This series will serve as a complete guide to getting the most from IHG’s Rewards Club loyalty program. Each part will cover an in-depth topic on how to maximize its benefits and help you get more free hotel stays and rewards. In this post I will go over IHG’s PointBreaks promotion that lets you book award nights for only 5,000 points. The rest of the series will be soon to come.
- Intro: Series Index
- Best Price Guarantee
- Points & Cash Trick: Buy IHG Points for 0.7 Cents Each
- IHG Promo Codes
- PointBreaks
- Elite Status
- Best Use of Points
- Other Promotions & Ways to Earn Lots of IHG Points
Everything you Need to Know About IHG PointBreaks
Every couple of months, IHG hotels releases a list of hotels that can be booked for only 5,000 points per night. The promo is called IHG PointBreaks and included various IHG properties around the world and there are usually a handful of top tier InterContinental hotels, Crowne Plazas, and always a good mix of Holiday Inns. For anyone that has a flexible travel schedule or plans on visiting a destination on the list, this can be the ultimate hotel promotion.
During the IHG PointBreaks promotion, the nightly rates are reduced down to 5,000 points per night regardless of the category, until the hotel runs out of eligible rooms. This means you can get a room at an InterContinental hotel that normally runs 30,000 to 50,000 points per night for only 5,000 points. This is a huge discount if the property is right for you.
The caveat is that unless you’re an international vagabond and have an infinitely flexible travel schedule or the timing is aligned just right, you can strike out. Likely this will happen more often than not, but it’s still worth paying attention to the new lists that come out. If I find a property on the list that I can use, then I like to book for up to two weeks in reservations, all as individual one night reservations. This way if I decide not to stay the whole time, I can easily cancel the extra days without losing my entire stay.
The bottom line is that you can book hotels that have nightly rates between 20,000 to 50,000 points for as little as 5,000 points per night. Remember to book your stay as soon as possible because there are only a handful of PointBreaks availabilities per location, and they often go quickly.
How to Earn Extra IHG Points to Use on PointBreaks Hotels
You can always buy IHG points for 0.7 cents each using the Cash & Points trick. I wouldn’t necessarily stock up on extra points in hopes that you can burn them on a hotel on the PointBreaks list, but I always like to have an option for buying cheap IHG points if I see a hotel I can use. If you purchase IHG points for 0.7 cents and redeem them for 5,000 per night at a PointBreaks hotel, you’re paying ~$35 per night. This can mean heavily discounted nights at InterContinental or Crowne Plaza hotels.
If you haven’t had the IHG Rewards Club Select MasterCard you can earn 80,000 points after spending $1,000 within 3 months. The 80,000 points could stretch a long way if used on PointBreaks stays and get you 16 free nights.
When do New PointBreaks Lists Come out?
IHG releases a new PointBreaks list every couple of months, and in the past it has been every two months. A preview list of the properties is released here a week before the hotels are bookable. The current list is bookable through May 31st, 2014 and the next list should come out during the last week of May. I would guess the new list would be bookable on June 1st.
How to Book PointBreaks Hotels
As soon as the list is live to book hotel reservations you can find a complete list on the PointBreaks page. You can click through any of the hotels and book PointBreaks nights for 5,000 per night.
Remember to act quickly on any hotels that you might want to book stays at. There are limited discounted award nights and they often go quickly at the more desirable locations. If you’re unsure of how long your stay will be, you can always book separate one night stays and cancel the ones you don’t one after your plans are finalized.
Here are the rules for booking PointBreaks stays:
- You must make your reservation when the promo is live. If you make your reservation before the time frame of the PointBreaks promotion, then you will not get the 5,000 point offer. Click through here to make PointBreaks reservations.
- Stays must be completed within the promotion period.
- Max of 2 reservations per hotel, per month.
- You can cancel your booking and get your points back (per the booking terms).
- Canceled bookings will not necessarily go back into PointBreaks availability.
- You must be logged into your IHG account and have enough points to book your stay.
Tips for Booking IHG PointBreaks
Booking PointBreaks nights is simple and can be a huge point saver, just remember these tips to make things go smoothly once the list goes live:
- Book as soon as you find a location that you would like to stay in before the offer runs out because each location has a limited amount of PointBreaks reservations that they provide.
If you plan to reserve several nights, regardless of whether they are consecutive dates, reserve each night separately. This way if you need to make a change to your itinerary, you will not lose the PointBreaks rate. Update: IHG implemented a new rule that you are only allowed to book 2 reservations per hotel, per month. You should be able to cancel and re-book, but can only have to existing reservations at once.
- PointBreaks Reservations are fully refundable, so if you are not sure of the exact dates you can travel, make a reservation for every day you think you might want to travel. Once your plans are finalized, go ahead and cancel the nights you will not be using.
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over at Milevalue blog, a reader of his created a chart for Hilton best redemption, mostly in the Cat 1,2 and 8,9. everything else in the middle is not worth it bc of point ratio to $ spent to manufacture the points. do you have list similar to it for IHG ?
Choi, that’s a great idea. I’ll try to throw something together for IHG.
is there any other ways to generate points cheaper than .07 cents, other than CC bonus sign-up ?
Choi, the best ways to earn points directly from IHG are through that trick, promos, and the sign-up bonus. Of course there are way to MS, but if you’re doing that on a UR earning card you’ll have better uses for the points.