This year I made an arrangement with a friend of mine to barter miles for babysitting. Â We agreed that in exchange for her watching our kids so we can go on vacation, I would use my miles and points to pay for her family to go on a Point Breaks vacation.
(SEE ALSO: I’m (finally!) going to Europe!)
(SEE ALSO: Visiting Old San Juan Puerto Rico)
Our agreement included 7 nights of IHG Point Breaks hotels, at 5,000 points / night, and with the new Point Breaks list having come out this week, it was time to spring into action!
Trying to find IHG Point Breaks vacation availability
We busted out the map and sortable table for the new IHG Point Breaks, and took a look at what we have.
The first try for our Point Breaks vacation was an itinerary centered around driving from Cincinnati to New Orleans:
With the flexibility of leaving on Saturday, October 10th or Saturday, October 17th. Â I checked availability, using this simple trick to find IHG multi-date award availability, and it all looked good except…. the hotel in Chattanooga was sold out on both the 10th AND the 17th
Back to the drawing board
The next idea we had for the Point Breaks vacation was instead to go Sunday to Sunday, since there was availability in Chattanooga on Sunday the 11th.  That worked out fine, until we found that the Elizabethtown hotel was booked on the 17th (and also the 9th, 10th, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th).  At this point, using the IHG multi-date award calendar trick, I figured we might as well look at all of the other hotels.
Memphis was booked on the 9th, 10th, 23rd and 24th, and Huntsville and New Orleans were completely wide open.
This called for a…. SPREADSHEET!
Looking through the spreadsheet, it was easy to figure out that it would work if we started in Chattanooga on Sunday the 25th, so that’s what we did. Â I booked the hotels, and my friend is all set for her vacation!
(SEE ALSO:Â Can I book a hotel for someone else?)
How are your IHG Point Breaks bookings looking? Â Were you able to get what you wanted? Â Let me know in the comments
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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 
I booked 6 nights at 3 hotels in Vermont , New Hampshire and New York in the prime week of fall colors in October. The rates were in the 250 to 300 range. They were off the chart the first day. Thank you for the preview of properties before they were released by ihg.
You’re welcome! I’m glad that it helped you!