Every 3 months, the Intercontinental Hotels Group, which includes Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and extended stay hotels such as Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites releases a limited number of hotels that instead of charging 10K +++ IHG points per night, they only charge 5K IHG points. Well, until now. Now, while some hotels are still 5K, others are now 10K, while still others are 15K IHG points. One may think this is a horrible thing--and it is. The only positive is that you would think they`d include lots more hotels, as well as high end ones at the 15K point level (instead of 35K) but they are limited ones where I know I have NO interest staying in. This is a form of devaluation and I for one, will do nothing about it, but kvetch. Perhaps in upcoming point breaks, they will include more lucrative markets but I HIGHLY doubt that.
For those of you with IHG Points, HERE'S the current link to the hotels that are eligible for Point Breaks, but each hotel takes only 200 reservations and you can only book up to 2 reservations per hotel, for as long a stay as you wish, as long as the stay ends before April 30st, 2018. That means you could stay at an IHG Point Break hotel for a week for 35K IHG points (at 5K points a night)!
For those who do NOT have any IHG points:
Now if you don't have any IHG points, you can exchange them with other point systems such as Aeroplan, through Points.com. You WON'T get value for your dollar, but it will get you your foot in the door. You can exchange a minimum of 15K Aeroplan points for 10,588 IHG points (at today's exchange). That's worth 2 free nights at an IHG property. If you don't have enough Aeroplan points, you can always transfer AMEX Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan instantaneously (if you have AMEX points--if you don't, click HERE to find out how to get AMEX points!
There's a trick through the IHG website which allows one to buy more points at a rate of $30 for 5K IHG points, a MUCH better rate thatn with Aeroplan.
You book a "Cash & Points" combo hotel stay through the IHG website after having the minimum 5K IHG points in your IHG account.
If you have less than 15K IHG points but more than 10K (such as by purchasing 10,588 with 15K Aeroplan points), you can book a stay at the Holiday Inn Auburn from September 4th to the 5th, with 10K IHG Points and $65USD cash. When you cancel your stay, you won't get back the $65USD, but instead, you'll get an additional 10K IHG points along with the 10K IHG you used to make the reservation, meaning you paid $65 for 10K IHG points, or $32.50USD for enough points for a one night stay at a Point Break Hotel! See below:
IHG® Rewards Club Reward Nights
- FREE Cancellation until 6:00 PM local hotel time on September 4, 2017
- No deposit required
- Points + Cash bookings are charged immediately, and cancellations are refunded in points only.
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Choose the Crowne Plaza Syracuse, for example, same 1 night stay, and get offered $89 plus 15K IHG points for the stay, and when you cancel, you get back 15K plus the original 15K that you used, so you just paid $89 for 15K IHG points, less than $30USD for 5K points! See below:
IHG® Rewards Club Reward Nights
- FREE Cancellation until 6:00 PM local hotel time on September 3, 2017
- No deposit required
- Points + Cash bookings are charged immediately, and cancellations are refunded in points only.
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Book while you still can!!
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