IHG One Rewards calls their fall promotion ‘pick your points payoff’ for the alliteration but I think of it more as ‘choose your own adventure’. You actually choose which of two promotions to register for, and you can only have one or the other.
Paid stays October 13 – December 31, 2022 earn either:
- 2,000 bonus points every two nights, or
- 10,000 bonus points every four nights
Those of you who will stay more nights in IHG hotels will clearly benefit from the second offer. Since I’m likely to do just 3 nights with the chain during this period, I’ll take the first one since 2000 points is better than 0 points. Anyone who will stay more with the chain than I will should take the second offer.
I value IHG points at $0.005 apiece. Earning an average of 2,500 points per night (assuming your total stays during the offer period is divisible by four, to not leave any nights unrewarded by this bonus) means an extra $12.50 back each time.
Sadly award redemptions don’t count for this promotion (there’s a minimum $30 rate necessary to qualify). I wouldn’t call this a generous offer, but there’s a choice element that’s engaging and more points are better then fewer points. Besides, none of the big hotel chains are being especially rewarding with hotels far more full than in recent times, so IHG doesn’t have to do more to stay competitive. At least their new elite program makes IHG more rewarding for stays.
At least it won’t be like the Choose Your Own Adventure books where you die in half the endings…although you could do the Hertz version where you get arrested in half the endings.
This would be great if they actually posted our points..Still waiting on points from almost a month ago.
Gary – You simply must stop making that demonstrably bogus statement, which I already debunked at least once. Maybe your preferred programs are not being “rewarding”, but Hilton Honors’ Q3 promo that awarded up to 3x and their ongoing Q4 promo that is awarding up to 2x are unquestionably “rewarding.”
Earn rates for HH Diamonds paying their folios with the incomparable AMEX Aspire card would be up to 54x for the Q3 promo and 44x for the Q4 promo, resulting in “returns on the dollar” of (when one uses the correct value of Hilton point of 0.5cpp):
Q3: 54 * 0.5 = 27%
Q4: 44 * 0.5 = 22%
If getting back 27 cents (Q3) and then 22 cents (Q4) on every dollar spending is not “rewarding” then the word needs to be redefined because it’s become meaningless in travel blogosphere.
G’day
@DCS – your bizarre notions about Hilton Honors notwithstanding my comment was with respect to year-end promotions and not the base earnings of the program or their co-brands.
What’s the difference? Base earn rates do change during promos. The better promo, the higher the base earn rate, the higher return on the dollar, and the more “rewarding” a promo. That is why your so-called “simple model” for ranking hotel loyalty programs that justifiably widely panned was fatally flawed. It failed to take into account other sources of points, like co-branded CC bonus points, in earn rates, leading to a conclusion that simply validated your own biased opinion…
Please look again at my recent incontrovertible mathematical proof that it’s the earn side rather than the redemption side of points currencies that determines their relative values and “worth” and, hence, how “rewarding” a promo is…
The ideas are “bizarre” to anyone who is clueless, which you clearly are, as I am 100% that you believe, as did @Gary and everyone else before my proof (and many still do), that a Hilton point is “worth” just 1/3 a Hyatt point. Now, whose ideas are “bizarre”?
@DCS: Please show me some Hilton properties where I can redeem for 0.5 cpp value. Almost everything I see these days seems to be based on a value of closer to 0.3 to 0.4 max. Except for a few properties with capped rates and sometimes when redeeming 5 nights for the price of 4, I almost never can get that value on my Hilton points any more. I can often get .75 to 1.0 cpp value from IHG properties, especially in the lower midrange hotels. I agree Hilton has the “best” promos most of the time in terms of sheer number of easy points but those points seem to be quietly devaluing, especially since reopening. My strategy with IHG is to buy points when they are on sale, redeem them for a lot more than I paid, and save my paid stays for the chains with better benefits and promos. I did a direct comparison of HH to Marriott since my wife travels a lot for business and has top status in both — and (based on a realistic 0.4 cpp Hilton value vs 0.7 for Marriott) the current double points promo with Hilton is actually about equal to Marriott with no promo. So Hilton always runs either double or triple points promos just to be competitive.
