Philadelphia (photo from visitphilly.com)
Disclosure: this page contains affiliate links. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, we will receive an affiliate commission.
Recently I mentioned that our upcoming visit to Philadelphia will earn us a few free hotel nights. Several people wrote to ask how that works. Sorry for being too vague.
Thanks to the quarterly IHG Accelerate promotion our 3 nights in Philly will earn over 62,000 IHG Rewards Club points.This is worth over $400 or somewhere between 2 and 3 free nights.
Here are the details:
IHG Accelerate Q2 2017
Every quarter the IHG Rewards Club has an Accelerate promotion, whereby it is possible to get a ton of bonus points. The requirements and rewards are somewhat unique per Rewards Club member, and vary in difficulty and value. Sometimes just a single stay can earn large rewards.
This is my personal offer for Q2 2017 (May 15 – Aug 31, 2017) with potential earnings of 60,200 points.
Difficulty and Value
If we were to complete all promotion offers we could earn a total of 60,200 points. Using The Points Guy’s subjective valuation of 0.7¢/point, total value is upwards of $421.40. I wouldn’t go out of my way to earn $421, but if the stars align, then why not?
Completing all offers isn’t the easiest thing this time around. Last quarter we were able to get most of the bonus with just a single 2 night stay, but this time it will require 5 paid nights in 4 different hotels. Without the IHG Rewards Club credit card, it would require an additional Points & Cash stay. (We seldom do Points & Cash stays.)
With the IHG Reward Club credit card, it is possible to earn 57,800 points with 5 paid nights in 4 different hotels, 2 of them being a Holiday Inn Express and the other 2 being other IHG brands, e.g. Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, etc… (Without the IHG Rewards Club credit card we would need to book an additional night using Points & Cash.)
Those 57,800 points for 5 nights are worth roughly $80/night, realized on future stays. That’s not too shabby, assuming we are going to stay 5 nights in 4 different hotels anyway, and that IHG hotels are conveniently located and fairly priced.
Putting a Plan Into Action
We aren’t big on staying in a place for only one night, but sometimes it makes onward travel more convenient. On our current European Expedition we’ve already done this twice.
We spent one night in Salzburg as a gateway to the Austrian mountain lakes. The Holiday Inn Salzburg City was a 10 minute walk from the train station and a 2 minute walk to the rental car office. Location and cost were both great.
Hallstatt Austria / Lake Country
Later in Italy, we had an early morning departure from the central Milan train station. The Crowne Plaza Milan City. was nearby and very comfortable. They even upgraded us to a nice Junior Suite, thanks to having Platinum Elite Status (a nice perk of the IHG Rewards Club credit card.)
Things get tricky from here though. Next up on our journey is Croatia, which has no IHG hotels. From there we fly to NYC, which has no IHG hotels that I want to pay for. $300/night for a Holiday Inn Express in need of renovation isn’t great value, IMHO. (Instead, we booked 5 free nights at a Starwood property with Starwood Preferred Guest points. Gotta love the 5th Night Free feature!)
What to do…??? Sometimes it helps to take a holistic approach.
Flights from NYC to Minneapolis were looking a bit expensive, but I noticed flights from Philadelphia were dirt cheap. And I’ve always wanted to visit Philly… mostly to see the important historical sites, such as the birthplaces of the cheesesteak and the Fresh Prince. And bus tickets to Philly were only $10!
Now, instead of paying $750 to get to MSP we paid a total of $258 (jackpot!) Save $500 and visit a new place on the bucket list? Yes, please. Plus Philly had two different and reasonably priced Holiday Inn Express hotels within walking distance of each other. Not only will we get “free” breakfast, we’ll complete the Accelerate promotion for this quarter.
Cost/Benefit (gory details)
When chasing rewards points like this it is important to make sure we are getting real value. It just wouldn’t make sense to spend $300 for a hotel to get $200 worth of points when there is a perfectly good hotel next door for $100. I don’t want imaginary ROI. So here are the gory details on each of the 5 nights in 4 different hotels.
