IHG Accelerate Promotion 1Q 2018 – How Are You Approaching It?

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IHG Rewards has now posted details of its new Accelerate promotion for 1Q 2018 and I thought I take you through the headline terms and conditions, what Joanna and I have been offered this time around and how I’m approaching this Accelerate promotion.

As with previous IHG Accelerate promotions the details of the bonuses that can be earned will vary from member to member (you’ll have to log in to IHG Rewards to see what you’ve been offered) but, based on what the T&Cs say, the lowest bonus on offer is 30,000 points.

IHG Accelerate 1Q 2018

Per IHG Rewards:

• You must be an IHG^® Rewards Club member and must register your member number in advance to participate in “Accelerate” (“Promotion”).
• Upon Registration, members will be presented with the opportunity to earn at least 30,000 bonus points upon completion of all offers presented.
• Members will be awarded bonus points listed for each individual Promotional offer (“Offer”) after completing the requirements of each individual Offer.
• Each Offer must be completed between 1 January 2018 and 30 April 2018 (both dates inclusive) (“Registration”).

Here a link to the IHG Accelerate promotion page where you’ll find the full T&Cs.

Our IHG Accelerate 1Q 2018 Promotions

I had a lot of fun gaming a few Accelerate promotions back in 2015/16 but, since then, neither Joanna nor I have been participating because our promotions have been so lacklustre (clearly I earned way to many points with the promotions I managed to game!).

Joanna’s Q1 2018 Accelerate Promotion

The first account I checked happened to be Joanna’s and this is what she has been offered this time around:

The lacklustre run continues!

Joanna will earn an easy 500 IHG Rewards points for downloading the app (which I though the already had but clearly doesn’t) but, apart from that, there absolutely nothing here to get excited about.

Apart from the fact that 30,000 IHG Rewards points isn’t exactly tempting, the tasks needed to earn the bonus points aren’t exactly cheap (apart from the task of downloading the app). To earn the points Joanna needs to complete all four tasks and, by my calculations, at a very minimum this would require three 1-night stays each at different brand of IHG property.

Considering you really don’t get all that much for 30,000 IHG Rewards points nowadays I don’t see this as being a worthwhile set of tasks to try to achieve.

My Q1 2018 Accelerate Promotion

After having seen what Joanna has been offered I wasn’t exactly confident that I would fare any better when I logged in to my account….but I was in for a small surprise:

70,000+ points on offer!

That’s a lot better…..but can I earn the points economically?

Taking each task one by one here are my thoughts:

1. Stay once and get 2,000 points – easy!
2. Stay 4 nights and earn 8,000 points – I have 3 nights in Q1 for which I still need to book accommodation….so this may be doable with a cheap mattress run
3. Stay at two brands and get 16,800 points – that’s a lot of points for what is effectively just two stays.
4. Stays a weekend and get 6,000 points – 2 of the nights I have yet to book in Q1 are over a weekend so this should be doable.
5. Book a bonus points package stay and earn 9,000 points – this should be easy and, if I go for it, it will be booked at the cheapest property I can find.
6. Get an IHG Rewards credit card and earn 2,000 points – this is an interesting one as I already have an IHG Rewards card from Chase….but because my IHG account is currently registered in the UK I’m being asked to apply for another – this should be easy.
7. Renew InterContinental Ambassador status and earn 5,000 points – these are effectively free points as I was planning to renew anyway.
8. Complete 6 of the 7 offers above and get 20,000 points – I’ll have to work out how cheaply I can complete 6 tasks before I know how easy this will be.
9. Stay in January and earn a bonus 2,000 points – easy and can be combined with task #1.

Ok…so now I need to work out what exactly I need to do to get the most points for as little spend as possible.

I have most of my 2018 trips already booked (how’s that foe efficiency?!) but I still have 3 nights of accommodation that I have yet to book for Q1 and, luckily, two of those nights fall over a weekend.

Here’s how booking IHG properties for these nights would affect my Accelerate promotion targets.

Trip 1 – 2 weekend nights at an IHG property in January

This would see me earn the following:

• 2,000 points from task #1 (task completed)
• 2 nights credit towards the 4 nights needed in task #2
• 1 brand credit towards the 2 brands needed in task #3
• 6,000 points from task #4 (task completed)
• 2,000 points from task #9 (which is a bonus task so doesn’t count towards task #8)

Trip 2 – A night at an airport hotel in March

This would see me earn the following:

• 1 night credit towards the 2 nights I still need to complete task #2
• 1 brand credit which would complete task #3 and earn me 16,800 points
• I would book a bonus points package to complete task #5 and earn 9,000 points

The total earnings from the two trips would be 35,800 points, 4 completed tasks and 3 of the 4 nights required for task #2 complete. If I now add in the 5,000 points earned from renewing my Ambassador Status and the 2,000 points from getting a UK IHG Rewards credit card this is what my situation looks like:

• 6 tasks completed
• 42,800 points earned from the completed tasks
• 20,000 bonus points for completing 6 out of 7 tasks
• 10,000 bonus points for hitting the insignificant sign-up bonus threshold on the IHG Rewards credit card

72,800 IHG Rewards points in total (not including whatever I get from the bonus points package)

I value IHG Rewards points at around 0.5 cents each so this points haul is effectively worth over $360 to me…and that’s got my attention.

Will I Go For It?

This is a tricky one.

I could definitely use 70,000 IHG rewards points and the fact that I wouldn’t have to book any stays that I wasn’t already planning makes this a tempting proposition….but that’s not the end of the story.

I’m going to have to cost this up carefully because I could easily end up overpaying for these points.

I already know approximately how much the 3 nights I have yet to book will cost with other hotel chains so I’ll need to see if I’ll be paying considerably more to move those nights to IHG properties. The fact that I have to book a “bonus points package” to hit my Accelerate target already means that I’ll be paying more for a room that I otherwise would have done so this will require more thought.

Bottom Line

I’d love 70,000 IHG Rewards points as they’d really help out with a trip I’m planning for Joanna, mini-Joanna and I…..but it’s very easy to fixate on the nice big bonus points number and forget how much things are actually costing.

I think this is the biggest IHG Accelerate promotion I’ve ever been offered so I’m not about to dismiss it out of hand….but I’m going to take a few days to think things over and do some math before I decide one way or the other.

How are you guys approaching whatever it is you have been offered? Anyone else get anything tempting?