REGISTER NOW: IHG brings back its generous ‘Accelerate’ offer for Autumn

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• Peter says:

  10 Aug10 August 09:20

  Mine are the same as the present load; boring & dreadful. Each one the same… stay 3 nights for x points and the next target…stay a further 3 nights and earn x points and son on

• BlackBerryAddict says:

  10 Aug10 August 09:57

  I have actually made the target for the current one, and like Rob can get something like 18k points on a well targeted stay on the new one. I might just engineer that

• Fraser says:

  10 Aug10 August 10:04

  Another set of impossible targets. Am I being punished for staying enough to hit previous targets?

  Earn 72,300 bonus points
  1,500 Stay Once
  16,500 Stay 11 nights
  2,900 Book 3 stays via the IHG App (eg cannot be work trips!)
  8,000 Stay 2 weekends Inc Sat and another night
  17,600 Stay in 4 different countries
  2,500 For 2 stays at corporate rate
  2,800 For 2 bonus point packages (eg not work trips)
  18,000 For 6 of the 7 above
  2,500 for one stay in September

  I do actually have 4 nights abroad at corporate rate planned in September but already booked, so should rebook and cancel to ensure they trigger 4,000 points. But most of my plans involve other hotels already so this looks impossible compared with the 5 nights / 2 countries they usually targeted before.

  Result: actually less likely to book the odd extra trip with IHG since there’s no attainable target.

• Concerto says:

  10 Aug10 August 10:36

  Once again Rob, how do you manage to get such reasonable targets, especially if you are managing to complete the promo each time? Mine keep creeping up and up by one digit for each task. So, 11 instead of 10 nights, 5 instead of 4 weekends, 6 instead of 5 app bookings and so on. The first two Accelerate promos this I completed almost nothing, the last one I didn’t even sign up for. What am I doing wrong? How do I get my task levels back down to something sensible?

  • Pangolin says:

    10 Aug10 August 17:29

    If you think that’s bad I went from a target that could be hit with 3 nights to one that required 20.

    This is not tke kind of acceleration I was looking for!

• Eoin says:

  10 Aug10 August 10:46

  I think I may take the prize for the worst? No achievement bonus at all. All I get is 1500 for first stay, 9600 after six nights, +3000 after nine nights, and again after 12 nights, after 15 nights, after 18 nights and finally 15000 if I stay 21 nights. Woeful for anyone but somebody who is on the road a huge amount. And no variety at all – nothing for staying at different brands, different countries or any of the other interesting ones.

  Separate question: does anyone know if trips that are already booked count or do I need to cancel and re-book? Hard to tell from terms and conditions.

  • Genghis says:

    10 Aug10 August 10:55

    It’s quite easy to tell from T&Cs. Most of mine say ‘consume’ but one specifies to also ‘book’ within the period.

    • Alex says:

      10 Aug10 August 12:58

      The wording of my App offer is pretty vague and could be interpreted either way

      “Number of bonus points listed above will be awarded after required number of Qualifying Stays are booked via the official IHG® App and consumed between 1 September 2017 and 31 December 2017 (both dates inclusive)”

      I have an App booking for 2 December in CP Solihull – yes Solihull – but I don’t know hat to do to be honest… Ideas?

      • Genghis says:

        10 Aug10 August 13:11

        I see what you mean. I interpreted it booked (via the app) and consumed…

        • Alan says:

          10 Aug10 August 20:46

          Yes, very poorly worded – I read it as (a) must be booked via official IHG app AND (b) consumed 1/9-31/12, but with no time restriction on (a). However given the previous IHG approach to the mobile app promo I’d err on the side of caution and refrain from booking until 1/9. I’ve got three targets (Travel with App, Stay for Less and Earn, Spend on IHG Rewards Club Credit Card) that all have ambiguous wording that for safety I’ll consider as being book AND consumer after 1st Sep.

      • HayMow says:

        10 Aug10 August 13:37

        Alex – you’ll need to rebook on the app, after 1 Sep, if you want your App booking offer to count – this according to an online chat (argument) I had with IHG last time round.
        Totally agree the wording is ambiguous (& in my eyes it actually more implies booking is outside the time period, as you thought too), and hasn’t been changed/ clarified since the previous quarter’s T&Cs – but they told me it was “book and consume” within the time period stated. 🙁

        • Alex says:

          10 Aug10 August 15:45

          Thanks – very useful! Will rebook as my booking is refundable (for exactly this reason)

  • Dickie H says:

    10 Aug10 August 11:24

    If so Eoin, you can share worst prize with me, as I’ve got the same – for the 2nd quarter in a row! Not sure what algorithms I’ve tripped, but I’d be interested to know what proportion of Accelerates are now these 3-night repeaters. Admittedly for me, this is only the 3rd quarter I’ve only been a member, and I’m also a light user (3 nights in each of the last 2 quarters). My first set of targets were interesting enough – stay at 3 separate brands; book using Your Rate; download the app etc – which meant that I went out of my way to achieve them, but these last 2 quarters have given me no real incentive to stay, given that there’s no fun to be had in achieving my targets, and fundamentally I can get better rates + rebates elsewhere! So, bye bye IHG till 2018.

