Last night I wrote that IHG Rewards (Priority Club)’s September through December promotion launches Monday.
Except that the website to register and unveil your targeted offer is live early.
My offer is for up to 72,100 points, what you’re offered may vary both in amount and in degree of difficulty. And while 72,100 sounds like a lot, scale matters here — these points, like Hilton HHonors points, are a bit ‘inflated’.
This will not get you two free nights at the time participating hotels (and remember that the terms and conditions of the program exclude most elite benefits, hotels don’t have to give upgrades for instance, making the free nights themselves less valuable in my view).
What I’ve been offered:
- Try one and done 1000 points for my first stay
- Stay more and earn more 7400 points for 7 nights
- Explore our brands 12000 points for staying at 2 brands
- Book with us 2400 points for making 2 bookings through an IHG website or mobile device
- Survey the win 100 points for taking a survey
- Live the city life 8400 points for 3 stays at participating hotels in Sao Paolo, Vancouver, Montreal, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Mexico City
- Win in a weekend 4800 points for 2 Saturday night stays
- Win big 38000 more points for completing all of the above
I’m a bit of a lapsed member of the program. I really only stay at one brand (Intercontinental) and have been a Royal Ambassador member since 2006 but haven’t been staying with them this year. Intercontinental has given me some of my very best upgrades and they have some of the better club lounges, though I don’t like not receiving upgrades, minibar, and early check-in benefits on award nights. And while Hyatt isn’t in all of the cities I need to travel to Intercontinental certainly isn’t.
As a result some of my threshold levels are quite easy, I would imagine that some others have to stay at more brands to get the brand bonus though perhaps the point values are higher too — booking through their website on stays I’d make anyway is easy, 7 nights is easy, 2 Saturday night stays is easy to the extent the bonus pushed me to shift my business over to them for the promotion.
I wouldn’t mattress run from scratch to earn these points (especially since you can buy Priority Club points at 7/10ths of a cent apiece), I would need a lower total cost including room rate and tax but also including transportation to and from each hotel and accounting for the opportunity cost of my time which is less than $71 per night in order to come out ahead.
Still, since I can earn the full bonus in just seven nights this a pretty lucrative offer (an overage of about 10,000 bonus points per night) to consider for stays I will make anyway, and it would even make sense to do one final extra night that I didn’t need if that’s all it would take to close out the full promotion.
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I used to basically live in a holiday inn until April this year. My offer is completely absurd. I have to stay at 4 different brands. 2/4 specific hotels around the world. Mexico city, DC, Montreal. 53 total nights. If I complete them all which I have no chance of doing, I get 121000 extra bonus.
I can get 50k after 5 stays
“Complete all offers and receive 74,000 points.” Prolly won’t do it thought.
59,800 for me. If you can earn multiple badges for one stay (book with IHG website, book with Visa, stay on a Saturday, etc.) then this is an easy and worthwhile promotion. I only need four nights. So two weekends even mattress running and I can argue that I am coming out ahead with the rates in my area.
Was offered 120,400 points, similar items to yours but win big was 60,000, 7,200 weekend, city life 18,000, 6,000 book with us, explore brands 18,000, and stay more 10,100. Spouse only offered 50,000. We are both Platinum. Wonder what triggers the differences???
My offer is 125,800. I thought the “City Life” portion would be the limiting factor here, but if you click through, there is a MUCH longer list of eligible hotels. This will require some analysis, but I may go for it.
@Charles: Mrs. Andyandy was only offered 69K. Three possible factors in our case, 1) I’m RA, she’s not, 2) I’ve had recent stays, she hasn’t, 3) she has a large point balance, I don’t.
Well, I got one of these big 120K jackpots, but there is no way I can get it. I have to do 3 brands no 2, maybe because I stayed in 3 in the last 6 months. But instead of City Life I have to stay in Europe. This could have been triggered by our recent trip to Paris and our stay there. But it’s pretty stupid as I will not be going back there anytime soon. For booking I have to do 9 for 7800.
I think the idea of all these combos is not bad. But they should definitely let you choose your combo (and figure out a way of how much to reward you for ‘doing them all’ based on how hard they think it is.
