IHG Rewards Club Accelerate fall 2015 promotion opened for registration today with a targeted offer for at least 50,000 bonus points through IHG brand hotel stays worldwide from September 1 to December 31, 2015.
One of my easily achievable tasks to earn 50,000 bonus points requires me to complete three IHG Rewards Club Points & Cash stays during the promotion period.
I have one stay already booked before today for Geneva, Switzerland. The promotion rules indicate this hotel reservation booking I made in early August for a stay in six weeks should be eligible for IHG Rewards Club Accelerate promotion. The bonus tasks are based on date of hotel stays from September 1 to December 31, 2015 and not date reservations are made.
My IHG Rewards Club Accelerate Tasks to complete Sep 1-Dec 31, 2015.
My basic offer is stay once and earn 5,000 bonus points. Stay 5 paid nights and earn 6,800 bonus points. Stay three times on Points & Cash reward nights and earn 3,600 points. Pay for one IHG stay with my IHG credit card and earn 1,500 bonus points.
Five paid nights and one paid stay and pay with credit card are three stackable tasks I can accomplish with one 5-night paid stay or even five 1-night paid stays. When I pay for one of these IHG hotel stays with my IHG Rewards Club MasterCard, I earn 46,600 bonus points.
46,600 bonus points is a huge rebate on what can be relatively inexpensive hotel stays I need anyway during the promotion period.
Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur Glenmarie is $325 after tax for a 5-night stay. This one 5-night stay would earn more than 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points with regular points earned for my hotel stay as an IHG Rewards Club Platinum member and 46,400 bonus points from Accelerate promotion.
IHG Points & Cash reward stays
My Accelerate Task:
Earn 3,600 bonus points when you book 3 stays using Points and Cash. We’ll reward you with more Bonus Points when you use a combination of points and cash.
Terms
Must be an IHG® Rewards Club member and must register your member number in advance to participate in this Offer (“Registration”). Number of bonus points listed above will be awarded after required number of “Points & Cash” Reward Nights have been redeemed/purchased and consumed by the member between 1 September 2015 and 31 December 2015 (both dates inclusive) at InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVENTMor HUALUXETM hotels worldwide.
This strikes me as kind of an odd task. I have to spend a minimum 15,000 points to earn 3,600 bonus points. Fortunately, I don’t have to complete this task to earn the 33,100 bonus points for Accelerate promotion upon completing three tasks.
When to Use IHG Rewards Club Points & Cash Rewards
My IHG Rewards Club Accelerate task had me thinking about when to use IHG Rewards Club Points & Cash Rewards.
The example shown above for Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur is a terrible choice for a Points & Cash reward stay. Standard rewards at this hotel are 15,000 points per night.
- 15,000 points IHG Standard Reward Free Night.
- 10,000 points + $40 IHG Points & Cash Reward.
- 5,000 points + $70 IHG Points & Cash Reward.
Three stays would require a minimum $120 + 30,000 points for three non-consecutive nights. Or $210 + 15,000 points.
The hotel rate is only $65 per night, so IHG Cash & Points reward nights are not a good value at a low-priced hotel.
London for one night
I will spend one night in London in a few weeks on my way to Bergen, Norway. That was the first place I considered when thinking about an IHG Points & Cash reward stay.
In London I can stay at any of these three Holiday Inn hotels for 25,000 points + $70 or 30,000 points + $40.
I typically go with the purchase of 10,000 points for $70.
Booking Holiday Inn London Regent’s Park will cost 25,000 points from my account + $70 to buy the remaining 10,000 points for the reward night. My 25,000 points save over $300 on the room rate and have a redemption value of $12 per 1,000 points.
IHG Rewards Club Points & Cash Reward Nights have great value in London and help conserve points to book more reward nights.
Viewing IHG Rewards Club Accelerate as basically two free Points & Cash Reward Nights
I won’t bother trying to complete my IHG Rewards Club Accelerate task of three Points & Cash Reward stays by December 31. I have one Points & Cash night already booked for InterContinental Geneva. I can change my London hotel stay to an IHG Points & Cash reward, but I already have a pretty good deal with Choice Privileges points.
The IHG Points & Cash task is kind of odd since it requires spending points, and in many cases more than 50,000 points I’ll earn from the Accelerate promotion.
In a way I can look at this promotion as a zero sum gain. I can stay at a Holiday Inn in Malaysia for $65 per night on my November trip and earn 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points and book two IHG Points & Cash Reward Stays spending 50,000 points + $140 to stay at two hotels normally priced at 35,000 points per night or $400 per night.
Seven hotel nights this fall for $465 is $66.50 per hotel night. I need hotel nights in Malaysia and Taipei in November. IHG Rewards Club Accelerate fall 2015 promotion is a good deal for me.
I can pay about $325 to $400 to stay five hotel nights at IHG brand hotels at $65 to $80 per night. I earn a little over 50,000 points from paid stays.
I can redeem 25,000 points for an IHG Points & Cash reward nights in a place like London at a hotel normally priced at 35,000 points for $70 hotel nights that would otherwise be $400 per night.
By shifting 5 nights in low cost hotel stays to IHG brands over the next four months, I earn 50,000 points allowing me to stay in London and Geneva for $70 per night on IHG Points & Cash stays.
