POINTS SALE: Buy IHG Points From $0.00575 Each

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IHG Rewards Club has launched a targeted points sale in which members can purchase points from as little as 0.575 cents each. All IHG rewards members can buy points in this sale it’s just that some members will have been targeted for a better bonus than others and will therefore be able to buy points at a cheaper rate.

View your IHG Rewards targeted offer via this link

IHG Rewards Points Sale

The headline terms & conditions are as follows:

• Offer available for purchases made before 11:59 PM EST on 16 November 2016
• IHG Rewards members may purchase up to 60,000 points per calendar year (excluding bonuses).

Don’t forget that purchases of IHG Rewards Points are processed by Points.com so they’re not eligible for a credit card category bonus. If you have an American Express Platinum Card and have the 2x Membership Rewards points offer that could be a good credit card to use for this promotion….otherwise make sure you use a credit card that earns the points you consider to be the most valuable.

The Offer

If you were targeted for the 100% bonus offer as I was (Joanna was only offered an 80% bonus) this is what the offer looks like:

• 1,000 – 4,000 IHG Rewards Points with zero Bonus at 1.35 cents/1.11 pence each
• Buy 5,000 – 20,000 IHG Rewards Points with a 50% Bonus at 0.833 cents/0.683 pence each
• Buy 21,000 – 60,000 IHG Rewards Points with a 100% Bonus at 0.575 cents/0.471 pence each

Should You Buy IHG Rewards Points In This Offer

If you didn’t get the 100% bonus no, you probably shouldn’t be buying points in this offer – we’ve had  number of 100% bonus promotions from IHG Rewards this year (some targeted others not) so you should wait until IHG is feeling a little bit more generous and offers you the full 100% bonus.

But, if you have been offered the 100% bonus then this may be a time to buy.

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

Essentially that’s 2 nights at the best IHG properties in the world for $345/night and, if you shop around carefully and book some of the great 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….and that will include all taxes too.

That’s a pretty good deal considering how expensive some of the InterContinentals can get.

Personally 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 are often a lot higher….

…but where you can book a room for 50,000 IHG Rewards points.

Buying points in this promotion and applying them to a reservation like the one in the image above would net you two nights at a fantastic InterContinental hotel for $575 and would save you over $400 once you account for taxes.

To make the deal even sweeter IHG Rewards reservations are flexible/refundable while the best cash price quoted is an advance rate that’s not at all flexible. You’re saving money and getting a better type of reservation.

IHG Point Breaks

It may be worth noting that the IHG Point Breaks list is now out and, although I’ve yet to find a property that I want to check out, you could get a great deal if there’s a hotel on the list that you were planning to visit anyway.

Point Breaks are one of the more interesting hotel promotions that you’ll find with IHG opening up rooms at a number of its hotels for just 5,000 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 true bargain.

5,000 points in this promotion would cost as little as $28.75 and I’m not sure you’ll find a better hotel deal than that!

Bottom Line

Have a plan and do the math and you won’t go wrong when deciding whether to buy points in this promotion or not.

Check how much the properties you want to visit cost at the time of your you plan to travel and then see how much an award night would cost if you were to buy points. That will tell you how good of a deal you may be getting.

Don’t buy points speculatively as you never know when IHG will decide to move hotels up a category or even charge more points/night – only buy points that you know you’ll be using in the near future.

Check what offer IHG has targeted you for via this link.