Boasting a portfolio of over 20 cards, Jarrod has been an expert in the points and miles space for over 6 years. He earns and redeems over 1 million points per year and his work has been featured in o...
Edited by: Keri Stooksbury
With years of experience in corporate marketing and as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar, Keri is now Editor-in-Chief at UP, overseeing daily content operations and r...
& Kellie Jez
Kellie’s professional experience has led her to a deep passion for compliance, data reporting, and process improvement. Kellie’s learned the ins and outs of the points and miles world and leads UP’s c...
![15 Best Ways To Earn Lots of IHG One Rewards Points [2023]](https://upgradedpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Intercontinental-London.jpg?auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=1420&height=650&fit=crop)
31 comments
wesley wilson
March 18, 2018
It has become increasingly harder to find any IHG Resort Hotels that will allow you to use IHG points to pay for a room. I have even had a IHG hotel that had many rooms available deny me the option of using reward points to pay for the room. Their reasoning was they only had a few rooms that points could be used as payment, and those rooms were taken. With nearly 1 million points, I’m doing good to get an upgraded room. Not feelin’ the love!
Richie Taylor
July 22, 2018
How long did it take to rack up 1 mil points?
TABITHA Knowland
August 14, 2018
Would you be willing to sell some pouts? I would buy them!
Jimmy
September 21, 2021
Yes
LaKenya Bennett
July 31, 2022
I agree. I have experienced the same. To add insult to injury, need I remind you that the program specifically promises NO BLACKOUT DATES? Clearly false advertisement.
Mister Estrada
August 07, 2018
I have been a IHG Platinum Eilte member for 18 months and noticed hotels increasing the amount of points required to stay and even some hotels, like the Holiday Inn Resorts disappearing from the annual Free Reward Night list when trying to book your free night night. You need to accumulate and use your points quickly or the depreciation factor will render your points useless since last year’s 10,000 point hotel is now going for 15,000 or 20,000. I now have the new IHG black card…Premier Club, we’ll see if anything changes… or I’ll just have to switch to another hotel group credit card… nice post by the way….
Michael McHugh
August 16, 2018
Thanks for this info Mister Estrada!
Lucienne CHU
October 07, 2018
Hi team,
I just joined the IHG programme online and am still waiting for my IHG Card to be posted out to my home address . I am going to visit China soon and already booked three nights at Crowne Plaza Foshan . My enquiry : how can I earn the IHG points as I don’t have the card yet ? If I show my online IHG membership number to the Crowne Plaza when I arrive there, would they allocate the points I earn with this booking ? Or do I have to print out the temporary card to record the nights? I will then visit other cities in China. I am sure I can easily pass the 10 nights required during this trip .
Hence your advice is really appreciated. Thank you and cheers.
Lucienne
Christine Krzyszton
October 07, 2018
Hi Lucienne! Fortunately you do not need your physical IHG membership card to receive credit for your upcoming stays. If you call IHG, they can add your membership number to your reservations. Their phone number is 1(800) 621-0555. You could also email them. It is possible to add it at the hotel but it is best to do it in advance as you will then be able to access all of your reservations online in your account and assure you receive credit. Be sure to have your membership number with you during your trip in case the hotel does not have it on the reservation and check your statement when you check in/out to make sure your IHG membership is on it. I hope your trip goes well.
Terry R Wood
June 10, 2019
I have been an IHG Rewards member for 15 years. It was my go-to when traveling on business. Unfortunately something has gone wrong here. Points are practically worthless now. I still have the IHG rewards credit card and I do get an “free” anniversary night for the $89 annual membership fee but there is really no other benefit anymore. Over the last several years it has cost me more to stay loyal to IHG. Today I am trying to book a room in Salt Lake City, just as someone off the street a standard room can be had for $97.22. For me to stay with points would cost me 30,000 points. I recently loaded up for the year on points like I usually do when I am sent an offer to purchase, but to buy 30,000 points cost me $172.50. I do have the option to split the bill by paying cash and buying points. I can get that same standard room for 15,000 points (which cost me $94.50) plus $105.00 cash.
Someone has let this ship go astray???
Christine Krzyszton
June 10, 2019
Hello Terry and thanks for your comment. You are using a very specific example and in the case you mention, it would be better to pay cash for the room. As you are probably aware, being a long term IHG Rewards member, even with the increase in redemption costs, it is still possible to find great value using your points. A night at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, for example, can be secured for 70,000 IHG points but can cost $700 per night to pay cash. The Intercontinental in San Juan, for 50,000 IHG points, can run $350 or more per night. PointBreaks specials have even allowed me to secure a Holiday Inn Express in Madrid for 5,000 points per night. Also, sometimes purchasing points is not always the best value. During promotions you can pick up 100,000 points for $500 which does bring the cost down somewhat but even then, it does not always make sense without a specific redemption in mind that will maximize the value. Thousands of points can also be earned for no additional cost during a promotion such as Accelerate. So yes, while there are plenty of situations where using points is not a good deal, like the one you mention, there are still plenty of great reward redemption options to be found with IHG points.
