IHG Rewards Club is finishing the year off with another bonus point offer. This time around, however, there appears to be some variation in the offers.
In my case, I have an offer of 80% bonus points and a 10% discount. I have seen other reports of people being offered a straight 100% bonus points.
To find out what you have been offered, you will need to head over to the offer page.
The current promotion runs through until 30 December 2019. For those of us in Australia, this works out to be on 1 January – 3p.m on the east coast, and midday on the west.
One thing to keep in mind when deciding on the number of points that you wish to buy is that IHG Rewards has a tiered pricing structure. There are points on the scale where the price per point drops, and it drops for every point in your purchase.
As a result, sometimes it can be worth buying more points and getting an overall lower price. For example, 25,000 Points (excluding the bonus) will set you back $287.50. Buy an extra 1,000 Points and the overall price drops to $260. That’s right – it costs less to buy 26,000 Points than to buy 25,000 Points.
Click through to Points.com to get your offer.
Standard Price
IHG Rewards sells its points through point.com. The current standard price for points (expressed in US Dollars) is:
- First 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
- then 11,000 – 25,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points
- then 26,000 – 100,000 points for $10.00 per 1,000 points
As noted above, the best price can be found when you purchase 26,000 points or more. At that level, you are paying 1 US Cent per point.
Is it Worth it?
IHG Rewards is the loyalty program that covers hotel chains such as Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn. One advantage of the program is it generally has good availability of Award Nights.
The main advantage of buying points would be to purchase an award night, rather than buying a more traditional revenue night. Comparing the costs of the purchasing points to buy an award night with the cost of a revenue night will determine whether it is worth doing.
Standard Reward Rooms
At the other end of the scale, the Category 9 hotels which come in at 50,000 points per night, are still on the expensive side. Having said that, there may be value on nights where there is a high cash price.
Resort hotels in Fiji and Bali, however, offer good pickings for the use of Award night. For example, Intercontinental Fiji costs 30,000 points for an Award night. Under the current promotion, 30,000 points could be purchased for an effective price of $US167. In comparison, on a selected date in October, the cash price is $US270, which would represent a worthwhile saving.
In Summary
As always with these points purchase promotions, you will need to do your own calculations taking into account your own personal circumstances. While a good promotion, it is likely best if you have some planned purpose for the points rather than making a speculative purpose.
You might want to take a gamble on decent Points Breaks offers. This is a bit of a risk, but it may pay off.
Arguably, the best hotels to look for value are the high-end properties, such as resorts, that normally have quite significant cash prices. The other alternative is the properties that are in the mid-range of the rewards categories. This includes resorts such as the InterContinentals in Bali and Fiji.
