Lately many of the frequent flyer programs have been offering points redemption for PreCheck. Not a bad idea in general, except all the redemption rates have been horrendous. I already warned about this with Southwest and Club Carlson.
Hilton jumped on the train today with an offer to get the $85 PreCheck for 30,000 Hilton points. Given that people generally value HHonors points at half a cent, you are paying $150 to get an $85 value. Hopefully I don’t need to explain why that is a terrible redemption!!
The better move is to pay the extra $15 and get Global Entry – and better still to use one of the many credit cards that will credit you back the $100 when you do so….
Examples:
- Citi Prestige
- American Express Platinum card
- Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard
- Ritz-Carlton Rewards
- The coming Chase Sapphire Reserve
