REGISTER NOW: IHG offering double points in September – but not to everyone

IHG One Rewards has launched a new double points promotion.

IHG One Rewards is the loyalty scheme covering InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo amongst other brands.

The offer will only run for one month, for the whole of September.

It’s not ideal though:

• it is a targeted offer (I could register, my wife could not)

• you only get double points from your second stay during September

The upside is that it will double-up with IHG’s ‘triple points at five brands’ offer – details below.

You need to register for the ‘double points’ bonus here.

How does IHG’s new bonus points promotion work?

The offer runs from 1st September to 30th September.

You must register for this new offer in advance via this link.

The offer is NOT open to everyone. You need to see if your registration is accepted.

What will you earn?

You will earn DOUBLE BASE POINTS for every cash stay during the offer period, starting with your second stay.

(The bonus points do not count towards status, however.)

Existing bookings count so there is no need to rebook anything.

What is the bonus worth?

The standard earning rate in IHG One Rewards is 10 points per US$1 (75p) excluding taxes.  I value an IHG One Rewards point at 0.4p although you can often do better, which means your base return is 4p per 75p spent, ie just over 5.0%.

Double base points means that you would receive 20 points per US$1 (75p) spent, excluding taxes, which gives you a return of just over 10%.

You would also receive a status bonus on your base points:

• 20% bonus for Silver Elite
• 40% bonus for Gold Elite
• 60% bonus for Platinum Elite
• 100% bonus for Diamond Elite

A Platinum Elite member would therefore receive 26 points per $1 spent – 10 points x 2 plus an extra 6 points as the Platinum Elite bonus.

What is the OTHER offer worth triple points?

From 1st July to 30th September, IHG is offering TRIPLE BASE POINTS for every cash stay at these brands:

• Garner Hotels
• Crowne Plaza
• voco
• Vignette Collection
• Candlewood Suites

This is NOT a targeted offer and there is NOT a ‘only from your second stay’ rule.

Everyone can register and you will start earning triple points immediately.

You must register for the triple points offer here. Registration is now open.

Assuming these two offers combine for stays in September, you would – assuming you were on your second September stay – be earning 46 points per $1 as a Platinum Elite member.

This is from:

• 10 base points

• 20 bonus points from ‘triple points’, assuming you are staying at one of the five brands above

• 10 bonus points from ‘double points’, assuming that you are targeted and that you have already done your first stay during September

• 6 bonus points for being Platinum Elite

You need quite a few ducks in a row to be earning 46 points per $1, but if you can make it work you would be doing very nicely for yourself.

Conclusion

This new ‘double points’ is very restrictive:

• you may not be targeted

• the offer period only runs for the month of September

• it only starts from your second stay during the offer period

You should register anyway, of course (if you can) and if you can double up with the ‘triple points’ offer during September you will do very well.

The page where you can attempt to register for the double points offer is here.