Easy methods to redeem factors with the IHG One Rewards program

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IHG Accommodations & Resorts has seen numerous adjustments over the previous couple of years. From opening its first Atwell Suites resort in Miami to launching the new IHG One Rewards loyalty program and forming a strategic alliance with Iberostar, IHG is increasing and advancing.

I incessantly keep at IHG Accommodations & Resorts properties, primarily due to the worth I can get when redeeming IHG One Rewards factors. Though IHG moved to dynamic award pricing in 2020, I’ve continued getting strong worth from my IHG factors. Actually, I not often ebook paid IHG stays due to the superb worth I can get when redeeming IHG factors.

Here is what it’s essential to find out about redeeming IHG One Rewards factors for stays, flights and extra.

Redeem IHG One Rewards factors for resort stays

You’ll be able to redeem IHG One Rewards factors for many IHG stays via IHG’s web site, app or buyer care. Nevertheless, you might be unable to redeem IHG factors at some InterContinental Residences, IHG Military Accommodations, Iberostar Beachfront Resorts and Six Senses properties.

You’ll be able to often solely redeem IHG factors for traditional room sorts. Reward nights embrace taxes and charges however do not embrace resort charges, service expenses, transportation, gratuities and incidentals. For stays at all-inclusive resorts, reward nights are based mostly on double occupancy.

Since IHG makes use of dynamic award pricing, the variety of factors you will must redeem for a reward evening will differ. IHG’s phrases and circumstances say reward evening pricing “might differ based on a number of elements, together with however not restricted to model, resort, and day of week.” Though there are not any reward evening blackout dates, you might not discover award availability for some stays as a result of “room stock is restricted and topic to prior sale,” based on IHG’s phrases and circumstances.

To examine award evening availability and pricing, begin on IHG’s web site or app. Enter your vacation spot, check-in date, checkout date and variety of company. Choose “reward nights” from the drop-down menu beneath fee desire.

The following web page will present you the award evening outcomes to your search question. You’ll be able to filter these outcomes by facilities or manufacturers. It’s also possible to kind by numerous metrics, together with distance, worth and score.

Click on on “map” to see the place the properties are positioned inside your vacation spot.

When you click on “choose resort” for one of many properties, you will see the room choices you may ebook with factors to your keep. Some properties might solely supply one room sort, whereas others might supply a wide range of room setups or views. Scroll via the choices, and choose one of the best room sort to your journey.

It is also price checking paid charges by clicking the “money” button. For instance, this Vacation Inn would value both 33,000 IHG One Rewards factors or $264 on the pattern date I picked. So, redeeming factors for this keep would yield a redemption fee of 0.8 cents per level. (That is larger than TPG’s valuation of IHG factors at 0.5 cents per level, so it is a redemption we would advocate.)

Let’s assume you toggled again to the “factors” tab, clicked on the 33,000 factors per evening possibility and clicked “choose.” Doing so would take you to the final web page earlier than confirming your reservation.

You’ll want to examine the cancellation coverage earlier than reserving. Most reward evening stays are free to cancel till shortly earlier than your keep, however cancellation insurance policies can differ.

IHG sometimes provides reward evening reductions to eligible Platinum Elite, Diamond Elite and IHG One Rewards bank card holders. You will often get an e-mail from IHG about these reward evening reductions, however you usually should ebook shortly to benefit from the discounted charges.

Lastly, observe that IHG’s phrases and circumstances now enable a second visitor listed on a reward evening reservation to remain even when the member who booked the reward evening is not staying. So, you may redeem your IHG factors for a pal or member of the family’s keep. Nevertheless, there are extra necessities in case your keep is inside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.

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Fourth-night-free reward

Maybe one of the best ways to get higher worth when redeeming IHG One Rewards factors is to get an IHG bank card with the fourth-night-free reward perk. This perk lets cardholders of the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit score Card, the IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit score Card and the IHG One Rewards Premier Enterprise Credit score Card pay 0 factors for each fourth evening when redeeming factors for stays of 4 nights or extra.

With out this profit, this four-night keep on the Vacation Inn Resort Kandooma Maldives would value 127,000 factors.

Since I’ve the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit score Card, which provides the fourth-night-free reward perk to cardholders, I might solely must redeem 95,000 factors for this four-night keep.

Even in the event you solely redeem IHG factors a few times a 12 months for stays of 4 nights or longer, it is price getting and preserving an IHG bank card due to this precious perk.

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Factors and money

As you might need observed in some screenshots above, it’s also possible to ebook factors and money charges. Know, although, that you simply’re successfully shopping for factors whenever you ebook an IHG One Rewards factors and money fee, so you will be refunded solely in IHG factors in the event you cancel your reserving throughout the free cancellation interval.

