IHG Flash Sale – 100% Bonus On Points Purchased Through 17 February!

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IHG Rewards (the loyalty program for the likes of InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn) has announced a flash sale in which it is selling points with a 100% bonus….and that’s as good as it gets when it comes to IHG points sales.

The current offer allows IHG Rewards members (free to join here) can purchase points from as little as 0.575 cents each with no restrictions on who can get the bonus – it doesn’t matter when you became a member even if it was just seconds before you decided to buy some points.

IHG Rewards Points Sale

The headline terms & conditions are as follows:

• Offer available for purchases made between 12:00 AM ET February 14, 2017 12:00 AM ET and 11:59 PM February 17, 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.

Purchases of IHG Rewards Points are processed by Points.com so they’re not eligible for a credit card category bonus. This means that, in the absence of any bonus, you should make sure you use a credit card that earns the points you consider to be the most valuable.

The Offer

The offer doesn’t get any simpler than this:

• Buy 1,000 – 4,000 IHG Rewards Points and get zero bonus – points cost 1.35 cents each
• Buy 5,000+ IHG Rewards Points and get a 100% Bonus – points cost 0.575 cents each

Should You Buy IHG Rewards Points In This Offer

If you max out this promotion you would be buying 60,000 points and getting a further 60,000 point bonus for $690:

Those points would get you 2 nights at the best IHG properties in the world at a cost of $345/night and, 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.

These figures include all taxes.

All in all this can be a very good deal when you consider just how expensive some of the InterContinentals can get.

I’m not sure I’d pay $345 for a night at a hotel but I would almost certainly pay $288 for a night at the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam where rates before tax can often be a lot higher…..

…but, as you can see from the image above, where you can book a room for 50,000 IHG Rewards Points.

If you were to buy points in this flash sale and use them to make a reservation like the one in the image above,  you would have two nights at an excellent InterContinental hotel for $575 and you would be saving over $400 (once you account for taxes) on the cash rate.

To make the deal even better IHG Rewards reservations are refundable while the best cash price quoted is an advance rate that’s not at all flexible.

You would be saving money and getting a better type of reservation.

IHG Point Breaks

Don’t forget that the IHG Point Breaks list is now out and, although some of the more desirable properties my be running low on PointBreaks inventory, you may still find something that works for you.

Offering rooms at just 5,000 points per night, Point Breaks are one of the more interesting hotel promotions that you’ll find with IHG and, as these rooms can cost upwards of 40,000 points per night,

These are rooms that could go for as much as 40,000 – 50,000 points per night outside of the PointBreaks period so, if a property you’d like to visit is on the current list, you could get a really great deal.

5,000 points in this promotion would cost as little as $28.75 and you’re unlikely to find too many hotel deals that are better than that!

Bottom Line

Make sure you have a plan for the points and do the math and you won’t go wrong when deciding whether to buy points in this flash sale or not.

Check how much the properties you want to visit cost in the period you’re happy to travel and then see how much an award night would cost if you were to buy points – that will tell you if buying IHG points is a good deal for you or not.

Even though IHG has just changed the categories of some of its hotels (so we’re probably safe from any more changes for the immediate future) I still wouldn’t buy points speculatively – without a plan you don’t know when you’ll get to use the points and, before you know it, you’ve held on to them for too long, they’ve devalued and what started off as a good deal now doesn’t look quite so good.

Follow this link to the IHG Rewards Flash Sale.