Jeff
July 14, 2019
Hi, has anybody recently stayed at an IHG property in Greater China (Mainland, HK, Taiwan)? If so, did you have a choice of either Points or a Drink voucher as welcome amenity gift? I was told today by the Intercontinental Xiamen that Points are no longer offered in Greater China as a welcome amenity gift. Any recent experience proving that statement right (or wrong)?
Ed
August 22, 2019
My wife just became a Platinum Elite IHG member and currently, I am Gold Elite. I was looking to transfer the 50k points I have from my Gold account to my wife’s account but IHG is requesting $250 to transfer the points. This seems outrageous to me. I would be interested if anyone has any other methods/success stories to work around this?
Jarrod West
August 22, 2019
Hi Ed,
Unfortunately, the only way to transfer your IHG points into your wife’s account is to pay the $250 transfer fee. However, we would advise against doing so as that high of a fee would negate most of the value you would receive from just using the points through your own account.
Thanks for reading!
LaKenya Bennett
July 31, 2022
I assume that you are transferring the points to your wife so that she can book a room. If that is the case I would suggest that you book the room using your points and add her to the reservation. This way she can check in without you being present.
Peter Seeley
August 23, 2019
I’ve been a loyal IHG member for more years than I can think of. Most of my points have come from the credit card and business hotel stays.
Recently stayed in a Crown Plaza through work and just had confirmation of points earned, none! When did I miss the fact that you can no longer earn points through bookings with company travel agencies? Why would they do this? We still make a choice which hotel/chain to stay with. May just have to look at alternative loyalty schemes!
Edward Temoney
December 12, 2019
Is paying for the Ambassador option worth it?
Jarrod West
December 13, 2019
Hi Edward,
That is entirely subjective. If you frequently stay in IHG hotels then it very well could be!
Jenson
January 21, 2020
You might want to mention that the credit cards are only available to less than 5% of the world’s people. Those who recide outside of the US cannot apply.
Jarrod West
January 21, 2020
Hi Jensen,
That is correct. We are a U.S. based company and, currently, only cover U.S. credit cards.
Babs
January 22, 2020
The IHG rewards club that gives 5x or 10x points per dollar spent DOES NOT WORK if you chose the Points & Cash option. You will be charged the amount they state on site per night for converting into points, but you will only receive 1 point per dollar spent even though you’re spending the money for a stay at their hotel.
Chuck
February 13, 2020
You caution against (blindly) transferring points to another member due to the high cost of $5 per 1,000 points transferred. However, my transferring $1,000 points to my wife for $5 (500 cents for 1000 points = 0.5 cents per point) is the same as her capitalizing on a great IHG purchase promo — buying points for 0.5 cents per point. And this transfer can be done anytime, not just during IHG’s promos. And this $5/1000 point transfer rate is in effect for quantities as small as 1,000 points, whereas one often has to buy a lot of points in order to get the best rate of 0.5 cents per point. So I don’t see how this transfer rate is bad, at all. Am I missing something?
Jarrod West
February 13, 2020
Hi Chuck,
If you need to move a small number of points to another account in order to make a booking possible, then it can definitely make sense to do so.
However, if you have the option to buy points at 0.5 cents per point instead, then that would likely be the better option. This is because when you purchase points, you’ll receive new points that you did not have before. When you transfer points, you’re just paying money to move points you already have from one account to another.
Susan
July 02, 2020
With 84k Available points and gold elite how many free hotel nights would that be?
Jarrod West
July 02, 2020
Hi Susan,
It depends! IHG award nights vary from hotel to hotel. Award nights usually range between 10,000 to 70,000 points per night. So 84,000 points could get you anywhere between 1 to 8 free nights, or even more if you use the 4th-night free benefit from the IHG Rewards Premier card!
Confused IHG Member
April 17, 2022
I’m trying to decide whether to earn IHG points or airline miles. Do you earn the same number of miles as you would IHG points? Do you still earn an Elite bonus if I choose to earn Miles?
Christine Krzyszton
April 17, 2022
You will earn far more IHG Rewards points than miles on each stay. Also, earning miles does not count toward IHG Rewards’ elite status or earning an elite bonus. Plus, at redemption time, your IHG Rewards points will result in better value when used for free hotel nights.
Cap
January 01, 2023
The article says that one would earn points for reward nights, which is not really true. Reward nights do not earn you points in IHG One Reward Programme, however they do count towards your night-stay count for milestone rewards or status/level within the programme.
Jarrod West
January 02, 2023
Hi Cap,
Can you let me know where in the post it says that? I’m not seeing that claim on my end. Thanks for reading!
Sally
July 28, 2023
Can I still apply IHG traveler silver elite card if I don’t have 10 qualifying nights in 1 year? I only have 2-4 nights in 1 year.
Jarrod West
July 29, 2023
Hi Sally,
Yes, you can get the IHG Traveler card no matter how many nights you stay in IHG hotels.
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