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This is just a quick reminder that the IHG Rewards flash sale ends tonight at 11:59 PM ET. This promotion is offering members the opportunity to buy points with a 100% bonus and, the good news is, the promotion isn’t targeted or tiered so all members are eligible for the full bonus.
In Brief
- If you’re going to buy points you need to do it by 11:59 PM ET tonight (19 May 2017).
- IHG Rewards members may purchase up to 60,000 points per calendar year (excluding bonuses) so, if you haven’t purchased any points yet this year you can buy the full 60,000 allowance.
- Purchases of IHG Rewards Points are processed by Points.com so they’re not eligible for a credit card category bonus
The Math
I took a reasonably in-depth look a true math for this promotion in my original post (see here) but here are the highlights:
Purchasing the minimum number of points to get the 100% bonus (5,000)…..
…..will see you net 10,000 points at a cost of $67.50 which is equivalent to 0.625 cents per point.
If, however, you purchase over 25,000 points in a single transaction the math is more favourable.
If you were to buy your maximum allowance you would be buying 60,000 points and getting a further 60,000 point bonus for a total of $690:
A purchase of 60,000 points will net you 120,000 points in total so, at a cost of $690, that’s equivalent to 0.575 cents per point.
So if you’re going to buy points in this promotion make sure you buy over 25,000 to get the best cost/point.
Most of the top IHG properties around the world cost 60,000 points per night so, essentially, you would be buying 2 nights at a very good InterContinental for $345/night.
If you shop around you’ll find a umber of great properties for 50,000 or 55,000 points so, in the case of those InterContinentals, you would essentially be paying between $287.50 and $316.25 for a night inclusive of all taxes and fees.
I think that’s a pretty good rate to pay.
Final Thoughts
As I always say, it’s important to understand what you plan to do with any point you buy before you actually buy them. Also, make sure you do the math and compare the cost of buying points to the cost of just buying the room outright – that will help make sure you don’t go wrong when deciding whether to buy points or not.
Whatever you do don’t buy points speculatively. Who knows if or when IHG will decide to devalue their program, move hotels up a category or change the number of points needed for awards – only purchase points that you know you’ll be using in the near future.
