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IHG Rewards Club ‘Big Win’ offer seems to be coming back

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‘The Big Win’ promotion from IHG Rewards Club, the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental etc loyalty scheme, has been one of the most generous hotel offers in recent years. 

It is the only one that got me making ‘mattress run’ stays – where it was worth my while to book into the cheapest property I could find just to trigger the bonus.

It seems that a ‘Big Win’ clone will be launched tomorrow.

Intercontinental hotel Los Angeles Downtown

The initial impression is that it will not be as generous as ‘The Big Win’.  The information we have is based on comments at Flyertalk and Loyalty Lobby, which themselves are based on posters which have been put up early in certain hotels and an early leak by Lufthansa.

The promotion will be called ‘Into the Nights’

The requirements will be targeted.  The more IHG stays you have done recently, the tougher your criteria will be.

You can earn ‘at least’ 2 free nights or 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points or 10,000 airline miles

For new members, the targets look easy

Lufthansa has leaked the airline miles ‘new member’ version early on its website here.

This shows the following targets which are presumably what you are given if you are a new IHG Rewards Club member:

  • Stay three nights
  • Book two stays directly via IHG
  • Stay at two Holiday Inn hotels
  • Stay at two different brands

You could easily achieve this target with three one-night stays, two at different Holiday Inn properties and one at a third property in a different brand.  That would earn you 10,000 bonus airline miles on top of the standard miles from your stay.  That is an excellent result.

The press release

This is the press release from IHG:

ATLANTA (Sept. 4, 2014) – InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is kicking off the fall travel season by offering IHG® Rewards Club members more opportunities to earn toward free travel through its next hotel rewards promotion, “Into the Nights.” The promotion offers members at least two free hotel nights at any IHG®-branded hotel anywhere in the world including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo® Hotels, Holiday Inn® Hotels, Holiday Inn Resort® Hotels, Holiday Inn Club Vacations®, Holiday Inn Express® Hotels, Staybridge Suites® Hotels, Candlewood Suites® Hotels and EVEN™ Hotels once a tailored set of offers is complete.

“We put great value on a loyalty program that builds relevant, rewarding travel experiences and cultivates a meaningful relationship with each participant over time,” said Bruce Lahood, vice president, Global Loyalty Consumer Marketing, IHG. “When our members told us they wanted a free night component in our next IHG® Rewards Club promotion, we created an even more valuable set of personalized offers. Members choose the reward for their loyalty that matters most to them – bonus points, miles or even free nights. It’s rewards on their terms.”

Registration for the “Into the Nights” promotion begins on Sept. 4. Once registered, members will receive their tailored set of offers and begin earning IHG® Rewards Club bonus points or bonus airline miles when they stay at any IHG®-branded hotel between Sept. 4 and Dec. 31, 2014.

If it is possible to earn two free night vouchers – which would be worth 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points if used at a top InterContinental – it may be worth a mattress run to achieve it.  I would value those two nights at £500 and would be willing to spend half of that to earn the vouchers.

I will do another article on this on Friday when I have seen what my own targets are.  If you click this link on Thursday (IHG works on US time so it may not work until the afternoon) you should be able to see your personal target.  The link will divert to the IHG home page if the promotion is not yet live.

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IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

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 (85)

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

  • Ian says:
    4 Sep4 September 15:53

    So I’m a Platinum member with 28 nights this year, and this is my offer…

    Complete 4 of 5 offers and earn 19,000 bonus points or 2 free nights
    * Stay 19 night(s) – 14,000
    * Stay at 5 brands – 20,800
    * Stay 2 Saturdays – 8000
    * Book 1 stays using the Bonus Points Package – 2000
    * Book 5 stay(s) including a Friday or Sunday – 7200

    As my work patterns have changed I won’t be achieving any of these.

    • Chris says:
      4 Sep4 September 18:40

      I also have 28 paid this year so far. I am getting the error message just now but it will be interested to compare between two which have the same amount of nights so far for reference.

      • Chris says:
        4 Sep4 September 22:49

        Hmmm, like the second big win my offers bear no resemblance to what my stays trend as. I’ve had quite a few not post and they had to be manually added, I wonder if this brings down the number of nights stayed on their system in some way. I’m certainly not complaining with what I’ve been offered it’s more than doable.

