Latest Round of ‘Accelerate’ for September – December 2017

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Screen Shot 2017-04-30 at 17.32.52Over the last week, IHG have launched their latest ‘Acclerate’ promotion, covering stays from 1st September to 31st December. It doesn’t feel like very long ago that I was writing about the last promotion, but given this one covers 4 months instead of the usual quarter, you should have a reprieve for a few months until the 2018 version is launched! Accelerate is one of the best promotions in the industry and it’s worth giving air time too each time a new promotion is launched.

As a recap for those not familiar with how it works, IHG sets you a series of ‘targets’ which, if achieved, pay out bonus points when you stay with them. As an example, for staying 5 nights over a 3-month period, you may get 10,000 bonus points.

My offer – what is it and how am I going to approach it?

I have a total of 45,000 points up for grabs, in return for the following:

  • Stay Once for 2,000;
  • Stay 5 Nights for 10,000;
  • Stay 3 nights at InterContinentals for 3,600;
  • Stay outside of UK for 8,000;
  • Complete 3 out of 4 and get 16,400;
  • Stay in September and get 5,000;

These are c. 30% lower than my targets for the last quarter in terms of points on offer, but I have a few InterContinental nights coming up so will probably hit this with two separate stays, totalling 3 nights in ICs outside of the UK, which will yield 30,000 points (good for one free night in most IHG hotels).

My wife’s offer – what is it and how might she (read: I) approach it?

She has a total of 60,300 points, in return for the following:

  • Stay Once for 1,500;
  • Stay 5 Nights for 7,500;
  • Book 2 Stays with the IHG app for 3,400;
  • Stay 1 weekend for 6,000;
  • Use ‘Points & Cash’ for 2,400;
  • Stay Anywhere Outside of the UK for 18,000;
  • Get the IHG Credit Card for 2,000;
  • Complete 6 out of 7 and get 17,000;
  • Stay in September and get 2,500;

In contrast , these are much better than Laura had last time. Unfortunately, with the IHG credit card off the table being Australia-based, that limits the options somewhat. Either we’ll need to go for the lot which means at least 3 different stays, or try to ‘optimise’ the highest number of points from the least amount of spend. In this case, we’re going for a single $100 night in Singapore in September, which will yield 22,000 points (a very decent return).

You can check out your own offer by going to the IHG website here.