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IHG Rewards Club points transfer to a number of airlines, typically at 10,000 points to 2,000 airline miles. (Exceptions to that rate include Air Miles, Air New Zealand, El Al, and Malaysia).
Through October 10, 2016, IHG is running a 50% bonus for transfers to United. Registration required here.
Transfers are in blocks of 10,000 points. Terms say it may be up to 6-8 weeks for miles and bonus miles to be received. I have never transferred from IHG so cannot speak to their speed.
Is this a deal or not?
Using the baseline of $35 per 5,000 IHG points, (0.7 cents/point), $70 gets you 3,000 United miles. Not a hot deal. You can look around for better offers to buy miles direct from United.
If your cost is much lower, for instance, if you have huge piles of points from IHG’s often generous promotions, or you don’t value IHG points for hotel stays, then this is a better than normal way to liquidate your points to an airline. Not much value to points you don’t use.
For me, the geographic breadth and depth of IHG means the points often come in handy and I will not be sending them to an airline at a poor rate.
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What about the ambassador 10%? I have the ihg credit card 10% and the ambassador renewal that gives 10% back too. Will it make it 8k points for 3k miles?
@Elias – I see the terms of that offer exclude it, I have not found any specific reports on it “**10% points rebate: receive 10% of redeemed points back on all Reward Night redemptions for 12 months. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks after Reward Night stay for rebated points to be deposited into your account. Maximum number of points to be rebated not to exceed 100,000 points in a calendar year. Not applicable on other (non-Reward night ) redemption items.”
Where does the 50% bonus come in? I’m having trouble understanding this campaign. I currently have 95K in my IHG account. So if I transfer 90K, I get 18K United miles? Am I right? Help.
@Barbara – normal rate is 90k would transfer to 18k United miles. This promo, once you register, should get you a 50% bonus, so another 9k United miles. In the other comments, readers are saying if you have the IHG card, the 10% award redemption benefit applies to these transfer as well as award nights, so you would get 10% of the IHG points rebated.
How long does it take for the rebate to show up?
@shay peleg – the credit card rebate is usually around your card statement date.
Yes I’ve done this myself and received the 10% rebate 🙂
@Sean – what a card it is, thanks for the tip.
If you have IHG credit card it then comes 9,000 IHG per 3,000 United
@Sean – interesting angle, I would have thought those would be excluded, glad they are not, have you done this yourself?
If you transfer points do you also get 10 percent back if you got the credit card?