The new IHG Into The Nights promo was announced and I promised I would rock it, big. This is too big not to go all in as anyone can get 10,500 points AND two free nights at any hotel world wide from 3 paid nights.
Okay, I’m already going to be earning 10,500 points and two free nights on each of our accounts, so now how can I maximize this to get even more points (and cash) back?
1) Check Rebate Websites
MrRebates.com is giving 6% on IHG hotels. If you’re not familiar with this rebate website, you first create an account and then click through the link to IHG from their website. This will track everything you spend with IHG and will kick back a certain percentage to you. In this case 6%.
There are others, like Ebates, that I sometimes check, but currently it’s only at 4.5%.
At the end of the day if you’re going for a number of stays an extra 6% can add up.
2) Use the proper credit card
Which card to use isn’t the same for everyone. And normally I think about skipping the hotel brand card to do a card that has some sort of category bonus. But I’ve personally been using my IHG card for these stays, as it gives 5 points per dollar at IHG hotels.
In the past I’ve used the Chase Sapphire Preferred which gives 2.14 points per dollar and really… it probably makes more sense, although I’m doing something new.
What I was doing and will probably go back to (now that I’ve done the “use credit card” requirement of the Into The Nights promo) is use the Barclay World Arrival Plus. This is for two reason.
1) The Barclay gives a competitive value as there are no cards with a huge bonus for hotel spends. It gives ~2.2% back. 2.2% is comparable to the CSP or IHG, although I’d probably value Chase points slightly more… but…
2) The Barclay card gives me the ability to redeem points for travel up to 3 months later. This is awesome because if you have a ton of Barclay points, or continually use the card and continually use the card to pay for hotels, you can just go back and wipe the hotel charge off your bill with the points.
Make it completely free using points you earn elsewhere and earn 2.2%. That’s priceless.
Although I do want to note that the IHG card advertised is not the best one but I’ll give the link below for the higher bonus, and a link to the Arrival Plus (which has a decent sign up bonus).
- IHG 80,000 point card
- Barclay World Arrival Plus
3) Bonus Points Rates
IHG has all these “Bonus Points” packages when you book a hotel. Sometimes they try to sell you 1,000 points for $15, and other times they sell you 5,000 for $7. You just add them to your rate and they post automatically.
Are these always a good deal?
I have two rules for this.
First rule: Compare to the actual lowest rate that you’d book.
In the picture above you can see that it says that you can pay an extra $7 to get 5,000 points. But what is the real cost of that 5,000 points?
Look how the total now comes to $116. That’s what happens when you add $7 to the best flexible rate, but most people would probably consider booking the AAA rate $104. In reality, you’re paying $12 more to get 5,000 points.
I would take this as far as comparing the nearby hotels I find equally appealing, but at the very least, compare with the lowest rate that you would book. If you would do an advanced purchase rate or use promo codes (if you use them), compare to that.
Also, I just remembered that these are pre-tax rates, and you should actually click through and see the post-tax rate and then compare the actual price of the points.
Second rule: Compare what you already pay for the points.
$12 is still a great price for 5,000 points. In the DailyGetaways that everyone went crazy over, they were something like $26 per 5,000 points. And during this last round of IHG’s “100% bonus” they were something like $28 (?).
A lot of people don’t plan on doing these (especially with the large order requirement) but then find themselves doing the IHG Cash & Points trick to get 5,000 points for $35. If you find yourself continually going back and paying $35 for 5,000 points and you don’t pay $12 for 5,000 points because it increases the rate of the hotel… that would be goofy.
I don’t have a rule of thumb for how much I pay for 5,000 points… maybe $25 or less would be temping. But the main thing is to decide what you value 5,000 points at and be consistent.
4) Steroid Codes
The newsletter covered why these aren’t so dangerous for some of us, although some quit doing this all together.
But to put it simply:
- Check out this FlyerTalk wiki
- Take new 4-digit promo codes
- Add them to your account
- Do your normal stays
What happens is that IHG sends out these promotion codes to people, and some of those people share them on flyertalk. Now you won’t be qualified for 90% of these codes and it will reject the code depending on your current profile. However, you can still get 20+ codes on a new account.
Most are 1,000 to 2,000 points on your next stay and thus, you can see 20,000 points on your first stay once adding these!
