Stay at Any IHG For Less than $300/Night With this Awesome Stack

Stack Offers for Cheapest IHG Points

Yesterday I discovered a way to stack Amex offers, current IHG offers and the cash plus points trick to save $560 on a one night hotel stay. A little background for you: I have an upcoming stay at a Kimpton (cash rate = $800/night, the points rate is 65,000/night). Normally, I would gladly use my IHG points rather than pay the inflated cash rate. However, I’m planning on redeeming those points for a very bougie vacation in March and I’m still a few IHG points short.

To further complicate things, the cash stay would enable me to meet my accelerate bonus this quarter and earn about 60,000 points. While the extra bonus points are tempting, it’s not a good value. If you need help figuring out how to determine your cost per point for a specific redemption, my Guide to buying points details the math involved in these types of calculations.

Stacking Deals

I used a combination of 3 deals:

• Amex Offer for 20% Off on Crowne Plaza (Spend $250 and get 5K Membership Rewards). You can also use the Amex Offer for 20% back at Intercontinental) These deals expire on 11/30. 
• The old IHG Cash plus Points Trick that allows you to regularly purchase IHG points for around .46-.55 cents each.
• IHG’s Cyber Week promotion offering 15% off the cash rate of points plus cash award nights.

First, I looked around for Crowne Plazas that were offering the 20,000 Points and $115 Cash Option per night. With the 15% Cyber savings the cash portion is discounted to $97. I did 2 nights at 97 and 1 night at 75 to get as close as possible to the $250 Spend Requirement for the Crowne Plaza Offer. My out of pocket here was $269 and I effectively purchased 55,000 IHG points. Then I prayed that the bookings would trigger the Amex offer and sure enough, 30 minutes later I got my email. My booking would qualify for the 5k Membership Rewards Points statement credit. 🙂

Related: IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card Review

Cost of Points

$269 (Less value of 5,000 MR’s- for simplicity let’s just call it 1 cent even though it’s at least double)

$269-50 = $219

$219/55,000 = .39 Cents each

Conclusion

I can now use my 55,000 points that cost me well under $220 to book my hotel and in the process save about $580! I wish I had thought of this when IHG did the 20% off the cash portion just a few weeks ago, but it’s still a great price and I’m thrilled with the outcome.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

---

 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now bonus_miles_full

Learn more about this card and its features!

---

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.