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When it comes to buying hotel points I’m generally more positive than I am when I’m discussing the purchase of airline miles…and there’s a very good reason for that. With hotel loyalty programs we generally don’t face the dearth of useful award space that we face when looking for saver awards on the likes of American and United – hotel points are eminently usable so, if you make sure you don’t overpay, promotions like this one can be useful.
IHG has been selling its points with a 100% bonus since the middle of November but, if you haven’t yet stocked up, you only have through 11:59pm ET on Friday 8 December to get the current deal.
Here’s a link to the promotion page
The Headline T&Cs
- Offer available for purchases made by 11:59 PM ET 8 December 2017 inclusive.
- Price includes all applicable fees.
- Purchased points are not refundable and are applicable toward all IHG® Rewards Club awards.
- Members may purchase a maximum of 60,000 points per calendar year and receive as a gift a maximum of 60,000 points per calendar year.
- Bonus points do not count towards the calendar year allowance
InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown
The Offer
- Buy 5,000 – 19,999 IHG Rewards Points and get a 40% bonus
- Buy 20,000+ IHG Rewards Points and get a 100% Bonus
The offer looks simple enough but you need to be careful of the math.
The Math
You could be forgiven for thinking that, irrespective of the number of points you buy above the 20,000 threshold, you’ll be buying IHG points at the best available rate….but that’s not the case.
If you were to purchase 25,000 points they would cost you $312.50 and you would net 50,000 points in total after the 100% bonus is applied:
50,000 points at a cost of $312.50 would give you a cost per point of 0.625 cents.
Buying just 1,000 points more, however, would see you net 52,000 points for less than you would pay for 50,000 points….
….and, at this level and above, you’d get the best available rate this promotion offers – 0.575 cents/point.
Should You Buy IHG Points In This Promotion
Buying the maximum number of points allowed would see you net 120,000 – enough for 2 nights at the best IHG properties in the world.
120,000 points would cost $690 so, effectively, you would be paying $345/night (including all taxes)….and that can be a very good deal.
If you shop around carefully and book some of the excellent InterContinental properties that still only cost 50,000 – 55,000 points/night, you would be paying between $287.50 and $316.25 for a night including all taxes…..and that’s an even better deal.
It would take a pretty special property to see me part $345 for a single night but, having stayed there, I would definitely pay $288 for a night at the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam where rates before tax can often be a lot higher.
It’s not hard to find properties like the IC Amstel Amsterdam where the nightly rate is north of $400 (or even $500) for a single night but where you can also spend between 50,000 and 60,000 points for the same night.
If you were to buy points in this sale and use them to make a reservation like the one in the image above you could book two nights at one of the better InterContinental properties in Europe for $575. In this particular instance that would see you save in excess of $400 over your stay (once you account for taxes).
What makes the deal even sweeter is the fact that IHG Rewards reservations are refundable while the best cash price quoted is an advance rate that’s not at all flexible.
Don’t Forget To Buy Points With The Right Credit Card
Purchases of IHG Rewards Points are processed by Points.com so they’re not eligible for a credit card category bonus.
As bonus points are not an option here (not even with an IHG co-branded credit card) you should make sure you use a 2% cashback credit card or a credit card with which you will earn points that you value highly. In my case I’d probably use one of the SPG Amex cards.
If you have a credit card on which you have yet to meet the minimum spend criteria for a sign-up bonus this would be a good time to use it.
Bottom Line
I always recommend that readers find out the cost of a night at the properties they would like to visit (at the time of year they would like to travel) and then compare that cost to the cost of an award night paid for with points purchased in this sale. That way you’ll know just how good of a deal buying points in this promotion may be.
The most important thing, however, is that you should never buy points speculatively.
Without a plan you can’t possibly know when you’ll have an opportunity to use the points you buy in the promotion and, before you know it, IHG may increase the number of points needed for a top-class stay and, suddenly, you’re left with a points balance that’s a lot less useful to you than it was before (and worth a lot less too).
Follow this link to the IHG Rewards Points Sale.
