With the latest IHG promotion, you could earn enough points for a night at top IHG hotels like the InterContinental San Francisco Mark Hopkins or the InterContinental Paris Le Grand.
IHG’s Accelerate promotion (similar to previous promotions like Set Your Sights) is open for registration now, and you’ll earn bonus points for completing tasks from January 1, 2016, to April 30, 2016.
And some folks will earn as many as 128,000 IHG points! (I wasn’t that lucky. Drat!)
50,000 IHG Points Is Enough for a Stay at Any IHG Hotel!
The tasks and the number of points you can earn are different for each person. So check your IHG account to see your personalized offer!
Find out how this promotion works and whether or not it’s worth signing-up!
How the IHG Accelerate Promotion Works
Link: Register for IHG Accelerate
Link: IHG Accelerate Promotion Terms & Conditions
When you sign-up for the IHG Accelerate promotion, you’ll get a personalized offer with 3 to 7 tasks you can complete to earn IHG points to use towards future stays at IHG hotels.
IHG hotels include Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, EVEN Hotels, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, and Staybridge Suites brand hotels.
The tasks you have to complete and the total number of bonus points you can earn depend on how often you stay with IHG, your elite status, etc.
Note: Hotel stays for this promotion must be booked directly through IHG. Bookings made through 3rd-party sites like Orbitz will NOT count. Also certain discount and group rates do NOT qualify.
Here’s a look at few examples:
1. 36,000 IHG Points for Staying 24 Nights
Here’s what a non-elite member with no recent IHG stays was offered:
Some Folks Will Have Complete a Boatload of IHG Stays to Earn the Full Bonus!
To earn the full 36,000 IHG points with this offer you’d need to stay a LOT of nights, so this isn’t a good deal unless you already have plans to stay anyway.
2. Complete 3 Tasks and Earn 55,000 IHG Points
Here’s an offer sent to a Chase IHG Rewards cardholder:
You’ll Earn More Points for Fewer Stays With This Offer
You can earn an easy 11,500 IHG points with this offer, by staying 1 night in January and using your Chase IHG Rewards card to pay for your stay.
But you’ll have to stay 4 more nights to earn the other 43,500 IHG points. If you spend $100 per night, you’d pay $400 for 43,500 IHG points or ~0.9 cents per point ($400 for 4 nights / 43,500 IHG points).
Instead, you could skip the stays and buy IHG points using the Cash & Points trick for just 0.7 cents IHG per point
That said, if you can find a good deal on your stay, it might be worth it!
3. 45,000 Points for 1 Stay!
Other folks report getting a much more lucrative offer:
- Stay Once in January – 5,000 bonus IHG points
- Stay Once During the Promotion – 5,000 bonus IHG points
- Stay 5 Nights – 10,000 bonus points
- Book 1 Bonus Points Package Stay – 2,000 bonus IHG points
- Pay for a Stay With Your Chase IHG Rewards Card – 1,500 bonus IHG points
- Complete 3 out of 4 offers – 31,500 bonus IHG points
I Didn’t Get This Offer, but I Hope You Did!
You could book 1 night with the bonus points package in January 2016 and earn 45,000 IHG points! That’s an awesome deal!
For example, you could book 1 night at the Candlewood Suites Kansas City – Overland Park with bonus points for ~$92. So you’d only pay ~0.2 cents per IHG point ($92 for 1 night / 45,000 IHG points).
45,000 IHG points is enough for a free night at the InterContinental Hong Kong where Emily and I stayed on our around-the-world trip. And it’s almost enough for a free night at top IHG hotels like the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa.
Spending ~$92 Is Almost Enough for a Stay at the InterContinental in Bora Bora! And This Hotel Can Cost ~$900 per Night!
Plus, you could get even more out of your points by using them for stays at IHG PointBreaks hotels, which only cost 5,000 points per night!
Is This a Promotion Good Deal?
It’s free to sign-up, so it’s a good idea to register just in case you happen to stay at an IHG hotel in the next few months. And if you already have plans to stay at an IHG hotel during the beginning of next year, it’s great to earn the extra points!
Whether or not it’s worth staying at an IHG hotel just to earn the points, depends on your offer.
And keep in mind there are lots of easy ways to earn IHG points:
- Use Cash & Points to buy points
- Chase IHG Rewards credit card – 60,000 IHG points when you spend $1,000 on purchases in the 1st 3 months of opening your account. And a $50 statement credit after your 1st purchase. The $49 annual fee is waived the 1st year. And you get a free night on your cardmember anniversary each year, which makes it worth paying the annual fee.
- Enter the IHG Priceless Surprises promotion by mail to earn ~47,000 (or more) IHG points
- Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points from your Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Bold (no longer available), or Chase Ink Plus. And if you have any 1 of those cards, you can also transfer the Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn with card like the Chase Freedom to IHG.
You Can Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to IHG at a 1:1 Ratio
Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to IHG at a 1:1 ratio. Usually you can save more money by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to partners like Hyatt and United Airlines. However, it could be worth it for the PointBreaks list!
Bottom Line
You’ll earn bonus points for completing tasks including stays at IHG hotels with IHG’s new Accelerate promotion. This deal is valid for stays booked directly with IHG between January 1, 2016, and April 30, 2016.
There are a variety of offers, so register to see how many bonus IHG points you can earn.
The offers run the gamut from no big deal to terrific! So do the math to see if it makes sense for you.
Let me know in the comments which IHG Accelerate offer you received!
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Comments
- @Karen – Bummer! Still nice to earn the extra points if you ... by Million Mile Secrets
- On that third package, one of the requirements was to stay ... by Chris
- I'm confused by this, “For example, you could book 1 night at ... by scott
- I booked a hotel room for January before I registered for the ... by Oscar
- I an a cardholder and received an offer for 33,500 points ... by Karen