(EXPIRED) IHG giving opportunity to buy status & it could be a good deal

Update 12/30/24: IHG’s promotion to buy Diamond status ends tomorrow. If you were targeted and want to bask in the glow of top-tier IHG status for all of 2025, this is your last chance.

Make sure to read through all of the updates below, however. Pricing has been back and forth between $640 – $800, but it Chase has been crediting some cardholders who paid the higher rate.

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IHG One Rewards is once again giving members the opportunity to buy Elite Qualifying Points in order to qualify – or requalify – for elite status. Depending on your travel needs there’s some good value available, but it might not be as good as it was 24 hours ago, but perhaps it is.

Update 12/19/24: This promotion has been a bit of a mess. IHG/Points.com was initially showing a reduced price of $640 for 120,000 points and accompanying Diamond status for those with an IHG Premier, Business or Traveler credit card, but they pulled that later the same day.

That was replaced with pricing of $800 with no other discount showing which made it seem like you might still be eligible for the 20% discount (i.e. $640 pricing) with an IHG card, but that wasn’t the case. They later changed the pricing display yet again to show the cost being $1,000 normally but reduced to $800 for eligible cardholders.

That was a shame for all those of us who hadn’t immediately jumped on the $640 pricing. Well, there’s a positive update because that $640 pricing is back again! I suspect that IHG and Points.com received a lot of complaints about the confusion/bait & switch/lack of clarity and so are reverting to the pricing initially displayed. That said, given that this is the fourth iteration of the pricing within a 48 hour period, I can’t say with full confidence that this will be the final change, so if you were interested in the $640 pricing before, it’d be worth jumping on this now rather than procrastinating.

Update 12/27/24: We’ve seen yet another development in the never ending “IHG can’t decide what it wants to charge saga. A Frequent Miler Insiders member was targeted for the promotion, but saw her cost increase from $640 to $800 (as mentioned below). She bought the points anyway, but within a few days, she saw a $160 credit from Chase on the $800 purchase effectively taking the cost back down to $640!

She never asked for the $160, Chase issued it automatically. Given that, it’s probably worth it for folks who paid the higher $800 cost to reach out to Chase and see if they’re willing to offer a statement credit.

The Deal

• Purchase Elite Qualifying Points to earn IHG One Rewards status.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• This Offer is available to IHG One Rewards members for qualifying purchases of IHG One Rewards points made during the period from 12:00 AM ET December 16, 2024 and 11:59 PM ET December 31, 2024 inclusive (“Offer Period”).
• A member may only make a singular points purchase under this promotion.
• Purchased EQPs (Elite Qualifying Points) will count toward a Member’s Year-To-Date EQP balance.
• The Member will have the opportunity to either maintain their current status or upgrade to the next tier.
• The Member’s purchase level is dependent upon their current status as of December 6, 2024.
• If the Member purchases enough to cross the Elite Qualifying Points thresholds to maintain their status, that status will be granted automatically.
• EQPs will be awarded upon completion of the transaction, and new elite status will be reflected within 5-10 business days after the purchase.
• Renewed and Upgraded status gained from the purchase of EQPs will be valid for the remainder of 2024 and all of the 2025 calendar year.
• EQP points and resulting status will be awarded to the recipient of the EQP purchase only.
• Price includes all applicable fees.
• EQP Points are not refundable and are applicable toward all IHG One Rewards redemptions.
• Elite Qualifying Nights are not part of this offer and cannot be purchased.
• This is an exclusive, non-transferable offer for intended recipients only and may not be forwarded.

Quick Thoughts

Although I have more than 40 elite nights with IHG this year, very few of those were paid nights – most were booked with points. As a result, if I want to retain Diamond status for 2025 I’d have to buy 120,000 IHG points. Note that the Elite Qualifying Points you buy with this deal are also redeemable points that can be used for award stays.

