Buy IHG Points with Bonus 80% Points (E.g. Buy 10,000, Get 8,000 for Free) for Booking Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Crowne Plz

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neil on 23/08/2016 - 16:25 storefront.points.com (300 clicks)
Last edited 28/08/2016 - 20:33 by 1 other user

IHG is offering an 80% bonus on points purchased until September 9. Buy between 1,000 - 9,000 points and earn a 40% Bonus, Buy between 10,000 - 60,000 points and earn an 80% Bonus. Point Table. IHG points can be used to book Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Klimpton, Candlewood, and a few others.

Long explanation by Pointhacks

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This is difficult to explain but makes sense once you do it the first time so I'll just give you my example. Here's how I saved money booking a hotel using points (without a bonus). Getting bonus points would make it cheaper.

• Needed a booking for a Holiday Inn in NY (in a faraway suburb, not NYC).
• Tried all the hotel sites, price comparison, coupons, calling the hotel, but $175 USD/nt was the best I could get it.

• The hotel requires 10,000 IHG points per night OR 5,000 points + $40 USD (per night) to book on the same dates.

  10,000 points = $135 USD
  + $40 USD x 2 nights = $80 USD
  TOTAL = $215
  Compared to the best rate of $175 * 2 = $350 USD
  Savings of $135 USD by using points

But wait there's more!

Go through TopCashBack and you'll get 4% cashback, so I earned $5.40 from my $135 purchase.
Go through TopCashBack and you'll get 8% cashback, so I earned $6.40 on the $80 booking.
So an extra $11.80, bringing the total to $203.20.

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So if I had done the same offer as above with the bonus points, I would need to buy 20,000 points. To do this I'd buy 10,000 with a bonus of 8,000 for $135 USD. To get the other 2,000 I'd just buy 2,000 at $27 USD and still have 800 to spare. Total cost $162 USD, savings of $53 with this bonus offer.

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There aren't any restrictions on when you can use the points HOWEVER different properties have different point levels. Check out the map. There are properties where it will cost more to use points and there are properties that will cost less. This is where you need to do your research.

Low point properties is what you want. In NSW, for a weekend in March, the Holiday Inn Warwick Farm cost $410.40 AUD for 2 nights OR 40,000 points (20,000 x 2). Purchasing 41,400 points costs $287.50 USD or $376.15 AUD saving you $34.25 AUD. Bigger savings can be had for international properties. Do the math and see what works out for you.

AwardMapper will allow you to see what category each hotel is.

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Super Bonus: There is also their Best Price Guarantee. If you book with them and then find a cheaper price, they will refund you the 1st night and pricematch the remainder of your stay. Reports from elsewhere show they do this happily but they are pretty vigilant in making sure their prices are the lowest.

EDIT (Found NZ deal):

Auckland, NZ - Crowne Plaza

Crowne Plaza Auckland (Fri + Night Stay in October):

• $830.30 NZD ($415.15 * 2 nights)Best Price OR
• 50,000 (25,000 * 2 nights) = 50,400 which is $322 USD or $439.71 NZD

Almost half price!

Related Stores

Points.com

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  sonicentropy on 23/08/2016 - 16:31

  I usually wait for the 100% extra
  The bonus points can take a few weeks
  Great for Europe holiday inn express
  Very cheap with points free wifi and breakfast included

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    neil on 23/08/2016 - 16:33

    Yeah 100% makes the points more even to add up instead of having too little or too much.

    Interesting about the bonus points as regular points showed up in 2 days.

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  hhbb555 on 23/08/2016 - 16:36

  how long can the points be saved?
  does it have any expiry date on the points?

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    neil on 23/08/2016 - 16:40

    +1

    All points will expire after 12 months if there's no account activity. But it's easy to maintain your points balance. Just earn or redeem once a year through any of our IHG hotels or partners.

    I believe you can buy more points to keep the account active (or redeem/earn). But I would only buy them if you know you are going to travel and stay soon as they have these promotions quite often From Pointhacks:

    August 2016 – 80% bonus, 0.64c US / point
    June 2016 – up to 100% bonus, targeted, 0.575c US / point
    June 2016 – 100% bonus, 0.575c US / point
    February 2016 – 100% bonus, 0.575c US / point
    November 2015 – 100% bonus, 0.575c US / point
    October 2015 – 60% bonus, 0.7c US / point
    June 2015 – 100% bonus, 0.575 US / point
    March 2015 – 60% bonus, 0.7c US / point
    September 2014 – 100% bonus, 0.58 US / point
    

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      braddsey on 23/08/2016 - 16:59

      +1

      You can also buy non-hotel stuff with your points to keep your account alive. I had a whole lot of points from biz travel that we're going to expire. I found an e-magazine in their online catalogue (I think an Indian Architecture magazine) that cost 6 points. That's all of about 3 or 4 cents.

