(EXPIRED) Earn up to 5K IHG points by booking through the app

IHG is out with an offer to get a bonus of up to 5,000 IHG Rewards points by making bookings through the IHG app.

The Deal

• IHG is offering a targeted bonus to earn up to 5,000 bonus points when booking stays through the app. You must register prior to booking, then stay between October 9, 2021 and December 9, 2021 and receive:
  • 2,000 bonus points after your first stay booked in the app
  • 3,000 bonus points after your second stay booked in the app
• Direct link to this promotion (or check the “messages” section of your IHG app, which is where I found this after getting a phone notification yesterday)

 Key Terms

• Must be an IHG® Rewards member and must be invited to participate in “IHG 5K App Download Offer” (“Offer”).
• Members who receive an Offer announcement communication must register for the Offer.
• Members can pre-register for this Promotion on October 8, 2021.
• Members will be able to register, stay, and earn for this Promotion beginning October 9, 2021 and ending on December 9, 2021 (“Promotion Period”).
• If you have registered for the Offer, 2,000 bonus points will be deposited into your account after completing one qualifying stay booked through the IHG app at any IHG® Hotels & Resorts brand, Mr and Mrs Smith properties, or participating Six Senses properties worldwide. 3,000 bonus points will be deposited into your account after completing a second qualifying stay booked through the IHG app at any IHG® Hotels & Resorts brand, Mr and Mrs Smith properties, or participating Six Senses properties worldwide.  Offer available at participating Six Senses properties, as identified on each hotel’s booking page.
• Members who are invited to participate in this Offer may also participate in other IHG offers.
• A Qualifying Stay is defined as a minimum 1-night stay booked under a Qualifying Rate, with total spend exceeding $30 USD (or local equivalent) per night.
• Only one room per member per Qualifying Stay will be eligible.
• If more than one member checks into the same room, only one member is eligible for the Offer.
• No retroactive credit will be awarded for Stays prior to registration.
• lease allow up to 4-6 weeks for bonus points to be posted onto your account.
• See offer page for full terms

Quick Thoughts

On its own, this bonus is no big deal. IHG points often go on sale for 0.5c per point, so these bonuses are worth about $10 on your first stay and $15 on your second stay. As the old saying goes, that’s better than a hole in the head….but it’s not probably enough to force your hand in booking something.

However, the thing here is that there are so many stacking opportunities right now that it may be worth switching a stay to IHG. Consider these stacking deals:

1. Book through the app (2K points on your first stay)
2. Pay with an IHG credit card (note that you may have Chase spending offer, but that requires a lot more spend). With the IHG Premier as an example, earn 10x on the card plus 15x ordinary earnings at most brands IHG Platinum status.
3. Make sure that IHG card is synced with American Airlines SimplyMiles and you have connected the SimplyMiles IHG offers (offers vary by brand but are good for 875 or 2,150 AA miles. There is also a generic 1100 mile “IHG” offer that may stack)
4. Possibly stack with IHG’s quarterly promotion, which gives you nothing for your first stay (but if this is your second or third stay it could be a good stack)

The app booking bonus is nice if you’ve got a cheap stay, but if your stay is more expensive then you may be better off using a shopping portal. Since IHG is offering 2K points — worth about $10 — you would be better off not booking through the app and instead going through TopCashBack for 9% back (at the time of writing) if your paid stay will be $111.11 or more (since you’d get $10 or more back in cash from the portal). If your stay will be quite cheap, you would be better off booking via the app for $10 worth of points.

Either way, you’ll want to make sure to have the IHG SimplyMiles offer synced up for bonus miles if you spend enough at IHG. In my case, I have a booking to make that would be about $100 before tax. With the stack in this post, I would earn:

• 2,000 IHG points for booking through the app
• 2,500 IHG points for paying with the IHG Premier and having Platinum status
• 2,150 American Airlines miles (since it is a property with the higher offer). Possibly another 1,100 American Airlines miles if the two IHG offers stack.

That’s 4,500 IHG points (worth about $22.50) and at least 2,150 American Airlines miles (worth somewhere in the vicinity of $30 – maybe more if the offers stack) and then an even better IHG bonus on the next stay if I have another during the promo period. That’s a solid return on a $100 stay. In actuality, I only have the old IHG Classic card (which offers 5x at IHG rather than 10x), so I’d earn 500 fewer IHG points. I also have to consider taxes and amenity fees — but overall, I think this promo looks pretty good for cheap stays.

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