Time to Buy Hotel Points?
This is the September 14, 2025 edition of the LazyPoints Weekly newsletter. It goes out by email every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific–unless I oversleep–and is archived here on the blog. Want it straight to your inbox each week? Sign up here.
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about buying hotel points, but Choice just launched a promo so good it’s worth a fresh look. 👀
It’s generally not a good idea to buy points unless you both (a) can buy them on sale with a good discount and (b) have a specific plan to use them soon. Standard pricing is rarely worth it, and with devaluations always looming, you’ll want to combine a great price with a relatively timely redemption.
But in the right spot, it can absolutely make sense and save money. And Choice’s current promotion just might be the right spot. That promotion will let you buy points for just 0.57¢ apiece if you buy 18,000 or more. Nerdwallet values these points at 0.8¢ each, so it might seem like a decent deal, as you can buy them below their market value.
But if you are cheap or obsessed with Japan (🙋♂️), this deal is not just good, but potentially pretty special. Choice redemption rates are stable, starting at 8,000 points. In our spring Japan trip, we took full advantage of these deals. Although central Tokyo now costs 10k, Tokyo Bay is still 8k. Surprisingly, many US properties also price at 8k, even near major cities.
But with this deal, you could buy the points you need to book these properties for around $45 per night. Even for mediocre roadside motels in the US and cheap hotels in secondary Japanese cities, that is really cheap. I even found options near popular US mountains during ski season for just 12,000 points ($68/night) or less.
Personally, I bought 24,000 points with this offer. That’s three nights on our next trip to Japan or a two-night ski trip for just $135. It’s not a huge expense, but it helps with my Atmos Summit spend to reach that massive welcome offer that will cover our next Japan trip. Although there is some devaluation risk, the 8k per night rate in Japan has been stable for a while, and even if it were to go up by 50%, a nice hotel in Japan for under $70 per night is still a great deal. Plus, I could always find a high-value Choice redemption between now and our next visit to Japan.
I still wouldn’t recommend buying points if you didn’t have a firm plan in place to use them, but if you have upcoming travel, this offer might be an interesting option to consider to save some money on lodging. And even if you don’t take advantage of this offer, remember that bonuses on purchased hotel points come around fairly often—it might be worth checking out next time you’re looking to book a hotel stay.
This Week in the Blog 📝
Which rewards (Atmos, Bilt, or Hilton) should you choose when taking a Lyft? We broke it down.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
Major news 🚨
Refreshed Platinum Card coming this week (probably). American Express has essentially confirmed that its flagship premium card is being launched on Thursday the 18th. Rumors include a $895(!) annual fee and an increased statement credit for Amex’s fancy hotel collection, but we’re yet to see what Amex’s “largest investment ever in a Card refresh” means in detail. You might want to apply now to lock in the lower fee for a year… but it’s difficult to say without knowing if the welcome offer at launch will blow the current offer (targeted, up to 175k points) out of the water and offer more value. (ThriftyTraveler)
Special offers ✨
Earn $50 by joining Rakuten, or referring a friend. 🔥🔥🔥 Rakuten is an awesome shopping portal that allows you to earn cash back (or Amex points!) when shopping from eligible merchants online. Currently, you can receive $50 cash back when signing up with an eligible referral link and spending $50 or more. Or–if you already have an account–if you refer someone and they complete qualifying activity.
For as long as I can remember, you could earn $30 by signing up with a referral, and $40 offers are reasonably common, but $50 is new. This is a fantastic deal, meaning you could get a $50 online purchase essentially for free—plus the points. And the deals are currently really good.
If you haven’t signed up for Rakuten yet, now is a great time. And you can help your friendly neighborhood points sloth by using our referral link. 🦥
Bonus points on the Mesa Homeowner’s Card. You can still get 5,000 bonus points when signing up for this excellent card via referral link (though it has offered up to 50,000 in the past). If you then refer two people, you can earn 50,000 points after spending $10,000—that’s in addition to 10,000 points for the referrals themselves. (FrequentMiler)
Extra points 🪙
Feeling charitable? Earn up to 5,000 bonus Delta Skymiles for donations to United Way. (I have written about this promotion before.)
Giveaways 🎟️
What’s your dream Japan destination? Tell ANA for a chance to win a trip to Japan.
New products and features 🆕
OnePay launches a credit card with a Walmart bonus. Earn 1.5% cash back on all purchases, 3% at Walmart or 5% with a Walmart+ membership. Snap judgment: rotation card at best. (TPG)
Avios are getting easier to move. It’s always been possible to transfer Avios between the many airlines (like British Airways and Aer Lingus) that use them as their loyalty currency, but it hasn’t always been easy. A new online tool will make it easier to move Avios between various participating programs—making your transferable rewards easier to redeem in the process (every major bank currency can be transferred to at least one Avios airline). (TPG)
Devaluation 📉
Hilton prices are rising. Again. Hilton abruptly raised the minimum redemption rates for points bookings on many of its top properties last week, the second time it did so without any warning in 2025. This appears mostly concentrated at the top of their hotel range, but it’s still concerning if you’re a Hilton fan. (MilesTalk)
Fun 👻
To Nice, or Tunis? A little miscommunication led to quite the detour. (OMAAT)
Sign-up bonus of the Week 🎯
I mentioned it last week, but you can currently earn a 100k-point bonus offer with three different Avios airlines: British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Iberia. And as I said above, it’s now easy and convenient to move these points between these and the other Avios airlines (Finnair, Loganair, Qatar and Vueling), and you can boost them by converting almost any bank currency into Avios (often with a transfer bonus!).
The downside? These programs are all fairly complicated, and I find their websites so hard to use, the fees so excessive, and the redemptions so hard to find that I simply do not engage with them at all. Not certified lazy.
But there is value in the program if you can navigate it, and even if you burn your Avios on an inefficient redemption, 100k of them should be good for several hundred dollars in value. So this is still a great offer if you need a bonus card.
Of the three cards on offer, the obvious choice is the British Airways card, which offers a $100 rebate on taxes and fees when flying transatlantic from the US on BA. That might not be much considering BA’s famously outrageous fees, but it can help offset some of the card’s annual fee, and even if you don’t take advantage of it, the other cards don’t offer anything better.
That said, if you’re looking to add to your wallet, start with some of the great cards below before turning to an Avios card unless you are flying one of those airlines regularly.
Other great current bonuses
100k + 25k companion certificate on the Alaska Atmos Summit (our take)
125k on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (our take)
80k on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select (our take)
80-125k on Delta credit cards (our take)
100k on the Citi Strata Elite (maybe in-branch) (our take)
165k on the IHG Premier (our take)
75k miles on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (our hot take 🔥)
100k points on Southwest Credit Cards (our take)
$300 (kind of) on Capital One no-fee cards (our take)
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
Add “look for points sales” to your pre-booking checklist.