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Today is the last chance to take advantage of the IHG Rewards promotion which is offering all members a 100% bonus when they purchase IHG Rewards points. This offer is pretty much the exact same offer we saw from IHG at the beginning of June but it’s still definitely just about as good an offer as we see from IHG.
Buy IHG Points With A 100% Bonus
The Terms and Condition of the promotion are simple:
- Offer available for purchases made between 12:00 AM ET September 26, 2016 12:00 AM ET and 11:59 PM September 30, 2016 inclusive.
- Members may purchase a maximum of 60,000 points per calendar year (excluding bonuses)
- Members may receive as a gift a maximum of 60,000 points per calendar year (excluding bonuses)
Here’s how the promotion works (if you have no minimum purchase requirement):
- Buy 1,000 – 10,000 IHG Rewards Points with a 100% Bonus at 0.675 cents/0.521 pence each
- Buy 11,000 – 25,000 IHG Rewards Points with a 100% Bonus at 0.625 cents/0.483 pence each
- Buy 26,000 – 60,000 IHG Rewards Points with a 100% Bonus at 0.575 cents/0.444 pence each
If you’re based in the UK the exchange rate is not your friend and has made this promotion considerably more expensive than the last time it ran….but you still may be able to extract some value if you’re careful.
Should You Buy IHG Rewards Points In This Promotion?
If you were to purchase the full amount allowed you would receive 120,000 points for $690/£533:
While most of the top IHG properties around the world (i.e. the InterContinentals) cost 60,000 points/night, There are some pretty good properties that don’t cost the full 60,000 points – like the InterContinental Grand Stanford in Hong Kong that costs just 50,000 points…..
…which would be the same as paying $288/£222 if you bought points in this promotion.
That may not seem too bad until I reveal that the cash rate for that particular night is just $203.63 + taxes or $224/£173 all in!
Purchasing points in this promotion and using them on this particular night would see you overpay by over 28%.
Note: I walked past this property last weekend and while it looks great and has some nice views….
…there is a lot of building work going on next door and it looks like it will be going on for some time yet.
That was an example of a bad use of points from this promotion and, while there are a lot of those kind of examples around, there’s the other side of the coin to consider too.
There will be occasions buying points in a promotion like this is a pretty good idea….like during peak times at very popular locations:
The InterContinental Times Square costs 60,000 IHG Rewards points…..
…but can cost, for the exact same night, over $400 before taxes….
…and that’s $500/night once the taxes and fees are included:
In this instance you should definitely be buying IHG Rewards points in this promotion as it would save you $155/night.
Bottom Line
The point I’ve been trying to make is pretty simple – if you have a plan for the points you purchase in this promotion (or any other promotion) then you can do the math and quite quickly see if it’s a good idea or not.
If you have no real idea what you’ll do with your points after you’ve bought them then stay away as you’re most probably going to be on to a losing proposition.
Don’t forget that Points.com processes all of IHG Rewards Club’s points sales meaning that you won’t get a travel/hotel bonus from your credit cards.
