We see the return of IHG Rewards Club’s buy points bonus offer only a little over two weeks after it last ended. The promotion is the same as last time – a 100% bonus when you purchase 2,000 or more points at a time and once again the annual purchase limit has been raised to 250,000 points before the bonus.
Buying 250,000 points (500,000 total with bonus) costs US$2,500
which means each point will only cost you 0.5 cents. However you don’t have to buy that many to get in on that lowest price, the 0.5 US cents per points kicks in when you buy at least 26,000 points. We don’t
encourage buying points just because there is a bonus but if you can
foresee a potential use for them in the next 4-6 months it can definitely be worthwhile to buy them.
Offer Details
100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy 3,000 or more points. Buy IHG Rewards Club Points here Until Jul 31, 20
Here are some example of how buying points can save you some money on stays with IHG:
First we look at the Holiday Inn Canmore for those looking for staycation in the Banff area. You can redeem 30,000 points per night at this hotel where rates are running $297.78 per night:
Here you can see that you can buy 30,000 points for that one night stay for $172.50 USD. Take into account the exchange rate and GST you have to pay on the points and you are looking at an outlay of about C$250. That means buying the points would save you $47 on that one night stay and that’s not even taking into account the taxes and fees you have to pay on the cash rate. However as mentioned above the savings get bigger when you buy more points.
For example if you buy 30,000 points (60,000 with the bonus) it will cost you $300 USD or about C$435. Now that’s enough points for a 2 night stay at the Holiday Inn Canmore where your cash outlay would be $594. Now you can see you are saving $159 in total or $79.50 per night.
Now let’s move over to Quebec and the Holiday Inn Express Tremblant for those road trips out of Ottawa and Montreal. You can stay here for 17,500 points per night or C$202 if you pay cash (before taxes and fees)
Here you can see that you can buy 18,000 points for that one night stay
for $121.50 USD. Take into account the exchange rate and HST you have to
pay on the points and you are looking at an outlay of about C$188. That
means buying the points would save you only about $14 on that one night stay. However if you want to stay three nights and want to buy points for all three nights you would buy at the lowest level price of 0.5 cents US per points. Three nights is 52,500 points, which means you would have to buy 54,000 points for US$270. The Canadian equivalent is about $421 all in for a $606 stay. A total savings of $185 or about $61 per night.
There are many more examples I could go into but I recommend checking IHG first for the going rates and then comparing those rates to what you would buy points at. For example I checked the InterContinental Toronto and they wanted 27,500 points for a stay that costs C$195 per night – so in that case it wouldn’t be worth it to buy the points. In the end however, it will really depend on where you want to travel to and run the numbers to see if this deal will save you some money on your staycation, road trip or even if you are brave enough – a trip to the U.S. (you can travel there by air) or one of the countries that has opened up to Canadians like Greece.
Visit IHG.com today to check hotel rates and take advantage of the buy points bonus here.