Here we go again…
Happy to. I did a bunch of redemptions for an upcoming 4-week “escapade” that will take me to 5 Asian countries, including the Maldives. The following redemption values are thus for real:
1. Hilton Singapore Orchard (60K HH pts/night x 5 nights): 0.61cent/HH point
2. Park Hyatt Saigon (15K WoH pts/night x 3 nights): 1.69cents/WoH point = 0.51cent/HH point
3. Hilton Singapore Orchard (60K HH/night x 2 nights): 0.51cent/HH point
4. WA Maldives Ithaafushi (120K HH/night x 5 nights): 3.52 cents/HH point
5. Hilton Pattaya (64K HH/night x 4 nights) = 0.44 cent/HH point (for a King Family Ocean suite premium room reward)
6. Park Hyatt Siem Reap (23K WoH/night * 4 night): 2.12 cents/WoH point = 0.71cent/HH point, BUT I paid for 1 night with a free certificate to yield: 2.74 cents/WoH point = 0.91cent/HH point
7. WA Bangkok (70K HH/night * 3 nights): 0.44 cent/HH point
8. Hilton Singapore Orchard (60K HH pts/night x 3 nights): 0.63cent/HH point
See that? Not a single 0.3cpp and a couple of 0.4cpp, with one being for a suite, a premium room reward that typically offers lower redemption values. All the other values are 0.5cpp and above, with the WA Maldives redemption going through the roof because of high case rate, capped award cost, and, importantly, the 5th award night free. Note that when the two Hyatt redemptions I included in this trip are converted to Hilton values by adjusting for differences in earn rates, they are not better than those I got at Hilton properties.
Moreover, with my redemption values above varying from 0.4cpp to over 3cpp at W Maldives, what exactly do you believe is the “correct value” a Hilton point? You have no answer to that question because, like everyone else, you are confused.
As I recently showed incontrovertibly, the “face” or “nominal” value of a Hilton point or a Hyatt point or a Marriott point or an IHG point or a Radisson point is fixed, objective, and can be calculated analytically. I did calculate values analytically, exactly and accurately, here they are:
Hilton: 0.50 cent/HH point
Hyatt: 1.52cents/WoH point
Marriott: 0.68cent/BONVoY point
IHG: 0.53cent/IHG point
Radisson: 0.36cent/RR point
and get this:
0.50 cent/HH point = 1.52cents/WoH point = 0.68cent/BONVoY point = 0.53cent/IHG point = 0.36cent/RR point
i.e., all those hotel loyalty point currencies are worth exactly the same.
Based on the the preceding, your statement that
is nonsensical and reveals that you are just as confused as everyone else.
Lastly, redemption values of points, like those those that I provided above for my 4-week Asian escapade, which is are the values that everyone obsesses with, did not exist until after I redeemed the points according to personal preferences, and are therefore all subjective.
See the difference? There are “face” or nominal values of points, which are fixed for each program, are objective and can be calculated analytically (like those I provided above), and then there are redemption values of points, which do not exist until after one redeems points according to one’s preferences, and are thus highly variable and subjective (i.e. YMMV)
G’day!
Single male in NYC who can’t find a woman in the states going on a 4 week Asian escapade is a really bad look
Hyatt> IHG > Marriott > Choice > Hilton = Radisson
Parting Shot
I am still waiting with bated breath for rebuttals to my “bizarre” ideas above, just as I am still waiting for rebuttals to my “bizarre” (read: mathematically incontrovertible) proof that (a) face or nominal values of hotel loyalty points currencies (i.e., the ones that bloggers publish to great fanfare but are utterly clueless about what they mean) can be calculated analytically (i.e., using a mathematical equation), (b) are determined by their earn side rather than by their redemption that everyone obsesses with, and (c) are all worth< exactly the same when adjusted for differences in base earn rates across programs.
Hotel points currencies must be adjusted for differences in earn rates before trying to establish their relative worth because different programs award different numbers of points for the same number of cents spent, so that while a US “cent” is a US “cent”, a “point” in one program is not the same a “point” in another program, meaning that “cents/point” cannot be compared directly without first doing a points currency conversion (make one “point” the same as another “point”), just like one has to do hard currency conversions. That is why I have been expressing values of hotel loyalty points currencies with the points “denomination” explicitly included in the denominator, e.g., cents/HH point or cents/WoH point, rather than simply “cents/(generic) point”, which is meaningless because there is no such thing, and is responsible for the general confusion that leads virtually everyone to compare the just “cents” and ignore the “point” in “cents/point” to claim that one points currency is more “valuable” than another. Well, you cannot do that because, e.g., cents/HH point and cents/WoH point are apples and oranges that cannot be compared directly since the two points currencies are not just “points” — the denominators are different!!!
These expressions are true:
1.5cents/”point” + 0.5cent/”point” = 2cents/”point”
1.5 cents/”point” > 0.5cent/”point”
These expressions are garbage:
1.5cents/WoH point + 0.5cent/HH point = What exactly?!
1.5 cents/WoH point > 0.5cent/HH point is generally accepted but is meaningless nonsense.
These expressions are true:
1.5cents/WoH point = 0.5cent/HH point
1.5 cents/WoH point / 0.5cent/HH point = 1 (not 3!)
