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I have written about the 5 best uses of Hilton points and 4 best uses of Choice points. To continue the series, I will show you the 6 best uses of IHG points in this post. While the IHG Rewards program just recently devalued, you could still find value in the program but you have to look much harder than before.

IHG points are frequently on sale with 100% bonus, with average cost as low as 0.575 cents per point. Whether it makes sense to purchase points for an award stay will depend on the cash rate of the hotel you are looking at. Clearly, you have to do the math. But often times, even at low category IHG hotels and non-fancy locations, using points purchased would still be cheaper than paying cash for the stay.

Best Uses of IHG points – IHG PointBreaks

Perhaps the very best use of IHG points is to redeem just 5,000 points for IHG PointBreaks hotels, which is like paying less than $30 per night!  The list of IHG PointBreaks hotels change every quarter, and usually comes out end of January, April, July and October.  Recently IHG changed the rules of IHG Point Breaks so that hotels can cost 5,000, 10,000 or 15,000, so while you can still find some good deals, it’s not QUITE as good a deal as it used to be…

Points With a Crew maintains a list of the IHG Point Breaks map and sortable table, which you can use to find where the Point Breaks hotels are.  The next list should come out at the end of July.

While many of the point-breaks hotels are usually outside of U.S. and mostly lower level IHG brands, occasionally one or two InterContinental hotels are included on the list. If your travel plan happens to land you in one of the city with a PointBreaks hotel, you could save some significant cash (or points) for your trip!

Best Uses of IHG points – High-end hotels and resorts

You will find many Intercontinental resorts and hotels in expensive destinations around the world, such as New York, Paris, London, Bora Bora to name a few. Besides using your annual free IHG night at these expensive locations, you can easily extend your visit by booking an award stay using up to 70,000 points per night. You will definitely get one of the best use of IHG points at these high-end IHG properties.

a group of people on a beach

InterContinental Bora Bora (hotel photo)

Use IHG points for expensive destinations

Not all expensive destinations are necessarily bucket-list destinations. One example is Ocean City Maryland, a very popular summer beach destination, especially for folks living on the East Coast. Few summers ago, we stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites Ocean City, right on the beach.

a group of people on a beach

Holiday Inn Suites Ocean City

The hotel was not fancy by any means, but the room it all five of us just fine. It also has a kitchen, separate living area, and accommodates up to six people! The best part? The hotel costs 50,000 points a night while cash rate is well over $450 during summer! Even if you book your stay using points purchased, you can still get a substantial saving.

a screenshot of a phone

Use IHG points for all-inclusive resorts

IHG has three all-inclusive resorts that you can redeem points for a stay.

  • Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay – 50,000 points per night
  • Holiday Inn Resort Los Cabos – 40,000 points per night
  • Holiday Inn Resort Ixtapa – 50,000 points per night.
a group of buildings next to a body of water

Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay All-Inclusive (hotel photo)

Another thing about these resorts is that IHG often puts their resort hotels on sale for 50% off the points.

Use IHG points for special events

If you are planning to be in Time Square on New Year’s Eve to join millions of people counting down to the New Year, you can stay one night at the Crowne Plaza using 60,000 points for a room that cost $1,900 in cash! Is it worth buying IHG points at less than 0.6 cents per point in this case? Absolutely!

a screenshot of a hotel room

You can also use IHG points to help score Super Bowl hotel deals or World Series hotel deals. Prices for hotel rooms in college towns can go through the roof on event days, like this  August weekend in Tuscaloosa, AL. But IHG points will save you a bundle!

a screenshot of a hotel room

Use IHG points for big families

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. But be sure to check cash rates before redeeming points.

a screenshot of a computer

Taking the family to visit San Francisco Bay Area? you can consider staying at the StayBridge Suites San Francisco Airport (see Dan’s full review here). You can book a one-bedroom suite using just 40,000 points, instead of paying for almost $400 after taxes and fees. If you need a two-bedroom suite, consider calling the hotel and ask for a cash upgrade.

a screenshot of a hotel room

Conclusion

Just like Hilton and Choice Hotel programs, there are value to be found with the IHG Rewards Club. As always, it will take some effort and number crunching each time to see if it make sense to purchase points for an award stay.

I have purchased the IHG points packages from Daily Getaways in prior years. With the program’s recent devaluation and no plans for IHG stays in the near future, I won’t be reloading my IHG points this year.


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