared to UK and US MR schemes, but there you go, that’s life. Transfers to PC from MR take about two working days after program registration (about one working day to register your accounts together for the first time). Any Amex MR signup bonuses can be transferred over to PC, making it straightforward to assess the value of the bonus if you’re likely to use it for a stay.

The TopGuest social check-in service/tie-in allows you to check in to hotels on your mobile through services such as FourSquare and Gowalla and earn 50 PC points per check in, subject to some undocumented limits. Generally, keep check-ins to different otels and no more than once/day and hopefully no red flags will be raised. It’s an easy way to keep your account active and increasing your balance – slowly but surely.

Earning Priority Club Points through stays

Stays in ICH group hotels earn either points per night or points per stay. Current earn rules are outlined here. Generally, it’s 1 point per US $ on stays in non-InterContinental hotels; 2000 points per stay otherwise. Note that stays must be booked at qualifying rates through the PC website or hotel directly – as a general rule, bookings through third parties do not qualify for points, and deeply discounted rates found on TravelZoo or other consolidators also aren’t eligible. If in doubt, call Priority Club directly and ask. In general, if a rate is discounted more than 30% on the Best Flexible rate, then it may not earn points. Friends & Family bookings also don’t earn points – more on these later.

The power of booking qualifying rates really comes into play once you’ve signed up for any one of the multitude of stackable stay bonuses available. There are a huge amount of bonuses available and it’s easy to lose track of them all. The best resource I know of to research this are the Priority Club Insider blog and everything in their Earning Points section – a great resource. There’s also some threads over in the Priority Club forum on Flyertalk, specifically the ‘Master Promo’ threads – but these get pretty heavy going pretty quick. Be prepared to lose hours researching and trying out promo codes to see if they are valid.

Specific Points Earning Tips

• For buying points, instead of look at the part cash / part points redemption option and refund trick. It allows you to buy points at half the advertised ‘buying points’ rate, at 0.6c / point.
• Make sure you book a qualifying rate before your stay
• Look out for the various bonuses on offer at Priority Club Insider – of course, I’ll list the best and newest here as they come available too.

Specific Points Redemption Tips

• Remember that redemptions are priced by hotel brand – not by the actualy price of the room. The InterContinental in Adelaide for example redeems at 30,000 points per night, and the Crowne Plaza is 25,000 points per night. The IC is normally around $80-$100 cheaper though – and the Crowne Plaza is newer. Obviously much better value to redeem for the Crowne Plaza, so keep your eye out for discrepancies.
• The points plus cash offers are actually quite good value for points at US 0.6c per point – if you know you’ll continue to be an active member and will keep accruing PC points (and you don’t have a massive points balance you need to burn through) it’s well worth considering the copayment to reserve your points for later.
• Consider signing up for IC Ambassador and/or the Priority Privilege programs, assuming you’ll stay in InterContinentals or other ICH hotels enough over the course of a year. More on the benefits below, but either can take your points redemption from soso in an average room, to an upgraded room in the case of IC Ambassador, and discounted additional nights or cheaper/free meals during your stay.
• If you need additional nights, but don’t have enough points, consider the friends and family rate – outlined below.

InterContinental Hotels Programs and Priority Club Discounts

Priority Club Elite Status

Achieving Priority Club elite (gold or platinum) status also earns you bonus points for qualifying stays within the ICH group. If you’re close to reaching the next tier, it’d be worth taking the plunge and booking an extra night somewhere to attain the status – but if not, don’t worry about. PC status (even platinum) doesn’t *actually* mean all that much, despite what they’d have you believe – you might get improved treatment for upgrades, but there’s nothing guaranteed.

Friends and Family Discount

Finally – onto the good stuff. The Friends and Family rate is a hidden gem in the booking tool of the savvy online traveller – it’s officially open to more than just Friends and Family of ICH Employees. You have to book the rate through a specific referral link – I prefer Steve Sickel’s (because he has a memorable name!) who is a marketing manager at ICH I believe. You’ll also need to take a printed voucher into the hotel with the employee name and your booking reference on – but don’t worry, it’s all legit and you will not be questioned on how you know the employee in question.

The trade-off? Friends and Family rate stays do not qualify for points or nights in the PC Program, and are completely non refundable. They must also generally be booked a few weeks in advance. Some hotels or locations also hold back F&F until a few months prior.
If you’re firm on your booking dates and don’t want to earn points, or don’t mind losing a booking if you need to change, then the 30%+ discounts are VERY tempting.

The F&F rate link and conditions are here.

European free or discounted night promo codes

If you’re planning any stays at ICH group hotels in Europe, you can try and see if any of the following rate codes are available for your planned location and dates… (again, courtesy Priority Club Insider)

1. 2 nights for the price of 1 – make several bookings of 2 night blocks to stay longer
2. 25% off during the week, or 35% off at weekends
3. Similar to 1), but a 3 nights for the price of 2 offer

All of these rates are non-refundable but should earn Priority Club points/stays. If you have issues (I haven’t) then give PC Customer Service a call.

IC Ambassador

InterContinental Ambassador status on the other hand, does guarantee you some special treatment – but only in InterContinental Hotels. At a cost of US $200 per year, you get almost guaranteed room upgrades by one category on qualifying stays (most notable exception is on the excellent Friends & Family rate, bookings on which are not officially upgraded). You also get welcome gifts during your stays, such as water, fruit or other amenities; while some properties also offer free Internet. The other benefit, which can definitely pay for itself with Australian InterContinental prices, is a free weekend night certificate to use on a two night stay from Friday through til Sunday. Also thrown in is Priority Club gold and a voucher for 5000 PC points as well. If you’re planning on staying at InterContinentals for even just a few nights a year, it’s probably worth the up-front investment – and it costs $100 US only to renew.

Priority Privilege Program

It took me a while to come across the Priority Privilege program, but it’s a corker if you’re planning on more than just a few stays across Australia, NZ, Fiji or beyond in InterContinentals, Crowne Plazas or Holiday Inns. For the not insignificant sum of $289, you receive a 1 year membership, which grants you…

1. Two 2 nights for the price of 1 vouchers
2. One 25% off best flexible rate voucher
3. One Breakfast for two certificate
4. One $50 hotel credit
5. 10% off all Best Flexible rate bookings
6. 10% off all Advance Purchase rate bookings
7. Up to 50% off dining in participating hotel restaurants
8. Access to the PP monthly newsletter with offers for that month across the region, specifically for PP members

All in all, it’s pretty impressive stuff if used wisely – think of it as a ‘Qantas Club on steroids’ for frequent hotel users. You can see that the two 2 for 1 vouchers alone can easily be redeemed for value in excess of the membership fee if you target a higher room class at an InterContinental. Take for example, the IC Fiji resort – the lowest club room at Best Flex rate seems to go for around $1300 FJD, which is around $650 AUD / night. Two of those free, plus 1/2 price dining for your stay across the whole resort (all restaurants at the IC Fiji are included) make up a mean mean discount for your stay at the InterContinental Fiji.

Find out more about Priority Privilege here.

Note – all links above to the PP program above are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you decide to sign up after clicking. If you do, thanks – you’ve directly helped me to keep this site running.

Categories: Guides, Hotel Programs, How To, Priority Club