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More IHG bonus point codes, and how I am approaching ‘The Big Win’

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UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

Click here for our article on IHG’s ‘2000 Bonus Points’ promotion which runs from 1st April to 31st May 2024. You can register for the offer by clicking here.

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As I wrote the other day, I spent last Friday at the Holiday Inn Rotherham Sheffield. I booked this stay through my wifes account, as she has not done a paid IHG Rewards Club stay this year.

I also put through all of the current bonus codes that are currently floating around and which I put in this article.

The stay was a big success, generating over 14,000 IHG Rewards Club points on a £48 room. I value those points at around £70.

On top of the list of bonus points codes I listed in the post linked above, there is one new one I used.

Code 1041 gives you 2,000 bonus points on EVERY stay you make for 60 days after registering. You can see this code works from the screenshot above.

There are two further codes about which I have not tried yet:

Code 1012 gives 5,000 points on your next stay within 90 days. This code may not work if you are not a Gold or Platinum member. This is easily the best one-shot code we have seen in a long, long time.

Codes 1023 and 1027 gives 3,000 points on your next stay within 90 days. These codes will work on any account.

Combining codes with The Big Win

My wifes account is now in the interesting position of giving me 4,000 bonus points on every stay she makes within 60 days. This comes from the 2,000 points per stay code above (1041) and the two 1,000 point codes.

I wrote about IHG’s ‘Big Win’ promotion here. Whilst my own targets are simply not achievable, my wife has the easiest ‘Big Win’ challenge of anyone I know. These are her targets:

  • 1,000 points for one stay
  • 6,700 points for 5 nights
  • 12,000 points for 2 different brands
  • 4,000 points for booking 2 stays online
  • 12,000 points for 2 hotels from the list provided
  • 36,000 for completing all of the above

That makes a total of 71,000 points, so about £350 of value. More importantly, we can complete all of the above with just 5 nights!

I have two options. I am in Madrid next month for a night, and there are some €40-50 Holiday Inn Express properties in Madrid on my list of hotels for the 12,000 point bonus. I will book into one of those (although I won’t stay there).

The question then is how many nights. I could just do a 4-night HIX stay at €40-50 per night and be done with it. However, because she is also getting 4,000 bonus points per stay for the next 60 days, there is also the possibility of booking – admittedly more expensive – hotels in London (also on our list) and using them for visiting family and friends in coming weeks.

If I book 4 Holiday Inn Express nights in Madrid, I am ‘all done’ for under €180. That is a real result for 71,000 bonus points, plus around 15,000 points for the stay itself using the latest codes above.

Add in the points from the Holiday Inn stay last Friday, and the five nights will have earned around 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points – enough for 2 nights at a luxury InterContinental in New York, Paris, London etc.

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.

Category

IHG One Rewards

Comments (72)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • GlennM says:
    26 Sep26 September 07:28

    Hi Raffles,

    Following this article and your recent one (https://headforpoints.com/2013/09/13/is-it-worth-buying-hotel-points-to-transfer-to-avios-for-the-25-bonus/ )

    In summary, would you say it isn’t worth transferring IHG to Avios? And better to simply accumulate and use for reward night stays at their hotels?

    Regards,

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:55

      Not worth transferring to Avios if you have enough for a hotel room, and will realistically use it. Even with the bonus, 50,000 IHG is only 12,500 Avios. I’d value the Avios at £100-£125 but a 50,000 point InterContinental night should be worth £200+.

      That said, if you only have 10,000 IHG points with no prospects of getting more, this is a decent chance to clear out your account. However, 15,000 IHG gets you a £25 shopping voucher which is arguably just as good as taking Avios.

    • John says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:57

      It’s almost never worth transferring IHG to anything, unless you are desperate and you never want to stay in an IHG again.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    26 Sep26 September 07:35

    I arguably have an easier challenge. Only need four nights, although I need two Saturdays. Total of 96k on the table though!

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 07:53

      But Saturdays are cheaper! Check in on 2 x Fridays for two nights if you are tied up with family at weekends.

      • John says:
        26 Sep26 September 08:00

        Mine is basically the same as your wife’s, but I get 102000 points instead! We may have even got the same list of European hotels.

