Daily Getaways has IHG Rewards Club points on sale today and it is possible to buy 1,107,500 points as an individual member.
- 130,000 points for $749 ($5.76 per 1,000 points); 2,000 sets available. Purchase limit = 3 sets.
- 100,000 points for $580 ($5.80 per 1,000 points); 1,000 sets available. Purchase limit = 3 sets.
- 50,000 points for $290 ($5.80 per 1,000 points); 1,255 sets available. Purchase limit = 4 sets.
- 25,000 points for $149 ($5.96 per 1,000 points); 999 sets available. Purchase limit = 4 sets.
- 15,000 points for $89 ($5.93 per 1,000 points); 2,210 sets available. Purchase limit = 5 sets.
- 8,500 points for $50 ($5.88 per 1,000 points); 2,250 sets available. Purchase limit = 5 sets.
There might be some return on investment for some members after spending $50 to buy 8,500 points or $6,438 to buy over 1.1 million IHG points. I see no reason to pick up more than 50,000 points for $290 at these prices, unless you need more points for a redemption right away or you need more points to buy cheaper points through Points+Cash rewards at any time.
Three reasons I don’t find this Daily Getaways enticing:
1. IHG Rewards Club members can buy points through Points+Cash rewards at the rate of $5.75 per 1,000 points through booking a hotel Points+Cash rate offering 20,000 points for $115.
InterContinental Park Lane London is one example of a hotel where Points+Cash rates are $115 for 20,000 points as long as you have 50,000 points.
May 15-18 for 3 nights booking a Points+Cash reward stay is 150,000 points + $345 to buy 60,000 points.
Cancel the hotel reward reservation and you have 60,000 points per night in your account purchased at a lower rate, $5.75 per 1,000 points, compared to $5.76 per 1,000 points to buy 130,000 points for $749.
Of course, you need points for Points+Cash reward stays to buy points, so you may want to pick up a starter pool of IHG points today.
Â
2. Most IHG properties are not a good points value compared to paying the published rate and earning points.
It seems that the most expensive hotels worldwide with published rates over $400 per night and the cheapest reward rates worldwide at 10,000 points and 15,000 points are the sweet spots where buying IHG points is a good value compared to simply paying published rates.
Most of my points reward stay redemptions over several years were PointBreaks hotels at 5,000 points per night. There were some great hotel deals like Holiday Inn Krakow at 15,000 points per night, but IHG Rewards Club raised the reward price over the past few years for most hotels I used to stay or wanted to stay at on standard rewards for 10,000 to 20,000 points.
In general, I don’t find many IHG hotels where paying for reward nights with points works out to a better deal than simply paying the lowest published rate and earning points and promotional bonus points.
Finding a $400+ per night IHG hotel that I can book for $250 to $300 in points is not the kind of hotel stay deal I am interested in booking. I like to keep my hotel nightly expenses at $100 or less for most of my stays, whether paying cash or paying points.
If I am paying more than $100 per night, like when I stayed at AC Bella Sky Copenhagen in January for $160, I expect a good value rebate like earning a Marriott Rewards MegaBonus free night at a category 5 hotel.
Loyalty Traveler – AC Bella Sky Copenhagen stay earned free MegaBonus night (Jan 21, 2018).
Â
3. IHG Rewards Club points are cheap to earn through promotion offers.
The main reason I have a six-figure balance of IHG Rewards Club points are their generous recurring Accelerate promotions. Free nights earned during IHG promotions since 2014 are one of the reasons I have stayed at InterContinental Park Lane London several times. I have never redeemed points for that hotel.
Over the past several years, IHG Rewards Club Accelerate promotion bonus points earned 30,000 to 50,000 points repeatedly on $200 to $300 in IHG hotel stay spend. Most of the Accelerate offers I completed required only 2 or 3 hotel nights at specific IHG brands in Europe.
Loyalty Traveler – My Incredible IHG Accelerate Year in Review (Dec 17, 2017).
4 Comments
Comments are closed.