My IHG Accelerate Summer 2019 tasks posted May 1

My IHG Rewards Club Accelerate tasks finally posted today for 37,700 total bonus points with completion of three tasks. My wife’s account still does not show any offer.

Earn 37,700 Total Bonus Points

• Task 1: 8,000 Bonus Points – Complete 4 nights.
• Task 2: 12,600 Bonus Points – Stay at 2 brands.
• Task 3: 4,500 Bonus Points – Stay 1 night on Points & Cash rate.
• Achievement Bonus: 12,600 Bonus Points – Completion of all 3 tasks:

These are fairly simple tasks and will be easy for me to complete with a maximum 5 nights required to complete all three tasks. I currently have more than 20 hotel nights to fill in my summer travel calendar.

I spent the morning studying IHG hotel rates in places I will be visiting and learned something I had never noticed with IHG Rewards Club Points & Cash variable rates. I have written articles before on variable cash rates across different IHG hotels. Today I noticed for the first time highly variable cash rates at the same hotel depending on the Best Flexible Rate for different dates. For example, $60 for 10,000 points or $89 for 10,000 points at the same hotel when booking a Cash & Points rate on different dates. More on Cash & Points in a separate article.

My IHG Rewards Club Goldilocks strategy

In this article I examine why I find my IHG Rewards Club Accelerate offer to be the most compelling summer hotel loyalty promotion for my travels. Another point I would like to share is my ‘Goldilocks’ rationale for why I think I typically receive good value promotions with these targeted tasks compared to IHG Rewards Club members who receive low value offers and members who receive high spend offers.

My ‘Goldilocks’ strategy is I generally stay the minimum number of paid nights needed to complete my tasks. My IHG hotel paid nights outside of promotion bonus points opportunities generally are no more than one or two nights per year. Unless there is a good PointBreaks hotel that fits my travel plans I generally only have a couple of points award stays per year. In the past 12 months I had 8 paid nights with IHG and earned 100,000+ points through 2 other targeted tasks promotions, 2 IHG Rewards Club nights (HIX Amsterdam- 20K per night) and Hotel Indigo London Leicester Square (IHG credit card free night).

I would have earned another 30,000 IHG Rewards Club bonus points, but I made the bonehead mistake of booking two nonrefundable hotel stays in Krakow, Poland last July through my laptop when one of my tasks was book a hotel stay through the IHG mobile app. That booking mistake resulted in missing out on 30,000 bonus points.

Example of a Low Value IHG Rewards Club Summer 2019 Accelerate Offer

• Double points up to 40,000 bonus points.

Several people have mentioned receiving this offer as their Summer 2019 Accelerate. I anticipate my wife’s offer will be something similar. She gets crap offers since all our stays are under my account. Her offers the past couple years have been low value offers like this, so we end up not booking any hotel stays through her account. This 2x points offer would require at least $2,000 (10 bonus points per $1) in spend to earn 20,000 base points and 20,000 bonus points.

My maximum projected spend staying 5 nights at InterContinental and Hotel Indigo hotels would cost $600 to earn 40,000 bonus points.

Example of a High Spend IHG Rewards Club Summer 2019 Accelerate Offer

• Task 1: 60,000 points = stay 30 nights
• Task 2: 19,200 points = stay 12 weekends
• Task 3: 1,500 bonus points = pay for 1 stay with IHG Rewards Club mastercard
• Completion Bonus: 80,700 bonus points = complete all 3 tasks.
• Total Bonus Points: 161,400 bonus points (requires minimum 30 hotel nights with 24 weekend nights).

This example posted on FlyerTalk is the kind of offer a very frequent guest might receive with IHG Accelerate. This member is an IHG Rewards Club Spire member.

5 IHG Hotel Nights doorway to 40,000 Bonus Points

As an introduction for readers who are have not previously participated in IHG Rewards Club targeted task promotions, here are some of my experiences from having completed several of these offers over the past five years and my plans to pick up 37,700 bonus points during Accelerate 2019 with 5 hotel nights this summer.

One hotel night may apply to multiple tasks.

4 hotel nights and stays at two brands are both partially fulfilled with one IHG hotel night (1 night and 1 brand).

Basically I only need to stay 4 hotel nights during the May 1-August 31, 2019 promotion period to complete two of my three tasks (as long as two different IHG brands). My summer travel plans allow me to choose between InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express in 4 cities I will fly to or from with airline tickets I already purchased. Staying at two different brands is an easy task for me to fulfill in cities I will be visiting this summer.

The only open question I have, since I have never tested this in previous promotions, is whether a Points & Cash stay will count as one night or one brand for purposes of this promotion. One FlyerTalk member mentioned receiving brand credit for a previous task with a Points & Cash stay.

My own interpretation of the IHG task terms is a Points & Cash reward night will not apply for the 4 hotel nights or 2 brands task due to terms stating only qualifying stays apply to those tasks.

A reward night is generally not considered a qualifying stay for earning points.

My IHG stays plan on my Points & Cash night not counting for the 4 nights or 2 brands task.

Points & Cash Reward Night

One of the arguments against a Points & Cash reward night is there is no net gain earning 4,500 bonus points when spending 5,000 bonus points.

Two points to consider, or thousands of points as it may be.

1. Points redeemed for a Points & Cash reward can reduce the nightly rate significantly and make a hotel I would never pay for in cash affordable with points.
2. IHG Rewards Club Select Mastercard members get 10% rebate on reward nights.

InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam 

June 24, 2019

Queen Bed Executive Room

• $713 Member Advance Rate
• $792 Member Best Flexible Rate
• 60,000 points standard Reward
• 55,000 points + $42
• 50,000 points + $84
• 45,000 points + $113
• 40,000 points + $139

Given the option to buy IHG Rewards Club points for $5 per 1,000 points, the 55,000 points + $42 Points + Cash rate is $12 overpriced to pay $42 for 5,000 points. There are many opportunities during the year to buy 5,000 points for $30. However, if this stay earns 4,500 bonus points + 12,600 bonus points for completing my 3 tasks, then Points + Cash makes a good value purchase in this case. Plus I would get 5,500 points back from 55,000 redeemed as an IHG Mastercard Select member.

Bottom line is this is a high value redemption reward night using IHG points.

My IHG Rewards Club Accelerate Summer Travel Plan

I don’t like to mention specific hotels I am staying until after I have stayed.

Here is my general plan:

Crowne Plaza Points & Cash for 30,000 Points + $42 (completes Points & Cash task). Lowest rate = $194 advance purchase.

Hotel Indigo MasterCard discount rate stay 3 nights = $305 (IHG Nights #1, #2, #3 + IHG brand #1).

Holiday Inn breakfast rate 1 night = $72 (IHG night #4 + IHG brand #2).

$419 + 30,000 points completes my 3 IHG Accelerate Summer 2019 tasks and earns 37,700 bonus points + 3,000 points Mastercard Select rebate points + about 6,000 hotel stay points as IHG Rewards Club Platinum elite member.

$419 hotel spend for 5 hotel nights earns 17,000 IHG points account balance net gain.

Average $84 per night spend with about $85 worth of points earned for 5 hotel nights in cities where I need hotel nights this summer.

IHG Rewards Club Accelerate completion with 5 IHG hotel nights is in my plans for summer 2019 travel hotel stays.