Buying IHG Points with a 100% Bonus: Is the Offer Worth It?

The price tiers: why 26,000 points cost less than 25,000

The drop-down on the purchase page (run by points.com) lists the price for every amount in steps of 1,000. Scroll through it and you find three price tiers:

• 1,000 to 10,000 points: 13.50 dollars per 1,000 points. With the bonus (from 5,000 only) 0.675 cents per point.
• 11,000 to 25,000 points: 11.50 dollars per 1,000 points. With the bonus 0.575 cents per point.
• 26,000 points and up: 10 dollars per 1,000 points. With the bonus 0.50 cents per point.

That creates two oddities:

• 11,000 points cost 126.50 dollars, 10,000 points cost 135 dollars. Buy 1,000 more and you pay 8.50 dollars less.
• 26,000 points cost 260 dollars, 25,000 points cost 287.50 dollars. You save 27.50 dollars and get 2,000 more points (52,000 instead of 50,000 including the bonus).

The rule is simple: if you buy, buy at least 26,000 points. Below that you pay 15 to 35 percent more per point. Any amount between 20,000 and 25,000 is a mistake, because 26,000 costs less or about the same.

What an IHG point is worth

Like Marriott and Hilton, IHG no longer has a fixed award chart. The points price of a night follows demand. So there is no fixed point value, only the maths for the specific night: cash price divided by points price.

An illustration: if a night costs 250 euros or 50,000 points, each point is worth 0.5 cents. Bought at 0.5 cents, you have saved nothing, you have only parked your money in a less flexible currency. If a night costs 700 euros or 70,000 points, the point is worth 1 cent and purchased points cut the bill in half.

The large US blogs have valued IHG points at around 0.5 cents for years. By that yardstick, buying at 0.5 cents is break-even. The gain comes only from redemptions well above that average. In my experience those are mainly:

• Expensive hotels on expensive dates: InterContinental, Kimpton, Regent and Six Senses in cities or resorts whose cash rate jumps during trade fairs, holidays or events while the points price moves less.
• Nights you would have paid a lot of cash for anyway. An award night at a luxury hotel you would never have booked is no gain, even if the cents-per-point maths looks good.

Holiday Inn Express and other budget hotels are weak. The point value there is often below 0.5 cents, and you are better off paying cash.

The catches in the terms

• Cards issued outside the US add a foreign transaction fee. The purchase page charges in dollars. With a German-issued Amex you pay a 2 percent foreign transaction fee inside the exchange rate, so 0.50 cents becomes about 0.51 cents. Depending on your country, the terms say taxes may also apply.
• 200,000 points per calendar year. The limit covers all purchases in 2026. If you already bought 50,000 points this year, you can only buy 150,000 now. The bonus points do not count against the limit.
• No status effect. Purchased and bonus points do not count towards elite status. For status you need nights or a status match.
• Non-refundable. Purchased points cannot be returned. Posting can take up to 72 hours, so do not leave it to the day before a booking.
• The offer is personalised. IHG says the bonus percentage shows in your account after you log in. Check that you really see 100 percent before you buy.
• Expiry. For basic Club members IHG points expire after twelve months without account activity; for elite members they do not, as long as the status lasts. A purchase counts as activity. Buy a stockpile and then do nothing for a year, and you still risk the whole balance.

How often does this happen?

Often. IHG ran several 100 percent sales in 2026, the last one ended in early November, only days before this one. That is the key point for the decision: there is no reason to stockpile now. The next sale at the same price is very likely, and in the meantime hotel points prices can rise. A stockpile of a hotel currency is more likely to lose value than to gain it.

Who should buy

Buy if you have found a specific award night where a point is worth well above 0.5 cents, you are only short part of the points, and you plan to book in the coming months. The order is: check availability and the points price first, then buy at least 26,000 points, then book.

Do not buy if you are buying "for later", only book mid-range hotels, or pay with a card that earns little on the purchase. For Amex, a points purchase is not a bonus travel spend, it earns like any ordinary charge.

For holders of a German Amex there is no real alternative: IHG is not a Membership Rewards transfer partner in Germany. If you want IHG points, you have to stay or buy. If you want to stay flexible, collect Membership Rewards instead and use them for flights, where the point value is usually higher.

Compared with other points purchases

The logic is the same as when buying Miles & More miles with Bundle&Go: purchased points only pay off for redemptions at the top end. With miles that is long-haul Business or First, with IHG the expensive hotel on an expensive night. Marriott shows the same pattern in its November points deals: the percentage discount says little, what matters is the point value of the individual night.

Which hotel programme suits you at all is covered in our comparison of the best hotel loyalty programmes for cardholders. How to get status without stays is explained in the article on hotel status through credit cards.

The cheapest route to IHG points is in the US, by the way: the Chase IHG credit cards earn points directly, carry large welcome bonuses, and the Premier card adds the fourth award night free plus Platinum Elite status. The prerequisite is a US credit profile.