TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
IHG One Rewards has launched a new targeted promotion in which it’s offering some members the opportunity to earn double base points on stays made in September only.
Annoyingly, however, IHG has brought back a restriction whereby the bonus points can only be earned after the first stay in September has been completed.
The promotion
Earn points 2X as fast this September. Use [September] to build up your points balance [and] earn 2X bonus points starting on your second stay, then keep earning on unlimited stays from 1 September to 30 September 2025.
Key terms
- To participate in the ‘2X Unlimited’ Promotion (the ‘Promotion’), an individual must have a valid IHG One Rewards member account and be invited to register for the Promotion.
- Members can pre-register for this Promotion starting 1 August 2025 until 31 August 2025.
- Members will be able to stay and earn IHG One Rewards Bonus Points under this Promotion beginning on 1 September 2025 and ending on 30 September 2025.
- Members who did not register during the Pre-Registration Period may register for the Promotion during the Promotion Period.
- After registering for the Promotion, a member can earn 2X bonus points on stays, starting on the 2nd stay in the month of September, that meet the definition of a Promotion Eligible Qualifying Stay, during the Promotion Period.
- The time needed for awarding points can vary with each promotion, so please allow up to six (6) weeks for any earned bonus points to be posted to the recipient’s account.
- For the purposes of this Promotion, a ‘Promotion Eligible Qualifying Stay’ is defined as a minimum one (1) room night stay, during the Promotion Period, at a participating hotel booked under a Qualifying Rate, with a spend of at least $30 USD (or local currency equivalent) in Eligible Charges per night.
- Room nights that fall outside of the Promotion Period are not included, and room nights that are part of a stay that was completed prior to registration for the Promotion are also not included.
- Stays booked using Rewards Nights or Points & Cash are not Promotion-Eligible Qualifying Stays for purposes of this Promotion.
- Bookings made through online travel agencies or other reservation sites such as booking.com or expedia.com also do not qualify under this Promotion.
- If a member books more than one room on the same night, the member will receive credit towards this Promotion for only one of the rooms that also meets the requirements of a Promotion Eligible Qualifying Stay.
Full terms and conditions (which you should read carefully before booking) can be found on the promotion page.
Quick thoughts
There’s good news and bad news here.
The bad news is that not only is this promotion targeted (none of our accounts can register) and not only is it limited to stays made in September, but it also only applies from a member’s second September stay onwards.
That’s more than a little miserly from IHG.
The good news, however, is that if you have been targeted and if you are planning at least a couple of September stays, you may be able to do well here thanks to the fact that this promotion should stack with a brand-specific 3x promotion that IHG published at the end of June.
This is what that promotion looks like:
3x promotion for accounts registered in the Americas/Caribbean
If your IHG One Rewards account is registered to an address in North America, Central America, South America or the Caribbean, you can earn 3x bonus points at the following hotel brands on stays made between 1 July and 30 September 2025 (registration required):
- Atwell Suites
- Avid
- EVEN
- Garner
- Voco
3x promotion for accounts registered in EMEA/Asia
If your IHG One Rewards account is registered to an address in Europe, the Middle East, Africa or Asia*, you can earn 3x bonus points at the following hotel brands on stays made between 1 July and 30 September 2025 (registration required):
- Candlewood Suites
- Crowne Plaza
- Garner
- Vignette Collection
- Voco
*Members with addresses in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan are excluded.
The terms of both promotions (which are not targeted) confirm that there is no limit to the number of bonus points that you can earn.
What this means is that if your second stay in September is at one of the brands participating in the 3x promotion for your region, you could earn quite a few points.
Here at TFM, we value IHG One Rewards points at 0.4 cents each (based on the value we know we can get out of them with relative ease) and we can use that valuation to come up with two examples showing some potential earnings from these promotions.
Example 1:
Assuming:
- 4-night stay
- Cost of stay is $1,000 ($250/night)
- Stay is made between 1 and 30 September 2025
- The stay is at a brand participating in the 3x promotion
- Guest has no elite status
- Guest does not hold an IHG One Rewards credit card
These are the expected earnings:
- 10,000 points from base earnings (10 points/$)*
- 10,000 bonus points from the 2x promotion
- 20,000 bonus points from the 3x promotion
Total = 40,000 points
Based on our valuation of IHG One Rewards points, that’s an effective rebate of $160 or 16.0% which represents an earning rate of 40 points/dollar.
Example 2:
Assuming:
- 4-night stay
- Cost of stay is $1,000 ($250/night)
- Stay is made between 1 and 30 September 2025
- The stay is at a brand participating in the 3x promotion
- Guest holds the IHG® One Rewards Premier credit card
- Guest has Platinum Elite status (a benefit of the IHG® One Rewards Premier credit card)
These are the expected earnings:
- 10,000 points from base earnings (10 points/$)*
- 6,000 bonus points from the Platinum Elite bonus (60%)
- 10,000 bonus points from the 2x promotion
- 20,000 bonus points from the 3x promotion
- 10,000 points from the IHG® Rewards Premier credit card (10 points/$ at IHG properties)
Total = 56,000 points
Based on our valuation of IHG One Rewards points, that’s an effective rebate of $224 or 22.4%which represents an earning rate of 56 points/dollar.
*This assumes that the stay didn’t take place at a Candlewood Suites property where the earning rate is just 5 points/dollar.
That’s pretty good going assuming you’re in the fortunate position where your travel plans fit into those types of scenarios.
Note: If you’re planning to pay for a stay on or before 13 September 2025, don’t forget that select holders of Chase credit cards are being targeted for 10% savings (capped) at InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, EVEN, and Holiday Inn Express properties.
Bottom line
IHG has launched a new promotion which, for a lot of people, will be disappointing given that it’s targeted, limited to stays made in September, and not valid on a member’s first stay in September.
If, however, you happen to have at least two IHG stays planned for September and can stack this promotion with the 3x promotion launched back in June, you could rake in quite a few IHG points next month.
[HT: Frequent Miler]
