IHG (Intercontinental Hotel Group) has launched their own limited time purchase offer on their points. Like many promotions, this is a tiered purchase promo – the more you buy, the bigger your bonus is. Buying at the top bonus level gives you the opportunity to buy the IHG points at a cost of .575 cents each, which is as cheap as you can buy them. But, does that mean it is a good deal and you should do it?
IHG Points For $.057 Each – A Good Deal?
Getting IHG Points
IHG points are some of the easiest (and cheapest) hotel points to obtain. There are several ways to accumulate these points – by purchasing them through a little work, by going for their Into the Nights promo, or by getting the IHG credit card with 80,000 points.
For sure, the best way to get those points is by apply for the IHG credit card from Chase. The only bad part about the card is that it is from Chase. That means, you may have already hit a glass ceiling as of late with Chase applications or have too many Chase cards. The good part is that you can simply backdoor the credit card opportunity until you are ready to close a Chase credit card that has an annual fee coming up (in which case, you would want to apply for the Chase IHG card first, if not approved or pending, offer to transfer the credit from the card you are going to close and close it then).
The Bonus Promotion
IHG Point Purchase Link (I do get a commission if you purchase points using this link)
But, if you are really hungry for IHG points, this promotional offer to buy and get bonus points might serve as a nice chance for you to get up to 120,000 points in one swing. This promotion runs through September 22 at 11:59PM (EST). Here is how it breaks down:
- 1,000 – 49,000 points and receive a 50% bonus (this makes each point cost .076 cents each)
- 50,000 – 60,000 points and receive a 100% bonus (this makes each point cost .0575 cents each)
The Good
The good part about this is that the tiered structure is kept simple. This favors those who only want to purchase 5,000 or so to top off an account as you are able to buy those points for just a fraction over what it normally takes using this workaround. This also means that you can buy enough points for 2 nights at PointBreak hotel (hotels released every couple of months for only 5,000 points per night) for only $94.50 (or $47.25 per night). If you do not have any IHG points, it might make sense to just buy a small amount for when a PointBreak hotel opens up and is something that you need to book.
The Bad
The bad part is that to get to the 100% bonus, you need to spend a minimum of $575 (for a total of 100,000 points). That is a lot of money to pay for hotel points, even though it can offer some great value. Unless you have a definite plan for using the points in the near future, I would consider it a risky move to purchase that many points speculatively.
Probably one of the best hotels to book with those points is the Intercontinental Bora Bora that allows you to book into an overwater bungalow for only 50,000 points per night! That is a great deal, but you don’t want to travel all that way and only spend two nights so you would need to buy multiple lots of these points from different (family members’) accounts. It would mean that you are paying $287.50 per night for that place! While I am sure that it is a phenomenal hotel, I don’t think many of my readers are going to be jumping on it because of that. 🙂
But, if you wanted to set yourself up for PointBreak hotels for a very long time, you could max out this promo and it would cost you $690 for a total of 24 nights at PointBreak hotels. This breaks down to $28.75 per night. Again, the danger is that they might end these hotels and then you are kind of stuck.
Summary
So, is it worth it? That will be for each person to decide. For sure, there are ways to get some excellent value out of this promotion, if for only topping off your account. However, my guess is there will be very few people who jump all in because of the fact that you have to pay $690 to do that. If you have hotel options lined up that you were going to pay for anyway, then this is a great way to save money. Otherwise, just buy what you need and take advantage of the 50% off on the lower purchase points.
So, are you going for this promo or no?
