Buy Hotel Points For About Half a Cent Per Point

IHG Rewards Club – the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and related brands — is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points through June 30.

This means you can buy points at $0.00575 apiece.

This is the normal pricing:

You may purchase points in 1,000 increments:

1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
11,000 – 25,000 points for $12.50 per 1,000 points
26,000 – 60,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points

As a result, you can buy points for as little as $0.00575 apiece (half of $11.50 per 1000) or $690 for 120,000 points which is the maximum allowable purchase.

The points are processed by Points.com so this doesn’t count as hotel spend for credit card bonuses.

In general I value an IHG Rewards Club point at about 6/10ths of a cent — just over the price they’re selling points through this promotion. If the price were lower I would be a buyer. Personally I’d rather hold cash than points at this price and only buy points with a specific use in mind, especially since it’s long been possible to buy points at 7/10ths of a cent apiece whenever one wishes. The gain by acting right away is marginal (just over one-tenth of a cent per point).

But you likely won’t get hurt at this price. And it’s the lowest price I’ve seen, though something they’ve offered before (such as last fall).

100% Bonus Purchasing IHG Rewards Club Points Through June 30

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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Comments

  1. @MEOW I don’t have a specific use for the points so I’m not. But it’s the best price out there for those who want to top off an IHG account

  2. “The gain by acting right away is marginal (just over one-tenth of a cent per point).”

    That’s $150 (18.57%) saving on 120,000 points, if I have my math right, when comparing to the method for obtaining points for $.007 each by booking and canceling points + cash reservations.

    Continuing that comparison, obtaining points this way would probably look better if IHG ever had any reason to consider whether you’re the kind of customer they want to retain.

  3. The risk of IGH stealing your points and closing your account for realizing best use and maximum value is considerable.
    I would Stay Away.

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