        Hopefully I can get at least 5k bonus on each of my 5 stays, I may never need to pay for a hotel again (if I can work out a self-perpetuating cycle via various programmes…)

        • Jenni says:
          26 Sep26 September 09:45

          I’ve also got the same targets, for a total of 101,800 points. I’m going to achieve all of them too fairly easily which is nice. That pays for our hotel next year in New York then!

  • James67 says:
    26 Sep26 September 07:58

    This is a very good big win target. Mine’s is higher at 98k but included the 3 Saturday night requirement and the two city requirement, London being only one I plan to stay, so it looks like no joy for me. Will take what I can from it though and update the latest codes also. Any idea what happens with big win earnings if I set my preferences to AAdvantage> Will miles earned be half the points?

  • erico1875 says:
    26 Sep26 September 08:19

    With the Crown Plaza Limmasol, normally +150 Euro per night, included in the 5k point break promotion, these bonus codes and The Big Win are incredibly valuable.

  • Calchas says:
    26 Sep26 September 08:24

    I’ve signed up for the Big Win and have stayed at a couple of IHG properties so far. Yet nothing on my “Big Win” page reflects that I’ve accumulated any points this way (0 of 125k). Still earning points in the usual way otherwise.
    Is this normal? I hope I did not endure the Holiday Inn Birmingham City Centre for nothing …

    • BD701 says:
      26 Sep26 September 08:30

      I think I read it takes 4-6 weeks for Big WIn points to show on your account.

    • Nick Burch says:
      26 Sep26 September 09:17

      I had some Big Win points post today, so you might want to check to see if they have now arrived. It looks like they only crunch the numbers and award points once or twice a week for the Big Win.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      26 Sep26 September 09:40

      It took about a week for them to appear in the Big Win site (a day or two after the rest of the stay had normally credited to my account), a couple days after that for the points to hit my account and then an email confirmation a few days after that.

      • Calchas says:
        26 Sep26 September 22:36

        Interesting. I had a stay on the first of September, and one last Saturday. Both normal points posted quickly but no sign of any Big Win points yet. I e-mailed them but they didn’t read the e-mail (“Your points were already credited”), e-mailed again but no reply yet.

        • Rob says:
          27 Sep27 September 07:54

          Log in to Big Win website, counter at top will have moved if they counted, assuming it triggered a bonus.

          • Alan says:
            27 Sep27 September 08:10

            Although there seems to often be a 2-3 day delay between the normal points posting and the Big Win ones. I found the progress meter then took another day, although I then received an email that helpfully showed complete/partially complete status for all my tasks.

          • Calchas says:
            28 Sep28 September 10:22

            The counter has not moved.

  • Thunderbirds says:
    26 Sep26 September 08:27

    Ah the Holiday Inn : Rotherham-Sheffield M1,Jct.33, I’ve been there myself. Were you upgraded to the top floor? These are the most bizarre rooms I’ve ever stayed in. Someone clearly thought why not build rooms into the roof of the hotel and give customers extra space and the hotel extra rooms. The problem is that the rooms only have windows at one end and the rooms must be a good 12m x 6m in size, with all the furniture around the edges. The free (to residents) gym and pool are O.K. though.

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 09:23

      I’ve had a suite on the top floor – worryingly, I spent Christmas in one once – but never a normal room. Some are quite big but the one I got on Friday was nothing to be excited about.

      On another previous visit, they put me directly above the function room where a wedding disco was on, whilst the wedding guests got rooms in the other wings!

  • xcalx says:
    26 Sep26 September 08:49

    Raffles if the “◾12,000 points for 2 hotels from the list provided” that you mention above is the ” Live the city life” I am sure you have to have a stay in 2 different cities. So staying 4 nights in Madrid will only count as 1 city.
    Mrs xcalx has 4 stays to include 2 Saturdays, 2 brands, 2 cities plus the online bookings for 103,500,

    • Rob says:
      26 Sep26 September 09:21

      You’re right. It said ‘two of the following locations’ and I assumed that meant location equals hotel, but small print does stress location equals cities.

      Looks like 3 nights in Madrid and 1 night in London then!

      Thanks.

  • BP says:
    26 Sep26 September 09:19

    Can I apply these codes to reservations made via a corporate travel agent?

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