The quarter isn’t quite over but we’re with family and friends until our next trip to Italy in early Feb. But since this quarter had such high accommodation costs, I figured I’d focus on that.
Right now I’m on an IHG kick. Period. IHG BRGs are getting tougher but PointBreaks continues to be phenomenal. But I realized a number of areas I could have decreased my spending, and increased the value of redemptions. Ultimately, we earned a total of 406,000 miles this quarter, and this post is about how that happened.
How we did:
- Number of IHG stays total = 77 nights
– 17 paid
– 58 award
– 1 IHG Cert
– 1 BOGO - Money spent at IHG = $2,129
- Points earned from paid stays = 199,943
- Points earned from all three Big Wins = 206,000
– 106,000 on my account
– 50,000 on Carrie’s
– 50,000 on Mom’s - Total Earned – 405,943
- Points spent before 10% back = 457,500
- Points spent when factoring in that 10% back = 411,750
It’s incredibly interesting that we earned about as much as we spent. So there could be a couple of ways to look at the numbers.
$2,129 for 77 nights = $27.64 a night.
For Europe, that ain’t bad. In my opinion. If it was Asia… then I’m guessing that I could have cut that in half.
$2,129 for 405,943 points = .52 cents per point or = $26.22 for 5,000 points
With the 10% back it’s really more like $23 per 5,000 points. So if I did all IHG PointBreaks my average redemption would have been a lot lower.
On the other hand my average redemption was 7,887 points/night. I’m actually surprised it’s that low but given PointBreaks and sales in Paris, Edinburgh, Kiev, Athens and Bucharest… the few 35,000 point to 50,000 redemptions we had were averaged down.
If you haven’t rocked IHG, click here for Earning IHG Rewards Points on Steroids
Am I happy with it?
I mean… it’s fine. Over budget but it was mostly in Europe and a few weeks of those were spent with my mom, thus covering three people.
We really didn’t need to spend two nights in the IC San Fran and all that stuff… So going forward I probably should be a little more frugal. It’s easy to justify however, when even after paying for the IC San Fran and Vienna I’m averaged down to $23/night.
However, I think there are so many point options and often so many on the PointBreaks list that there’s no reason for me to redeem one night at the IC Paris (even though my mom loved it) when I could use it for 10 nights on PointBreaks.
Either way 17 paid nights to 58 award nights is great return on investment. I can’t imagine doing better for the number of stays we do.
We could have done way better
1) We didn’t have to stay at the InterContinental Vienna. We would have completed the Big Win without it, but I thought it would be nice. We didn’t have to stay at the InterContinental Guadalaraja on our layover there, but we did. So there were plenty of “extra” stays that were more or less, just because we wanted to.
2) We didn’t have to stay at InterContinental hotels. We could have stayed at the Holiday Inn in San Fran, but instead we stayed at the Mark Hopkins.
Grant it, as a Royal Ambassador we get free minibar, a club room (often a suite), and lounge access. And the lounge was pretty awesome. So in some ways it’s maximizing… but let’s be honest, we could have saved money by eating somewhere else.
And as I said, I’m going to try to use most of the remaining points on PointBreaks. Also, since we only have one more two week trip planned to Europe (Italy), we don’t really need to justify the high dollars and points spent. Even in the nicest places in Asia, even New Zealand, it’s just not that expensive.
Conclusion
What’s funny is that I heard a lot of people complaining about their Big Win only giving 50,000 points after like 4 or 5 stays. *blinks* Yea, that’s after the promo bonuses. And please, stop and do the math.
$25 per 5,000 points is how much we earned via staying. Think about it, people pay $35-$40 to buy 5,000 points to use on stays. I stay at nice hotels and earn 5,000 points for $25.
My friend Christian was blessed with the monster Big Win of a possible 183,800 for 4 stays. What a lucky fool! While I don’t expect all of us to have that kind of IHG luck, at least check! But even the most basic ones can still have high value.
Check your Big Win here.
Unfortunately the default that new accounts get is 31,000 in 3 nights this time (instead of 50,000).
Mine is 67,800 in 7 nights, but I’ll probably still do it. Caroline’s is 105,600 in 5 nights, which we’ll for sure do! Mom’s is 106,300 in 4 nights, which she may or may not be able to complete.
While we may have spent way more than normal ~$2,100 for 77 nights in luxury hotels in Europe is not all that bad. Next we’ll rock way more with a little more self control and prices in Asia.
The 2013 Big Win I got 153,700 for 4 stays and with the stay bonuses ended up at 202,966 for $303.01 in IHG spend. So a price of .1493 cents per point. My 2014 offer isn’t quite as nice 68,000 for 4 stays.
That’s incredible. Thanks for sharing the math too.
That’s $7.46 for a night on PointBreaks. Can’t beat that.
Very interesting post. My Big Win is 106,000, but it requires two paid stays in InterContinentals, so I’m hesitant. Off-hand, do you (or a reader) happen to know any InterContinentals that are routinely not very expensive or that often run good promos? If I have to spend several hundred dollars a night to stay in them, it pretty much wipes out the benefits of the Big Win to me. I know I could buy the points for about $750, so that makes me question the value of multiple high-cost stays to earn the bonus.
Well, I guess I’d say check out any cities near you or better yet, any cities you’ll need a hotel in, then run the math on how much more the hotel is and how much you’ll earn.
I think with the promo codes it could well be worth it but totally depends on where you go. We’ve for sure stayed at IC hotels that are ~$100/night.
My IHG Big Win was only the 30,000 after 3 stays. I should probably do it I know, because after all the promos I’m sure I could get 50 or 60K points, but right now I’ve got a lot of hotel points, and with a family of 8, we don’t travel all that often.
Well, if you have more points than needed, I suppose there’s little need to pay for more. Although, I guess you need twice as many points with a family of 8!
data pt – just signed up for a new account and offer was 34k.
After 3 nights? Not a bad default with promo codes I guess.
@DaveS I’ve seen ICs in Europe for around $100 USD, it depends on where. Most recently was looking at IC Budapest for Feb.
assuming only using PAID stays not those with points would count towards achieving ?
Right, only paid stays.
How are you able to get 10% back on all points if using multiple accounts? Do all accounts have a separate credit card attached?
Carrie and I both have the card. That’s a good point though, my mom does not and thus, 10% would not apply to her 50k+.
@Dave, Don’t know where you live, but just checked Milwaukee IC for Sat, Feb 1st and it’s $89/nt. Think city hotels on the weekend (when business people go home in the suburbs to be with their familiesl) for a good deal. Hope this helps…
hi there! sorry, i didn’t see an email to contact you, but have you been sending out newsletters or emails whenever there is a new post? the last one i got from you was november and i totally forgot about your blog until travelsort mentioned you. just wondering. thanks!
There is a separate subscribe for getting emails of every post (you can sign up in the sidebar).
However, the newsletter is only a couple of times a month. But I’ll be doing a post explaining how because of switching newsletter services (to save money) we took a break to get that done… and it took a lot longer than I thought.
I stayed in a Days Inn once in San Diego, because it was free with BRG. Wouldn’t consider it now. “We could have done way better”. Sure, you could. But part of why I like reading your posts is you aren’t obsessed with saving every last point and are willing to have some non frugal stays. Makes it much more interesting.
I wouldn’t say that I’m not obsessed… :-p
But I got ya. Yea, I really do see the value especially in a hotel with a great location. Hotels in the center of town, that’s not only a money saver but a time saver (which I do value quite a bit). And lounges do save me money. So yea, it’s not totally illogical.