The new first quarter promotion from IHG Rewards Club is out, running January 1 through April 15.
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.
Intercontinental Singapore
For instance they’ve had:
- The Big Win (which they ran twice)
- Into the Nights
- Set Your Sights
- Accelerate and then Accelerate
- Share Forever
- Accelerate
And they’re back with… Accelerate. Sign up and you’ll see your customized offer.
Here’s my offer:
I’m not a frequent IHG Rewards Club guest. My offer is pretty weak, although staying once in January for 3 nights should earn me 8000 bonus points. Most of my points are based on staying progressively more nights. I don’t have anything for different brands, for their credit card, or for achieving all the other tasks like some will.
I value IHG Rewards Club points at 6/10ths of a cent apiece. That makes 35,000 bonus points worth $210. That’s not huge value for the 18 nights it would take me to get there. “Better than a hole in the head” as my grandfather used to say, but not close to enough to get me to shift my business which is why I won’t likely earn more than 2000, 3000, or 8000 points off this promotion if I earn any at all.
Your offer may be better, you may earn a bunch of points if you’ll stay at IHG properties anyway, and it always makes sense to register because you won’t remember to do it later when you come to find out you have some stays with the brand after all.
What’s your offer?
I got basically the same crappy offer as above…stayed a total of 3 nights over the last Accelerate promo period. Somehow they think I would suddenly spend EIGHTEEN days over the next.
I love that they do this, and particularly how there’s almost always something for just staying 1-2 nights. For those of us (i.e. virtually all of us) who aren’t going to spend 25 nights in a Hyatt during one quarter, it’s nice to have offers that are achievable.
I wonder if reward stays count towards meeting the ‘challenges’?
I need to spend 2 nights on a weekend overseas to get 58,500 points
In the words of the immortal Charlie Brown, I got a rock.
If I book and stay once (for 3,000) in the DC major market (for 2,400) in January (for 1,000) and pay with IHG credit (for 1,500) I will complete 3 of 4 (for 17,100). This makes 25,000 total for one night.
As to the 8 nights (for 16,000) – forget it.
So, not the most points I ever got from IHG, but the easiest.
I got the same offer as Gary, except for the 2nd and 3rd threshold: I got 1,000 an 6,000, Gary got 2,000 and 5,000.
Certainly worth 2 stays for me…
2 HI Express stays (8,000), one of which in January (1,000), using IHG card (1,500) gets the achievement bonus (17,500) for a total of 31,000. 3 more nights gets me another 10,000.
Where do I find out what my offer is?
When logged into IHG’s website, I can view current offers, but not for 2017…
???
1) stay once – 5000
2) stay 5 nights – 10000
3) stay in europe, china, asia pacific, the ME or africa – 8000
4) book and pay for one stay with ihg cc – 1500
5) complete 3 out 4 – 15500
6) stay in january – 1000
this works for me as i booked a 2 night stay at an intercontinental in asia next month.
gary or anyone who may know,
i paid a prepaid rate for this intercontinental stay with my chase ihg card. this charge has been posted already. will this satisfy “Spend on your IHG® Rewards Club Credit Card” offer?
My offer’s not too bad (I’m Spire Elite with 114 IHG stays this year). 60,200 points if I max it out:
1) Stay once, get 1000
2) Stay 16 nights, get 32000 (2000 bonus points per stay)
3) Stay at 7 different HIX, get 11,200
4) Apply for CC, get 2000
5) Do 3 out of 4, get 9000
6) Stay once in January, get 1000
I probably won’t start on Accelerate until March, as I’ll be trying for Hyatt Globalist in 25 stays in January and February. Then after April, I’ll get started on the amazing deal of Starwood Platinum in 25 stays this year to secure Marriott Platinum, which normally requires 75 stays.
I think I’m happy about my wifes offer
Stay once for 3000 points
Stay once using points plus cash 2000 points
Stay once on IHG Credit Card 1500 points
3 of 4 for an extra 23,500 bonus
If I am reading right 1 stay (using points and cash) = 30,000 points ? or Gary do you think 2 stays
1 paid, and 1 using points and cash?
Additionally 5 nights gets another 10,000 and 1000 bonus for January stay
The advice to always sign up for these types of promotions is always a good idea.
I certainly do sign up and sometimes I find myself meeting all the requirements without deliberately trying to do so. One year I discovered that I got a huge bonus from an IHG promotion that I had totally forgotten about.
The reason it has been easy for me is because I got to Asia frequently and IHG has such a large footprint there that I end up staying at an IHG hotel most of the time.
I’d rather buy the 41,000 points than deal with this promo. Where are the ones with 4 free nights?
@Steven k on my 2016 challenge I booked before the promo start date and stayed during the promo period and IHG denied the bonus points. The said I had to book the stay during the promo period which makes no sense since my stay began on day 1. I’ve used IM to straighten it out–no luck. I called they said they would honor it weeks ago–no luck. I emailed–no luck. Maybe I should finally get a twitter account…
@ steven k, re:pre-paying before the promo started for a stay during the promo period also failed for me on my pay using IHG credit card challenge. Maybe it’s just me.
thanks for the heads up.
My experience has been that IHG allows themselves to re-interpret the rules for these Accelerate promotions after the fact. My fall Accelerate offered 30,000 points for a second stay as offer #2. So I did a mattress run at the Crown Plaza Dulles for $75/night as my second stay of the quarter. Turns out the fine print was later changed to “earn double points, up to a MAXIMUM of 30,000 points per account, for your second stay”. I got about 1,800 points instead of 30,000.
Read your offers carefully – including the fine print – and always keep receipts and documentation on hand
**snooze**
1. stay once get 5,000
2. stay 50 night(s) and earn 100,000
3. stay for the weekend and earn 4,000
4. stay in 1 of 6 major markets earn 2,400
5. apply here for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card and earn 2,000
6. complete 4 of the 5 offers and earn (an additional) 7,000
7. register for Accelerate and earn 500
8. stay once in January and get 1,000
I “live” in hotels (around 300 nights per year), so it’s been pretty easy to hit these IHG bonuses.
IHG keeps offering me 500 points to download their app and sign in with it. I’m not downloading that damned app, unless I can use it on a desktop without any hint that a phone even exists.