Choice Privileges Program Update
Last fall, the Choice Privileges loyalty program announced changes which would take effect in January 2026. At the time, I briefly reviewed and bookmarked them for later. The Choice Privileges program still ranks very high for my family and me. But I was busy enough with other endeavors toward the end of 2025, and the changes wouldn’t really matter until the new year, anyway. So a weeks into 2026, I looked again at the Choice Privileges program update and decided how I’d go about things. After a quick reset on how I’ve historically preferred to use the program, I’m sharing my updated strategy.
My Choice Privileges Loyalty Program History
For many years, I’ve enjoyed obtaining reliable, unsexy redemptions with the Choice Privileges loyalty program. I’ve found solid value primarily redeeming points at Comfort Inn and Suites, Ascend, and Cambria properties. In the past few years, I’ve refocused on redemptions leveraging Choice’s partnership with Preferred Hotels and Resorts. Choice’s acquisition of a portion of the Radisson portfolio has brought even more utility for our situation.
We have a healthy, active relationship with the program, actively burning points while earning them via Wells Fargo’s Choice Privileges Select Mastercard. The past 12 months or so, we’ve – gasp -actually redeemed more than we’ve earned. In mid-2025, I had decided to plus up my balance via card spend in the near future; it was just a matter of when and how much. The Choice Privileges loyalty program updates helped clarify those two matters.
Highlights of the Choice Privileges Program Update
DDG fully covered the changes in his previous article, but a few areas particularly informed my refreshed strategy.
Elite Status via Credit Card Spend
First off, calendar year spend from the cobranded Choice Privileges credit cards now count toward elite qualification – the program refers to this earn as Elite Qualifying Credits (EQCs). Even better, EQCs are earned at the same rate as redeemable points from card spend. The new top tier, Titanium, requires 110k EQCs, but spending in the generous 5x categories means a Select cardholder only needs to spend $22k in a calendar year to reach it.
But Choice status has been relatively mediocre, at best. Is there any reason to bother with it now? Like many angles in our hobby, that’s highly dependent on your personal situation. For my family and me, that answer is yes, just enough.
Titanium-Exclusive Benefits
Two benefits unique to the Titanium elite tier make it worth reaching in our situation. Actually, it’s overwhelmingly one benefit with just a taste of the second (so to speak).
Titanium status provides Choice Privileges members with a travel award in the form of 50% off an award stay at select properties up to seven nights. Here’s more from the benefit terms:
Valid at a curated selection of properties, including Ascend Collection, Cambria, Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson Individuals, Westgate Resorts, Bluegreen, and other premium locations. Good for one Reward Night reservation of one room for up to 7 consecutive nights once a year.
While getting half-off a week-long award stay is substantial, it’s still a bit fuzzy how this will look in practicality. Choice Privileges is going out of their way to advise this coupon is only good at a selection of properties, and I haven’t found this list anywhere. Still, I’m confident we’ll find a reliable use for this perk.
Second, Titanium offers complimentary breakfast for the member and an additional guest at Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Blu, Radisson Collection, Radisson Individuals, and Park Plaza properties. I applaud Choice for competing more with other hotel program heavyweights here, even if only a subset of their properties offer a proper full breakfast option.
While not exclusive, I also value a higher priority for upgrades that Titanium will provide. Unfortunately, what various properties consider as upgrades will be a bit of a wild card.
How I’m Playing It
Again, I was planning to spend in 5x bonus categories on my Choice Privileges Select Mastercard to replenish my points balance, anyway. (Unfortunately, I don’t hold any card with Citi or Wells Fargo which effectively earns 6x Choice Privileges points in bonus categories.) This has been a fluid event for the past few years, but now I have a baseline for this earning beyond my immediate points needs. I’m currently spending to hit the $22k threshold sooner rather than later in 2026. Since we’re staying in Choice properties routinely, I might as well be a Titanium.
Beyond hitting that $22k level ASAP, I plan to more deliberately spend in 5x categories throughout the year as my near- and long-term travel plans dictate.
Choice Privileges Weaknesses
Despite these somewhat-positive updates, there’s still plenty to watch out for with the Choice Privileges loyalty program. Here are just a few:
- The program offers a limited amount of aspirational properties. Preferred Hotels and Resorts partnership has helped a bit here, but plenty of those properties still don’t participate.
- Choice Privileges elite status and benefits generally don’t convey to Preferred Hotels and Resorts stays.
- The new Titanium breakfast benefit probably isn’t that big of a deal. Much of the Choice Privileges portfolio offers free breakfast, anyway – some which I’m better off skipping. The brands involved in this benefit cover a relatively small portion of locations. The Radisson Blu site reflects 11 properties in the Choice Privileges loyalty program. Radisson RED has four. Radisson Individuals is bursting with 14, and it appears Park Plaza has a single location. I couldn’t find one Radisson Collection property, if any exist. Given this shortage, I find it even more unsatisfactory that Choice Privileges excludes Cambria and Ascend properties from the Titanium breakfast benefit.
Choice Privileges Program Update – Conclusion
Despite the updates, the Choice Privileges Loyalty Program is still a relatively niche one. Many travelers are better off staying away, literally and figuratively. But certain others can find something to like with the program. We historically have, and now, the elite status gives us more of a reason to. This means the program’s working on us, exactly as Choice Privileges intended.
Still, when compared to loyalty program refreshes which largely come with a considerable amount of devaluations, the slightly-better version of Choice Privileges stands out more. Particularly, the evolution of elite status tiers looks positive on paper. We’ll see what it looks like in practice, and I’ll report back.
Are you changing your Choice Privileges behavior based on the recent program updates? If so, how?
