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IHG is full of surprises here lately…heh, heh, heh.
First they announce a great promotion whereby current IHG members can earn 50000+ bonus points with Accelerate and new members can earn a FREE NIGHT for EVERY TWO nights.
That is just ridiculous. If you haven’t signed up for that promotion…do it here.
THEN, IHG announced some amazing point breaks ( 5k a night) and I booked a trip to Egypt because of it. SAY WHAT??!??!??!
NOW, IHG has gone and done it again with Priceless Surprises.
By the end of it, you could be staying at the Intercontinental Sydney…FAH FREE
Priceless Surprises targets those members who hold an IHG credit card. We’ve talked about this before, people…if you don’t have one of these cards you’re missing out on a very valuable credit card. Namely, the annual free night at any IHG property in the world for $49/year annual fee. The intention of the promotion is to encourage members to register and then whenever they stay at a IHG property, they will earn a surprise bonus on their stay. IHG is really bending over backwards to attract existing and new members to increase their stays at the hotel. What’s even better is that this promotion is stackable to the Accelerate promotion, meaning you can earn both bonus opportunities concurrently. YEAAAAHHHH!!!!!! WE LOVE STACKABLE.
Priceless Promotions
Here are the deets
- Like all promotions, YOU MUST REGISTER. Do it here
- It begins on November 15th
- YOU MUST, AGAIN YOU MUST hold an IHG Credit Card before Nov 15th – if you don’t have one….search for the 80k offer. It is floating around out there. If you can’t find it…here is the normal 60k link.
- Try looking in your account after you’ve logged in…
- 94 times!!!! 94 TIMES you can earn a surprise bonus. These bonuses start at 500 points. That’s 47k minimum
- You don’t even need to stay!!!!!!
Let’s take a look at 5 a little more closely. YOU DON’T NEED TO STAY!!!
- If you’d like to read the official rules…go here
- But I’m going to go through some of the basics…
As you can see here…you can mail in individual entries, up to 94, to win the prizes…starting at 500 points. There are surprise trips to Paris, New York, and even a couple Million point prizes. If you’d like to see the entire list please go here.
So by mailing in…if we just played the odds
- 5000×2
- 2000×3
- 1000×6
- 500×83
That’s 63,500 if the odds are just normal. If you get crap odds…47k and who knows… you might be going to Paris and have over a million more points in your account. Lemme know how you fair in this excellent promotion. I’ll be sitting in front of my TV watching Miles practice his dexterity with a pen and paper writing in entries =)
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
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 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)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
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® Card is great 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: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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