Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Don’t forget IHG Rewards Club ‘Friends & Family’ rates for cheap hotels

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Back in 2009, when the hotel business was in real trouble, IHG Rewards Club launched a special deal for stays at Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Indigo, InterContinental, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites hotels.

It was called ‘Friends & Family’ and was nominally aimed at people who were friends or relatives of hotel employees.

However, the company made no secret of the fact that they were happy for anyone to use it, and even posted links on forums that could be used. After some pushback, people claiming to be friends of Steve Sickel, the head of the programme, found that hotels would occasionally not let them use the rate. Other links, such as this ‘Friends and Family’ link that I use, continue to work just fine.

IHG Friends Family rate

The Friends & Family deals are usually priced below the ‘Advance Saver’ rate for the same dates. They carry the same conditions, ie no changes and no refunds.

The only difference is that these rates do NOT earn IHG Rewards Club points. Hotels do a VERY good job of enforcing this rule. You won’t earn stay credit either. Bear this in mind when booking, especially if you are taking part in the ‘Accelerate’ promotion.

Availability under this programme is worse than it used to be but you can still find the odd deal.

In London on Saturday 12th March, the Friends & Family link gives:

  • InterContinental Park Lane at £231 vs £265
  • Staybridge Suites Vauxhall at £96 vs £114
  • Holiday Inn Bloomsbury at £132 vs £156

Various other properties were available as well. This rate is valid worldwide, not just in the UK.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about by booking this rate using the link above. You will not be asked for any special ID or proof of your friendship with Jennifer.  Just be very clear that you will NOT receive any points or stay credit.

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

Comments (335)

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

  • Callum says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:29

    As a manufactured spend card, the curve looks great (not that I can see it lasting once people start using it for that in large numbers). As a travel card it looks very underwhelming.

    What am I missing here? 1% fee on everything, another £2 for foreign withdrawal, £35 upfront fee – where’s the excitement?

    • RTS says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:37

      Supercard to Curve to Amex… that should work..

      • Callum says:
        17 Feb17 February 09:50

        Good point, though the Supercard looks flaky and I’ve never managed to actually get one! Maybe in a year or so this could work out.

        • RTS says:
          17 Feb17 February 09:52

          I’ve never had any issues with the Supercard – the app is flaky but that is easily rectified by logging in online and making changes that way.

          So far, no issues for me.

      • Mark says:
        17 Feb17 February 17:58

        Unlikely to as you can’t link a prepaid card to the Supercard (I did try it with a 3V!)

    • James says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:53

      I assume you don’t encounter many situations where the retailer doesn’t accept Amex but takes Visa/MasterCard? I seem to find this a fair amount, none more so than HMRC. They charge a 1.5% fee for credit card transactions but don’t take Amex, as scandalous as that is. As with most things, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have a £16,000 corporation tax bill and each quarter I have a circa £4k VAT bill to pay. There is no MasterCard or Visa credit card on the market (bar the IHG one and I can’t currently apply for that one) that would allow me to pay my tax bill and receive some sort of reward. The Curve Card seemingly fits that bill nicely, as I will be able to use a “MasterCard” but effectively my Amex will be behind it, and when you need to spend £10,000 on the BA card to get a 2-4-1 voucher, it makes it very attractive to pay the CC fees.

      • Callum says:
        17 Feb17 February 10:03

        No, I don’t consider the ability to pay tax bills to HMRC as a criteria when considering a TRAVEL card.

        • George says:
          17 Feb17 February 10:13

          Supercard works well for paying tax as its treated as a debit card. Max daily limit of 5000 so it takes a few goes. Paired with Lloyds Avios Mastercard an easy source of ‘free’ avios.

          • James says:
            17 Feb17 February 10:36

            Yes I tried to get a Supercard but it was fully subscribed.

          • John D says:
            17 Feb17 February 12:09

            HMRC introduced some new rules 1st Jan apparently limiting the amount of times you can use your card to pay the same bill .

            From HMRC website – Making more than one card payment
            From 1 January 2016, HMRC will limit the number of times you can use a credit or debit card within a certain time to pay your tax.