When I received the email from IHG about this deal yesterday, I almost filed it away without any interest. IHG normally sells its points for 1cpp (cent per point), but several times throughout the year they’ll offer a 100% bonus which means you can buy their points for 0.5cpp. Their most recent sale ended a few days ago, so it didn’t seem worth buying 120,000 points at the elevated cost just for Diamond status.

However, this offer is much better value than it initially appeared. I’m an IHG Premier cardholder which means I get a 20% discount on purchased points when they’re not offering a bonus on purchased points. I knew that would be the case, but figured that would mean I’d be buying them for 0.8cpp instead which I still wasn’t interested in.

When clicking through though, I noticed that 120,000 points could be purchased for only $640. That’s a cost of 0.53cpp, just slightly higher than when IHG sells points with a 100% bonus. I value 120,000 points as being worth $600 on that basis, so this would be like buying Diamond status for $40. While I wasn’t convinced that I needed an extra 120,000 points, I figured I could make good use of them eventually, with the $40 investment in Diamond status paying off very quickly with free breakfast for me and my wife after a couple of nights at a Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, etc.

As a result, I was planning on buying the points but hadn’t gotten around to it yet as we went out for a hike yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, when clicking through to the offer page last night (when I scheduled this post), IHG appears to have repriced the cost of 120,000 points. Rather than charging only $640, it now shows a cost of $800. At an effective cost of $40 for Diamond status, I was a buyer. At an effective cost of $200, I wasn’t so sure.

Our 50 state road trip is wrapping up and so in a few months we’ll no longer be living in hotels. In the meantime, I’m planning on prioritizing stays at Hyatt properties to more easily retain Globalist status next year, so our IHG stays in 2025 will likely be few and far between. We’ll therefore gain minimal benefit from getting free breakfast at IHG properties – the main benefit of Diamond status.

Having said all that, it might be that the $640 price is still available. When first clicking through yesterday, the various prices displayed in the screenshot above were struck through and showed prices that were 20% lower next to them. The 20% discount on purchased points is only when paying with an eligible IHG credit card. As a result, while the cost of 120,000 points is initially showing as $800, if paying with an IHG card then it should only charge $640 based on the terms of how the credit card benefit should work. The problem is that the 20% discount doesn’t get displayed even when entering my IHG Premier credit card number.

On that note, the email from IHG states the following:

Save at least 20% on points purchases when you pay for those points with your IHG One Rewards Premier, Premier Business or Traveler Credit Cards. Point purchase amounts are subject to change by IHG One Rewards. Upon completion of the points purchase, you agree that the total dollar price of the points, minus the discount, will be immediately charged to your credit card. The cost for the points purchased is non-refundable. Point purchase transactions managed by Points.com.

That sort of sounds like the discount will be applied by the time your eligible IHG card is charged, but it’s strange that you basically just have to trust that’ll be the case. I suspect what happened is that IHG was inadvertently showing the prices if someone paid with an IHG card, but that it was misleading because someone paying with a different card could reasonably expect to pay that same price that was displayed. As a result, they fixed the prices so that they didn’t display the 20% discount anymore, but that the $640 price when buying 120,000 points is still available if paying with one of the three eligible types of IHG credit cards.

Update: My struck-through theory above was sadly incorrect. IHG/Points.com now shows a base price of $1,000 for 120,000 points for those with no IHG credit card and a reduced price of $800 for those with an eligible IHG card.

Regardless, I’m still tempted by this even if it does cost $800. I’ve no idea what Frequent Miler challenge we’ll be doing in 2025, but if it has a hotel focus then it could be useful being the only member of the FM team with IHG Diamond status. That said, I still need to pick my 40 night Milestone Reward from this year. One of the options is a Lounge membership, so if I choose that benefit and stay at properties with a lounge, I might have breakfast available through that route anyway.

If you’ve bought 120,000 points with an IHG credit card from this offer when it showed a cost of $800, did you only end up being charged $640? Please let us know in the comments below.

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