Without the overall bonus for doing all of them (which is 62K in my case), there is no benefit to me doing the 2 weekends (7200 points), and actual bonus dwindles to me just getting about 20K for simple reservations. This means that instead of getting my business for about 40-50 night, they will get it for 12.
Do these offers stack with each other? If they do I may go for it..
@techoin – yes they do
I got an easy one! Total 89,800 points, need just five nights, in two brands, including two saturdays. No special destinations. If only I got it before going on vacations….. Now I will only travel on business, and my company doesn’t have any IHG hotels in its website 🙁
5 stays would do it for me, but indeed, the City Life portion is going to be the tough hurdle. And I just stayed at the IC Chicago! Stay hasn’t even credited yet… maybe… Anyway, maybe I can talk Mrs. Andyandy into a trip to San Fran for our anniversary…
offer for 153,700 possible to earn! 🙂
Hi all, I can’t open the WIN website(it says This webpage is not available). How are you all getting there?
I have no clue why you guys all got such big offers, but mine is terrible. On the top it says “points earned 0/10000” so I’m guessing I only get up to 10k for this.
I’ve got:
try one and done – 500 points
stay more & earn more – 1000
explore our brands – 2000
book with us – 500
win in a weekend – 2000
win big – 4000
im actually pretty insulted that they think i would stay with them over another hotel brand for such a small amount of bonus points
I stay a a ton of IHG properties and got an offer for about 78k while my wife who used to stay a lot but hasn’t this past year got a huge offer for like 140k. Makes no sense to reward folks that don’t stay but I assume they are trying to get them back to stay more often. I’ll do some of it but I’m hitting marriotts for the stay 2 nights get a free 1-5 cat night free a bunch in the near future.
Looking at the comments above, looks like I got the more generous offer than others. Just a background for me…cant remember any paid stays with IHG in recent past (only point stays), Demoted to Gold from Plat this year and another point stay planned for end of this month. Coming to the offer, I got 140K total, split half n half between big win and the tasks, 2 seperate stays in 2 seperate brands, cities include Chicago, NYC, DC, LA in US (unfortunately no trips planned to any of these). With two weekend stays in two different brands, I will be able to get about 58k points and would stop at that.
Will my pre-existing reservations for September count?
To win my big 69,800, I need 8 nights but I could get 27,100 with only 3, which isn’t bad and I’d rather bulk up on Hyatt and SPG now. My cities include the LA, SF and NY areas, only need 2, and only need 2 Saturdays. So the 3 nights are easy and can fit my current plans.
I do not see anything in the terms and conditions that would exclude pre-existing reservations for stays which will occur during the promotion period.
Heads-upon the City Life offer. It looks like you have to stay in different cities – not just different properties – to qualify. From the T&C:
“Number of bonus points or miles listed above will be rewarded after stays at required number of distinct cities from the following list of cities: New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico City and San Paolo…”
@gary: what about the bonus for booking on the IHG website. Does the actual booking have to be made after Sep 1 or only the stay has to occur after Sep 1?
I don’t see anything in the confirmation email that shows my offers. Is there a way to find out what they are, other than copying them from the IHG web page right after you register for the promo?
Yes, is two following locations, 2 cities or 2 hotels ?
and whats with the badges ?
no luck getting the website to work either.
are you guys just click on the link from this post?
@Tobias – I got the same crappy offer you did. 10,000 points max. I am Gold in the program.
Interesting. Husband, who has no status, got offer for 50k points.
Very interesting promo. I got 93.7K requiring 4 nights in 2 cities at 2 brands. Probably worth going out of my way for.
I got an offer for 102k points for four nights. Have no status but bought 100k points from the Amex deal a while back and have been staying at a bunch of PointBreaks.
I’m currently homeless/nomading, staying in hotels almost every night for the rest of the year, so this is an epic deal to me. Pay to stay four nights => get *twenty* nights free in PointsBreak properties! Going to save me a boatload.
My offer is for 153,700, as follows:
try one and done – 1,000 points
stay more & earn more – 9,600 points
explore our brands – 30000 points
book with us – 6,000 points
Survey the Win – 100 points
Live the city life – 18,000 points
win in a weekend – 12,000 points
win big – 77,000 points
For those of you that cannot get on the website – I am guessing you are outside of the US, like me? I cannot get on from Europe, but connected right away via a US-based VPN. Maybe want to update the post with that.
