PROMO: IHG Accelerate (Part 2) Has Been Launched – Have You Been Targeted?

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Towards the end of April IHG launched what a lot of us thought was one of its regular Accelerate promotions in which IHG Rewards members were given various challenges to meet in exchange for points. At the time of the launch, a significant number of IHG Rewards members couldn’t register for the promotion and we all thought that this was just another glitch.

It wasn’t.

If, like me, you received the following message when you tried to register for April’s IHG Accelerate promotion…

 …I have some good news – IHG may have a promotion for you.

IHG Rewards has launched a second Accelerate promotion which appears to be targeted at members who were left out of the first promotion which launched back in April. The two promotions have overlapping validity dates so if you’ve been targeted for one you will not have been targeted for the other.

Headline Terms & Conditions

• You must be an IHG Rewards Club member and must register your member number in advance to participate in the promotion.
• Upon Registration, members will be presented with the opportunity to earn bonus points upon completion of all offers presented.
• You must register for the promotion by August 17, 2019 (link)
• By clicking “one click registration” you are registering for the promotion and agreeing to receive IHG Rewards Club marketing communications and the terms and conditions of the Campaign and Privacy Statement.
• Members will be awarded bonus points listed for each individual Promotional offer after completing the requirements of each individual offer.
• Each Offer must be completed between July 1, 2019 and October 31, 2019 (both dates inclusive).
• Only members that qualify for this promotion as defined by IHG Reward Club’s terms and conditions can participate in this promotion.
• Registered members are not allowed to participate in concurrent campaigns.
• A Stay is defined as per IHG Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions as one night or consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of frequency of check-in/out.
• A Stay constitutes a “Qualifying Stay” when a member pays qualifying rates, which include most business and leisure rates at InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Kimpton, EVEN, avid, voco, Regent Hotels & Resorts or HUALUXE hotels worldwide.

• Bonus points are not issued for Non-Qualifying Room Rates or Non-Qualifying Stays. “Non-Qualifying Room Rates” or “Non-Qualifying Stay” include the following: net wholesale individual and group rate, certain package rates, employee discount rate, friends and family rate, crew rate, special discounted contract rates, seasonal worker/crew rate, 50% travel club discount rate, travel industry discount rate, distressed passenger rate, IHG^® Rewards Club Reward Nights/Airline Hotel Reward rate, rates booked through third party web sites, complimentary hotel Stays and any other rates not defined as a Qualifying Room Rate at IHG’s sole discretion.
• Only one room per member per Qualifying Stay will be awarded the applicable bonus points, or other benefits (if any) available under the applicable offer.
• If more than one member checks into the same room, only one member is eligible for the applicable bonus points, or other benefits (if any) available under the applicable offer.
• Each Promotion Offer of bonus points is available only once to each member.
• IHG Rewards Club Members with a Miles earning preference will earn Points.
• No retroactive bonus points will be awarded for Stays prior to Registration.

Full terms and conditions can be found by following this link to the promotion page

IHG Accelerate 2 – Example Challenges

Neither Joanna nor I were targeted for the first IHG Accelerate promotion but both of us have been offered challenges this time…and they’re very different.

Joanna’s IHG Accelerate 2 Promotion

Joanna has been targeted for a 40,000 points promotion…

…and these are the challenges she has been set by IHG:

To earn all 40,000 points Joanna would have to spend a minimum of 6 nights at IHG properties with those nights spread across 3 weekend stays.

I value 40,000 IHG Rewards Points at approximately $160 so, while this isn’t an offer that’s worth trying to game (via mattress runs), it’s a worthwhile offer for anyone who was planning to make some stays with IHG anyway.

My offer is noticeably more interesting…and more complicated.

My IHG Accelerate 2 Promotion

I haven’t had much activity with IHG over the past year (although there was a sudden flurry of award night stays in April) so I’m surprised to have been targeted for a possible 92,200 points.

I think this may be the highest number of bonus points I’ve been given a chance to earn in an IHG Accelerate promotion.

Here are the challenges I’ve been set:

1. 1. The first challenge is an easy 18,000 points as all I have to do is stay at two different IHG brands. With Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Extra counting as separate brands I could earn these points (which I value at $72) relatively cheaply.
   2. The second challenge, for 12,000 points, requires 2 stays of at least 2 nights across two weekends (so that’s a total of 4 nights that I would need to spend in IHG properties). As a standalone offer this isn’t particularly tempting, but as I could meet these requirements at the same time as I meed the requirements for ‘challenge 1’ this looks interesting.
   3. The third challenge’s only requirement is that I book a stay using points & cash so the 4,500 points on offer could be earned at the same time as I’m meeting the requirements of challenges 1 & 2 – no additional stays would be required.
   4. The fourth challenge simply states that I have to stay at two IHG hotels to earn a bonus of 5,600 points and this is an offer I really like. If I do nothing else, I could pair this challenge with ‘challenge 1’ and earn 23,600 for two nights at IHG properties – that’s an effective rebate of $94.40.
   5. The fifth challenge offers me 6,000 points for downloading the IHG Rewards app and making two bookings via the app….and this is more than a little odd. I already have the IHR Rewards app on all my devices so I’m not sure what’s expected of me here. Still, this challenge doesn’t add to the number of nights that I need to stay at IHG properties to earn the maximum number of points so its a challenge I like a lot.

What all this comes down to is the following: If I want to earn the full 92,200 bonus points that are on offer I need to…

• Stay 4 nights at IHG properties
• Make sure the 4 nights are spread across two 2-night stays
• Make sure my 2-night stays are made over separate weekends
• Make sure 1 of my stays is booked using points & cash
• Make sure both my stays are booked through the IHG Rewards app

The reality is that I cannot actually net 92,200 bonus points from this promotion as I’ll have to spend some points on the ‘points & cash’ stay that the second challenge demands.

Points & cash bookings will require at least 5,000 points/night so the best haul of bonus points I can hope for is 82,200 but, if I’m being realistic, I’m much more likely to have to book a property costing 10,000 points (+ cash) per night so the net bonus earnings would more likely be 72,200 points.

As I value 72,200 IHG Rewards points at almost $290 and as this is enough points for a night at a top-tier InterContinental property anywhere in the world, this is definitely a set of challenges I’m considering going for.

If I decide that spending two weekends at IHG properties isn’t worth the expense or effort, I could always aim a little lower and just complete challenges 1, 4, and 5.

There three challenges together only require two nights at IHG properties (on any day of the week) and would earn me 29,600 bonus points. As that offers an effective rebate of almost $120 this is an option I’ll take up if it looks like I need to make a couple of stays at airport hotels.

Bottom Line

If you weren’t targeted for IHG Accelerate 1 you’ve probably been targerted for IHG Accelerate 2 so check to see what offers/challenges hve been lined up for you.

Joanna and I have been targeted for very different offers and both are intersting in their own ways. It’s unlikely that we’ll be moving any of Joanna’s bookings over to IHG just to try to earn the 40,000 bonus points on offer but it’s highly likely that I’ll be participating in this promotion in one way or another.

If you’ve been targeted for the IHG Accelerate 2 promotion, let me know what you’ve been targeted for in the comments…especially if you’ve been offered any great/terrible challenges.