DaveH

So loyaltylobby ran this: https://loyaltylobby.com/2020/11/21/ihg-rewards-club-50-bonus-points-package-bonus-through-march-31-2021-book-by-december-31/

I see no mention of it anywhere else..?

Would allow for some nice easy points accumulation at some of the HIX properties I've been scanning. Under .5cpp, plus they are elite qualifying.

DaveH

OK, now it's showing up in my searches, along with a brand new "shareholder rate". Interesting.

Is there any way to search for only places that have bonus packages, I wonder?

HHonors OUTSIDER

At one point in the past that could be done not sure about now. What I would like to know if a 10,000 point package is booked will it result in a 5000 point bonus for a total of 15,000 points??

disneyphans

I spent about 30 minutes chatting with an IHG rep about this promotion a couple of weeks ago. I was told that this 50% Bonus on bonus packages is not applicable in the USA, along with other Cybersale promotions that it appeared next to on the website.

FLYGVA

IHG Rewards Club ran a similar promotion at the end of last year. Available at this time was a bonus of 25% for stays prior to March 31, 2020.

As this bonus points could for status, it seems, like they are trying to convince people to book higher bonus points rate to reach elite status quicker.

FLYGVA

Should I say as usual, IHG is making things complicated? Anyway, as some of you might know, you get different results by using supported browsers like Edge, Chrome or Firefox or unsuppported browsers like opera.
If you use the a supported browser, the bonus points are mentioned as Packages.


Holiday Inn Frankfurt Alte Oper on Firefox

The bonus points rates show up as packages. There is nothing mentioned in the description that these points count as elite points as well.

If you use Opera, you will get this screen:


Holiday Inn Frankfurt Alte Oper on Opera

You see the 1000 bonus points on top (because I specifically serched for it by the bonus point package landing page). You also get the additional bonus points at the bottom as add-on to the flexible rate. The rates are the same, but this time in the rate details is mentioned, that these point count for elite status.

I discovered the shareholder rate as well while searching. But only in supported browser. The shareholder rate never showed up in Opera. And it seems, that the corrected it in the last couple of hours.

Nothing mentioned on both browsers about the 50% bonus. Personally, I prefere the search results on the unsupported browsers and use Opera for this reason. And in this case, you could verify with a screenshot that the add-on bonus points is indeed elite qualifiying. During the last promotion, I booked twice an bonus point rate. I had to ask for the retrocredit in one case. And was told, that only the add-on is elite qualifiying and not the Package. As the rates were the same, I doubt that the answer were correct, but did not push it further as it unfortunately would not have any affect on the status.

disneyphans

From my experience, the +5000 per night and +5000 per stay rates work - just be careful. As long as you look at the rate details and it says something like Bonus Points by IHG, you should be fine. Anything off of Best Flexible Rate with +1000 thru +5000 works.

Some hotels offer 10k and 5k packages that do not count toward elite. Often they are worded differently or phrased as something else, like 5000 PC PPD Special. Those points can sometimes be awarded the same day as checkout and indicate they are strictly a Hotel promotion (as opposed to IHG):

10k Point Package from Holiday Inn non-tier qualifying

During 2020, you could be Spire for about $2000 in the USA with the 50k elite-qualifying point requirement. If they tacked on the 50% Bonus we would be getting Spire for something like $1250. I feel that $1250 is actually closer to what Spire should cost for 2020 and 2021 -- especially if you look at the aggressive moves Hilton (double elite points with rollover into 2021) and Hyatt (globalist in 15 nights) are making.

Comatose.Captain

Personally, I find both flex rates as well as packages consisting of flex plus bonus points mightily unattractive at this time. At the type of properties and the advance booking windows I look at, I get like 30+ per cent off for booking a semi-flex rate (which may or may not require prepay).

In 2019, my thinking was totally different. I needed the flex rate anyhow because the alternative was not refundable. And then you could pay like USD/EUR/GBP 30 or so for an extra 5.6k points (5k bonus points plus 600 extra points due to the higher room rate). If valuing a point at like USD 0.005, those 5.6k points were worth USD 28. Hence, it was essentially a no-brainer to book those packages. Sure, not all hotels offered 5k BP packages at a premium of just USD/EUR/GBP 30 but many did. Booking them essentially allowed you to hit Spire with minimal effective investment of no more than USD 100.

DaveH

Update. Just had a December 29th 1-night Stay with a 5K bonus points package post. The 5k did post, but the 50% bonus did *not* as of yet.

Will update when/if it does post. In case it doesn't, I'm keeping a screenshot of the promo ad.

pbd456

i got nothing for 3 x 5000 bonus point package.