Get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club hotel points – limit raised to 500,000 points

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IHG Rewards Club has launched a 100% ‘buy points’ bonus, which is as generous as you ever see. Should you jump in?

There are two extra tweaks which make this better than similar deals:

IHG has increased the maximum number of points you can buy to a whopping 500,000 points (ie 250,000 plus the 250,000 bonus).

There is no taper – as long as buy at least 3,000 points, you receive the full 100% bonus. In the past we have seen high minimum thresholds to receive a 100% bonus.

The page to buy points is here.

This deal runs to 15th June.

The standard prices, before the bonus, are:

1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
11,000 – 25,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points
26,000 – 250,000 points for $10 per 1,000 points

With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy up to 500,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates for $2,500) £1,951.

Is is worth buying IHG Rewards Club points?

I usually value IHG Rewards Club points at 0.4p. This is exactly what you are paying for them here, so from that point of view you shouldn’t lose money.

The skill is to use them at hotels where you can get substantially more than 0.4p per point of value. The new InterContinental Maldives, for example, is 100,000 points for an Overwater Pool Villa or – looking at next February – $1,100 inc taxes for cash, per night. This is a 50%+ saving given that 100,000 points will cost you $500. Availability is tricky to find here in peak season, however.

You can get similar deals closer to home. IHG does not have peak pricing – although it is quietly trialling variable pricing at a handful of hotels – so there is real value at any hotel when you book for a night when it is substantially more expensive than the yearly average.

You can buy points via this link. The 100% bonus runs to 15th June.

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.

DJ says:

7 May7 May 06:00

Will these count as qualified points?
- BrightonReader says:
  
  7 May7 May 06:12
  
  No.
  
  The only purchased points that qualify towards status are those that are bought as part of a bonus package when booking and staying in a room.
- Rob says:
  
  7 May7 May 10:25
  
  No
twoclicks says:

7 May7 May 06:27

All these points for sale… to be honest at least the hotels will still be there. Airline route networks will be reduced for a long time to come so I’m more skeptical about buying them because of devaluations and reduced flights / routes to use them on…
Anna says:

7 May7 May 07:58

Bear in mind paid rates usually include breakfast, which at hotels like the given example of the Maldives can be very expensive which needs to be factored into the cost per point. As does the fact that paid rates earn points back, so reducing the ‘headline’ cost.
- Jonathan says:
  
  7 May7 May 08:13
  
  A points stat can dodge resort fees however, this can be a big saving in the USA where it’s often $30/day +. Boston is also often great value on points as hotels are frequently over £300/night.
  - Optimus Prime says:
    
    7 May7 May 08:30
    
    Or IC Times Square in New Year’s Eve…
  - Marcw says:
    
    7 May7 May 08:57
    
    Not with IHG
    - Optimus Prime says:
      
      7 May7 May 09:01
      
      What do you mean? I didn’t have to pay resort fees at IC Times Square in the last week of December.
      - Olly says:
        
        7 May7 May 11:11
        
        @Optimus, if you booked with points and or have status you may well have got out of resort fees (I have heard of this being mentioned in some chats) but definately will get charged them with cash bookings. I looked at going both IC in NYC before the C-19 issue and was not impressed to see the Resort Fee on most hotels in NYC now. It appears to be some sort of tax dodge by the hoteliers there and expanding out across the USA.
      - Jonathan says:
        
        7 May7 May 12:26
        
        It’s not a tax dodge it just reduces the headline rate on search engines & also reduces the proportion of the total nightly cost that they have to pay 20% commission on to Expedia etc.
      - Optimus Prime says:
        
        7 May7 May 12:58
        
        @Olly – yeah looks like IC TS is one of the few that charges no fees on redemptions. Agreed that f*cking resort fees are just a way to inflate prices and avoid paying taxes…
      - Genghis says:
        
        7 May7 May 13:50
        
        It’s also a tax dodge (I’m not a US tax accountant so only relying on what I read)
        https://www.frommers.com/blogs/arthur-frommer-online/blog_posts/resort-fees-are-a-tax-dodge-why-they-re-destructive-for-us-all
    - Allan says:
      
      7 May7 May 09:33
      
      Paid $75 per night at Kimpton Seafire, Grand Cayman – points and free nights – no negotiation.
      - Anna says:
        
        7 May7 May 13:14
        
        What did you think? It’s on my list of redemptions, I was gutted to have to cancel my 5 nights at the Westin last month 😩. GC is notorious for “nickel and diming” as many outraged American travellers post on TripAdvisor. They are in a bad way at the moment, the Premier has said the islands are closed until the COVID risk is gone, even if the tourism industry never recovers.
- Secret Squirrel says:
  
  7 May7 May 09:06
  
  Very good point made Anna, on paid rates do you get free breakfast for all persons on the booking?
  - Anna says:
    
    7 May7 May 10:22
    
    I have a doppelgänger…
    - marcw says:
      
      7 May7 May 10:34
      
      You need a Gravatar Anna!
      - Anna says:
        
        7 May7 May 13:10
        
        Yes I need to do the whole Shoestring and reinvent myself!
  - Jonathan says:
    
    7 May7 May 12:25
    
    There’s no free breakfast benefit for any tier in IHG Rewards Club so will depend on the rate you book. There’s certainly lots of Kimpton & Intercontinental rates that don’t include breakfast.
    - Optimus Prime says:
      
      7 May7 May 13:11
      
      I find it interesting that Kimpton doesn’t have free breakfast for IHG members but sometimes they’ll give it to you if mention their social password. Happened to us in Kimpton Amsterdam in January. BTW their pancakes were amazing…
      - Harry T says:
        
        7 May7 May 13:29
        
        Thanks, booker a night at the Kimpton Amsterdam for early January.
    - PJJ says:
      
      7 May7 May 13:35
      
      And as a solo traveller the cost of breakfast is the same as 2 people
      As much as I try I can’t eat 2 breakfasts !
      - Boi says:
        
        7 May7 May 14:32
        
        I am confused. Does Kimpton GC charge resort fees on redemptions?
Andrew says:

7 May7 May 08:47

Anyone had their Spire choice benefit applied to their account yet following the status extension a couple of weeks ago?
- BrightonReader says:
  
  7 May7 May 09:08
  
  Not yet. My date is still showing my status ends this year.
  
