(EXPIRED) Register Now For IHG Q1 2019 Promo: Free Nights. Faster. (AKA Accelerate)

11
Sorry, this deal is no longer available. Do you want to be alerted about new deals as they’re published? Click here to subscribe to Frequent Miler's Instant Posts by email.

IHG has opened registration for its Q1 2019 promotion and is called ‘Free Nights. Faster.’ Every member receives their own targeted challenge, with some being better than others. It therefore works in a similar way to past Accelerate promotions, but check the terms as some of the information on the promo’s landing page is misleading.

IHG Q1 2019 Promo Free Nights. Faster

The Deal

Key Terms

  • Register by March 15, 2019.
  • For stays from January 15, 2019 to April 30, 2019 (see below for more about this).

Quick Thoughts

As mentioned above, the landing page for this promotion is somewhat misleading as there’s conflicting information. There’s a dropdown box for ‘About Free Nights’; when clicking that, the third point says ‘Stay from now until April 30’. That’s not true, as the promo’s terms and conditions state that it’s actually for stays from January 15.

It’s also showing that I have 68 days left to complete my tasks, whereas April 30 is actually 114 days away. I’ll give IHG the benefit of the doubt though and assume it’s an erroneous countdown timer rather than some kind of incompetent attempt at generating artificial scarcity.

As for the usefulness of this promo, that’ll completely depend on your targeted offer. Based on the comments on DoC’s post, it looks like some people only received a double points offer. That’s not great, although Spire Elite members who pay with the new IHG Premier credit card would be earning 40 points per dollar.

Other offers are much more rewarding and have the potential to be worthy of a mattress run. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a decent offer; I maxed out their fall 2018 promotion and so assumed they’d set me harder challenges this time around. Here’s what I’ve been tasked with:

IHG Free Nights Faster - Stephen Q1 2019

I can therefore book three one-night stays at different brands, with one of those stays in February, in order to earn 53,700 bonus points. Taking into account the base points, bonus points from status and bonus points for paying for the stays with the IHG credit card, I should end up with at least 60,000 points from the three stays. With the new IHG card offering the 4th night free on award stays, that’s enough for 8 free nights at a 10,000 point property, or 16 free nights if you can find a 5,000 point property on a PointBreaks list that works for you.

We normally stay 4-6 nights in each city we visit, but I’ll be making a solo drive from Kansas to Virginia in February. I’m therefore hoping to find IHG properties with inexpensive pet fees to complete my tasks along the way.

My wife’s offer isn’t as rewarding in terms of how many points we can earn overall, but could still be easy to complete.

IHG Free Nights Faster - Shae Q1 2019

One stay of four nights and one stay of two nights, with one of those in February, both occurring over a weekend and paid for with her IHG card would earn 36,950 bonus points.

Our particular offers are therefore likely to change our booking habits as I doubt other chains will be offering promos where we’ll earn enough points for so many free nights the way that we redeem them.

Seeing as these challenges can only be completed on paid stays, be sure to click through from a cashback portal as you can often earn 8% or more on IHG bookings.

h/t Doctor of Credit

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

11 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments