(EXPIRED) Targeted IHG offers: from 5K points to free 40K certs with stay activity

IHG Rewards Club is sending out targeted offers via email and the IHG app to earn bonus points or free night certificates with stay activity. My offer was for a measly 5K points after 1 stay — though with the cheap hotel prices in some markets that could represent a significant rebate. Others got offers like a free night certificate worth up to 40K points with two stays. Share your offers in the comments.

The Deal

• IHG Rewards Club is sending out targeted offers via email and the IHG app to earn bonus points or free night certificates with paid stays between now and July 29, 2021. Here are some offers we’ve seen:
  • Earn 5K points with 1 stay
  • Earn a free night certificate that is valid through November 30, 2021 for a night up to 40K points with 2 paid stays (note that you can alternatively get such a certificate by joining IHG Ambassador and making one paid stay at an Intercontinental, Kimpton, or Regent hotel)

Key Terms

• Must be an IHG® Rewards member and must be invited to participate in Just For You: Stay One Night, Get 5,000 Points (“Offer”).
• You must register your member number in advance to participate in this Offer. 5,000 bonus points will be deposited into your account after completing one qualifying night between April 30, 2021 and July 29, 2021, at InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, Kimpton®, EVEN®, avid™, voco™, Regent® Hotels & Resorts, Principal® Hotels, HUALUXE™, IHG® Army Hotels, Mr and Mrs Smith properties, or participating Six Senses properties worldwide.
• Members who are invited to participate in this Offer may also participate in other IHG point offers.
• A Qualifying Stay is defined as a minimum 1-night stay booked under a Qualifying Rate, with total spend exceeding $30 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 enrollment.
• Please allow up to 3 weeks for bonus points to be posted onto your account.

Quick Thoughts

While some offers are clearly better than others, it’s always worth registering even if you don’t plan to take advantage just in case you end up in a situation where it makes sense. For example, I have an upcoming road trip where I plan to make the long-haul drives in a single day, but if car trouble or fatigue stops us short I would rather have offers like this synced up and ready to go since the terms say that no credit will be given for a stay that occurs prior to enrollment.

There was a link to my offer terms after registering (which is the source of the terms in the post. Note that it is worth checking your terms in case they differ). I found it interesting that the terms define a qualifying rate as having a total spend exceeding $30 per night. Choice Privileges has long had a minimum qualifying rate of $40 for the purposes of earning points and triggering promotions, but I don’t recall seeing this previously for IHG. It shouldn’t be hard to exceed $30 per night, but it’s good to know where the minimum line is drawn. In my case, it gave me a chuckle since it makes it clear that this is not mattress run-worthy since IHG points are generally worth about half a cent per point — meaning that they are requiring that I spend at least $30 to get $25 worth of points. That’s not unreasonable.

Note that the terms also clearly state that this promotion is stackable with this line: “Members who are invited to participate in this Offer may also participate in other IHG point offers.” That’s great news if you have some other type of offer.

In particular, even this paltry 5K-point this offer could make for a great stack with the AAdvantage SimplyMiles offers that we previously reported. In fact, I think it is possible to stack the IHG Hotels offer with the individual brand offers and pay with an IHG credit card (make sure you link that card in your SimplyMiles account) and perhaps turn it into a great return. If you sync your IHG Rewards Club Premier card to SimplyMiles and (as an example) pay for a $100 stay at a Holiday Inn.

• Get 5,000 IHG points from this new offer
• Earn 1500 IHG points from the paid stay as a  Platinum member (which comes with the credit card)
• Earn 1000 IHG points by using your IHG Premier card to pay
• Earn 1,100 American Airlines miles from the generic IHG hotels SimplyMiles offer
• Earn 875 American Airlines miles from the Holiday Inn SimplyMiles offer
• Total = 7,500 IHG Rewards Club points + 1,975 American Airlines miles

That’s a pretty good return on a $100 stay. Even if you only value the IHG points at half a cent and the American Airlines miles at 1c each, you’re looking at a return on spend exceeding 50% of the cost of the stay.

Overall, this promotion won’t get me to seek out an opportunity for an IHG stay, but it may certainly tip the balance for a road trip night before the end of July.

Did you receive a different offer? Is it better or worse?

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