The Choice Privileges Hack to Buy Cheap Qantas Points

There are so many ways to collect Qantas points in Australia. Some of the best value ways include through credit card sign-up offers and buying wine, and you can even earn Qantas points for free by completing surveys and quizzes.

Did you know that there’s also a little-known and very cost-effective way to boost your Qantas points balance by combining multiple offers from Choice Privileges? It’s a method I’ve used multiple times to effectively buy Qantas points at a low price. This has also helped me to qualify for Points Club.

What is Choice Privileges?

First of all, you might be wondering what Choice Privileges actually is.

Choice Privileges is the loyalty program of Choice Hotels, which has over 7,000 properties worldwide – though many of these are in the Americas. Their brands are mostly budget-focused, such as Quality Inn and Comfort Inn & Suites.

The Choice Privileges loyalty program is straightforward enough: earn points on stays, and redeem them for free nights. They use dynamic pricing for reward nights at their hotels, so in periods of peak demand, the points required increases. Still, you can reliably get at least 1-1.5 cents per point in value when redeeming Choice Privileges points on stays.

One thing to note is that you can only use Choice Privileges points to book hotels within 100 days of your stay.

But booking hotel nights is not the only way you can use Choice Privileges points. You can also transfer them to various airline loyalty programs, including Qantas and Velocity Frequent Flyer. This is where things start to really get interesting!

Become a frequent flyer points expert!

Learn all the tricks to travel better, for less, with our Frequent Flyer Training courses. The first two courses are free for all AFF members.

View Courses

How to get cheap Qantas (and Velocity) points via Choice Privileges

Firstly, this “hack” isn’t for everyone. It requires a bit of speculation and patience, and there is an element of risk involved. But here’s how it works…

Step one: Buy Choice Privileges points

The first part is simple: you buy Choice points when they offer discounts or bonuses. You can do this on the Choice Hotels website.

For example, until 13 December 2024, you can buy Choice points with up to a 60% bonus. The bonus amount does vary and could be different for each member. In this promotion, my account was only eligible for a 50% bonus:

With a 60% bonus, you can buy Choice points for approximately one AUD cent per point. Note that normal offers are less, but 60% is the highest bonus we’ve commonly seen. If you can, pay using a credit card with no foreign transaction fees as the transaction is processed overseas.

You can typically buy up to 120,000 points directly from Choice Privileges per calendar year, excluding bonuses. This cap may be raised during specific promotions.

Step two: What for a transfer bonus

So, how do you get these points into a frequent flyer program?

Choice Privileges actually partners with both Qantas and Velocity, allowing one-way transfers from Choice to either Qantas or Velocity at a normal ratio of 5:2. That is, 2,000 Choice points = 800 airline points.

Crucially, Choice Hotels regularly runs double transfer promotions for its airline partners, such as this one in October 2024:

So, by waiting for a double transfer promotion, you could convert 2,000 Choice points into 1,600 airline points! You’ll have to link your airline and Choice Privileges accounts first, and then transfer your points via the Choice Privileges Rewards Exchange portal.

Beware that you can’t generally transfer points that you’ve bought during the period of the transfer bonus offer. You have to buy the points beforehand, which is why there’s an element of risk involved.

But where there’s a risk, there’s often a reward. With a 60% bonus and a double transfer offer, you could effectively buy Qantas or Velocity points for 1.24 cents per point.

How does this compare to other ways you can get Qantas Points?

Qantas does sell top-up points, although these are very expensive. You should only buy these if you need a small top-up to make an immediate redemption.

At the best possible rate, outside of any bonus offers, Qantas sells its points for 2.66 cents each. That’s over double the price! It is worth noting though that Qantas top-up points do credit near instantly, so there’s no waiting involved.

Getting a large sign-up bonus for a Qantas points-earning credit card is a much more cost-effective way to acquire lots of Qantas Points cheaply. But you’ll typically need to meet a minimum spend amount during the first few months of holding the card before you receive the bonus points, so this does require some patience.

Lastly, getting bonus points via Qantas Wine is another excellent way of topping up your points balance. You can often find offers that allow you to buy Qantas points for less than two cents per point, with some great wine thrown in as well.

You won’t get as much value (on a pure cost-per-point basis) with Qantas Wine compared to purchasing via Choice Privileges, especially if you don’t drink alcohol! However, you will get the points a lot quicker by buying wine.

Regardless of how you’re earning Qantas points, don’t forget that any points you earn from non-flying methods – up to 125,000 points per transaction – help you to qualify for Qantas Points Club or Points Club Plus.

Wilson McTaggart

Wilson's love of travel started from a young age, but his love for points developed after figuring out ways to travel on a gap year for less - leading naturally towards Australian Frequent Flyer! Wilson's hobbies include skiing, cricket and planning trips, both with and without points.

Wilson posts on the AFF forum as @WilsonM.