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I’ve been a member of IHG One Rewards (in one form of another) since the universe was nothing more than a very dense, very small, extremely hot single point, and I don’t recall ever receiving an anniversary bonus of any kind from the loyalty program.
IHG One Rewards anniversary bonuses are, however, a thing, and I know this because Joanna just had one drop into her inbox.
The subject line of the email read ‘Happy anniversary! Open for your special offer‘, and this is what was inside:
‘We’ve loved being a part of your adventures since you joined IHG One Rewards 10 years ago. Why not celebrate with a special treat? Just register for this offer, and for every stay you spend with us within the next 90 days, you’ll receive 3X bonus points up to 20K points‘.
Upon registering you get an email confirmation …
… and you can follow your progress on the offers page in your online account.
These are the key terms of the promotion (which only seem to appear in the email):
- For this ‘Anniversary Offer – 10 Year’ (‘Offer’), you must be an IHG One Rewards member and be invited to participate in the Offer.
- After receiving an invitation, you must register your member number in advance to participate in the Offer.
- Once registered, you can earn ‘3X points’ per stay, up to a maximum of 20,000 IHG One Rewards bonus points, on Qualifying Stays during the 90-day period following registration.
- A Qualifying Stay may be at any participating IHG Hotels & Resorts brand or participating Six Senses Hotels, Resorts & Spas (as identified on each hotel’s booking page).
- To be eligible for the ‘3X points’ for a qualifying stay, the entire stay must fall within the 90-day period immediately following the date you registered for the Offer.
- A maximum of 20,000 bonus points can be achieved during the 90-day period.
- A Qualifying Stay is defined as a minimum 1-night stay booked under a Qualifying Rate, with total spend exceeding $30 USD (or local equivalent) per night.
- For the purposes of this Offer, earning ‘3X’ or ‘3X points’ or ‘three times the points’ or ‘triple points’ on a qualifying stay during the promotion period means the total number of regular ‘base points’ and promotional ‘bonus points’ combined will equal three (3) times the base points the member would normally receive just for being an IHG One Rewards member.
Note: The points awarded through this deal are not elite status qualifying.
Quick thoughts
Well, my first thought was ‘what happened to all my anniversary bonuses?!’ and my second thought was ‘why has Joanna only been a member for 10 years?’ but leaving those two thoughts to one side, my next thought was to think that while this isn’t hugely generous, it’s a nice touch.
It’s only base points that are tripled in this promotion, so as stays at IHG’s full-service properties all earn 10 base points/dollar, Joanna can now pick up 30 base points/dollar until she maxes-out the promotion.
Given that this promotion is offering her 20 bonus points/dollar and given that a maximum of 20,000 bonus points are available, Joanna will earn the maximum bonus after spending $1,000.
As we value IHG points at 0.4 cents each (based on the value that we can get out of them with relative ease), the maximum effective rebate on offer here is $80 or 8%.
Not amazing, but not terrible either.
So, the question now is has anyone else had one of these anniversary promotions sent through? Or are they a new thing?
If they’re not new, does anyone know what you get at higher milestones? Answers in the comments section please. Thanks!
Bottom line
Apparently, when you’ve been a member of IHG’s loyalty program for at least 10 years, you get sent through a promotion that gives you bonus points on any stays mase in the 90 days following registration.
This was news to me when I saw Joanna’s email, so I’d be interested to know if anyone else has received anything similar.