If you’d like to read more, check out: Earning IHG Rewards Points on Steroids
5) Status Perks
You already earn 10 points per dollar as a regular member, but Platinum members earn 15 points per dollar. But despite IHG Platinum Status being the absolute most useless top tier status by a landslide, they do give out the status like candy.
Pretty much anyone can status match from a top tier status of another chain to IHG Platinum status with a simple email. Or you can get the status just by having the credit card. Again, it won’t give you anything else like breakfast, or lounge access, but it does give 50% more points.
Another thing that MAY by some stretch of the imagination be worth it, is Ambassador status, which you can buy for $200. It only has benefits at InterContinental brand hotels (there are only 200 IC hotels worldwide), but I have 5 required stays. It does give a couple perks like 5,000 points and a BOGO (buy one get one free) weekend certificate.
Although my point here is that if you’re paying for an IC hotel on a weekend you might as well bogo it and get two nights (if you need a Saturday, make sure your first night is a Saturday and the second (free night) is a Sunday night). Although you could just trade someone online for about 5,000 points for these BOGO certs, which is totally worth it if you’d already pay for an expensive hotel.
Conclusion
Let’s add it up on an ideal stay (like I have coming up). $116 will get me:
- 6% Rebate
- 2.2% cashback from Credit Card
- 5,000 points (for an extra $12)
- a possible 20,000 points on your first stay ever with steroids
- 15 points per dollar (10 + 50% with Platinum status)
Which looks like this:
- $7 rebate
- $2.50 cashback from credit card
- 25,000 points (paid and steroids)
- 1,740 points (15 points per dollar)
That’s a total of: $9.50 back and 26,740 points from one $116 night. And since I have like 20 stays coming up, even if it’s only $9.50 + 6,740 points extra, that will add up! And this could possibly be completely reimbursed by a credit card so it’s a free night.
And all this is on top of the 10,500 points and two free nights you get with the IHG Into The Nights Promo. A lot to add up.
Credits: the photo at the top is by Andrew of LenicularTravel.com
Do you sell any books on travel & miles? I’ll definitely get one if you do, always informative and details.
Not yet. Thanks though. 😀
Drew, have you guys seen any nights post to your IHG Into the Nights dashboard? Or perhaps you haven’t had any stays yet for it…?
I “completed” mine in 3 nights, but so far NOTHING has posted on dashboard. FT threads echo this; some have seen activity, most haven’t. And calling/emailing IHG is a joke. Just wondering what your experience has been. Or anyone’s!
Bryan, I emailed IHG and was told that you the status of the promotion will be updates in three weeks. I completed one stay on Sep 19, and now I can see it already updated.
Jesson
I’m in the same boat. IHG is the biggest group of idiots in the hotel industry, and I don’t want that to change… but they always roll out big promos without have the technology at all ready.
I am relatively new to IHG, how does someone search across calendar (week? month?) at lowest possible rate at the hotel. I wanted to do a couple of mattress runs, but I cannot figure out how to compare prices across next 80 days without going to each individual day search. Any suggestions?
Much appreciated,
PedroNY
Never heard of a calendar search with anyone but generally they have a base price and some days are worse, not better. Sometimes weekend are cheaper.
I have 3 stays and nothing. I think the whole system is messed up. I called and they said posts 3-5 days, another call and said posts 10-12 days, another call and told posts in 3 weeks….NOTE: it has been 3.5 weeks since first stay. My wife had one later stay and hers showed up immediately. I would not suggest doing special stays for the promotion if you are not just doing the stays in the ordinary course of your travel.
They’ll get it worked out. This always happens.
Chances are if you are an ihg reward member that you’ve exhausted the codea this year. And there are restrictions on the two free nights. Plus only new accounts gets the three night treatment. So all in all lofty goals but honestly disappointed at this big win sequel, for established accounts anyway.
My newsletter addressed this.
Great post as usual! Just a note to add to #5 – Platinum members also get complimentary upgraded rooms. So far for me in all my stays as a Platinum, I’ve never NOT been upgraded to a much larger room for free, and probably 75% of the time, I didn’t even have to ask, the front desk person took care of the upgrade for me before I arrived. It’s a nice (little) touch that I have appreciated when checking in after a long day.
