IHG One Rewards has been running a “25% off Points + Cash” promotion all week. The promotion ends today – December 2nd, 2022. The 25% discount applies to Points + Cash award stays booked for January 1st – February 28th, 2023.

I didn’t write about it previously because the promotion offers little to no value. You are almost always better off buying points during a bonus promotion, such as this one. The cash element of Points + Cash almost always works out to be more expensive than 0.5 US cents per point, even with a 25% discount…

For those who aren’t aware, IHG’s Points + Cash is simply an indirect way of buying points at the time of making an award booking. This is made pretty clear, at least to those who read before clicking…

There are a small number of hotels, however, when you might be able to find Points + Cash pricing that works out to less than 0.5 US cents per point.

One such hotel seems to be the Holiday Inn Warsaw City Centre. (HT to verylvke.com) For a five-night stay from January 21-26, 2023, I was able to find Points + Cash pricing of 5,200 points + $22.50 per night.

 

This works out to buying 25,000 IHG points for $112.50.  In per point terms, that’s 0.45 US cents per point.

Don’t Rush to Cancel…

IHG has been known to audit and/or close accounts that abuse this long-running “Points + Cash” trick.  I certainly plan to leave this booking in place for a few weeks before “my plans change”. And I’m only planning on the one booking…

But when I ultimately cancel, I will receive a refund of 25,000 points instead of the $112.50 I paid today, meaning that I picked up 25,000 cheaper-than-normal IHG points…

Have you ever taken advantage of this travel hack before? Let us know in the comments section..