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For 4 days only, IHG is having a flash sale with 100% bonus pointsInvalid request error occurred., when you buy a minimum of 5,000 points. The promotion will run until 11:59 pm on September 29th, 2017.  (H/T Loyalty Traveler) This is similar to a promotion that they ran back in July.  The cost per point will depend on how many points you purchase:

  • 5,000 to 23,000 IHG points – ~0.625 cents each
  • 26,000 to 60,000 IHG points – ~0.575 cents each

Is This a Good Deal? IHG allows you to purchase a maximum of 60,000 points each year, you will receive a total of 120,000 points at a cost of $690, or 0.575 cents per point.  This is actually cheaper than all the IHG points packages that were available through Daily Getaways.

This 100% bonus promotion is definitely worthwhile if you need a few more IHG points to top-off your account for an award stay, but I would not buy points speculatively.

[When is buying airline miles worth it?  Only in these 3 instances]

Using points for an IHG hotel stay could save you some nice money, even if the points were purchased. This is true not only for expensive IHG hotels, but also for non-fancy hotels in the middle of nowhere!

I have been buying IHG points for a few years now and redeeming points for hotel stays. All our stays were not at any fancy locations. As an example, last month I booked a room at Holiday Inn Express Manteca City Center for my daughter’s soccer tournament. The room would cost $190 before taxes, or 15,000 points. So at the cost of 0.575 per point, 15,000 points would cost me just $86.25, a saving of over $100 for the room!

A few years ago my family of five went to Ocean City Maryland over 4th of July weekend. We stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites Ocean City, right on the beach. The hotel is not fancy by any means, but the room does fit all five of us. The best part? We paid 35,000 points for a room that was priced at well over $450 per night. Today, the hotel costs 40,000 points a night, but you can still get a substantial saving using points purchased instead of paying cash.

IHG Holiday Inn Suites Ocean City

IHG Holiday Inn Suites Ocean City

Holiday Inn Vacation Clubs have two-bedroom suites that can accommodate up to 8 people. Some of these suites can be redeemed for 25,000 to 35,000 points a night, often representing good savings compared to paying with cash.

Of course, you can also redeem IHG points for high-end Intercontinental hotels that require 60,000 points a night, capping the cost at $345 if you use points purchased through this promotion. You can also redeem just 5,000 points for IHG point breaks hotels, which is like paying less than $30 per night!

As always, you need to crunch the numbers to see if it make sense to purchase points. I don’t recommend buying points speculatively. There will be another promotion in the future, and you can always buy IHG points indirectly at 0.7 cents per point.

You can buy IHG points here


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