IHG Rewards Club ‘Big Win’ offer seems to be coming back

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UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry. We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December 2021. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

‘The Big Win’ promotion from IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc loyalty scheme, has been one of the most generous hotel offers in recent years.

It is the only one that got me making ‘mattress run’ stays – where it was worth my while to book into the cheapest property I could find just to trigger the bonus.

It seems that a ‘Big Win’ clone will be launched tomorrow.

Intercontinental hotel Los Angeles Downtown

The initial impression is that it will not be as generous as ‘The Big Win’. The information we have is based on comments at Flyertalk and Loyalty Lobby, which themselves are based on posters which have been put up early in certain hotels and an early leak by Lufthansa.

The promotion will be called ‘Into the Nights’

The requirements will be targeted. The more IHG stays you have done recently, the tougher your criteria will be.

You can earn ‘at least’ 2 free nights or 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points or 10,000 airline miles

For new members, the targets look easy

Lufthansa has leaked the airline miles ‘new member’ version early on its website here.

This shows the following targets which are presumably what you are given if you are a new IHG Rewards Club member:

Stay three nights
Book two stays directly via IHG
Stay at two Holiday Inn hotels
Stay at two different brands

You could easily achieve this target with three one-night stays, two at different Holiday Inn properties and one at a third property in a different brand. That would earn you 10,000 bonus airline miles on top of the standard miles from your stay. That is an excellent result.

Press release

This is the press release from IHG:

ATLANTA (Sept. 4, 2014) – InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is kicking off the fall travel season by offering IHG® Rewards Club members more opportunities to earn toward free travel through its next hotel rewards promotion, “Into the Nights.” The promotion offers members at least two free hotel nights at any IHG®-branded hotel anywhere in the world including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo® Hotels, Holiday Inn® Hotels, Holiday Inn Resort® Hotels, Holiday Inn Club Vacations®, Holiday Inn Express® Hotels, Staybridge Suites® Hotels, Candlewood Suites® Hotels and EVEN™ Hotels once a tailored set of offers is complete.

“We put great value on a loyalty program that builds relevant, rewarding travel experiences and cultivates a meaningful relationship with each participant over time,” said Bruce Lahood, vice president, Global Loyalty Consumer Marketing, IHG. “When our members told us they wanted a free night component in our next IHG® Rewards Club promotion, we created an even more valuable set of personalized offers. Members choose the reward for their loyalty that matters most to them – bonus points, miles or even free nights. It’s rewards on their terms.”

Registration for the “Into the Nights” promotion begins on Sept. 4 at www.ihg.com/freenights. Once registered, members will receive their tailored set of offers and begin earning IHG® Rewards Club bonus points or bonus airline miles when they stay at any IHG®-branded hotel between Sept. 4 and Dec. 31, 2014.

If it is possible to earn two free night vouchers – which would be worth 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points if used at a top InterContinental – it may be worth a mattress run to achieve it. I would value those two nights at £500 and would be willing to spend half of that to earn the vouchers.

I will do another article on this on Friday when I have seen what my own targets are. If you click this link on Thursday (IHG works on US time so it may not work until the afternoon) you should be able to see your personal target. The link will divert to the IHG home page if the promotion is not yet live.

IHG Rewards update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

New to IHG Rewards? Read our overview of IHG Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

IHG Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Kipto says:

4 Sep4 September 22:47

It’s been a long day so sorry if this appears a stupid question. I am a platinum member with four stays this year. I have been given the offer of 54000 points or two nights. To achieve that I must
1. 500 points. Download and book on the ihg app . Already have it on my phone. Do I delete it and download it again ?
2. 1000 points. Stay three nights at any of IHG’s 4700 hotels.
3. 1000 points. Book 2 stays directly on the ihg.com web/mobile sites
4. 1000 points. Stay 2 Saturdays at any of our IHG hotel brands.
5. 1000 points. Change your view. Stay at 2 Holiday Inn Hotels.

So, as I have no stays planned, to decide whether this is worth my while doing, can I stay for three nights in total on three separate occasions, two of which have to be Saturdays and one could be at a Holiday Inn Express and the other two nights at two different holiday inns ?
Thanks
- Rob says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 22:56
  
  1. Don’t know
  2-5. Yes, 3 one-night stays or ‘1 x 1 night and 1 x 2 nights’. If the latter, both must be HI, if the former then you could do 1 at a HIX. Two of the stays must include a Saturday.
  
