Three little tricks to help you hit your IHG Accelerate target

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If you are working towards your IHG Accelerate target – and this is probably the most generous hotel promotion you will see this quarter – there are three little tricks and kinks which can help you meet your target.

Thanks to the HfP readers who helped with these.

IHG has launched a targetted bonus for buying points

Many of you will have received an email from IHG Rewards Club yesterday offering a bonus of up to 75% if you buy points.

I am not, at 75%, a serious buyer.

However, I will be buying 1,000 points.

Both my wife and I have an Accelerate target which is ‘buy some IHG points’. If you got that, now is your best chance to do it as you will receive a 30% bonus on a 1,000 point purchase.

To see if you are targetted for a bonus, visit the IHG ‘buy points’ page here. You will initially see the normal pricing but the special offer will appear once you are logged in, if you qualify.

‘Earn When You Redeem’ – option 1

Many people have a challenge which involves making a points redemption.

This triggers on making the booking and NOT on completing the stay, it seems. If you have this challenge, make a hotel booking for a few months down the line – beyond the 30th April promo closing date for safety. You can always cancel later.

‘Earn When You Redeem’ – option 2

Alternatively, there are some digital downloads available in the IHG rewards catalogue. The Language Translator Software is FREE.

A reader downloaded this and it triggered the ‘earn when you redeem’ bonus, albeit it took a month to show up on his Accelerate home page. Easy.

IHG Rewards update – September 2021:

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

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

Buy points: If you need additional IHG 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 Rewards

Blackberryaddict says:

26 Jan26 January 21:51

Do the Pointsbreak bookings also count as fulfilling the “redeem something” task?
Thanks
Stuart McIntyre says:

26 Jan26 January 22:32

Just in case any of you have a challenge to spend a certain value on food and drink in this Accelerate, watch out as the value is tax-exclusive.

I got caught out in December, needing to spend $39 on food and drink whilst on a mattress run. I converted that to Sterling, added a bit to be safe and assumed that £27 spend would be enough. That was a tough challenge at HI Express about to shut down for the Christmas break – I ended up buying a bottle of terrible wine to take home!

Sadly after much to and fro with IHG Customer Services after the spend didn’t credit, it turns out that the Ts&Cs state that taxes are excluded even when that’s VAT included in the published cost. Therefore my spend ended up crediting as $34! IHG agreed to credit the miserly 900 point bonus for that challenge as a goodwill gesture but refused to credit the overall Accelerate bonus… 🙁

I won’t make that mistake again!
- Gary M says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 23:31
  
  I have a food challenge of $80. Do you know if it is in one bill, or can it be accumulated over the Accelerate period over a number of stays?
  - Alan says:
    
    27 Jan27 January 23:34
    
    I believe it has to be on one bill and importantly is exclusive of VAT, so probably need to be over £65, even £70 to be on the safe side. Quite a tough target given the normal IHG dining options!
  - Rob says:
    
    28 Jan28 January 08:38
    
    Remember that one way to make this work is to not book a B&B rate but to pay a little extra to order breakfast in the hotel and charge it directly to your room.
Kevin says:

26 Jan26 January 22:33

One of my challenges is Stay Once Get 6,000. Am I right to interpret that I will get 18,000 points if I stay 3 nights at 3 different hotels within same area?
- signol says:
  
  26 Jan26 January 22:46
  
  No, unless there are multiple targets. Only the first will count.
  - Kevin says:
    
    26 Jan26 January 23:52
    
    Then better to stick with only one hotel instead of various hotels.
Scott says:

27 Jan27 January 05:03

I’ve got to buy a bonus points package as one of my tasks.

If I get the room itself, I can pay say £45. If I want a bonus points rate, I have to go to a flexible rate that comes in at around £75 and then add £5-£10 for the points.

Might be something better priced but have to weigh up the cost of getting to that hotel against what the points cost.

Anyway, going to do a stay on Friday or Sunday for £46 5 minutes away from me in the town centre as I’ve got:
5000 bonus points if I stay in January
3000 bonus points for my first stay
(and it will add one of my “book through the app” and “7 nights required”)
- Rich says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 16:41
  
  Yep, I’m also struggling to find any bonus rates that are attractive. I normally book in advance.
  
  That said, my achievement bonus is such that even £40 / night extra for booking the flex rate would be worth it.
PJK says:

27 Jan27 January 15:12

Hello, I’m just considering a mattress run to bag a few of my Accelerate targets, including a January bonus.

The question I have and am hoping someone can help with is this:
The cheapest rooms are usually Sunday nights.
This Sunday is Jan 31st and I would be ‘leaving’ on Mon 1st Feb.
Would it work to book this and arrive on Sunday, insisting on paying the bill on arrival, in order to ensure that the stay goes through as January?

I’m concerned that if I leave them to charge the room to my credit card then they’ll do it on Mon 1st Feb – not in January and missing out on 5000 points.

If anyone can help me with this I’d appreciate it!
Cheers,
P
- Gavin says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 16:18
  
  Pay in advance?
- YL says:
  
  28 Jan28 January 00:29
  
  To be honest, I think it depends how IHG system is set up..I have the feeling that checking out on 1st Feb may just miss the bonus…as the T&C did say that the stay must be completed between 1st January 2016 and 31st January 2016
  
  I could be wrong but I don’t think settling the bill in advance would make any difference, because your actual check out date will still be 1st Feb, and the stay will usually be posted with the correct check out date on your account..
  Perhaps you might want to consider staying on 30th just in case?
Kim says:

27 Jan27 January 18:30

On the 2015 accelerate promotion we booked some of our hotels using the discount via MasterCard. Does anyone know if this rate is excluded this time around?
Thanks
- Rob says:
  
  27 Jan27 January 22:33
  
  If the rate qualifies as an IHG points-posting stay, it counts for Accelerate.
  - Kim says:
    
    29 Jan29 January 14:51
    
    Thanks! I’d convinced myself that I’d read somewhere that it was excluded this time.
Bigglesgirl says:

5 Feb5 February 17:24

Does the same apply to one of my targets “Book 2 stays on the IHG app for an extra 2000 points”? Could I book 2 stays on the app way out in the year and then cancel them once the end of the promotion has passed?
- Rob says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 17:56
  
  No, it only seems to trigger when the stay posts (and, with my last one, not at all!).
Ian Beadle says:

10 Feb10 February 21:42

Hi,

Can offers be combined to qualify ?

I have the following

3,000 Stay Once Get 3,000 bonus points
Book 3 stay(s) with the IHG® App and earn 3,520 bonus points.
Earn 2,000 bonus points when you book 1 Bonus Points Package stay(s)
1,000 Points Purchase
Earn 1,000 bonus points by purchasing IHG® Rewards Club points.

I have booked 3 nights on my app one of which was a bonus stay does this cover all my targets ie stay once get 3000 points, and my 3 stays on the app and also my bonus points package or do I need to make a non app booking and another booking to qualify.

I have bought 1000 bonus points too.

Anyone advise.

Thanks
- Rob says:
  
  10 Feb10 February 22:25
  
  Yes, they combine – but you need 3 STAYS and not 3 NIGHTS to hit the app target. 3 back-to-back nights will probably only count as 1 (that is what the rules say).

Three little tricks to help you hit your IHG Accelerate target

IHG has launched a targetted bonus for buying points

‘Earn When You Redeem’ – option 1

‘Earn When You Redeem’ – option 2

IHG Rewards update – September 2021:

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