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IHG Rewards is currently running a points sale in which its offering an 80% bonus on purchases of 30,000 points or more and, to sweeten the pot, IHG has also increased the number of points you can buy in a calendar year.
That all sounds ok and, as I’m about to show you, I could easily make an argument that says that some of you should be buying points right away…but I’m also going to show you why I think most should stay away from this sale.
IHG Points Sale – The Details
- The sale is available for IHG Rewards points purchases made by 11:59 PM on 31 May 2018.
- IHG Rewards members may purchase up to 100,000 points per calendar year (excluding bonuses) an increase of 40,000 on the previous limit.
- Purchases of IHG Rewards Points are processed by Points.com so they’re not eligible for a credit card category bonus
This is the offer that you’ll see when you access the promotion page:
- Buy 1,000 – 4,000 points and get no bonus
- Buy 5,000 – 19,000 points and get a 40% bonus
- Buy 20,000 – 29,000 points and get a 60% bonus
- Buy 30,000 – 100,000 points and get an 80% bonus
Here’s what that all means in practical terms:
IHG Points Sale – The Math
To buy points at the cheapest possible rate you’ll need to buy enough to earn the 80% bonus. Once you’re in the 80% bonus range the cost per point remains static regardless of how many points you buy.
If you buy 30,000 points it will set you back $300 and you’ll net 54,000 after accounting for the bonus:
$300 for 54,000 points comes to a cost/point of ~0.556 cents.
Buying the maximum number of points allowed (100,000 points) will cost $1,000 and you’ll net 180,000 points after the bonus has been added on.
$1,000 for 180,000 points comes to a cost/point of ~0.556 cents (again).
Lowering That Cost Even More
Method 1
If you have a old-school Chase IHG Rewards credit card (as I do) you get 10% back on all points spent in the year (up to a maximum rebate of 100,000 points/year) so there’s an argument to be made that this will effectively reduce the cost of the points you buy to 0.500 cents each.
This would equal the cheapest rate we’ve ever seen IHG sell its points (they were available at this rate back in March)
Method 2 (**Possibly**)
If you have the new IHG Rewards Club Premier Card which was introduced earlier this month you may be able do even better.
This card doesn’t offer 10% back on points spent but it does offer 20% back on points purchases.
As long as promotional offers aren’t excluded (nowhere does it say they are but we have no data points to confirm that they’re not) this would reduce the cost of the points in this sale to 0.444 cents each…and that’s a great price for IHG Rewards points.
Method 3
One of the benefits of the IHG Rewards program is that you get a 4th night free on award bookings so, technically, you could buy enough points in this sale for 4 nights and only end up paying for 3 of those nights.
One could argue that this would drop the cost of any points you buy by 25% but I’m not comfortable putting this forward as a good way to get a discount for the following reasons:
- You would have to book exactly 4 nights to get the full 25% – the more nights you book the lower that discount gets.
- A lot of people don’t make stays of over 3 nights
If you’re very likely to book a stay of 4 nights or more by all means include the appropriate discount in your calculations, otherwise ignore it and consider it a bonus if you do end up booking a qualifying stay.
Image – IHG
Should You Buy Points In This Sale?
There are two scenarios in which I think it would be ok to buy points in this sale:
- You need to top up your account to book an award
- You need points sooner rather than later and you can’t wait for another sale.
If you fall into one of those two categories here’s a link to by points – everyone else should stay away.
Here’s why.
- 80% isn’t the best bonus IHG has offered in the past and it’s very likely that we’re going to see a 100% bonus come up at some point this year.
- 0.556 cents/point isn’t the cheapest we’ve seen IHG sell its points so why buy at this rate (if you’re in no particular hurry) when they’re almost certain to be sold at a cheaper rate in a few months time.
Here’s how a 100% bonus offer would look in various scenarios:
- You don’t have any of the IHG Rewards cards – cost per point will be 0.500 cents (200,000 points at £1,000)
- You have the old IHG Rewards card which earns a 10% rebate – cost per point will be 0.450 cents
- You have the new IHG Rewards Club Premier Card and the 20% discount on points purchases is confirmed cost per point will be 0.400 cents.
Those are all better scenarios than the one on offer now so why buy points if you don’t have to?
Sure, I can’t absolutely guarantee that IHG will offer a 100% bonus anytime soon but if history is anything to go by then that’s exactly what we’ll see at some point this year.
Bottom Line
I’m in no hurry to part with my money for an 80% bonus when I suspect a 100% bonus will turn up soon so I’m not a buyer in this sale.
Others may need points more urgently to top up an account or may have a booking they need to make which would be cheaper if made using points in this promotion – those are valid reasons to buy this time around and it’s not a bad deal to do exactly that.
Everyone else should probably sit this one out, wait for the next 100% bonus and also wait to see if we can get confirmation that the 20% discount on points purchased offered by the new IHG credit card works when points are on sale.
