IHG points now cheaper to purchase
 

I noticed that some hotels are now offering three tiers of points+cash options.

There are two options that have always been there:

5k points for $40 ($0.008 per point)
10k points for $70 ($0.007 per point)

But now there is a third option that is cheaper:

15k points for $95 ($0.0063 per point)

It makes sense that points are cheaper now given the recent increases in points required to book (i.e. some IC properties going from 45k to 60k per night). But for the hotels that didn't increase, this is a nice option to have to buy more points for even cheaper than before.

For those of you not familiar with points+cash, you can book a room using this option and then cancel the reservation. The points you purchased will be redeposited into your account.

Which property?

That is pretty much getting near the cheapest price for points, which has been the sales for 0.56 cents per point.

I saw it for the IC Times Square.

IHG Daily Getaways
 

I just noticed that IHG is promoting the sale of IHG points until tomorrow, May 13, 2016, through the US Travel website:

https://dailygetaways.ustravel.org/O...3-843e72dc322e

It is under the IHG Offers tab at the bottom right - Daily Getaways on the IHG website.

mxm135 :)

I wasn't aware of the way this worked - so to clarify if I say book a points+cash promo where a hotel is (say) 20,000 points and pay 10,000 + a cash difference I'll get back 10,000 points if I then cancel the booking rather than a refund of the cash difference price?

Correct.

Sometimes it's a smart thing to do. For example, say you want to stay at a hotel this weekend that is $160 or 15,000 points per night. You can book a reservation at a hotel that offers the 15,000 points for $95 option, cancel it, and use the 15,000 points to book a rewards night at the hotel you want...saving some considerable cash.

These rates have been around for a while, a couple months ago there was an additional discount on points+cash which made them even better.

I've also seen properties that were charging more than the standard $70 for 10K points. (I can't recall which but I believe I was recently looking in the LAX area)

It would appear to me that IHG are experimenting with the individual hotels keeping some of all of the cash portion of Cash & Points bookings? While the minority who pay attention will gravitate to a "book and cancel" at the cheapest rate for P+C, there are probably loads more members without a clue who will think that the hotel is charging the going rate.

Do points obtained in this way count towards tier status like normal points or are they classed as bonus points that don't count towards tier status?

I'm not too far off Spire and this may be a way of easily "bridging the gap"!

Just regular non-elite points unfortunately with P&C or points purchase.

Bonus point packages that are included in a room rate are counted as qualifying points.

When they first added the 15K buy option last year, the price was just $90.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...ts-90-new.html

Will IHG credit card give me a 5x when doing cash + points? Last time I was using AT&T Access More card and it gave me 3x. But I guess that 3 TYPs are better than 5 IHG points?
How about Chase Sapphire Reserve? Will it give 3x? I guess not, it coded as Merchandise - Buying/Shopping Services Clubs on Citi MC.

There are properties that offer 20k at 125 USD. Plenty of hotels specially in the 50k or 60k a day award rate