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Bits: IHG ‘buy points bonus’ last day, Avios ‘dynamic pricing’ job advertised

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News in brief:

IHG’s extended ‘100% buy points bonus’ ends today

IHG Rewards Club – the InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza etc scheme – extended its recent ‘100% buy points bonus’ promotion but IT DEFINITELY ENDS TODAY.  It is as generous an offer as you will ever see for IHG points.

The page to buy points is here.

The offer is targetted but very widely targetted, so it is very likely you will see it on your account.  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

I receive a 100% bonus with any order of 5,000 points or more.  Some people seem to have a higher minimum, as high as 25,000. Some people also seem to have been offered a cash discount on top of double points for buying the full 60,000 points, although I did not receive that.

With a 100% bonus, you would be able to buy 120,000 IHG points for (at current exchange rates for $690) £525.  This assumes your credit card has 0% FX fees.

At the top end of the IHG Rewards Club portfolio, you have InterContinental properties which top out at 50,000 – 60,000 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 a 50,000 point property for £219 all-in.  A 60,000 point hotel would be £262.  At the bottom end, the points for a 5,000 point PointBreaks night would cost just £22.

You should look at this if you have a ‘buy points’ target for your Accelerate promotion – although it makes more sense to buy 5,000 and get the bonus than buy 1,000 for no bonus.  If you are topping off your account, it is also a good deal irrespective of the exact cents per point cost.  The maximum number of points you can buy per year is 120,000 (ie 60,000 plus the 60,000 bonus).

You can buy via this link.

Some more clues about Avios ‘dynamic pricing’

British Airways is planning a move to ‘dynamic pricing’ for Avios redemptions, it was disclosed at the Investor Day presentation last week (read more here).

If you want an idea of what that may involve, aajob description appeared on the Avios website last year.  £55,000 – £60,000 was on offer.

Here is what someone, assuming they filled the vacancy, is now doing:

“The role is responsible for the dynamic pricing of rewards for members of the loyalty programmes that use Avios as their reward currency, delivering the right product at the right price and at the right time, in order to best maximise margin and the satisfaction of members to drive engagement.

The Senior Pricing Manager will work closely with the pricing team, product teams, marketing, and other members of the Avios and relevant travel partner commercial teams to manage inventory and drive ongoing pricing strategies, as well as providing critical input to the tactical promotion process. The Senior Pricing Manager will provide analysis, advice and recommendations to drive the pricing strategies, with support from the Avios management team in line with stated commercial objectives.

This is a dynamic cross-functional role that requires excellent organisational and analytical skills, commercial awareness and a passion for delivering results.

What we are looking for…

  • Deliver the budgeted margin on redemption for the Avios currency (cost per avios)
  • Deliver Avios redeemed and cash on redemption targets
  • Use price to drive volumes back to suppliers at optimal levels to drive value through the chain
  • Directly responsible for the “dynamic pricing portfolio” and strategies to deliver the above
  • Support the development and implementation of “Pay with Avios” with partners
  • Work closely with Customer Insight & Analytics to determine the impact of price or inventory changes on customer satisfaction and long term loyalty
  • The role will be key in managing the transition to new dynamic pricing system capability, ensuring processes are robust and accountabilities between internal stakeholders are clear
  • Ownership of the maintenance and development of dynamic pricing systems and rules engines
  • Support, manage or own (as appropriate) CAPEX / OPEX projects involving customer price
  • Work with the Head of Pricing to develop integrated pricing strategies across existing products
  • Support continuous improvement and consistency of the reward pricing propositions across products, markets and schemes”
How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Category

British Airways and Avios, IHG One Rewards

Comments (114)

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

  • the real harry1 says:
    9 Nov9 November 06:38

    O/T also last call for the £5/£10/£15 Esso/ Amex deal – ends on 11th Nov

  • Brian says:
    9 Nov9 November 06:45

    OT – a new Hilton offer has appeared on my Amex Gold card – spend 250, get 50 back. Better than the last one that just ended, which offered 3,000 MR points.

  • The_real_a says:
    9 Nov9 November 06:54

    Seems quite a low salary for that kind of role…

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      9 Nov9 November 07:05

      That’s exactly what I was thinking. Some quite premium things they’re asking for: advanced analytics, commercial accountability, managing IT change etc.

      Doesn’t sound like the role comes with a team either.

      • Alan says:
        9 Nov9 November 08:09

        Interesting, I was thinking the opposite! Only on about £10k more than that after two decades training…

        • Genghis says:
          9 Nov9 November 08:18

          Go private, Alan. Those BUPA guys I go to seem to charge £150 for 10 mins work.

        • JamesB says:
          9 Nov9 November 11:35

          @Alan, there is a group of enterprising young (well some not so young anymore) ladies in Stockbrig who could show you how it’s done! Might make some of their colleagues green with anvy or leave others feeling blue.