A US$ and a SG$ are both “dollars” but they are different hard currencies that cannot be compared directly without first doing a hard currency conversion.The concept also applies to hotel loyalty points currencies.
Got it now? I doubt it because I have been preaching the preceding for a decade. However, everyone will eventually “get it” this time around because I have now done the math that will make things crystal clear the more I post the incontrovertible proof. The days of travel blogosphere’s fuzzy math and bizarre claims about hotel points currencies are numbered. I am certain of that. Mark my words.
G’day.
@ Sharpay
“Single male in NYC who can’t find a woman in the states going on a 4 week Asian escapade is a really bad look”
A misfire compared with your normally deliciously acerbic comments – just consider that the net value you derive depends upon both the earn rate and redemption rate.
So long as certain bloggers insist on a constant redemption rate and a focus on the base rate, they’ll forever be fooling themselves and their readers!
@ Sharpay
“Single male in NYC who can’t find a woman in the states going on a 4 week Asian escapade is a really bad look”
A misfire compared with your normally deliciously acerbic comments (which I absolutely adore)…please do consider that the net value you derive depends upon both the earn rate and redemption rate.
So long as certain travel bloggers insist on a constant redemption rate (subjective valuation) and force a focus on the base earn rate, they’ll forever be fooling themselves and their readers!
Which is great for those us with a head for the math who can easily outplay the system!
@ Larry
FWIW just booked Hilton FRA (Airport) for 0.86 USC per point and Hilton Darwin at 0.65 USC per point…;)
The value of a Hilton point is defined not by the gouging paid-rates that the grasping hotel is asking for the same room, but by the amount you might have been prepared to pay or that room.
That is, if you weren’t using points.you probably wouldn’t be staying at that hotel anyway, because the asking rate is too much.
@Harry Hv — You seem to be referring to the redemption “value” of a Hilton point and its inherent subjectivity, since “the amount you might have been prepared to pay [f]or that room” is inherently subjective. However, the concept — another empty travel blogosphere dogma hatched by self-anointed ;travel gurus’ eager to sound erudite — has little or no practical utility. I did not ask myself how much I was prepared to pay for the $2K+/night standard villa at WA Maldives when I lucked out and found availability for 5 consecutive nights @120K points/night. I simply booked the highly coveted award without a second thought. I still, however, define the value of that redemption just I would the value of any other redemption, even though I would never be prepared to pay $2K/night for a villa:
(total cash rate for villa, including taxes and fees)/(total number of points redeemed for award)
The WA Maldives redemption is, in fact, much more “valuable” to me precisely because “if I had not used points, I would definitely not be staying at WA Maldives anyway, because the asking rate is too much” !
My rule of thumb is that a redemption must yield a value in cpp that is not lower than 20% of the nominal value of a hotel program’s points currency for it to be worth it to me.
For Hilton, that means: 0.5 cpp – (0.5cpp*20%) = 0.5cpp – 0.1cpp = 0.4cpp = my lowest acceptable redemption value
For Hyatt, that means: 1.5cpp – (1.5cpp*20%) = 1.5cpp – 0.3cpp = 1.2cpp = my lowest acceptable redemption value
and so on for other programs. It is perhaps one of few things that nominal and redemption values of points currencies that everyone obsesses with are useful for…
BTW, in order to find good redemption values in most programs, one must either book awards many months to a year before one’s intended travel date(s), or very close (weeks to a month or 2) to the intended travel dates.
I booked the WA Maldives redemption back in January 2021 – i.e., a year before my intended travel dates. Last night, I checked availability at the hotel for October 2022 (next month) and found 5 consecutive nights with standard awards availability @150K/night, as well as availability for 3 consecutive nights. For any other dates, there are no standard awards, as is common, for months.
I booked the rest of the awards back in April or 9 months before my intended travel dates.
I mention that because if one checks for award availability at, e.g., Hilton Singapore Orchard on my travel dates, one will find no standards awards available at all. Getting good awards in most programs requires one to be flexible.
@meropenem if you do not have your points by now then there is a problem. file a claim for missing points because something is wrong. I get them posted within a week for IHG and Hiton.
For the rest of you … STOP ACTING LIKE CHILDREN AND GROW UP
DCS How old are you? Get a job and become a productive member of society.
Sharpay You are a sexual harassment lawyers wet dream and HR Nightmare. Get over yourself you are NOT GOD
LOL. I am old (6th decade) and well-established in academic circles, with a great job that gives me the “knowledge base” that allows me to be a productive member of society even the dark recesses of travel blogosphere by debunking bogus claims that debase human intellect and do harm to travel enthusiasts everywhere. Now, I hope that got you off of your high horse…
Correction: Make that “7th decade of life” — counting decades is a bit tricky…