(EXPIRED) IHG Q2/Q3 2021 Promo: Earn Up To 3x Points + 3,000 Bonus Points For Cardholders

IHG must figure that with travel picking back up, they don’t need to do as much to incentivize people to stay with them (not that they’d really been doing much on that front this past year).

That’s because they’ve opened registration for their Q2/Q3 2021 promotion and it offers a grand total of zero bonus points on your next stay. It’s still worth registering for the promo though because if you have any additional stays after that by August 16 then it does get more rewarding.

The Deal

• Earn 2x bonus points on your second IHG stay and 3x points from your third stay onwards.
• Chase IHG credit cardholders also earn 3,000 bonus points on your second and third stays.
• Direct link to registration.

Key Terms

• The promotion begins on May 5, 2021 and ends on August 16, 2021 (“Promotion Period”). Upon registration, members will be presented with the opportunity to earn 2X bonus points upon completion of their second stay and then 3X bonus points on their third stay and all subsequent stays during the Promotion Period when paying a Qualifying Rate (as such rates are defined in the IHG Rewards terms and conditions). Bonus points will only be awarded from the base points earned with each qualifying stay. You must register, book, and stay on or before August 16, 2021 to earn bonus points during the Promotion Period.
• By clicking “click to register” you are registering for the Promotion. Members will be awarded bonus points based upon the number of stays consumed during the Stay Period at IHG® brand hotels, with some exclusions. Offer available at participating Six Senses properties, as identified on each hotel’s booking page. Stay period begins on May 15, 2021 and ends August 16, 2021 (“Stay Period”). Members will only receive bonus points for stays occurring between the Stay Period. A stay can begin before the Stay Period or end after the Stay Period but will only receive the Promotion bonus points for dates within the Stay Period. Nights that occurred before or after the Stay Period are excluded. The bonus points earned during the Promotion can be used towards Reward Nights, can be redeemed for merchandise, or for other redemption opportunities.
• Qualifying Stays are a minimum 1-night stay booked under a Qualifying Rate, with total spend exceeding US $30 for each night. Note that multiple checkouts for consecutive qualifying nights at the same hotel will count as 1 qualifying stay; non-consecutive qualifying nights at the same hotel may count as separate qualifying stays. The Promotional Period includes 94 nights and the maximum number of bonus points that can be earned is 100,000 bonus points over the entire Promotional Period.
• For cardmembers in the United States using an IHG® Rewards Club Credit Card from Chase, an additional 3,000 bonus points will be awarded on your second Qualifying stay and an additional 3,000 bonus points will be awarded on your third Qualifying stay during the promotional period at any IHG® Hotel and Resort worldwide, with some exclusions. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for Promotion bonus points to be credited. No additional bonus points for IHG Rewards Club credit card use will be awarded past the third Qualifying stay. For new Chase IHG Rewards Club Credit Card accounts opened during the promotional period, please allow 4 to 6 weeks after the promotional period for bonus points to be credited. The “up to 6,000 bonus points” cardmembers earn from this offer are separate from points earned from credit card spend on IHG transactions. IHG reserves the right of final interpretation of this offer. This offer is not from Chase. Chase is not responsible for the provision of, or failure to provide, the stated benefits and services. Bonus points will post directly to your IHG® Rewards account and will not appear on your credit card statement. The “up to 6,000 bonus points” cardmembers earn from this promotion is in addition to the points earned through the 3X bonus points promotion. Cardmembers have an opportunity to earn, at most, 106,000 bonus points over the entire Promotional Period.

Quick Thoughts

With travel picking back up, it looks like with IHG at least that it’s not so much a “new normal” as a return to the “old normal”. Hotel promotions that didn’t reward you on your first stay were sadly somewhat commonplace pre-pandemic and IHG apparently couldn’t wait any longer to get back into that comfortable groove.

If you’ll be staying twice or more during the promo period (which lasts three months, so it’s definitely a possibility), the deal gets a little better. IHG offers 10x base points per dollar for most of their brands (5x for Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites), so earning double points makes that 20x. If you have an IHG Premier card you’ll earn an additional 10x by paying with that card, 5x bonus points per dollar from having Platinum status and 3,000 bonus points from this promo for being a cardholder. That’s a total of 35x + 3,000 bonus points.

From your third stay, in that scenario you’d earn a total of 45x, as well as 3,000 bonus points on that third stay too, although note that 3,000 bonus points isn’t awarded beyond your second and third stays. If you value IHG points at 0.5cpp, that’s a return of 22.5% even before accounting for the 3,000 bonus points which is, to be fair, pretty good.

You can juice this deal even further. You can click through from a shopping portal to earn 6% cashback right now, but there’ll hopefully be days when portal rates are even higher than that in the next few months.

There are also the bonus AAdvantage miles you can earn at most of IHG’s brands by paying with a card linked in the SimplyMiles program (see this post for details). That can stack nicely with this promotion seeing as IHG credit cards are Mastercards which is what’s required for SimplyMiles.

IHG also sometimes offers targeted promotions offering bonus points or free night certificates. They sent out some of those offers recently, so be sure to check your emails in case you were targeted for one of those too.

Note that even though registration is open right now and the terms state that the promotion starts today (May 5), the actual stay period for this promotion begins on May 15.

h/t OMAAT

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