It’s always nice to be in a “Deluxe” with the “coffee maker”. 😀
Just some notes from my experience this year- during Big Win in the Spring, a hotel I booked through Mr Rebates didn’t go through for the points, I had to call IHG and they gave me a really hard time saying that it wasn’t a valid rate for the promo. They ended up giving me the pts/stay for Big Win, but insisted this was a one time favor.
Then no extra bonus pts have posted since May or so for me, even though I am registered for past and present promos. In my last three stays (all Sept)I emailed them and kept getting back that that they (promos from Aug, specifically the gold 1k and platinum 5k) were not valid for me, though I couldn’t see any reason why. The emails were fairly snippy from them and I didn’t want to push any more.
Lastly, coincidentally my aunt booked her wedding at a Holiday Inn. As being “THE guests” you would think they would give us a little leeway. Even with attaching my plat # to the reservation, they still wouldn’t let her into her room (the wedding suite) early to stash flowers the day before. I didn’t get any recognition as plat member, not even water etc (shared room w/my mom, who was maid of honor). Pretty lousy service overall there throughout the wedding reception. Really disappointing.
I’ve never heard of being denied elite qualifying for booking through a portal, but I have had issues of IHG thinking that I booked through Kayak because they jack your cookies to get the referral credit. But i still get points.
And I’ve never assumed anything comes with IHG platinum status. It’s a joke because EVERYONE can have it with a credit card or reward nights or whatever.
Now they are trying to tell me my first stay didn’t count since the registration for Into the Nights didn’t start until 9/11…I DEFINITELY registered on the first day, 9/4. Had a stay on 9/5 they are not counting, partially since I booked through Mr Rebates again (dumb idea, I know) and partially b/c they say any stays before registering don’t count. totally frustrated.
If I go through the Ultimate Rewards portal to book an IHG hotel, will it still qualify for the promo to get the 2 free nights?
The terms and conditions are really unclear in that they say “some third party booking sites” as qualifying. I would call… and let me know. 😀
Unfortunately, Barclay Arrival + does NOT allow you to redeem points for IHG stays! I just tried doing it 2 weeks ago and to my utter shock, Barclay assigned the IHG charge as BUYING/SHOPPING SERVICES, CLUBS, and not travel related, so that charge can’t be wiped off.
I had all my InterContinental room charges from Central America paid for with the Arrival+.
However, half of them didn’t post automatically as travel, as you said. But when I called they could do it for me.
OK, good to know. Thanks!
Thanks for your article, which really helps a lot. But when I try to book one hotel on the IHG.com, the price is 9 dollars higher than IHG APP for each night.. So I have to book it on the APP without using the MrRebates.com..
Can I apply for the best price guarantee if I book it on the IHG.com?
Hi Drew,
You keep mentioning how you use the Barclay Card to wipe out the charges since you earn travel credits. If it’s 2.2% back, I don’t get how you essentially get a free night when only earning this little. You have to be doing a lot of MS or have a ton of other purchases in order to cover the full cost of the room.
Hi Drew, I am planning to book 2 rooms in one IHG hotel, 1 for myself and 1 for my friends. Will they count as two nights towards the “Into the Night” promo? I made the booking in 2 separate reservations, so maybe the dumb system might count both rooms? 🙂
If it’s two different accounts, then yes. Two people, two accounts will work, with two reservations is no problem. Two room on one account will never work as it just will count as one qualifying stay.
Nice site Drew, came over from BoardingArea.
Just wanted to let you know about topcashback.com. I’ve been a long ebates and fatwallet cashback user but ran into this site recently and their payout, most of the time, will be the highest and best. Also you can request a payout any time you want. check them and keep up the good work.
p.s I have no affiliation with them, I’m not even a member yet but will sign up with my next online purchase 🙂
I am about to lost my useless platinum status and IHG lured me to stay 3 more nights till 12/20/2014 to keep my platinum status in 2015. Is that worth it? Or do you think there is another way to do that?
I used a Barclays Priceline card recently (which is similar now to Arrival+) and it coded a Holiday Inn as a ‘Holiday Inn’, not travel and I could not redeem travel credit for that stay. Anyone have similar experience? This would put #2 as incorrect.