  If mattress running, I would do 1 x 1 night and 1 x 2 nights just to make it easier, doing both a different HI’s.
Kipto says:

4 Sep4 September 23:04

Thanks Rob. I assume you mean by mattress running, checking in and ruffling the bed sheets before disappearing and checking out from home over the phone ? !! Do they count holiday inn express as a holiday inn ?
Can I use the free night for four of us in a room ie two queens or is it the basic double albeit I have platinum status ?
- Alan says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 23:07
  
  Yep – basically a stay you wouldn’t otherwise have made 😀 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express previously counted separately for the Big Win promo, so I’d expect the same again here.
  - Kipto says:
    
    4 Sep4 September 23:21
    
    Thanks Alan. There are two very reasonable holiday inn express hotels within 6 miles of my house. If it is confirmed that holiday inn express is classed as a holiday inn for the purpose of this promotion then happy days
    - Alan says:
      
      4 Sep4 September 23:24
      
      It’s possible but unlikely – as I say last time around they didn’t lump them together, I guess as they’re targetting different markets with them. You never know though!
    - Rob says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 00:08
      
      No it is not. HI and HIX are treated as separate brands.
- Rob says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 00:09
  
  Free night will be a standard reward night, if you find a hotel with 2 queens for a standard reward you can book it.
Matthew says:

4 Sep4 September 23:17

Mine looks similar to others….

500 Download app and book a stay
2000 Stay 3 nights
2000 Book 2 stays on website or app
4000 Stay 2 Saturdays
2000 Stay 2 Holiday Inns
Complete all 5 for 50000 points or 2 free nights.
Matthew says:

4 Sep4 September 23:46

Any idea what the cheapest Holiday Inn would cost on a Saturday? Just wondering how much I will need to outlay for these points?! Thanks
- Rob says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 00:07
  
  Where do you live? Makes a huge difference. Good tip is to wait until Christmas, just before or after is often cheap.
  - Matthew says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 10:59
    
    Near to Stansted airport. I have family in Lancs & Devon so could do a mattress run whilst visiting!
- Tony says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 00:26
  
  I’ve just booked Holiday Inn Warrington for a Saturday night in November for 42 quid if that helps.
  - Matthew says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 11:00
    
    Ok thanks for the info….cheapest HI so far near me is coming out at £46.
- xcalx says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 08:39
  
  Last time I booked HI Haydock for £22 and Doncaster HIX for £28
giggle says:

5 Sep5 September 00:48

Here is my points list to add, I am a platinum member till october and only stayed twice (unlucky for me as the stays were last weekend) Anyhow:

I need to complete all 6 offers for 32,000 Points or 2 Free Night(s)
9200 Stay 7 night(s) at any of IHG’s
2900 Book 5 stays directly on the ihg.com web/mobile sites or IHG App
100 Take our survey.
5600 Stay 3 Saturdays at any of our IHG hotel brands
5600 Stay at 3 Holiday Inn hotel(s)
8600 Download and sign in to the IHG App and book a stay.

So I came across this whole point thing via google last year, and earnt a fluke 180K in the big win (still not sure where to spend them, will they devalue the points with all this free points everywhere?), the second win was useless for me so zero points and this one, looks like I may download the app and pick up 8600, not planning on any further stays.

Thanks HfP for the heads up and I am a newbie to your site, its really cool 🙂
Julie says:

5 Sep5 September 02:34

So offered 13,400 to download and book via the IHG app, which I did. Booked Osoyoos BC, arrived at hotel just after 3 pm today and was greated by Shelley who seeing that I was gold (thanks to this website) had taken the opportunity to upgrade me to a suite.
Thank you very much HFP
- JQ says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 06:39
  
  The only offer of mine that is worthwhile is 15.4k for using the App.
  
  I’m gold and haven’t paid to stay in an IHG since last Christmas. But I have stayed over 20 nights in 2014, all from big win (plus extra promo code) points.
Twobfair says:

5 Sep5 September 07:42

Logged in this morning and still showing complete one offer for 1 night or 50,000 points – no offers available and 0 bonus points. Very odd!
- Antonio says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 07:45
  
  My offers appear to be working this morning:
  
  25k or 1 night for 3 complete offers, plus:
  25k or 1 night for 5 complete offers
  
  500 IHG App
  2000 Stay 3 nights
  2000 Book 2 stays direct
  4000 Stay 2 Saturdays
  2000 Stay at 2 Holiday Inns
  
  So it looks like I’ll do 1x Saturday stay at one Holiday Inn, and 1x Friday & Saturday at another. Thanks!
- Keith says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 19:23
  
  I have a similar situation. “25000 points or 1 free night” shows up two times, but I can’t see what I need to do to achieve those goals. Up above it states 0 offers available. Strange? Is it because my acount is just a few months old and I haven’t registered a stay on it yet?