I found this in the T&C’s about earning airline miles. I’m new to the program so don’t know their earning or conversion rates, bit if decent, this could be extremely lucrative, right? My offer was for approx. 160,000.
Terms & Conditions for Airline Participation
IHG® Rewards Club members who collect airline miles with participating airlines will receive the number of miles as communicated in the offer. See below for list of participating airlines. Those members who collect airline miles from airlines not participating in this promotion will collect points for this promotion. At the end of the promotion the member can choose to have the points converted into miles by calling the service center. This exclusive offer is valid and applies to the original recipient only.
Participating Airlines:
United Airlines
American Airlines
US Airways
Delta Air Lines
Alaska Airlines
Aeromexico
Lanchile
AIR MILES®† Rewards Program
British Airways
Lufthansa
Virgin Atlantic
Iberia
Those who got offer for less than 50k simply register for a new IHG account and register for Big Win promo again.
Offered 81K, wont go for it.
Probably time for another card signup bonus,need to look if the 80K is still around… 🙂
I’m guessing the folks seeing 10k are registered to earn miles and not points and are seeing 10k mile offers
Offered 154,300… with upcoming stays nice coincidence.
Offered 102,000 with one IHG stay in the past 12 months and no status… have the same questions about whether I need to stay in two separate cities for the city award or just two participating hotels in the same city.
As for airline miles, points transfer to the listed airlines (UA, AA, US, DL, AS, Aeromexico, LAN, BA, LH, VA, and IB) at 5:1, so I’d end up getting 20k miles on just about any major airline with this deal, which seems reasonable enough for travel I’d otherwise likely be making. Just need to know where to book!
Any idea if this can be combined with stay 2 brands, get a free night offer for Greater China based accounts?
This would make it very attractive, but I remember something about that offer not being combine-able, though it works to register for both!
Do reward stays count towards eligible stays/nights?
did not see any mention of reward nights in the t&C
Think that best rate guarantee one night stays will count?
For the See the sights. Get the win portion , specific cities / hotels are in bold however there is a drop down with lots of city / hotel choices , as per a previous poster I hope that these choices count . 128 days to attempt to earn 124300 bonus points .
My offer is
1 night anywhere 100
14 nights 9,600
4 brands 14,000
survey 100
2 hotels in Australasia 4,800
3 Saturday nights 5,600
Big win 37,000
total 72,100
I’m Platinum, have been for about 8 or 9 years, looking like I may not keep platinum from this year because of points policy changes.
“We are sorry, but there was an error. Please try again later.”
Repeatedly.
@toomanybooks, +1
Damn, these bloggers are always ruining the deals. 😀 😀
My offer seems higher and easier than all the others reported here.
try one and done – 1,000 points
stay more & earn more (4 nights) – 9,600 points
explore our brands (2 brands) – 30000 points
book with us (2 stays) – 6,000 points
survey the win – 100 points
live the city life (2 locations) – 18,000 points
win in a weekend (2 saturdays) – 12,000 points
spend it to get it (1 stay) – 2,300 points
win big – 79,000 points
Total: 158,000
Note that the “Spend it to Get it” requires having a PC or IHG credit card. Doesn’t seem anyone else reporting in has that card? I’m surprised you don’t Gary! A free night anywhere for $49/year is great.
I’m a Platinum but stayed no nights (outside my free night) at IHG last year; no idea why I’m Platinum.
Based on the above, I think I can complete all of this in two, two night stays in two different cities (listed in “Live the City Life), as long as I select two different brands, book using IHG’s website, and pay for one using my Priority Club Visa. Assuming the high end ($150/night), that’d be $600 total for 158,000 points, or 0.37 cents per point (not including points earned for staying). Seems like a steal, especially since I’ll be in a few of those cities before the end of the year.
My offer is for a total of 12,000. At first I was a little put out, but then I realized it’s for MILES, not points. 12,000 gets me a 1-way flight. I probably won’t meet the goal because my traveling season is done for the year, but IHG may be able to squeeze 1 or 2 recreational stays out of me because of the miles they’re offering. I saw this article 1 month late… I would’ve already booked 3 stays if I’d know about it Aug.24. For some reason IHG isn’t emailing me their promos anywhere. Thanks Gary for announcing it.