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IHG is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points – this is the key.
I’ve written several articles in the past regarding the value of the Ambassador program so I won’t go into the details again. Both of my parents are long time IHG loyalists and we mainly cycled points/stays through their accounts for family trips. I hadn’t personally joined because it didn’t make sense to have 3 members. That just changed. Part of my MASSIVE 80k IHG Accelerate promotion was to join Ambassador, and they offered a 5k point incentive to do so. This was in addition fulfilling one of the required 6/7 targets. So how did I join? I didn’t pay the normal cash rate of $200.
I used 32k points instead of paying $200. Everyone can do this. 32k points can be purchased for just $184 until November 9th.
Using this point sale means I effectively paid $184 when you factor in the current 100% bonus on purchased points. Points are currently being sold for $0.00575 per point. The 100% bonus starts at 5000 points, but the best deal is with a bigger purchase.
I Get 10% of my redeemed points back because I carry the IHG credit card from Chase.
Yes, it works for joining Ambassador. That $184 just dropped to $166, or 32,000 drops to 28,800.
Let’s add in the value of the 5k point incentive. This nets out to just 23,800 points out of pocket, or just $136.85. We can drop that to $75…follow along.
32,000 * 0.9 = 28,800
28,800 – 5000 = 23,800
23,800 * $0.00575 = $136.85
I could write the membership down even further by saying that it represents 1/7 of the 75k ( 5k are from joining so need to be backed out) points that I will receive by fulfilling the Accelerate promotion…roughly 10,700 points. This means I’m getting Ambassador for roughly 13,100, or $75.
$136.85 is a cheap weekend night at an Intercontinental. $75 is insane.
A free weekend night is a perk of the Ambassador program.
I’ve already reserved my weekend night at the Intercontinental Shanghai. I’m getting a free night worth $300. Hopefully an upgrade to boot. B – YAH!
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