New IHG Members Earn 2 Free Nights, Everyone Else Can Earn at Least 50,000 Bonus Points

IHG Rewards Club has moved to ‘gamified’ promotions with different pieces meant to incentivize behavior among members — with the specifics driven by data about your activity so far, like whether you’re a co-brand credit card holder or an elite. They’re out with a new one that can mean 2 free nights or over 150,000 points for activities between September 1 and December 31.

So far they’ve had:

Now they’re out with Accelerate (registration required).

With this offer new members can earn one free night at any IHG property after two eligible stays and a second free night after two more stays. The offer is simplest and most lucrative for new members.

I was given 8 tasks — in my case, all driven by stays of various lengths and at various times — to earn 56,800 points.

Here are my tasks:

Some folks will have bonus points for staying at a specific brand or spending on their IHG Rewards Club credit card. Others may get a bonus for using their corporate rate (presumably encouraging a business stay).

There are reports of some offers over 150,000 bonus points.

Terms and conditions:

You must be an IHG® Rewards Club member and must register your member number in advance to participate in “Accelerate” (“Promotion”). Upon Registration, members will be presented with the opportunity to earn at least 50,000 bonus points upon completion of all offers presented. Members will be awarded bonus points listed for each individual Promotional offer (“Offer”) after completing the requirements of each individual Offer. Each Offer must be completed between 1 September 2015 and 31 December 2015 (both dates inclusive) (“Registration”). The bonus points earned through individual Offers can be used for redemption opportunities toward Reward Nights, merchandise and other redemption opportunities. See individual Offers for the specific terms and conditions per Offer type. A Stay is defined per IHG® Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions as one night or consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of frequency of check-in/out (“Stay”). A Stay constitutes a “Qualifying Stay” when member pays qualifying rates, which include most business and leisure rates at InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN®or HUALUXETM hotels worldwide. Bonus points are not issued for Non-Qualifying Room Rates or Non-Qualifying Stays. “Non-Qualifying Room Rates” or “Non-Qualifying Stay” include the following: any stay at a Kimpton Hotel, net wholesale individual and group rate, certain package rates, employee discount rate, friends and family rate, crew rate, special discounted contract rates, seasonal worker/crew rate, 50% travel club discount rate, travel industry discount rate, distressed passenger rate, IHG® Rewards Club Reward Nights/Airline Hotel Reward rate, rates booked through third party web sites, complimentary hotel Stays and any other rates not defined as a Qualifying Room Rate at IHG’s sole discretion. Only one room per member per Qualifying Stay will be awarded the applicable bonus points. Each Promotion Offer of bonus points is available only once to each member. No retroactive bonus points will be awarded for Stays prior to Registration. Except as otherwise stated in the terms and conditions, please allow up to 2 to 3 weeks for Promotion Offer bonus points to be credited after checkout .This Promotion is subject to standard IHG Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions and earning structure, which can be obtained by visiting www.ihgrewardsclub.com. This exclusive Promotion is valid and applies to the original recipient only. IHG reserves the right to remove a member’s bonus points or cancel a member’s account if fraudulent use of the Promotion is detected. IHG® Rewards Club reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Promotion/Offer at any time with or without notice. IHG reserves the right of final interpretation of this Offer. Members must make any promotional inquiries by 60 days from the end of the campaign promotional period.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Thanks for posting this, Gary.

    I interpret the non-qualifying stays as including points plus cash, since such such stays would presumably fall into the category of IHG Club Rewards rate. Do you see it that way as well?

  2. I got the same as yours, Gary, my wife got much worse, a total of 50,000 points after 7 stays, including 4 at Holiday Inns and 3 with points and cash. Hers said complete 5 out of 6, but only had 5 options, so IHG IT is doing as well as ever.
    @Steve, points and cash stays are the same as point stays because you are just buying the points, so they won’t count for any other stays.

  3. What I got…

    5,000 Stay Once Get 5,000
    6,800 Stay More, Earn More (5 nights)
    2,000 Apply for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card
    1,000 Earn When You Redeem
    35,200 Your Achievement Bonus

  4. @steve – IHG rewards club points + cash are reward nights since you’re just buying some of the points you need for the reward night.

  5. Looks like I can get 38,400 bonus points for 2 nights and applying for the IHG card which I don’t have yet. I assume the weekend stay and single night can be from the same stay?

    5,000 Stay Once Get 5,000
    Thank you for being a loyal IHG® Rewards Club member. Stay once and earn 5,000 bonus points.
    11,600 Stay More, Earn More
    Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 7 night(s) and earn 11,600 bonus points.
    4,000 A Bonus Weekend Stay
    Stay with us for the weekend and earn 4,000 bonus points. A Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday night stay required.
    2,000 Apply for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card
    Apply here for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card and earn 2,000 points.
    27,400 Your Achievement Bonus
    Complete 3 of 5 offers and earn (an additional) 27,400 bonus points.

