Crowne Plaza American Express Offer

I booked my Crowne Plaza hotel reservations today. I thought I'd point out a rather interesting deal Crowne Plaza is offering. Through the end of August, you can book a room at Crowne Plaza hotels with your American Express card and receive a $25 American Express gift card. That sounds like a good deal right? There is a catch. You have to book at their flexible rate. In the case of the hotel I'm going to stay at in Richmond, the flexible rate costs $34 more a night than the advanced purchase rate. That means it would cost me $68 to earn a $25 American Express card. The offer doesn't sound so hot after all. I will concede there are a couple good points with the flexible rate vice the advanced purchase rate. First, you can cancel or modify your reservation with the flexible rate. You can't with the advance purchase rate. Also, you must pay at least 7 days in advance with the advance purchase rate. You don't have to with the flexible rate. Still, I think the savings make the advance purchase rate the way to go.

I also discovered something interesting with Crowne Plaza and the Intercontinental Hotel chain. You have to be savvy when you use your hotel points with them. Their website showed me that I could get both my nights free with them if I used 50,000 of my points with them. You would think that is a good deal. Actually, it isn't. The chain sells those points for $10 per 1,000 points. So if I used 50,000 points, I'd be using $500 worth of points for a room that would cost me $210 at the advance purchase rate. You can see this would be a major losing proposition. Make sure you watch it when your frequent hotel club tells you you can stay for free using your points. You could be getting a losing deal.