        50k or 2 nights – no brainer if IC PL is included
        Download the app and book – 500
        3 nights – 1,000 (Q4 last year I had 16 qualifying nights)
        2 stays on the IHG web/mobile site – 1000
        2 Saturdays – 1000
        2 HI – 1000

        I’ve also got the unlock bonus offers for additional rewards (not sure what that’s all about).

        The 1,000 for the different sections etc is pretty poor but when bundled all together it’s a doddle and fairly attractive. Three nights will get the lot.

  • Alan says:
    4 Sep4 September 16:26

    Pretty useless promo for me:

    Complete 6 of 7 offers and earn 18,000 bonus points or 2 free nights
    10,400 Stay 10 night(s) at any of IHG’s 4,700 hotels worldwide – no chance
    12,800 Stay at 4 brands – unlikely
    1,600 Stay 2 Saturdays at any of our IHG hotel brands – little benefit if not going to hit main target
    1,600 Stay at 2 Holiday Inn hotel(s) – do-able
    8,000 Book 2 stay(s) including a Friday or Sunday night (stay must include 2 or more nights) – rarely have 2-night stays
    1,500 Book 1 stay(s) with your IHG Rewards Club Black Visa and earn 1,500 bonus points. – already booked one of my stays, so too early, and the others will be reward stays!
    9,600 Travel 2 time(s) internationally – would be fine but reward stays don’t count according to the T&Cs

  • Julie says:
    4 Sep4 September 16:49

    Mine has worked but mums account which hasn’t been used is coming up with sorry but there has been an error. Shame because I’m sat here waiting to book a holiday inn in her name for this evening, that’s how it goes!

    • Brian says:
      4 Sep4 September 16:59

      A friend of mine got the error message – however, he also received an email thanking him for registering! The promotion is also showing on his offers page on the ‘My Account’ page. Odd. So he is registered, but doesn’t know what he has to do to get the points.

  • signol says:
    4 Sep4 September 16:57

    I’ve had 14 nights this year over HI and HIX – 9 paid, 5 reward redemptions.
    My offers are:
    Stay 5 nights, earn 8400 points
    Stay at 3 brands and earn 17600 points
    Book 2 stays directly for 1900 points
    Take a survey for 100 points
    Stay 2x Saturdays for 4800 points
    Complete any 4 for 2 free nights or 17200 bonus points.
    I currently have one work night booked midweek in a Crowne Plaza…

  • Twobfair says:
    4 Sep4 September 17:23

    My partner who has had an account for a few months but has never used it is getting the same error message. It seems to be a common theme with those who have new/rarely used accounts.

  • Keith says:
    4 Sep4 September 19:50

    I’m also getting the error message: We are sorry, but there was an error. Please try again later.
    My account is also relatively new, although I’ve already got 4 bookings for a trip later this month. Could work out well with this bonus, if I could just register! I’ll try again tomorrow…

    • Twobfair says:
      4 Sep4 September 22:39

      Managed to log in but there are no offers to complete with no bonus points available even though it states to complete 1 offer for two free nights..very strange.

  • nicola says:
    4 Sep4 September 20:28

    2 quick questions, 1 do reservations I have already made count? and will reservations using the BMW promotional rate count towards this? thanks,

    • James Ward says:
      4 Sep4 September 21:01

      I have same question about already-booked stays. Also, one of my targets is to download the app but I already have it so not sure how I can unlock that one.

    • Rob says:
      4 Sep4 September 21:29

      Yes and probably yes as long as the discount is not under 30 per cent from the Best Flex Rate

      • Nicola says:
        4 Sep4 September 21:36

        Thanks for the info. Hopefully it is included. The rate is the one where you get the club room and benefits for standard room rate.

  • N says:
    4 Sep4 September 22:23

    I was getting the error earlier, but I’m now in, so keep trying.

    As a lapsed IHG user, I’ve got:
    500 Download app and book a stay
    1000 Stay 3 nights
    1000 Book 2 stays on website or app
    1000 Stay 2 Saturdays
    1000 Stay 2 Holiday Inns

    Complete all 5 for 50000 points or 2 free nights.

    Thanks IHG, that’ll do nicely 🙂

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