  6. 5,000 Stay Once Get 5,000
    6,800 Stay More, Earn More (5 nights)
    2,000 Book 1 Bonus Points Package Stay
    1,500 Pay for 1 stay with IHG Credit Card

    I only have to do three of five to get the 34,700 bonus, yet as above I’m showing one less offer.

    Nevertheless, a one night stay booked as a points package and paid via branded card will net me 43,200 before adding in the standard earn, point package and credit card. Not bad.

  7. Can we still assume some stays could count for 2 or 3 tasks. I have “Book any stay on IHG Card get 1500”, Stay once get 5000, Book a bonus points stay get 2000. I have to do 3 of 5 tasks to get 34,700 bonus points. I should be able to book this in one stay and earn 43,200+ points. Correct?

  8. I’ve been trying to learn how to find the cost in IHG reward points to stay at various hotels in Thailand . I could then decide how useful an IHG card might be for our usual travels . Is there a method , a chart , a link ? I’ve actually spent maybe two hours already trying to learn this . If I find out I’ll most likely laugh at myself for missing something that’s easy . I would appreciate any suggestions from anyone .
    Thanks to all …
    Thanks to Gary Leff

  9. As others have noted, the TRUE number of Offers are those that are above your “bonus” offer.

    When they say complete in my case 6 of 8, they are including that bonus offer — or so it seems until they state otherwise — so I interpret that to mean that I can forego one of the enumerated tasks — most likely the one that requires 3 Points and Cash stays.

    In any event, this issue is not an IT probelm, but one that lies wholly within the realm of the just as competent IHG Marketing Department, that has brought such opaque and hard to understand terms to past promotions such as the “Big Win” and the “Into the Nights” promotion.

    The promotion is welcome, the advance launch of same is welcome, the overlapping Summer promotion (which ends on 9/7/15 and includes stays on this date) and Accelerate promotions are welcome, but the not very well thought out rules, are certainly not welcome!!!

    Come on IHG, is it so hard to get some comments from us folks before you launch a promotion???

    Get your act together, for heaven’s sake!!

  10. Exact same as AZTravelGuy above, including the bonus for completing 3 of 5 tasks, but only 4 tasks listed.

  11. Well, they have partially fixed the number of “offers” one has to complete to get the “bonus.”

    Now, it reads on both my and my partner’s 3 of 4 and 6 of 7, respectively.

    However, the “Championship Cup” at the top of the dashboard page still incorrectly lists my total number of offers at 5.

    Oh well, they are getting better as they fixed this fairly rapidly and fortunately, the promotion has not started as yet.

    However, it still is embarrassing that a global hotel chain cannot have someone actually proofread their promotion before general release.

    Either the staff is incompetent, or they are a bunch of “yes” men in that department, or both, but it still is ridiculous.

    Thumbs up, however, on the promotion, itself, and that it overlaps with the Share Forever promotion that will make for some hefty point accumulation over the Labor Day weekend!

  12. I am a long time member and a cardholder but got the new member offer. Thing is, I haven’t stayed at an IHG property in a year or two, as my business travel has dried up and I stayed elsewhere on recent vacations. I bet the ‘new member’ offer is actually targeted to all ‘no recent stay’ people.

  13. my account:
    1000 Stay Once Get 1,000
    9,200 Stay More, Earn More: Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 5 night(s)
    12,800 Stay at 2 number of brands and get 12,800 bonus points
    27,000 Complete 3 of 3 offers and earn (an additional) 27,000 bonus points.

    Yesterday for 27k it said complete 3 out of 4 offers, now it states 3 out of 3

  14. My offer is terrible, must complete 4 from 4 and one is to join the Ambassador program. I could almost just buy the points outright for that price.

    Strange, I was expecting a decent offer as I’ve not even stayed at an IHG hotel all year.

  15. Ditto on getting the “New Member” offer (last stay was a year ago, on a free night certificate).

    I initially couldn’t register because my earning preference was set to “Miles,” but after changing that I’m eligible for a free night after 2 paid nights (rinse/repeat for a second free night).

  16. Well,

    I got a horrible offer for the 4th promo in a row now. Last time they wanted 43 nights from me for the 120K. This time I have to stay 25 nights to get 32K and then a 4 night stay to get another 4K. and get this…2K for applying for the visa card.

    All in all, 29 nights and Visa application for 50,400 points.

    Level: Platinum
    Frequency of stay: stayed a LOT in 2014, very little in 2015 as I realized that my stays are killing my promos. stayed zero in the last quarter.

    Just curious if there are other Platinums that have been shafted like this.

    Mike

  17. I signed up for an account and all I have is “Stay Twice Get Free Night Offer” and a second one of that. There are no points offers at all, despite the campaign terms specifically stating “members will be presented with the opportunity to earn at least 50,000 bonus points upon completion of all offers presented”.

    I am unimpressed.

  18. These promos aren’t in danger of getting you banned from their program for life if you didn’t personally receive them?

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