500 Avios (or 1,500 IHG points) for a two-night IHG stay + 500 free Avios for new members

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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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Avios and IHG Rewards Club have joined forces to offer you 500 Avios points for signing up – no stay required. 

500 Avios (or 1500 IHG Rewards Club points) are also available to EXISTING IHG Rewards Club members with their next stay.

This is the third offer of this type we have seen in recent months.  First up was Virgin Atlantic, second was Avios but only via Iberia Plus.  We now have the British Airways Avios version – and this time there is something in it for existing IHG members too.

Full details are on the IHG website here.

Part 1:  500 Avios for new members

IHG Rewards Club is the loyalty programme for Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo etc. 

A lot of Head for Points readers will already be IHG Rewards Club members – but perhaps there are members of your family, perhaps people with whom you share a British Airways Executive Club household account, who are not?

The small print, and indeed the large print, makes it clear that NO STAY IS REQUIRED.  All you need to do is:

Sign up for IHG Rewards Club via this page of their website – DO NOT USE ANY OTHER PAGE

Set up your profile so that you earn British Airways Avios and not IHG Rewards Club points from your stays

Do it before 31st December

Intriguingly, the small print says that if you use the BA IHG page to join but do not select BA Avios as your preferred earning partner, you will receive 1,500 IHG Rewards Club points instead.  These may be more useful than 500 Avios to some people although they are worth the same in my book.

New members also receive a ‘fast track to Gold’ challenge.  Stay three nights within 90 days of registration and you will be upgraded.  Gold status is not worth a huge amount with IHG, however, and in any event comes automatically with the free IHG Rewards Club credit card.

When do you get the Avios?

The wording is suitably vague:

“Avios will automatically be awarded by Airline partners on completion of Registration, and in any event before 15th February 2018”

but there is a good chance they arrive quickly.

Part 2 – 500 Avios or 1,500 IHG points for EXISTING members

The majority of Head for Points will already be IHG Rewards Club members.

The good news is that this deal has something for you too.

You will receive 500 bonus Avios or 1,500 IHG Rewards Club points with your next booking, as long as you follow these rules:

You MUST book via this special BA page of ihg.com, using the ‘Book Now’ link in the top right

You must book by 31st December

You must stay by 28th February

You must stay at least two nights

If your IHG account is set to earning points, your stay will earn 1,500 bonus points.  If your account is set to earn Avios in British Airways from your stays, you will receive 500 bonus Avios.

You can sign up, or discover more details, on this page of the IHG website.

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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.