        • Worzel says:
          9 Nov9 November 16:09

          Overgenerous salary: I know someone who runs a hospital for the same!

      • bagoly says:
        9 Nov9 November 09:29

        We don’t want them paying so much that they get someone who forsees arbitrage opportunities!

      • Cate says:
        9 Nov9 November 12:35

        You have to keep in the back of your mind that the alleged requirements of many advertised job roles are just advertising the brand. i.e. ‘This is a dynamic cross-functional role that requires excellent organisational and analytical skills, commercial awareness and a passion for delivering results’ sounds better than ‘can talk to mates from other departments at the coffee machine, analyses who paid for the last coffees, considers if it’s worth popping to Waitrose across the road for a free cappuccino, can multi task i.e. can carry two cappuccinos back at the same time.

    • Talay says:
      9 Nov9 November 08:36

      Crawley is not Kensington but I suspect most property there is unaffordable on a £60k salary and this job specification is, in my opinion, asking for some skills and responsibilities quite a way over a £60k job.

      As mentioned elsewhere, this should really be more of a team specification and given the importance, I would have thought someone senior would have it in their portfolio. Perhaps that is a failing of BA and their management, giving important tasks to outsiders with no experience and not prioritising it highly enough ?

    • Aliks says:
      9 Nov9 November 08:42

      The low salary indicates that the Senior Pricing Manager is all about crunching the numbers, and not about making the decisions.

      I suspect the major challenge is to pull the data together from different incompatible sources, and squeeze it into monthly report packs.

      • Lady London says:
        9 Nov9 November 12:12

        Yes it looks like an Excel bunny job, that knowledge of databases and a bit of IT would help with. Travel industry also notoriously pays badly.

        • temp says:
          11 Nov11 November 14:59

          Indeed, this role actually seems pretty well paid for the industry… BA revenue managers earn significantly less (c.20k)!

          That most comments are surprised how low a salary this is probably says more about the HfP demographic!

          • Alan says:
            11 Nov11 November 15:05

            Indeed, was quite a surprise to me, I thought it sounded a pretty well paid job!

        • temp says:
          11 Nov11 November 15:01

          Indeed, this role actually seems pretty well paid for the industry… BA revenue managers earn significantly (c.20k) less!

          That most comments are surprised how low a salary this is probably says more about the HfP demographic!

        • temp says:
          11 Nov11 November 15:36

          It’s weird. I have never really considered what the background of the average miles collector (if there is such a thing) is, but far clearer now! I guess it shouldn’t be so much of a surprise that a lot of people into miles-collecting earn a good wage… Appetites have already been whet for business class, 5-star hotels/resorts etc. And I can’t imagine many people on an average wage consider paying £450 a year for a credit card, no matter what the ‘benefits’!

  • Roger I* says:
    9 Nov9 November 07:39

    Somebody quibbled when I refer to the Avios price of a redemption.

    A quick count shows 23 references to ‘price’ and ‘pricing’ in the ad. 🙂 QED

  • Liz says:
    9 Nov9 November 07:40

    OT update from yesterday – pts have finally arrived in our BARC from BAPP – that took a week to transfer instead of the normal overnight.

    • Stu N says:
      9 Nov9 November 08:26

      Same here. Household account finally back up to six figures.

    • Anna says:
      9 Nov9 November 09:15

      +1 and card just cancelled!

    • RichS says:
      9 Nov9 November 13:51

      Has anyone else not received theirs yet? Not sure if I should call or just sit it out, but had wanted to cancel this month.

  • Roger I* says:
    9 Nov9 November 07:40

    er, ‘refer’ should read ‘referred’ (1st line)

  • Mike G says:
    9 Nov9 November 07:50

    Plaza Premium or Concorde Lounge, which would you favour?

    • Rob says:
      9 Nov9 November 08:23

      I’ve got some more Concorde Room photos for tomorrow so you can decide!

      PP will be rammed as soon as they start allowing Priority Pass. Just had some more pics from a reader – this morning, at the peak period, there were 6 customers.

  • Sarah says:
    9 Nov9 November 08:22

    If I wanted to stay in a 60,000 intercontinental, would I be best to buy points using this deal or renew ambassador membership and then use the ambassador certificate to buy a weekend night and get one free? Would I also get points for buying first night?

    • Genghis says:
      9 Nov9 November 08:34

      Depends. You need to run the numbers yourself. If AMB route you then have it for the year. You get points for night 1 on AMB stay.

    • Cate says:
      9 Nov9 November 11:34

      Be sure to check out the cash price for the date you want first. I was looking at the IC Lisbon yesterday for a weekend jolly and they wanted 60,000 points but only about 135 euros cash. Points didn’t make sense this time.

    • Alex W says:
      9 Nov9 November 12:10

      Consider whether a paid stay would hot accelerate targets too.

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

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