I dropped this article in on Sunday rather than Monday to save readers from any unnecessary booking panic on Sunday night!
IHG Rewards Club was due to change the reward pricing of almost 700 hotels on Monday. 80% of the changes are increases.
The good news is that only about 15% of IHG’s hotels are impacted, and so only about 12% are going up. The 70,000 point cap remains, and no additional hotels are moving into the 70,000 point category.
The implementation date now seems to be 25th January. The date on the list of impacted properties has changed and no longer says 14th January.
The list of hotels changing category can be found here. Examples of hotels changing category can be found in my original article here – the Holiday Inn Express in Wigan, pictured below, is dropping by 5,000 points.
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About Head for Points
Just checked random dates for IHG properties in Moscow and cash rates are cheaper or just about the same as the tax element of reward rates (on TOP of points you pay!).
Is this a by-product of devaluation or what? Have you seen the same for other markets?
Prooflink: https://twitter.com/win_and_fly/status/1084867725967704067
You have to pay taxes on reward nights in Moscow?
Apparently but not so hefty!
PS IHG replied that it is a mistake and will be rectified
OT – my Miles & More card has now finally arrived. I generally use a Lloyds Avios Amex/MasterCard for all purchases, but how does the DC card rate compare for points earning if i don’t have a particular preference for Avios or M&M miles, ie which should I use by default for sterling transactions?
Once your Lloyds Avios card is replaced with the 0.4 Avios per £1 Mastercard the M&M card is clearly superior. However, that is only on paper. You really need a clear vision for your M&M miles. Unless you are very flexible and can book in their monthly mileage sales, the cheapest decent redemption is probably 35,000 miles for UK to Middle East in Business Class. There is no value in short haul flights with them.
Thanks Rob. I’ve still not had any notification from Lloyds re the changes to their cards but i guess it will eventually happen. I should have 45000 M&M miles by the time the signup bonus arrives (do we know when they arrive?), not that I’ve been chasing them as I’ve just done quite a few *A flights in the last few years.
On topic! 😉
If I buy some Avios via Groupon Spain does it go into my Iberia account quickly? And can I transfer them to my BA account immediately?
Thanks.
If your IB account is over 90 days old, yes (well, give it a day or so for the code). If not, no, as Combine My Avios is disabled until the 90 day point.
Just tried moving Avios over from Iberia to BA (My Le Club AccorHotels reward points get dumped in there), and been told my details don’t match, despite both accounts being registered to the same postal address.
Ah, Iberia somehow had my surname in twice, and I’d used different e-mail addresses for the two accounts.
Really does need to be everything.