  I can wait for both to be sorted and they did say it would take a good few weeks for it to filter through they system.
Paul Pogba says:

7 May7 May 09:10

Air Canada Altitude/Aeroclub are offering a 115% bonus from 10:00 EDT (15:00 BST). If you go crazy and buy 250,000 you get Star Alliance silver: https://www.aeroplan.com/travelathome.do#/
- Cam says:
  
  7 May7 May 09:22
  
  And Star Alliance silver is worth how much? Ymmv….
  - Rob says:
    
    7 May7 May 10:19
    
    Almost nothing if you’re not flying the airline which issued it, which is why we’ve not covered this.
    - Boi says:
      
      7 May7 May 12:51
      
      How easy or hard is it to redeem on air canada? I am wondering if I should buy as we are moving to Canada this year and it might be good for travel around Canada?
      There’s no Ryanair there and airfares seem high
      - Sundar says:
        
        7 May7 May 15:44
        
        If you are moving to canada and will be able to use it, then best to register now as a non-resident – Non-Canadian residents need only 50% AQDs to qualify.
      - Paul Pogba says:
        
        7 May7 May 16:04
        
        They’re down to the 90% bonus. It looks like LHR-YVR in business is 110k miles + C$1145 fees. You can buy 114k miles for C$1800 so a return in business to the second furthest part of Canada is C$2945 (or £1702) which is pretty good. 1/10 to 8/10 is showing AC £2890, BA £2907.
        
        It also looks like 50% of the purchased miles count towards AQM, this would put you $3000 AQD from *A Gold (Elite 50k). I’m not totally sure I’m reading the terms correctly though.
        
        If you want a cheap airline in Canada westJet aren’t bad (kind of Aer Lingus/easyJet level).
    - Paul Pogba says:
      
      7 May7 May 14:12
      
      Definitely under whelming, I thought the granting of any level of status for earning points was interesting. Do you think BA might do something similar to drive some cash into the business?
      
      No idea on availability, but heres the AC redemption chart: https://www.aeroplan.com/use-your-miles/flight-rewards-chart?currentLanguage=en#/
Concerto says:

7 May7 May 09:39

There’s a slightly scary thread over at FT about someone having his account closed. Looks like buying too many points had something to do with it, although it might have been booking points and cash stays and canceling them.
- Anna (the original) says:
  
  7 May7 May 10:23
  
  I don’t see how they could penalise you for buying points they have willingly sold to you! Probably the latter.
  - Concerto says:
    
    7 May7 May 10:28
    
    Difficult to say for sure in that thread. But their propensity for suddenly closing accounts with no recourse is slightly worrying.
- Peter K says:
  
  7 May7 May 15:49
  
  There was one mentioned in the comments a couple of weeks ago, but digging further the person whose IHG account had been closed had a sob sorry that sounded *very* implausible. Eg registering for all cash stay offers but never using them and buying loads of IHG points from IHG official channels to use but having their account closed with millions left in it.
Nick M says:

7 May7 May 10:51

I haven’t acquired/used as many points as many others here – but I have always received much more than 0.4p/point… currently have a night booked in London in July for a sports event (I imagine this will be cancelled, or if not we probably won’t choose to keep the hotel booking anyway) – but this was 40k vs £260, and this is fairly typical value of the redemptions I’ve made.
Boi says:

7 May7 May 12:53

Where else is good to redeem IHG points especially in America’s and Caribbean?
Wondering if I should buy….
- BrightonReader says:
  
  7 May7 May 15:46
  
  Go somewhere because you want to go there and not because it’s supposed to be the ‘best’ use of your points or an easy redemption to get.
  
  It’s no good going to Miami because it’s a ‘great’ rate when you really want to go to Manhattan is it?
  
  It’s the same with airlines miles fly to wherever-port because you want to go there not because it has a better mile per point or minute flown rate than another-port.
  
  But more importantly don’t buy on a speculative basis because all you’re doing is giving them a free loan
- Peter K says:
  
  7 May7 May 15:51
  
  There’s an all inclusive holiday Inn in Jamaica, but like Brighton Belle said, go where you want to. I don’t fancy Jamaica (though St Lucia is on my list) so haven’t booked it.
  - Boi says:
    
    7 May7 May 22:11
    
    Oh, I appreciate that but always good to hear great redemption options out there…..I collect in 3 hotels schemes, so if I know I can choose that particular hotel over other schemes. we often do hear about aspirational redemptions on hfp-doesnt mean we all go there (or should go there) but nice to read about nonetheless. Rob has given an example of maldives…someone might now consider that particular hotel when they go there coz of that (word of mouth).
    
    Thanks Peter- I also dont want to go to Jamaica but good to know…
    - Colin MacKinnon says:
      
      8 May8 May 00:17
      
      Would be really good – even if just from readers, off best IHG redemptions .
      
      Taking into account breakfast, resort fees, etc etc
      
      Really hacked me off as a Spire having to pay for brekkie in HI Dar E sSalaam!