It is price working via the mathematics and checking the speed at which you’ll be able to at present purchase IHG factors outright earlier than you ebook a factors and money fee. For instance, think about this one-night keep in New York Metropolis.

For a one-night keep in a regular room with a king-size mattress and free cancellation till sooner or later earlier than your arrival, you could possibly pay:

• 25,000 factors
• 20,000 factors and $34
• 15,000 factors and $68
• 10,000 factors and $102
• 5,000 factors and $136
• $204

Should you redeemed 25,000 factors for this evening that will in any other case value $204, you’d get a redemption fee of 0.816 cents per level (which is considerably larger than TPG’s valuation of IHG factors).

Should you booked a factors and money fee, you’d successfully purchase IHG factors at a fee of 0.68 cents per level. This fee is larger than the bottom fee IHG sometimes sells factors for (0.5 cents per level); it is also decrease than the redemption fee you’d get when solely redeeming factors.

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Pay with factors

Pay with factors enables you to redeem IHG One Rewards factors throughout stays at collaborating accommodations for a credit score in opposition to eligible expenses in your room invoice. Eligible expenses differ by property, however IHG’s pay with factors phrases and circumstances say eligible room expenses usually embrace “meals and beverage, spa and salon providers, spa and salon retail gadgets, room upgrades, laundry, dry cleansing, phone expenses, pay-per-view films, parking, present/retail store, service expenses, and gratuities.”

After you examine in, you will get a message if pay with factors is obtainable to your keep. If you wish to know forward of time whether or not a property participates in pay with factors, you will must examine with the person property.

As soon as you’ve got checked right into a collaborating property and have charged eligible purchases to your room, you may go to IHG’s pay with factors web site or the IHG app to redeem IHG factors. From this web page, you may choose an quantity to credit score to your invoice or enter a customized quantity and see what number of factors a credit score in that quantity would require. Notice that IHG might restrict your variety of transactions or the variety of factors you redeem towards pay with factors per day.

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Like many resort rewards applications, you may switch your IHG One Rewards factors to varied airline companions. You’ll be able to see all of the airline choices on IHG’s earn miles web page, however know that almost all applications switch at a fee of 10,000 IHG factors to 2,000 airline miles, so that you’re nearly sure to lose worth whenever you redeem your IHG factors for airline miles.

Due to this, you will solely wish to think about transferring IHG factors to an airline if it’s essential to prime up your account steadiness for a particular redemption. In any other case, you will nearly definitely get higher worth when redeeming IHG factors for resort stays.

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You’ll be able to redeem IHG One Rewards factors for merchandise, present certificates, donations and extra via the IHG One Rewards catalog. For instance, you may redeem between 1,000 and a couple of,500 IHG factors for a yearlong journal subscription.

It’s also possible to redeem IHG factors for present playing cards to varied retailers. Here is what number of factors you will must redeem for bodily present playing cards of various quantities:

• $100 present card: 49,000 factors (redemption fee of 0.2 cents per level)
• $60 present card: 30,000 factors (redemption fee of 0.2 cents per level)
• $50 present card: 25,000 factors (redemption fee of 0.2 cents per level)
• $25 present card: 13,000 factors (redemption fee of 0.19 cents per level)
• $15 present card: 8,000 factors (redemption fee of 0.19 cents per level)
• $10 present card: 5,500 factors (redemption fee of 0.18 cents per level)
• $5 present card: 3,000 factors (redemption fee of 0.17 cents per level)

You’ll be able to redeem IHG factors for actions and occasion tickets via the IHG One Rewards catalog. For instance, listed here are some ticket examples for a live performance at New York Metropolis’s Madison Sq. Backyard, in addition to numerous actions in New York Metropolis you can ebook with IHG factors.

Moreover, you may redeem 30,000 IHG factors to cowl a TSA PreCheck utility payment. Or, you could possibly donate your factors to charity, with choices beginning at simply 2,500 factors.

It is also doable to redeem IHG factors for merchandise, together with headphones, backpacks and even laptop computer computer systems. Should you do not see what you need, you may request distinctive devices and big-ticket gadgets via the rewards concierge.

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Digital rewards

You’ll be able to redeem IHG One Rewards factors for digital rewards as effectively. Choices embrace films, music, video games, magazines, books and software program.

As with the IHG One Rewards catalog, you will wish to think about whether or not you are getting good worth from this sort of redemption earlier than you utilize your IHG factors for digital rewards.

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