      A good option if you don't want to buy more points.

      • 

        SickDmith on 23/08/2016 - 19:03

        Oh dear, I though they will expire anyway… Had a bunch of points… But all expired because I didn't use them.

      • 

        neil on 23/08/2016 - 19:40

        @SickDmith:

        Contact them. They may reinstate them.

        If your points have expired and you are requesting to have them be restored, the IHG® Rewards Club Service Center may review your request for consideration.

      • 

        SickDmith on 23/08/2016 - 21:36

        @neil:
        Thanks.
        I will try.

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  atlas on 23/08/2016 - 16:59

  135 + 80 = 215

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    neil on 23/08/2016 - 17:00

    Oops. Thanks, fixed that up.

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  markis10 on 23/08/2016 - 17:21

  No bargain, it's cheaper to use the points plus cash trick:

  IC Sydney at 55000 points or

  50,000 points + $34.00 USD
  45,000 points + $59.50 USD
  40,000 points + $84.15 USD

  IF I book and then cancel, I get 15000 points for $84.15 or .564 a point. If you keep a minimum 5000 points in your account you can top up any time and there is no yearly limit, unlike the point.com method which is 60k.
  And there are restrictions on using points, capacity at each hotel is limited.

  You also have not mentioned the best part, points breaks, selected properties at 5k points, stayed at the HIX in Nth Ryde for a week recently for 25000 points in total, that's roughly $40 a night, doing the same in Cambodia in two weeks time at the Intercontinental.

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    neil on 23/08/2016 - 17:30

    As Pointhacks and other sites warn, you run the risk of losing your points if you do this. I wasn't keen on risking it but I suppose, no risk, no reward.

    • 

      markis10 on 23/08/2016 - 17:47

      There is no risk, as it's not against the terms and conditions of the program to cancel bookings using points, don't pay too much attention to blogs.

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    voteoften on 23/08/2016 - 18:41

    Can you tell us what deal you got at the hotel in Cambodia? Do you know off hand us Singapore hotels are cheep cheep with points? Thanks

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      neil on 30/08/2016 - 13:35

      It probably was the InterContinental Phnom Penh.

      So with Pointbreaks (5000pts/nt hotels) they are released quarterly and tend to be snapped up quickly. The last round included the one in Phnom Penh as well as the Holiday Inn Express Sydney in Macquarie Park.

      See today's Pointhacks post. Looks like the next release will be the end of September/beginning of October.

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  [Deactivated] on 23/08/2016 - 17:42

  Kudos to OP for detailed explanation, this seems like a really good way to stay for cheap!

  Help me out here, am I doing this calculation right:

  Intercontinental Times Square (Category 9 - 50k points / night) for 5 nights

  = 50k/night x 5 nights = 250,000 points required

  = 250,000 / 1.8 (1 point + 80% bonus) = 138,888 points to buy x USD$0.0064 = USD$888

  = USD$177.78 per night…current "best available rate" is USD$385/night for October 2016, when I intend to travel, which represents a $200+/night difference.

  Not sure if I have a cracker of a deal or have effed up the calculations.

  • 

    markis10 on 23/08/2016 - 17:45

    You can only buy 60000 per calendar year.

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      [Deactivated] on 23/08/2016 - 17:53

      60k x 1.8 is 108k, so pretty close!

    • 

      neil on 23/08/2016 - 17:57

      Not sure what the figure is but just sign up partner or whoever you're travelling with on another account.

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    neil on 23/08/2016 - 18:31

    What dates in October? Maybe check the points + pay rate to see if that works better.

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  neil on 23/08/2016 - 19:59

  Another good bargain.

  Crowne Plaza Auckland (Fri + Night Stay in October):

  • $830.30 NZD ($415.15 * 2 nights)Best Price OR
  • 50,000 (25,000 * 2 nights) = 50,400 which is $322 USD or $439.71 NZD

  Almost half price!