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IHG has again returned with a sale that’s giving up to a 100% bonus when buying their points. That means you can buy IHG Rewards points for as low as 0.5 cents per point (cpp).
It’s again labeled as a “mystery” bonus and appears to be targeted. My account is showing 100% and that you must purchase 5,000 points or more to unlock the bonus. Note that your account may be targeted for a different bonus amount or minimum purchase.
A member may purchase up to 150,000 points during the calendar year before any bonuses, so if you haven’t purchased any points yet this year it is possible to buy 300,000 total points (150K + 150K bonus) for $1,500.
The Deal
- Buy IHG Rewards points for as little as 0.5 cents per point when buying points with a 100% bonus.
- Expires November 16, 2024
- Direct link to offer (our affiliate link)
Key Terms
- This Offer is available for qualifying purchases of IHG One Rewards points made between 12:00 AM ET on November 7th, 2024 and 11:59 PM ET on November 16th, 2024 (“Offer Period”).
- Members will receive a bonus of up to 80% of the points purchased when they meet a minimum points purchase threshold on a per transaction basis.
- The percentage bonus amount will show for eligible members when they log into their IHG One Rewards account. (Please click through to access the landing page for the Offer.)
- The number of points a member may purchase, gift, or receive as a gift during the Offer Period is subject to annual limits under the IHG One Rewards Membership Terms and Conditions, which are available on www.ihg.com.
- Members may only purchase a maximum of up to 150,000 points during a calendar year, so the number of points a member can purchase will depend on how many points the member had already purchased during the same calendar year.
- Similar limits apply to gifting points and receiving points as a gift: Members may purchase a maximum of 150,000 points during the promotional period only. Members may gift a maximum of 150,000 points or receive as a gift from another member a combined maximum of 150,000 points during the promotional period only. Points that have been already purchased, gifted or received as a gift in 2024 are included in the 150,000 points limit. If a member purchases points that exceed the 150,000 points threshold for 2024 then they cannot purchase points for the remainder of the calendar year.
- Purchased points, as well as any bonus points awarded under this Offer, do not count towards IHG One Rewards Elite status.
- This is an exclusive, non-transferable offer for intended recipients only and may not be forwarded. Offer is subject to change and cannot be combined with any other offer. Price includes all fees but subject to applicable taxes.
- Purchased Points are not refundable and are applicable toward all IHG One Rewards awards.
Best uses of IHG points
- 4th night free. Use points to book 4 nights for the price of 3. This benefit is valid on longer stays, so if staying 8 nights you’ll get both the 4th and 8th nights free. This benefit is available only to cardholders of the IHG Premier, Traveler and Business credit cards. Rather than reducing the total cost of the stay by 25%, the points required for every 4th night are deducted. Seeing as IHG uses dynamic pricing, that can be great if the 4th night is the most expensive, but not as good if that night is the cheapest. See this post for more about the possibilities.
- 10% points rebate. If you have the IHG Select credit card (no longer available for new applications), you’ll get a 10% points rebate when booking award stays. The points are credited back a few weeks after your stay, so you need to have the full number of points required for an award stay in your account. The 10% points rebate stacks with the 4th night free benefit if you have both an IHG Premier, Traveler or Business credit card and an IHG Select card, with the 4th night free being calculated first.
- Sweet spots with dynamic pricing. Although IHG uses dynamic pricing for award stays, award pricing isn’t always as high as the corresponding cash cost. For example, Stephen booked a stay at the Staybridge Suites Temecula-Wine Country in California. The average nightly cost was $258.81 with taxes and fees, but the points cost ranged from 19,000-23,000 points per night. Buying points at 0.5cpp would therefore enable you to stay for only $95-$115 per night at that award pricing – less than half the cost of a regular paid stay. Stacking the 4th night free and 10% points rebate reduced the cost of a 9 night stay there to only 14,500 points per night, or $72.50 per night when buying points at 0.5cpp. That was less than a third of the cost of a paid stay.
Things to know about IHG points
- When you book nights with points, you will not earn points for the stay unless IHG is running a promotion that awards bonus points per night/stay which includes award nights.
- Most hotel taxes are not charged on award stays, so this can make the value of buying points even better. Arguably, this factor and the one above roughly cancel each other out.
- IHG Rewards points purchases are made via Points.com. You can click through from a shopping portal to earn a little cashback on the purchase, thereby reducing your net cost for the points – you can find the current rates here.
- Points.com purchases don’t code as travel, so it’s best to pay with a card that earns at a higher rate for everyday spend or on a card where you’re working on a minimum spend requirement.