    • Kathy says:

      10 Aug10 August 12:48

      Me too. It’s not even really worth doing one stay to get 5000 points for me – I may as well spend $67.50 to buy 7000, since it’s hard to book a room for less than that in my area anyway.

      • Quark999 says:

        10 Aug10 August 13:47

        As a data point, I used to have interesting/different targets until my account got hacked and replaced with a “fresh” one by IHG. Now I am only getting “3-night repeaters” – even though I stayed at a Holiday Inn last quarter and triggered one bonus, this quarter I only have repeaters AGAIN. It will be interesting to see when that changes, i.e. after how many “new stays”.

        You would think that as a “new” customer I’d get better targets, but no.

        • HayMow says:

          10 Aug10 August 13:56

          fwiw The “3-night repeater” targets I think may happen if a corporate rate code has been applied to your account by IHG (or used by any business travel agent your employer might have used). Try contacting IHG customer services by chat/email to see if this is the case and ask them to remove that rate code if it is there? Won’t help for 2017 but could be worth trying for 2018?

    • Lady London says:

      10 Aug10 August 13:55

      I’ve had that for the last six quarters. Really impossible stay targets that don’t correspond to any of my previous stay patterns.

      Even Accor can do better than this.

      I may switch to stay more in Hilton Garden Inn than HIX in future, Hilton at least is very good on honouring little privileges during stay for Elites.

    • Pangolin says:

      10 Aug10 August 16:06

      I’ve had nothing but 3-night repeaters for two quarters in a row. The last time I avoided IHG completely due to how pathetic the Accelerate offer was – so they gave me exactly the same.

      Apart from the extra 12K for doing 20 nights, the average earning rate is 1K per night, which must be some kind of theoretical minimum.

      I’ll avoid IHG like the plague during this quarter as well, so doubtless for the next Accelerate they’ll give me exactly the same rubbish as the last two times.

      • Sussex bantam says:

        10 Aug10 August 21:12

        Yep. Exactly the same for me. Hilton and Marriott can have my money !

• CV3V says:

  10 Aug10 August 11:15

  Even with Spire status, i have avoided the last few Accelerate promos. This time however, it looks worth doing, potential 107,000 points for 5 well planned nights:

  2,000 Stay Once, Get 2,000 bonus points
  Thank you for being a loyal IHG® Rewards Club member. Stay once and earn 2,000 bonus points.
  10,000 Stay More, Earn More
  Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 5 night(s) and earn 10,000 bonus points.
  28,800 Discover Our Brands
  Stay at 3 brands and get 28,800 bonus points.
  4,800 Travel with the IHG® App
  Book 2 stay(s) with the IHG® App and earn 4,800 bonus points.
  16,800 Globetrotter Bonus
  Earn 16,800 bonus points for staying at 2 IHG® hotel(s) outside of your country of residence. You’ll earn for one hotel stay per country.
  6,600 Earn More, Faster
  Earn 6,600 bonus points when you book 1 Bonus Points Package stay(s) and get to your next reward faster.
  2,000 Get an IHG® Rewards Club Credit Card
  Successfully apply for the IHG® Rewards Club Credit Card or IHG® Rewards Club Premium Credit Card and earn 2,000 points.
  31,000 Your Achievement Bonus
  Complete 6 of the 7 offers and earn (an additional) 31,000 bonus points.
  5,000 September Bonus Offer
  Stay once in September and get 5,000 bonus points.

• Kinkell says:

  10 Aug10 August 12:36

  Only once completed targets to get full bonus. Only archived one target in recent promotion, and new targets are highly unfavourable. I could even get an additional 4 k if I have a 2 night stay in NYC ! Good luck to the rest of you!

• aliks says:

  10 Aug10 August 12:59

  Each year I tend to clean up all the targets in Q2 then spend a couple of quarters ignoring Accelerate while I consume the points. This means that my targets slide steadily downwards and are reasonably achievable and rewarding for the next year.

  Although we spend about 50 nights a year in hotel rooms, half of those are part of some holiday package, or in places with no IHG available. I’d say we earned about 4 free nights from 25 IHG paid nights last year. Call it a 20% discount and a few nice status benefits – not a bad return, and enough to keep me on board.

  • HayMow says:

    10 Aug10 August 13:39

    Hadn’t thought of it like that aliks – yes my Q2 was easily achievable with 2 x 1 night stays, but Q1 was a bust.

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