(UPDATE: 12/28 – Reposting this as the last day to buy IHG points with an 80% bonus is tonight. If you’re getting this email the day after, consider signing up for instant post alerts by clicking on the red bullseye icon in the lower right of your browser)
With over 5,000 IHG properties worldwide, you’re likely to find one that fits your needs when planning your next vacation. And your next vacation might be closer than you think, now that IHG is offering an 80% bonus, now through December 28th. This is a high bonus, but it’s not the best bonus IHG has ever offered. The deal and information can be accessed here. Let’s examine the math and see if this makes sense.
Normally, IHG points cost $13.50 to purchase 1,000 points (tax included), for a purchase price of 1.35 cent per point. That might seem cheap, but remember, IHG points are only worth about half a penny each, so at the normal rate, your paying almost triple the value. At the normal rate, it doesn’t make sense to buy IHG points.
What about with the 80% bonus? You’ll need to purchase at least 30,000 points, so for $300, you’re getting 54,000 points. That brings the purchase price to 0.555 cents per point, which is closer to the normal redemption value, but still slightly higher.
One other thing is that IHG has bumped up the maximum amount of points you can buy to 100,000 points
While I’m generally against buying points speculatively, if you need some points for your next redemption, it could be worth topping up your account.
(SEE ALSO: When is buying miles worth it? Only in these 3 instances)
If you do that, I recommend buying at least 5,000 points so you earn some bonus miles (2,500 in that case). You can find the link to this promotion here
One other area where it might make sense is if you’re low on points and want to stay at one of the current IHG Point Breaks hotels, which can be had as low as 5000 points / night. Buying 30,000 points for $300 gets you 54,000 points, which would be enough for 10 nights at a hotel. Meaning that you’d get 10 nights for $300 which seems like a pretty good deal. Even if you were staying at a mix of 5000 or 10000 night hotels you’d get 7 nights for your $300, which still seems like a good deal
Remember too if you have the IHG Rewards Club Premier card (current signup bonus is 80,000 points), you get a 20% bonus on purchased points AND the 4th night free on award stays. You can find out more information about the IHG card and other hotel cards here
Will you buy IHG points with an 80% bonus? Or will you wait for a higher bonus to come back?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Or, you could still buy points at https://dailygetaways.ustravel.org/Warehouse
$580 / 100,000 points.
Correct my math if it’s off, but I think that if you buy 56,000 points through the 80% off sale (for $560) you would get a bonus of 80% or 44,800, or a total of 100,800 points. So it’s cheaper than Daily Getaways
You are right that it is slightly cheaper per point (by .024%), but the daily getaways points won’t count toward your yearly limit.
The new Premier card is supposed to have a 20% discount (not a bonus) on purchased points. But there are no data points that I’ve seen yet of anyone actually receiving the discount yet….
I have been very disappointed by the lack of 5000 point ( or even 10,000 point ) hotels available during their quarterly specials. The last one was pitiful. A big strike against buying points.
And thanks Dan for continuing to list them for us each quarter!!
Yes – their last list was the weakest ever – almost not even worth noting.