IGH points has a deal right now to buy their points 50% off. The prices at the 50% rate works out to getting points for about 6¢ in bulk.
15k for $90 = 0.6c per point
25k for $150 = .6c
50k for $293 = 0.586c
100k for $565 = 0.565c
This could be a useful deal for someone to add points to top off their account or if they want to simply buy point to use to book rooms at a discounted rate. According to the points site the points don't expire and there are NO blackout dates. Also when you book with the points you can get a flexible fare that can be cancelled up until the day before the trip. This benefit alone makes the points a reasonable deal for me personally as I sometimes want to book trips over the winter but I might need to cancel them if the weather is too bad. Usually you have to pay a premium for the flexible room rates.
In the city my Dad lives hotels go for 25k points and would cost
$138 to $179 including taxes out of pocket. The cheaper rate is for
nonrefundable queen and the $179 is for a fully refundable king room. So buying 25k for $150 would save you $29 on that refundable king room. Not a fabulous deal but might be worth doing for me.
If you get the 100k for $565 points then you can use the points for 2 nights in a 50k hotel room.
Some of the 50k hotel rooms are pretty pricey.
InterContinental New York Times Square
Can run $576 per night with taxes. You can get 2 nights for $565 by buying the points. Thats about half price and a pretty good deal if you're looking at a specific location thats pricey.
On the other end of the spectrum they have the cheap rooms for 5k at select locations. You can buy points to stay in those locations for about $30 per night all in. Thats hard to beat. But the locations with 5k rooms are pretty limited and generally smaller remote cities. But if you're really itching to spend a week in Fallon, NV or Abilene TX then this could be the deal for you.
You can also sign up for their credit card and get 70k bonus points after spending $1000 in 3 months. MyMoneyBlog talks about that in their article Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card Review: What Does 70,000 Points Get You?
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