IHG PointBreaks - one of the best hotel promotions around

It is widely accepted that IHG’s PointBreaks promotion is one of the best in the loyalty points business.

Every 3-4 months, the group, that includes InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotels, release a new list of participating properties worldwide that can all be booked for just 5,000 IHG points per night. The regular cost to book these same properties using points is between 10,000 and 50,000 points per night.

Unlike many other hotel sales that offer greatly reduced sale ‘pricing,’ these bookings are subject to the same regular booking conditions as other points bookings at that hotel – in other words, they are usually fully flexible and cancelable until a short while before the stay.

HOW TO BOOK

You can search as normal on the IHG booking page or on the dedicated PointBreaks page.

You can book as many nights as you wish on a single booking although you are limited to two reservations per person per hotel during the promotion.

This offer is bookable from the 24th April 2017 until 31st July 2017. Rooms available at PointBreaks rates generally sell out pretty fast so I would move fast to see what you can lock in.

At the very bottom of the page, you can find a full listing of all the properties that are participating this time around.

HOW TO EARN IHG POINTS

It is all very well telling you that you can get a great deal booking these hotels for just 5,000 points but what happens if you are starting from scratch with no IHG points balance to speak of. Well, here are a number of options available to you for earning or boosting your IHG points balance.

CREDIT CARDS

There are 2 IHG credit card options in the UK.

IHG Rewards Club Credit Card – This card offers 10,000 IHG Points when you spend £200 in the first 3 months of holding the card. That would be enough for 2 free nights using this PointBreaks promo. There is no annual fee for holding this card.
IHG Rewards Club Premium Credit Card – This card offers 20,000 IHG points when you spend £200 in the first 3 months of holding the card. That would be enough for 4 free nights using this PointBreaks promo! The card carries a £99 annual fee and also offers a free night voucher after spending £10k in a calendar year.

PROMOTIONS

IHG run regular promotions that offer easy ways to pick up large numbers of points at low cost. For the last few years, these have come in the form of a quarterly deal known as Accelerate. This offered a series of personalised challenges which, when completed, would trigger generous bonuses.

The most recent version of this deal ended on the 15th April and they are yet to announce what their promotion for the second quarter of 2017 will look like. Be sure to check this page in the coming weeks though because I will make sure to update this section as and when it is announced.

BUYING POINTS

IHG allows you to purchase a maximum of 60,000 points per calendar year. You can also receive a further 60,000 points as a gift. The pricing for purchasing these points varies depending on how many you purchase:

1,000 – 10,000 points for $13.50 per 1,000 points
11,000 – 25,000 points for $12.50 per 1,000 points
26,000 – 60,000 points for $11.50 per 1,000 points

However, unless you absolutely need the points now, I wouldn’t recommend purchasing points currently. This is because IHG, as recently as February, has run 100% bonuses on purchased points. That would make the equation far more interesting.

TRANSFERS FROM VIRGIN ATLANTIC FLYING CLUB MILES / TESCO CLUBCARD

It is an oft-overlooked fact that you can transfer Virgin miles to the IHG and Hilton hotel loyalty schemes. Virgin miles transfer at a 1:1 ratio to IHG points. This also opens up an interesting indirect way of converting Tesco Clubcard points to IHG points! This leaves you with 2 options:

Direct – 5,000 Virgin miles = 5,000 IHG points
Indirect – 2,000 Tesco Clubcard points » 5000 Virgin miles (You get 2.5 Virgin miles per Clubcard point) = 5,000 IHG points

If you can find a hotel that works for you on the PointBreaks list, you could book it using just £20 of Clubcard vouchers using the above method.

It is worth bearing in mind that Virgin » IHG transfers usually take between 1-2 weeks to complete.

VERDICT

IHG PointBreaks is a great promotion. I would say though, that the list is not filled with aspirational properties – don’t expect to find the likes of the InterContinental Park Lane on there for example. This means that the list of participating hotels is going to be very subjective. You are unlikely to be cancelling any of your current plans to visit a different lucrative property that has popped up on this list. However, if you were thinking of travelling to any of these cities, you may well find something for you and if you do it is without a doubt a top bargain!

Visit IHG.com to see what deals you can pick up.

Here is a complete list of the 100 or so hotels participating in this edition of PointBreaks