ENDS SATURDAY: 4 days to book, 3x the points – IHG launches a great flash offer
IHG One Rewards, which includes InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, voco, Crowne Plaza and other brands, has been running a ‘flash’ triple points promotion this week.
Today, Saturday, is your last day to book.
This is an unusual promotion for IHG. It will often run flash sales for cash, but flash bonus points offers are rare.
Full details and registration are on this page of the IHG website.
You MUST register to activate the offer.
Here’s the small print:
- you must register here before your stay
- you must book by tonight, Saturday 11th April
- you must stay by Friday 22nd May
- you can earn the bonus on as many stays as you like, as long as you book by 11th April and stay by 22nd May
- you only get triple points on cash stays – you won’t get triple points on F&B spend on a reward stay or a ‘points and cash’ stay
- your stay must be in one of these countries – Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Algeria, Angola, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Egypt, Fiji, French Polynesia, Ghana, Guam, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Republic Of, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, United Republic Of, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Do existing bookings count?
Well, here’s the thing.
The T&C on the registration page imply that they do.
All it says is that you must book by tonight, 11th April. There is no ‘book after’ or ‘book from’ date. In theory, existing bookings are fine.
However ….
Once you’ve registered, the offer is visible online under the ‘Offers’ tab on the website when logged in. It shows this:
As you can see, it says ‘stays booked 7-11 April’.
This is absolutely NOT what the binding T&C say, so you have a strong case to claim the bonus points on existing bookings as long as you register.
However, if you can and if the price is similar, I do recommend rebooking any upcoming stays for dates between now and 22nd May.
What are triple points worth?
The standard earning rate in IHG One Rewards is 10 points per US$1 (75p) excluding taxes. I value an IHG One Rewards point at 0.4p although you can often do better, which means your base return is 4p per 75p spent, ie just over 5.0%.
Triple base points means that you would receive 30 points per US$1 (75p) spent, excluding taxes, which gives you a return of 16%.
You would also receive a status bonus on your base points:
- 20% bonus for Silver Elite
- 40% bonus for Gold Elite
- 60% bonus for Platinum Elite
- 100% bonus for Diamond Elite
A Platinum Elite member would therefore receive 36 points per $1 spent – 10 points x 3 plus an extra 6 points as the Platinum Elite bonus.
If you have been targetted for some of the other IHG offers floating around at the moment – all of which are exclusive to those who were emailed about them – they will stack with this.
Conclusion
This is a very generous offer from IHG One Rewards and it is worth taking advantage if you can.
Remember that you need to book by tonight, 11th April, although you have until 22nd May to complete your stay.
If you get lucky, we may even see an American Express / IHG cashback offer launch before 22nd May which you could combine with this.
You must register by clicking here.