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News: IHG extends points expiry and card vouchers, new Amex cashback offers

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News in brief:

IHG Rewards extends points expiry and credit card free night vouchers

IHG Rewards has announced a further covid-related extension to points and free night expirations.

You will receive an email next week to confirm the details if you are impacted, but the changes will be:

  • points expiry for ‘no status’ members has been suspended further until 31st December 2021 – elite members have nothing to worry about, since points never expire for members who have IHG Rewards status
  • free night vouchers earned with the (now closed to new applicants) IHG Rewards Premium Mastercard which were due to expire on 31st August 2021 have been extended to 31st December 2021
IHG Rewards extends points and free night expiry

American Express launches new cashback offers

We were expecting a flood of American Express hotel cashback offers to launch this week, but it has been slower than expected.

IHG has now jumped in.

£100 IHG cashback with American Express

IHG is offering £100 cashback on spend of £350+ at selected hotels by 31st August.

The deal is heavily restricted unfortunately. It only applies to InterContinental, Regent and Kimpton hotels in Europe as listed here. This isn’t many properties.

The offer is presumably cumulative but this is not certain.

As usual, you need to opt-in to this offer. To see if you are targetted, look at the ‘Offers’ tab on the statement page of every Amex card you hold, either in the app or on the website.

The good news is that it will double-up with the current Ambassador sign-up or renewal promotion.

As we covered here, you receive a free night voucher (up to 40,000 IHG Rewards points) if you pay $200 to join or renew IHG’s Ambassador loyalty scheme and do one cash stay at an InterContinental or Kimpton hotel by 31st August. This happens to be the same expiry date as the cashback deal. Details of how to get the Ambassador deal are in this article.

The real sweet spot here would be:

  • join Ambassador for $200 and get your ‘buy one night get one free’ certificate (which is actually valid 7 days at Kimpton hotels, but only Fri-Sun at InterContinental)
  • book an InterContinental or Kimpton cash stay with your ‘buy one night get one free’ voucher (ensure the hotel is on the participating list for the Amex cashback offer)
  • enjoy your guaranteed Ambassador benefits, including a $20 hotel credit, guaranteed 4pm check-out and guaranteed upgrade at InterContinental properies (varies at Kimpton and Regent)
  • spend over £350 during the stay and trigger your £100 cashback from American Express
  • receive a voucher for a free night worth up to 40,000 IHG Rewards points via the Ambassador sign-up promotion – the voucher must be redeemed by the end of November

Many hotels allow you to book a suite with your ‘buy one get one free voucher’ so you could splurge to get to the £350 required to trigger the cashback.

Take a look at the list of participating hotels (PDF) for the £100 cashback offer here.

Get £45 cashback with a £179+ subscription to The Economist

An interesting subscription deal for The Economist has also appeared on many cards.

You will receive £45 back on a subscription of £179 or more if targetted.

The sweet spot here would be if Avios launched another generous deal with The Economist before the cashback offer expires on 30th June. As you can see here, the current Avios offer is only 3,400 Avios with a £179 digital subscription, which is weak. During a promotional period, it can jump up to 15,000 Avios.

Even if Avios doesn’t jump by 30th June, it is possible that a good offer will appear with another partner such as Accor. I will keep an eye out. The current Accor deal is 2,000 points, worth €40 off a hotel stay, which isn’t as good as it has been.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus. 

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Amex Platinum Business American Express

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, IHG Rewards

Comments (44)

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

  • Paul Pogba says:
    20 May20 May 06:03

    Tesco have extended the expiry on Clubcard vouchers too:

    “Any vouchers issued in May 2019 won’t expire until 30 November 2021, giving you an extra 6 months to use them.”

  • The Original Nick. says:
    20 May20 May 06:30

    Have Radisson Rewards extended their points expiry for us all too?

  • Anna says:
    20 May20 May 06:54

    Some Kimptons at least seem to have stopped participating in the Ambassador free 2nd night scheme from next year, I don’t know if this is across the entire portfolio or just certain properties.

    • meta says:
      20 May20 May 09:04

      I thought that when it was launched it was announced that you’ll only be able to redeem Ambassador voucher at Kimptons and Regents till end of this year.

      • Anna says:
        20 May20 May 11:31

        It was, but I was hoping IHG’s flaky IT would extend it!

    • Alan says:
      20 May20 May 09:11

      Oh, damn that’s a pain – was hoping to maybe use one for that!

    • Rob says:
      20 May20 May 10:12

      Possible. Small print says that it is only guaranteed for 2021.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        20 May20 May 13:06

        You’d hope they would extend as a full time benefit because that really improves the proposition but imagine that won’t happen for a few more months.

  • Paul says:
    20 May20 May 07:05

    I had 2 free night vouchers, have used them for 2 upcoming bookings, but now my account is still showing another free night voucher fo use before 31st December??
    This may be good news!!

    • YC says:
      20 May20 May 07:56

      When did u make those 2 bookings? I wonder if there was a cut off date to when IHG dropped the new 31st Dec night into accounts and if you had booked before this date, they did not drop another free night (only way to extend the certificate)

    • Benilyn says:
      20 May20 May 08:32

      Not the case for me, have a booking I made in Feb-21 for Aug-21. No extra voucher showing. Lucky you!

      • Reney says:
        20 May20 May 09:16

        +1 looks like I will have to cancel my August booking so assume/ hope my voucher will come back as December

    • Benilyn says:
      20 May20 May 08:52

      What was the expiry of the 2 free night vouchers you initially had?

    • M says:
      21 May21 May 10:35

      I had a free night expiring Dec 2020. Booked a stay for May 2021.
      If I’d to cancel it, would I get it back?

  • Ed says:
    20 May20 May 07:30

    Is there a way to check what room types the Amb BOGOF voucher will work on, before committing to signing up?

    • Andrew says:
      20 May20 May 07:35

      Yes anyone can search for the AMB rate, you don’t have to be a member. You can even book AMB rate before joining so you can wait until nearer your stay to join.

    • Rob says:
      20 May20 May 10:10

      Try search at intercontinental.com/ambweekend – you need to log in but I’m not sure if it lets a non-AMB in or not.

      If it won’t and you have a specific hotel / dates in mind, post it and someone will look it up.

  • a9504477 says:
    20 May20 May 08:12

    My AMB expires Aug 1 so thinking of taking advantage of the renewal offer to get a free night with a stay at an IC. For that stay i would like to use my AMB weekend cert which needs to be used before Aug 1. So, if i manage to make such a booking for July, will it trigger the free night voucher?
    I ask as in the T&Cs it states “No credit will be awarded for Stays completed prior to the member’s enrollment or renewal.” and i’m thus wondering what date is the applicable renewal date here, is it the date when i would pay for the renewal (and which thus would be before the stay) or the Aug 1 date (which would be after)?

  • Alan says:
    20 May20 May 09:12

    I’m hoping they’ll extend AMB free night certs too – have one expiring at the end of August that I can’t see much chance of me using given how things are!

  • Barbara Wakely says:
    20 May20 May 09:23

    Does anyone know if the IHG ambassador BOGO weekend night can be used alongside the current 3X point promotion (on 3+ stays)? If it’s my third stay, will the cash part of the BOGO earn 3X points? Thanks

    • Sandra says:
      20 May20 May 10:23

      Yes you earn points on the cash part of a stay as normal

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

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