New IHG Rewards Club ‘buy points’ bonus of 50% – 100% could be a good deal

Last month, IHG Rewards Club – the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc scheme – ran a hugely generous bonus of 100% bonus points when you bought points.

For some people – but not all – this offer is now back.

Until August 31st, you will receive a bonus of either 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% or 100% when you buy points.

The only way to find out what bonus you will receive is to log in at the IHG ‘buy points’ website here and see what the order page shows.

As a reminder, here are the standard purchase rates which do NOT include the bonus:

• 1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
• 11,000 – 25,000 points for $12.50 per 1,000 points
• 26,000 – 60,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points

If you have been selected for a 90% or 100% bonus, this is well worth serious thought.

With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy 120,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates) £442.

At the top end of the IHG Rewards Club portfolio, you have InterContinental properties which top out at 50,000 points per night. That’s what you would pay for InterContinental Le Grand in Paris or the InterContinental Amstel in Amsterdam.

With a 100% bonus, IHG is effectively selling you a night at these properties for £184 all-in.

There is no doubt that this could be a great deal.  Except in the deepest darkest days of January, you are unlikely to be able to get a room at InterContinental London Park Lane, InterContinental Paris Le Grand or InterContinental New York Times Square for under £300 including tax.

Of course, I could run a different list of low season dates at the same properties – or other hotels in the group – where this would not look like such a great deal.

At a more prosaic level, hotels like the Holiday Inn Commercial Road in London (which is only a couple of years old) are 30,000 points.  That would be £108 per night if you bought the points via this deal.

You are running the risk of IHG changing their reward scheme before you spend the points.  That said, the risk is VERY small for the rest of 2015 as IHG has already revised its reward pricing for this year.

This ‘buy points’ offer runs until August 31st.  You can check out the size of your bonus via this link.

The maximum number of points you can buy is 120,000 (ie 60,000 plus the 60,000 bonus if you are targetted for 100% extra).  However, you can also receive a further 120,000 as a gift from another member.  Your partner or a friend could use their account to ‘gift’ another 120,000 to you.

---

IHG One Rewards update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.

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

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

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.