            There isn’t a set limit – it depends on HMRC’s view of what’s reasonable based on payment card industry standards and guidance.

            The rules apply to multiple card payments against the same tax – you can only make extra card payments if each one’s for a different tax, eg Corporation Tax and employers’ PAYE.

            If you’re unable to pay your bill in full by card, you should use another payment method like a bank transfer.

  • shadowfixer says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:31

    Just applied with directorowner and iOS, originally i was on android and was rejected… so just used the back button and changed to iOS.

    My referral code if you are interested 🙂 OfF7A

    SF

    • paul says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:34

      gone for the $75. Apparently it comes with with free TUMI wallet..

      My referral code is yLRea if it’s of any use to anyone.

      • sd83 says:
        17 Feb17 February 09:36

        the referral code system doesn’t seem to work? anyone else having problems with this?

  • RTS says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:37

    Referral code: fZfkm

  • harry says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:37

    Curve can save you money abroad compared to normal bank cards. So just keep using Curve everywhere you go. We cut your exchange costs to the MasterCard wholesale rate plus 1%, with no fees. Curve is accepted in 35 million places worldwide, wherever you see the MasterCard logo. Linked your Euro account to Curve? In a Euro area you pay zero exchange rate costs and fees, just like you would using your Euro account card. Same for all 15 currencies we currently support.

    This bit could be a killer advantage, I’d get my 2 MR points per £ for 1% fee – ie 0.5p/ Avios

    • Genghis says:
      17 Feb17 February 09:45

      Exactly. Plus even if you use Halifax Clarity which gives great rates, you still get charged interest even if you pay off the balance. This is a game changer for withdrawals abroad I think.

    • John says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:24

      Why would you get 2 MR per £? I expect Curve will be treated as a UK merchant. If you still have the buggy £125/year Gold then possibly it might fall under travel spend.

  • harry says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:40

    I missed out on Supercard (& lived to not regret it 🙂 ).

    I’m holding back here as well until I can see the T&Cs. Not likely to miss out if I wait until tomorrow – sez he lol

  • xcalx says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:40

    just signed up for the £75 option

    Here is my referral code for £10 each

    http://www.imaginecurve.com/r=Rbba6

    Thanks

  • Aimvpr says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:42

    So far what I’ve gleaned is from chatting to the agent is…

    Dispatch will be in March.

    The Tumi Wallet has two external folders, and a central part.

    At the moment there is only an App on iOS. They are working on Android.

    Hoping Supercard > Curve > Amex will work for basically max points, fee free FX.

    The black card brings you double reward points when we launch our loyalty scheme, and you’ll get first access to certain new features that will be launching this year.

    I have gone for the (£75) Black Curve + Freebie Tumi Wallet.

    Hope this helps people out.

    Referral Code: fZfkm

    • John says:
      17 Feb17 February 10:28

      Supercard > Curve > Amex is likely to not work outside North America and Europe.

      Supercard times out if it doesn’t get a response in 3 seconds. Supercard has been flaky for me in New Zealand and rural Sweden – presumably due to the longer latency. I haven’t tried to use it anywhere “exotic” so can’t comment.

      Now when it has to authorise Curve, which also has to authorise Amex, I suspect that this will take longer than 3 seconds in many places.

      • RTS says:
        17 Feb17 February 10:54

        Supercard worked fine for me in Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and a remote island off Philippines…

        • Joel says:
          18 Feb18 February 17:28

          I had issues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia trying to withdraw cash from ATM. Getting failed transactions.

  • Genghis says:
    17 Feb17 February 09:43

    Sounds great. I went for the black card with the free Tumi wallet for the £75 – worth the punt IMO.
    Here’s my code: p1Pob
    Or URL: http://www.imaginecurve.com/r=p1Pob

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Learn more on our About page.

VAA

Latest comments

Latest Forum Posts

Get 30,000 points bonus with American Express Platinum

Amex Gold

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.3 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

Get 20,000 bonus points and your first year free with American Express Gold

Amex Gold