Purchase/Transfer points to attain PC Platinum status

[CO BNE]

The Story:
Currently no status with PC and only Hilton Honor Silver status.

I have a trip to Paris in August and would like to stay at the ICH Paris-Le Grand Hotel for 3 nights in August where the costs are:

• - 30,000 points per night for a classic room
  OR
  - The price for an advance purchase is E315 (AUD534) a night.

The Plan:
Require 90,000 points to redeem 3 nights

• - 34,000 Amex points to PC = 20,400 points
  - Purchase 20,000 points from PC: USD200 (AUD270)
  - My wife purchases 20,000 points from PC and transfer: USD300 (AUD411)

So at a cost of AUD681, I now have 60,000 points, PC Platinum Elite status and able to redeem 2 nights at the ICH in Paris. (However I will not reserve until I have 90,000 points and Ambassador status to book a Superior Room)

I have a number of trips coming up in May where I would aim to stay at a Holiday Inn/Crown Plaza/ICH to earn points + 50% bonus to gather the last 30,000 points for the third night.

I have also scoured the Priority Club promotions thread to register for as much of the bonuses as possible (including Ambassador after 3 nights + 5k bonus).

Is the purchasing of the points for my wife and transferring it to myself abusing the system?

Are there better ways to achieve this or do we stay at a nice boutique hotel?

 

[Dave Noble]

I don't see anything wrong with your approach

Dave

 

[QF WP]

Looks ok to me as well (being a graduate of the Dave Noble "access all Elite status programs" course ).

Cheaper than spend more of your own coin and you get Elite status to boot

 

[CO BNE]

Thank you for your responses Dave and Lindsay. I have been following both your postings regarding PC Elite status and flabbergasted that it's so easy to attain status as well as the bonus points promotions out there.

The idea to stay at ICH Paris was due to another post by Dave Noble regarding the purchasing of points to obtain nights at the Holiday Inn Express in NYC (and in the process Gold Elite status). It definitely seems to be a program where there are bargain redemptions to be had at selected properties.

 

[markis10]

Have to say the PC is a good program and following the tips have attained PLat in one month, purchased some points last night to put me over the edge and woke up this mroning with the new status, will be interesting to see the benefits in reality. I have found with Starwood in the past that certain hotels are more generous than others re upgrades, with soem completely ignoring your status, which in turn resulted in me ignoring them on later visits!