IHG Point Breaks list Oct 30-Jan 31st

IHG’s latest PointBreaks list has been released. These hotels will be bookable for 5,000 IHG points per night starting on Monday, October 30th for stays through January 31st, 2018. While the list of participating hotels is out, keep in mind that these will not be bookable until sometime on Monday morning.

The Deal

• IHG Point Breaks hotels will be available for 5,000 IHG points per night starting Monday, October 30th for stays through January 31st, 2018
• See the full list here

Quick Thoughts

For a long time now, the IHG PointBreaks list has not included (m)any exciting resort-destination hotels. While there used to be a couple of Intercontinental hotels on the list years ago, for the past couple of years the list has mainly been Holiday Inn Express hotels, with a smaller selection of other brands. Usually, there is at least a Crowne Plaza or two.

I find the PointBreaks list most useful for two types of stays — though this quarter brings in a third:

A) Road trip stopovers

I find the greatest value in IHG PointBreaks to be for 1-night stays when I need to break up a long drive. My family lives about a 14-hour drive from me, so it’s nice to stop for the night and break the ride into 2 days. In a situation like that, I don’t need a luxurious suite or even free breakfast in the morning — I just need a clean and reliable bed. Getting that bed for 5,000 points is a better deal than anything else on the market (especially if you’re occasionally able to buy points as cheaply as 0.43125 cents per point like some people did this week). Even if you pay 6 tenths of a penny per point to buy IHG points, these nights are only costing $36, which is less than half price in most cases (sometimes quite a bit better).

B) Discovering a new town I wouldn’t otherwise visit

As someone who just enjoys travel, I have fun exploring new places — whether it’s an island off the coast of Vietnam or a small city two  hours away. For me, the fun of travel is in finding a local restaurant, seeing a new site, and interacting with some different people. I can just as easily do that two hours from home as I can ten thousand miles from home — but I don’t often do it at full price. If I’m paying somewhere between $21-$36 per night based on the cost of the points, I’m up for a weekend “staycation”.

C) New Year’s Eve

This quarter, I can’t ignore the value of booking New Year’s Eve for 5K points. Sure, many will call NYE “amateur night” — but it can be fun to get out of the house and make a night of it. A couple of years ago, I was able to snag a suite with a whirlpool tub at a Holiday Inn for New Year’s Eve for just 5K points. I knew this Holiday Inn hosted an annual NYE event and figured it might be fun. We ended up changing plans, but it would have been a great value.

Bottom line

PointBreaks can be a great value if they fit into your travel plans or pop up within your backyard. Check out the full list here. On Monday, keep an eye on this Flyertalk thread as we don’t know when they will go live but someone typically announces it there. We’ll also be sure to post an update when they go live — typically that’s sometime between 9am-noon Eastern.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

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