IHG Rewards Club 75% buy points bonus Jan 24-Feb 28

IHG Rewards Club has a new buy points bonus promotion for purchases made January 24 through February 28, 2019.

Buy 5,000 to 19,000 points and receive 50% bonus points.

Buy 20,000 to 100,000 points and receive 75% bonus points.

IHG Rewards Club has three different price points:

• 1,000 – 10,000 points = $13.50 per 1,000 points.
• 11,000 – 25,000 points = $11.50 per 1,000 points.
• 26,000 – 100,000 points = $10.00 per 1,000 points

Correlating different price points with 50% or 75% bonus points gives these purchase rates:

• 5,000 to 10,000 points = $9.00 per 1,000 points after 50% bonus points.
• 11,000 – 19,000 points = $7.67 per 1,000 points after 50% bonus points.
• 20,000 – 25,000 points = $6.57 per 1,000 points after 75% bonus points.
• 26,000 – 100,000 points = $5.71 per 1,000 points after 75% bonus points.

In general, I don’t find IHG Rewards Club points a good purchase unless you have a specific redemption in mind or wish to hold IHG Rewards Club points for PointBreaks opportunities. The next PointsBreak list for discount hotel reward nights will likely be released in the last week of February. Hotels on the PointBreaks lists are generally reduced by at least 50% compared to their regular reward rate. Most of my IHG Rewards Club reward nights over the past five years were PointBreaks hotels.

I find IHG Rewards Club has one of the poorest redemption values for reward nights on average compared to the price of room rates. I think IHG is one of the worst among the major hotel chains for the value of reward nights at most hotels. I generally compare IHG Rewards Club reward nights to paid nights using $5.00 per 1,000 points. For example, if I redeem 20,000 points, I am looking for a hotel with posted room rates over $100. In general, IHG reward nights are overpriced compared to the posted room rates for places I travel.

IHG Rewards Club is one of my favorite programs due to the ease of earning points with paid stays. For example, I made a Disneyland road trip in November and earned 40,000 IHG Rewards Club points on $255 in hotel spend. My stay at Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam City Hall after New Year’s this month cost 40,000 points for two nights that would have cost 254.48 EUR/$290usd for a prepaid rate during the CyberMonday week sale. If HIX Amsterdam City Hall had been the current reward night price of 35,000 points at the time I booked my stay I would have found the $145 per night paid rate a better value.

I find highly selective good value for my IHG points as long as they keep PointBreaks discount rewards coming. I have my eye on a few dozen hotels for reward nights and hope thet do not increase in points cost, like Holiday Inn Congress Prague at 15,000 points per reward night.

The fact that IHG Rewards Club increased the price of reward nights at hundreds of hotels today only increases the spread between typical hotel room rates and typically high-priced reward rates.