Past IHG points sales
- 80% bonus (Buy points for 0.56c each). Valid October 17 – November 1, 2024
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5c each). Valid September 23 – October 5, 2024
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5c each). Valid July 25 – September 7, 2024
- Up to a 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid July 7 -July 14, 2024
- Up to a 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid June 20-July 3, 2024
- Up to a 80% bonus (Buy points for 0.56 cents each). Valid April 25th – June 8, 2024.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid January 26-February 2, 2024
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid November 16-December 30, 2023
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid October 2-9, 2023
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid July 21-28, 2023
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid June 19-26, 2023.
- 80% bonus (Buy points for 0.56 cents each). Valid April 24 – June 7, 2023.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through March 21, 2023.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through December 29, 2022.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through October 21, 2022.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through August 7, 2022.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through July 15, 2022.
- 80% bonus (Buy points for 0.6 cents each). Valid through June 10, 2022.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through April 14, 2022.
- 80%-100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5-0.6 cents each). Valid through March 18, 2022.
- 80% bonus (Buy points for 0.6 cents each). Valid through January 4, 2022.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through November 8, 2021.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through October 8, 2021.
- 100% bonus (Buy points for 0.5 cents each). Valid through September 9, 2021.
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How come when its 100% bonus, it says (0.5c, 0.56c each), and now with a 80% bonus it says 0.56c each?
These are the last 3 calculated rates. How come it comes out to 3 different prices?
The 0.56c was a typo for the most recent 100% bonus – I’ve just fixed that as it should’ve said 0.5c.
So if I’m understanding correctly, the 4th night is free even if that night requires the most points? e.g. First 3 nights 15k points each, 4th night 20k points. The total amount required to book would be 45k, right?
Yep, that’s exactly how it works.
Thanks sir!
How often do they run the 250,000/500,000 promotion? I would rather do that, personally.
I beleive 150 is max per year, but you can buy them for P2 then if you both have Business Relations (free) with IHG you can transfer fee free to just one account.
They occasionally run a special promotion of purchasing up to 250k and allow you to bypass the 150k limit for that duration.
Why do you guys post this when you can always buy IHG for .5 cpp?
Over the past 365 days, it was only possible to buy them on sale like this for 128 of those days, so only a third of that time or so. Some of those sales included targeted bonuses, so not everyone could buy at 0.5cpp during those 128 days either.
The more they post and hype up points and miles, the more that they can try and earn when they get suckers to sign up using their affiliate programs. It’s all a sales goal, in disguise of “helping readers”. Same way that a used car salesman is going to “help you find the perfect car”… there’s suckers born every minute.
Some of you are clueless. Please read about the blog before you post anything more.
We recommend in the post that anyone thinking of buying these points clicks through from a shopping portal so that they earn cashback rather than us earning a small amount of commission from the affiliate link.
Points and miles blogs usually report on points and miles. It’s actually a thing.
The best way to get them to stop posting this is to share your way to always buy IHG for .5 cpp 😉
While I got the 100% bonus, IHG is not pricing the points at 1cpp until the 26K tier. The 10K purchase for example is $135, with the bonus making it 0.675 cpp. Anyone else is seeing the same?
you definitely have one of the best informed if not best informed attitudes toward IHG rewards that I have seen!
Bravo
My offer is for 60%
Seems like I am not targeted, I don’t see any offer for me
Go to Points on your IHG account, then go down to Buy points – It may be there. Both P2 and I got the 100%
I was told this offer ended a week ago. It is only 20% now.
The previous offer had ended, but there’s a new targeted one out.
I’ve been having issues buying them. I already used three different credit cards. Once I pressed send, the points website says authentication failure (even Chase said it was approved their end). My last time was with Amex (this time worked and I even get a confirmation number). To.my surprise today I’ve got an email letting me know it was declined (FYI I message Amex directly and the CR said no issues on their end).
Every time I called the call center, they have a different answer. It seems they are losing profit (my case is myself and P2 buying 250k each or 5k USD)
I believe they extended because of the issues they having.
Anyone else experience that before?
The deal is back, but I couldn’t log in from the Points link above. Instead, I logged into my IHG account on a browser (not the app) and checked my “Offers” where you can buy points, up to 500k total points for $2500.
My offer is 100% starting at 11,000 points…
Which card would be best to use to make purchase? IHG Rewards Club, IHG Rewards Premier Biz or the old IHG Rewards Club World for extra points when making purchase?
From what I have been told in earlier conversations, point purchases don’t code as IHG purchases.
I got the 100% bonus offer. To get the full bonus amount, however, I have to buy a minimum of 40k points (40k purchase plus 40k bonus for $400).
Thanks for letting us know!
I also got the 100% bonus but only need to purchase 11k points to get it
Same for me, but have to buy at least 26k pts (52k with bonus) to get them at 0.5 cpp
If you book a cash and points reservation at a hotel in Japan, the exchange rate is so favorable that refunding the reservation for the sole purpose of buying points makes the purchase cheaper, marginally, and without limit on the number of points that can be acquired, than buying the points from IHG in the promo.