IHG bonus on buying points

[RooFlyer]

Offer to buy points with 'mystery bonus'

For me, it is 100% bonus on purchase on 5,000 points and above (up to 250,000 points). 10,000 points bought = 20,000 points for US$135.

 

[Kerrodt]

I received the same offer and bonus level.

I'm never able to make the bonus stack up. For example:

• I'm looking at the Holiday In Express Maroochydore for September.
• Cash price for a room is AUD199pn
• Points price for a room is 29,285 points
• 30,000 points (15,000 + 15,000 bonus) costs USD172.50 which is going to be about AUD265 or so.
• Still cheaper to pay cash even with the bonus loaded on.

Am I missing something when I consider all of this? When does it stack up as being value?

 

[GrahamBRI]

For me it stacks up when booking their premium hotels (>$500/night) accommodation...... the flip side here though is, there are not a lot of points availability for these hotels.

 

[oz_mark]

It stacks up for some hotels, but not others. You need to check for the particular hotel you have in mind.
That said, since they moved to the more dynamic points system (from the fixed award charts), they have generally not stacked up as wll as they used to.

 

[levelnine]

Just remember that IHG recently devalued their points and it is now much harder to get outsized value with them: https://loyaltylobby.com/2024/07/08/did-ihg-one-rewards-just-have-award-devaluation/

 

[MJ_/\_]

From the digging I've done into it, buying points with IHG only really makes sense if you a) need a little top up to get the free nights you want, or b) if you're a US citizen and can get access to the IHG premier card which has the insane perk of getting the 4th night free when booking with points... so it's kind of devalued to the point where you need their credit card perk to make use of it.

 

[MJ_/\_]

Just remember that IHG recently devalued their points and it is now much harder to get outsized value with them: https://loyaltylobby.com/2024/07/08/did-ihg-one-rewards-just-have-award-devaluation/

I don't fully agree with that article, the compared prices didn't take into account booking far enough out to get the cheaper pricing, so the examples just reflect the dynamic pricing rather than making use of it. If you're just doing near-term bookings, that's what is going to happen though.

 

[levelnine]

I don't fully agree with that article, the compared prices didn't take into account booking far enough out to get the cheaper pricing, so the examples just reflect the dynamic pricing rather than making use of it. If you're just doing near-term bookings, that's what is going to happen though.

It's been found by many, many people that IHG have tightened the range of value that points are worth, reducing the upper end of values:

Did IHG just devalue its points today? - FlyerTalk Forums

InterContinental Hotels | IHG One Rewards and Intercontinental Ambassador - Did IHG just devalue its points today? - I've been looking at 8 hotels in the US and Asia and they all cost more since last night. Asia hotels went up 15% and US hotels went up 10%.

www.flyertalk.com

IHG One Rewards devalues - which hotel schemes still offer outsized value?

IHG One Rewards appears to have quietly devalued its redemptions. Which hotel loyalty schemes still offer outsized value on peak dates in peak cities?

www.headforpoints.com

IHG negatively changed its dynamic award pricing algorithm - The Points Guy

IHG One Rewards uses dynamic pricing but recently decreased the cents per point you can usually expect to get when redeeming IHG points. Here's what we know.

thepointsguy.com

 

[MJ_/\_]

They all link back to the same one... they probably have tightened up somewhat, just using that Sydney hotel as an example where they showed 0.44c a quick look at some dates in January has that same room for just over 0.5c (still not up to 0.7c like they say was available last time), about 0.68c if you have the US credit card with 4th night free.

 

[levelnine]

a quick look at some dates in January has that same room for just over 0.5c (still not up to 0.7c like they say was available last time)

Exactly in line with what I'm saying has been reported.

 

[GrahamBRI]

Should also note that a full points based booking is fully refundable. So if you book well in advance, you can follow the dynamic pricing model and cancel and re-book when better points options become available. A bit harder to do this with a cash booking as the best fares are non-refundable.

 

[SYD]

Exchange rate obviously makes a huge difference. But still harder to get good value now even at A$0.80+ to $1 USD.

For the “topping up” scenario, using points + pay used to work out about the same as a 100% bonus (but you can do it anytime).

Also, if you have to cancel - the entire amount in points goes back into your account.

 

[drron]

Even before the devaluation it was hard to get really good value from IHG rewards. The only time I bought points was in 2021 when they had awards available at the IC Hayman Island. Cash rate was $1300 a night, I had a 100% bonus offer buying points and Hayman had temporarily reduced the points to 75000 points a night Soi bought the 300000 for 4 nights for the price of 150000. And the AUD was just under 80 cents.
So my cost was about $550 a night.
Naturally they had an abysmal occupancy then slightly lower than 20%. Of course getting you there you basically had to eat there.So they made up for the discount price .

I keep doing the maths when I get an offer but never tempted since

 

[Traveler999]

I booked a bunch of IC hotels in Europe for May/June 2025 almost all with cash as I need the 5000 points daily to get to Diamond annually since I only do 20 to 30 days. IC sofia is worthwhile on points as they have a wide spread of classic rooms avaliable, the most expensive "king cosy top floor mountain view" was well over 0.6c per point. I also booked IC Amman, Jordan on points as it was almost 0.8c/point. Interesting that both IC Vienna and IC Tokyo bay are showing upgrades on my app already, prob due to my ambassador membership.