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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!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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