I wrote a few weeks ago about how taking advantage of the Q1 IHG Accelerate promotion earned us enough points for seven free hotel nights.
The Accelerate offers for Q2 came out recently, so Shae and I both registered to participate.
It’s not too late for you to get your own Accelerate offer. Simply go to the IHG website and sign up for IHG Rewards Club. If you’re already a member, you can use that same link and log in to view your Accelerate offer. This promotion runs until August 31, 2017, so it’s definitely worth registering if you have any travel planned during the summer.
The IHG Accelerate promotion is targeted. That means each person’s offer is different, although there’s often some overlap. To help give you some ideas of how to maximize your own offer, here’s an analysis of the offers Shae and I received.
IHG Accelerate Offer 1 – Shae
Shae’s Accelerate offer would earn her 55,800 bonus points if she was to complete all the tasks. That’s in addition to the regular points she’d earn from booking stays with IHG in order to complete the tasks.
Unfortunately, this offer isn’t particularly compelling. Last time round, Shae earned more than 35,500 points for a one night stay. That’s not possible this time – the most points she can get for a one night stay is ~8,500 points. Here’s a breakdown of how that would work:
- 2,500 – Stay once and get 2,500 points
- 1,500 – Pay for the stay with her IHG Rewards Club credit card
- 3,000 – Stay once before June 30
- ~1,500 – Regular points
The ~1,500 regular points is based on a one night stay costing $75. Here’s a breakdown of how that part works:
- $75 * 10 base points per dollar (standard earning with IHG Rewards Club) = 750 points
- $75 * 5 bonus points per dollar for having Platinum Elite status = 375 points
- $75 * 5 bonus points per dollar for paying for the stay using her IHG credit card = 375 points
- Total = 1,500 points
Maximizing Shae’s Offer
As I mentioned above, if we completed all Shae’s tasks, she’d earn 55,800 points. Those could be used for 12 stays in a PointBreaks hotel as they only cost 4,500 points per night. (n.b. The standard cost is 5,000 points, but you get a 10% points rebate if you have the IHG credit card).
To maximize those offers while spending the least amount of money possible, we’d need to do the following:
- Stay at two different Holiday Inn Express hotels
- Book four separate stays, three of which would need to be at different IHG brands. That’s because we’d have to stay at three brands (which could include one of the Holiday Inn Express hotels we need), along with a second Holiday Inn Express
- Book an additional night on one of the four stays to get to five nights total
- One of the stays would have to be before June 30
- Pay for at least one stay with her IHG Rewards Club credit card
That means if done in the right way, we’d only need to pay for five nights to earn all 55,800 bonus points.
Although we have some travel planned over the next few months, we already have the hotels sorted out. We’d therefore need to spend an extra $500+ (including pet fees) in order to book that many stays. If we were going to do that, we’d be better off taking advantage of my offer.
IHG Accelerate Offer 2 – Me
In theory, my challenge is harder as I have to complete 5 out of 6 tasks to get my achievement bonus, whereas Shae only has to complete 4 out of 5.
Having said that, our tasks are virtually identical other than me having the additional challenge of booking a stay outside the US. That wouldn’t be an issue seeing as my family is in the UK, so I could book a one night stay there and have one of them check in.
Maximizing My Offer
The great thing about my challenge is that it offers a total of 73,800 bonus points, whereas Shae’s only offers 55,800.
To maximize my Accelerate offer, here’s what I’d need to do:
- Stay at two different Holiday Inn Express hotels
- Book four separate stays, three of which need to be at different IHG brands. That’s because we’d have to stay at three brands (which could include one of the Holiday Inn Express hotels we need), along with a second Holiday Inn Express
- One of those stays would have to be outside the US
- Book an additional night on one of the four stays to get to five nights total
- One of the stays would have to be before June 30
- Pay for at least one stay with my IHG Rewards Club credit card
That means if done in the right way, we’d only need to pay for five nights to earn all 73,800 bonus points. Taking into account the regular points I’d be earning on those stays as well, I’d expect to earn ~81,000 points in total. That’s enough for 18 nights in PointBreaks hotels, so it makes my offer a little more tempting.
Alternatively, I could book a one night stay and earn ~20,500 points. Here’s a breakdown of how that would work:
- 12,000 – Book a one night stay outside of the US
- 2,500 – Stay once and get 2,500 points
- 3,000 – Have the stay be before June 30
- 1,500 – Pay for it using my IHG Rewards Club credit card
- ~1,500 – Regular points
That means I could pay for one night and effectively get four free nights in a PointBreaks hotel.
How We’ll Use These Offers
It’s doubtful that we’ll try to complete any of Shae’s tasks seeing as hers are virtually the same as mine but offer fewer total points.
There’s a good chance that we’ll try to complete all my offers due to some upcoming travel.
We have a three night stay at a Staybridge Suites coming up in August, so that’ll complete tasks 1 and 6 and contribute towards tasks 2 and 3.
That means we just need to book three more one night stays – two of them at a Holiday Inn Express and one at a different brand, with one of those nights needing to be overseas.
It should be possible to book those three nights for under $250, so I might do a mattress run. That $250 would be worth the investment as it would earn us enough points for 18 nights in PointBreaks hotels on our 50 state road trip.
Question
Did you get a good IHG Accelerate offer? Let us know in the comments below.
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