It can sometimes make sense to buy points, so this offer from IHG Rewards might interest you. IHG Rewards’ latest points sale is being marketed as a “mystery bonus”.  Bonuses of up to 100% are available, but you will have to log into your own account to find out your own bonus.

The mystery bonus will apply to points purchased between now and March 18, 2022.

The regular price of IHG points is 1 cent each. You can buy a maximum of 150,000 points pre-bonus. If, unlike me, you receive the 100% bonus offer, you would be paying 0.5 cents per point.

Is it Worth It?

I certainly would NOT recommend that you buy points speculatively. However, I do like to keep a reasonable balance of IHG points handy, if only because their award pricing algorithm sometimes comes up with excellent bargains…

It’s not as easy as it used to be however, but you can definitely find many hotels where you will save money by buying points at the 0.5 cent price, instead of simply paying the cash price. This is especially true if you hold the IHG Rewards Club Premier card from Chase, where you get the 4th night free when booking award stays using points.

Of course, you also need to take into account the fact that you can earn substantial number of points on paid stays, especially when a good promotion is running. But since the current double-point promotion isn’t overly lucrative, you might find some decent value in buying points to redeem straight away on award stays.

Don’t Forget Cashback

I haven’t provided a direct link to the promotion because IHG sells its points through Points.com, which is a merchant on Topcashback. At the moment, you can earn an additional 2% cashback via routing yourself via Topcashback.com before buying points.

If you are not yet a member of Topcashback, you can earn an additional $10. Simply sign up using this referral link – http://www.topcashback.com/join-us/inside-flyer/ref/craigsowerby – and earn $10 of cashback. With a 2% cashback rate on buying points from IHG, you would trigger the $10 cashback (and $10 bonus) by spending $500 on IHG points…