IHG Rewards has just launched another best-ever promotion for buying points. Through Sept 24th 2019, members can purchase points with a 100% bonus. You simply have to buy 7,000 or more IHG points to get your 100% bonus.
When you buy at least 26,000 points, your effective purchase price drops to just 0.5 cents apiece!
Why is This an Awesome Deal?
IHG often run PointsBreaks to redeem for a night as little as 5,000 IHG points. At this rate, you can snag PointBreaks hotels for as little as $25. Yes, you can score a hotel for just $25, no gimmicks! There are also PointsBreaks that require 10,000 and 15,000 IHG points; your effective cost per night staying at those properties will be $50 and $75 respectively, per night.
For example, The Intercontinental Sao Paulo is retailing at $278 + tax per night. This is a property under PointBreaks for 15,000 points per night, which means it will cost you $75 for a night’s stay if you buy the IHG points and use them for redemption. A huge savings indeed!
Click here for a complete list of PointsBreaks hotel.
Click here to buy IHG Points.
Last minute deals
Often during my travel, I have booked hotels at the last minute and the price has been high. Here is a good scenario where using points may actually be cheaper. For example a stay at The InterContinental London Park Lane this weekend cost £547. You could use 70,000 IHG points to redeem your stay, which would cost you just $350 (or £281).
Click here to purchase IHG points.
As a general rule of thumb, I advise you to make a comparison between the selling price of your desired hotel and the cost of redemption (stated redemption rate * 0.50 US cent) before you make a points purchase.
How to buy points
- Visit IHG’s Buy Points link.
- Enter your name, IHG Rewards Club number, PIN and email address to log in.
- Select the number of points you want to purchase.
- Enter your credit card information and billing address and click Continue.
- Confirm the details, check the box to agree to the Terms and Conditions and click “Pay Now.”
Lately, there have been many hotel groups having promotions on buying points such as Hilton and Marriott. It may worth your while to read the following articles.
Cover image: IHG Intercontinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel
I think generally speaking this is not a good deal since IHG points are worth about 0.3 to 0.4, like Gene said. I totally agree when speaking for over 90% cases. However, there are still some cases, depending on when and where you make your reservation, that you can use the IHG points over at 0.5 cent or over 0.5 cent per point. And that is what Sam describes in the post.
So, put everything in a word. If you already know when and which hotel to book, do the math to see if buying points is worthy or not.
Bonus was increased 40%, but per cents per point was just 30% off from 2.4cents down to 1.7 cents. Was I right?
you can do the math. Your purchase total price divided by total points. 0.5 cents for me.
It’s a deal, I don’t know about a good deal. It can be under certain situations, like Sam said, when buying the points are cheaper than room rate. It’s definitely a “gimmick” $25 a night for a room? The gimmick is finding a room for 5,000 points a night on saver. To put this deal in perspective, Hilton’s current 100% bonus deal is $100 for 20,000 points, this one is $108 for 16,000 points. I have experience with both programs and it’s seems to be easier to find a 20,000 point Hilton award over a 16,000 point IHG in the U.S. near your desired destination. It should be noted Hyatt and Marriott are both running deals (40, and 30 percent bonus, respectively) on buying points, so it would be worth checking your desired destinations point rates vs cash rates at all of those hotel point programs/schemes. Also, don’t forget to take advantage of a Cashback portal when buying points!
Hi Tc
Sharing with you my success on IHG points. During Paris Air Show, hotel room runs over 400 euros per night. I was able to use 20,000 points for redemption at Holiday Inn Express CDG (cost $100 because of 100% point promo). I checked the room rate and made sure the reward room is available before buying points. Recently in Singapore, I stay at another Holiday Inn Express using points redemption, cost $100 (20k IHG points) while all other hotel were over $300. I found IHG group have more availability in general redemption.
IHG points are worth about 0.3 to 0.4, so buying at 0.5 is not a good deal.
Valuation is subjective. I would value IHG points more than 0.5! (I have given my reasons in my post)
This is not a good deal and they have this pretty much continuously.
Can you explain why this is not a good deal? I’ve been consistently buying IHG points and use them when I found situations that the room are more expensive than the cost of points.