Intercontinental Hotels Group is currently having a special ending today September 22, 2014 where they are offering a 50 or 100% bonus on points that are purchased from them. If you have read our recent article on Buying Airline Miles, you know that this isn’t normally a good deal. However the points in this case are so cheap that it may make sense in some cases.
You can buy 120,000 points per year with IHG, but a maximum of 60,000 with this promotion. You can get the maximum 100% bonus when you buy 50,000-60000. For the purposes of this article let’s assume you buy 50,000 points with a 100% bonus for $575. Here are some ways you can use those 100,000 points to get a good value.
You can get two nights at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso Spa for 50K each night.
For a random two night stay in October, I saw rates of $834 on a AAA rate. If you were able to secure an award stay instead of a revenue stay then you could get $1660 in value for buying $575 in points! This is a great deal!
Another option would be the Intercontinental Amstel Amsterdam for two nights.
The rates on this one are a whopping 550 Euro a night for a total of $1400 for two nights that you could get $575 by using points.
Probably the best way to get the most value from this point purchase would be to use it for a Pointsbreak rate of 5,000 points a night for a list of circulating hotels. How does 20 nights at the Intercontinental Bucharest sound? 
It would cost you $3880 for 20 nights or you could just use the points you purchased for $575 if you got it on a Pointbreaks rate.
As you can see for specific redemptions, it can make a whole lot of sense, but keep in mind you won’t be earning points for the spending this way and there isn’t always availability for the reward nights so I would check a few dates for your desired properties before you purchase the points.
Acquiring points at a good rate through promotions or manufactured spending is one half of the equation and redeeming them for the best value is the other half. If you are smart about both halves then you can save a lot of money and travel like a king on a beggar’s budget.
Click here to take a look at this offer if you think this makes sense for you.
As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info! And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!
