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IHG Rewards (the loyalty program for, amongst others, InterContinental, Indigo Hotels and Holiday Inn) has announced details of its latest point sale in which it is offering points with a bonus of up to 100%.
Here’s a link to the promotion page
Ordinarily I’d be saying that this is as good as it gets for IHG points promotions but, this time, that’s not necessarily the case and I’ll explain why a little later.
The current offer allows IHG Rewards members (free to join here) to buy points from as little as 0.575 cents each and, from what I’ve seen, there doesn’t appear to be any targeting going on so everyone should be able to get the bonus….even if you’ve only just signed up.
IHG Rewards Points Sale
The headline terms & conditions are as follows:
- Offer available for purchases made by 11:59 PM 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.
The Offer
Here’s how IHG Rewards is framing the promotion:
- 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 Be Buying Points In This Promotion
Before you consider buying points in this promotion you need to check to see if you can make the most of the “manufacturing” opportunity I wrote about on Monday – that opportunity would allow you to garner points at a rate of 0.489 cents each.
If you can’t make the most of that opportunity then you should also bear in mind that 0.575 cents/point is no longer the cheapest rate at which IHG Rewards has sold its points – towards the end of October some IHG Rewards members were targeted for an offer which saw them able to buy points for 0.500 cents each.
All that aside, is this promotion any good?
Buying the maximum number of points allowed would see you net 120,000 and that’s enough for 2 nights at the best IHG properties in the world.
120,000 points would set you back $690 so, essentially, 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.
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 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.
Choose 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.
That’s why you should ignore the hint you’ll see suggesting that you use your IHG Rewards Credit card when buying points.
If you were to use your IHG Rewards MasterCard you’d find that you would only earn 1 point for every dollar you spend…and that’s a poor deal.
You would be better off using a 2% cashback credit card or a credit card that offer points worth more than IHG points….like one of the SPG Amex cards for example.
Bottom Line
Make sure you have a plan for the points and make sure you do the math, that way you shouldn’t go too far wrong.
It’s always a good idea to find out the cost of a night at the properties you’d like to visit (at the time of year you’d like to travel) and then compare that cost to the cost of an award night paid for with points purchased in this sale.
Most importantly, don’t buy points speculatively.
Without a plan you can’t possibly know when you’ll have an opportunity to use the points you buy 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 Points Sale.
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