scubaccr

To receive points and qual night for a stay, you need to book ADR or Flex on IHG/PCR websites. In UK some 241 night pomos links work too.

Other rates will not count as either qual nights or for points on room rate, eg
family + friends
prepaid-A (35% off rate)
points, points + cash, points break
BRG nights
second night at IC hotel using BOGO cert
3rd party hotel sites discounted rates

mgo72

Received the second night as a qualifying night.

bearvest

My BRG rate for a free night and a paid night qualified me to earn 2500 points for a 2 night stay

stupenal

On various blogs, they have mentioned there is a 40,000 per day limit on points you can purchase via c&p.

Does anyone know if this is in effect? I've already purchased 40,000 for the day, but would like to purchase 10,000 more (just in case the award availability disappears between today and tomorrow). I'm at the checkout screen and it shows I can still do c&p and purchase 10,000 more points for $70. Before I hit submit, I wanted to see if anyone has purchased 50k in one day without any ill effects.

Thanks

Lovevas

I purchased 100K once, few weeks ago, using the P&C trick.

Update:

Checked my account, actually I purchase this amount in total in 2 accounts (my wife and mine) over the weekend, not one day.

stupenal

Thanks for the info - I just tried purchasing another 10k today, but after clicking confirm reservation, I got an error message saying the transaction couldnt be completed.

I'm thinking that 40K cash and points purchases might be a 24 hour limit. I will give it another try later this afternoon after 24 hours have passed.

rknight20772

Do points purchased with Points+Cash count towards elite status?

scubaccr

Covered several times before.

Only points earned on the basis of points/us$ n booked room ratess at a qualifying rate count towards elite status points.

One small exception is the "bonus points" option at booking time when you pay a higher room rate for 1K/2k/5K (occasionally 10K) where these points paid for by the hotel and often posting somewhat later do count as Elite Status Points. Mostly a poor value choice

1Newflyer

Is purchasing points more economical than just paying for the room in cash? Unless we are talking about PointBreak or something?

scubaccr

Only sometimes, mostly paid nights are cheaper than points value, ... but could be about break even, or as much as 50%-100%+ cheaper than paid nights.

Assuming points+cash that is us7/1k at the us$70/10k so upscale as award values eg
25k = us$175 , 40k = us$280, 50k = us$350 etc etc

So for instance IC Park Lane London if £400 which is about us$600/night is cost efficient use of 50k points.

I recommend sometimes use P+C on making any award reservation to keep ones points balance up high enough for use in opportunities like IC-PL , and avoids any need for the P+C purchase/cancel trick which is a bit of a dubious practise.

Points typically works out as advantageous in major or capital cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York , and not just for IC brands. Not worth it in other cities like Budapest, Berlin, Bangkok etc, the maths is easy. If you earn lots of free points as your company pays your stays each week, then you should work on a lower value for your points maybe $5-6/1k.

If you did the calc on full points purchase rates at circa us$11/1k then not often a saving as eg 50k IC would need rate over $550 to be of value.

You'll never see properties like IC-Paris, IC-PL on PB's

Karjaluokka

I have an example case:

HI -hotel; cheapest advance paid rate (inc. taxes) is 198 USD,
while a reward night is 15.000 p. or 5000 p. & 70 USD

-> the value of points using this Cash&points reward is 25,7 USD/1000 p!

(198-70)/5000*1000=25,7.

So purchasing 10.000 p. and using 5000 existing points I get a hotel night (worth 198 USD) with only 70 USD!

+ As I've undestood I dont' have to pay the VAT/ state taxes when byuing Cash&points reward nights.
+ as the Cash&points rate is cancellable, I should actually compare the best flex rate (which is abviously higher that advance payment (198 USD) rate, which makes the
Cash&points rate even more better looking deal).

1Newflyer

... plus the value of 5000 points.

The question is would you stay at that hotel if the points or program did not exist and would you pay that much for any hotel at that time and place. Maybe one would shop around. On the other hand, hotels at $70 + are not that frequent, so its a good deal.

FFlash

I did exactly what Karjaluokka describes above, I sacrificed a 5000 pts and booked 10k+70$ room due to an event which skyrocketed hotel priced into 200$.

The funny side of some properties I have noted is, sometimes you see a hotel fully booked for cash rates, but having points rooms available, which is crazy revenue management IMO. I take it as IHG is enforcing some award slots which they have to follow and cannot rule over?
Even funnier than so, last year during a pointbreaks period, I could find a PB room for 5000 pts in a property otherwise sold out

jazzmailman

bumping an old thread since I couldn't find relevant info. As we know, if you book a point + cash booking, then cancel it, the dollar amount you paid will be refunded back to you in the points format (0.7c/p).

My question is - is it possible to get refunded by the original dollar amount? Can I write to IHG to request that?

Thanks!