(EXPIRED) IHG Mystery Bonus: Buy points as low as 0.5cpp

IHG Rewards Club is running a “Mystery Bonus” promotion on buying IHG points, with a bonus of up to 100%. Exact bonus levels are targeted, but if you get targeted for the 100% bonus, you’ll be able to buy points for 0.5 cents per points. We’ve seen ocassional opportunities to buy them for between 0.4-0.5 cents each, but this is still a pretty good price for IHG points and can make sense if you have a good redemption in mind.

The Deal

• IHG Rewards is running a targeted mystery bonus with up to 100% bonus on purchased points
• Direct link to log in and see your bonus

Key Terms

• Offer available for purchases made between 12:00 AM ET July 13, 2018, and 11:59 PM ET August 22, 2018
• Purchased points are not refundable and are applicable toward all IHG® Rewards Club awards.
• Members may purchase a maximum of 100,000 points per calendar year and receive as a gift a maximum of 100,000 points per calendar year.
• Please allow 72 hours for points to post and appear in the recipient’s account. All other IHG® Rewards Club Terms and Conditions apply.

Quick Thoughts

Keep in mind that as long as you have at least 5,000 points in your account, you can always purchase IHG points from about 0.575 cents per point by making a cash & points reservation (if you later cancel, you get the points back rather than your cash).

With that in mind, this price certainly isn’t good enough that I’d speculatively buy points. However, there are certainly situations where this could work out to save you some money. Further, if you hold the IHG Rewards Club Premier or IHG Rewards Club Traveler cards, this deal can work out even better since both cards come with the benefit of the 4th night free on award stays — helping you stretch the power of your points a bit further if you plan to stay in 4-night increments. Note that while those cards also come with a 20% discount on purchasing points, that will not apply during a sale like this.

Speaking of the sale, you’ll actually get points for 0.5 cents each or less if you buy at least 26,000 points. In fact, if you plan to buy 46,000 points or more, it’ll be cheaper to buy 52,000 points (26K + 26K).

You can purchase up to 100,000 points with a 100,000 point bonus (200K total points) for a total of $1,000.

Your best use of the points is probably IHG PointBreaks promotions, where you can book certain properties for 5,000 / 10,000 / 15,000 points per night, turning them into prices of $25, $50, and $75 per night when purchasing points. Those lists do not often contain IHG’s more desirable properties, but $25 or $50 per night is still a pretty desirable price if any of those properties fit into your needs. The current PointBreaks list is only valid for bookings through July 31st, so there isn’t much left on the list. I expect we’ll see a new list come out soon.

Since this bonus is valid through August 22nd, I’d probably recommend holding off on points until you have a use and/or until the new PointBreaks list comes out.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

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