Salzburg – Holiday Inn Salzburg City 1 night
Cost: $135.67 minus $9.50 from BeFrugal.
(See how the whole Cash Back on Hotels thing works.)
Alternative hotels: similar price
Points earned: 1,801 points for the stay, 678 points from IHG credit card spend.
Accelerate: Stay Once Get 2,500 Points offer, Spend on Your IHG Rewards Club Credit Card offer (1500 points), and the Early Stay Bonus (3000 points.)
Milan – Crowne Plaza Milan City. 1 night
Cost: $258.50 minus $10.16 cash back from Ebates.
Alternative hotels: $20 less nearby, $50 less with 15 minute taxi ride.
(We likely would have booked the Four Points by Sheraton at 208 Euro+tax vs this hotel at 220 Euro+tax)
Points earned: 3,384 points for the stay and 1,294 points for paying with the IHG credit card.
Accelerate: no realized points, but now have stays at 2 different brands for Discover Our Brands offer
Philly – Holiday Inn Express Philadelphia-Midtown & Holiday Inn Express-Penn’s Landing – 3 nights
Cost: $136/night average minus 8.5% cash back from BeFrugal.
Alternative hotels: $10 less per night but don’t include breakfast
Points earned: 2,485 + 6,822 for 3 nights, plus 2,040 for paying with IHG card.
Accelerate: complete the Discover Our Brands, Be the Readiest, and Stay More Earn More promotions, unlocking the Achievement Bonus. Total points = 50,800
Total out of pocket cost: $747.83 ($149.57/night)
Total cost paid over alternatives: $50
Total points earned: 76,304 (~$107/night)
All of these points (plus what we earned from the Q1 Accelerate promotion) will most likely be spent on our upcoming visit to Japan (~140,000 points / $980 worth.)
Overall, I’m OK with the results. Could be better as the cost of last minute bookings in Milan were high.
Worth it?
I know some of you are probably thinking, all of that for a measly 76,000 points? No way!
That is fair. I had almost written off this quarter’s promotion myself until the awesomely discounted flight from Philly to Minneapolis presented itself.
But don’t fret! There is good news.
The signup bonus on the Chase IHG card is enough points for 2 to 3 free nights (or even up to 16 nights in the extreme case.)
If you don’t have this card, it is a must have. The free annual night certificate alone makes it a keeper. (We are using ours this year at a hotel in SF the night before our Alaska Cruise departure, a savings of $353.68.)
Compare this and other hotel reward credit cards here.
Thanks for providing lots more detail on this GCC … I was curious!
While we don’t travel nearly as much as you guys, we do enjoy a good bit of travel!
Sure thing Mr Tako. The Accelerate quarterly bonus is a pretty sweet way to boost points. Since we were going to be spending 5 nights in hotels anyway, it worked out.
Glad you got to visit Philly. It’s a neat city. And who doesn’t love a place whose signature dish is piles of meat smothered in piles of cheese?
But it’s one of those cities that you don’t really plan a vacation to. We piggybacked it onto a trip north to Canada and hit Philly for 2 nights then NYC for 2 nights. Stayed in a Four points by Sheraton in Philly, as I recall (dirt cheap Category 2 by the airport, but we had our car so no big deal to drive the 15 minutes to town and we got to explore the residential areas and find where the locals eat their cheesesteaks).
Yeah, I don’t think I would have planned a visit to Philly but I’ve always wanted to visit. Sometimes the stars align
Philly is awesome! Let me know when you are here!
mid-August. Seems like there is enough interest for a meetup so I’ll try to schedule one
Yes, a meetup! Philly is great town. Hmm…mid-August, might I recommend Parks on tap. It’s pop up beer garden that travels to different Philly parks.
Beer and Parks are 2 of my favorite things!
A Philly Meetup is now official: Details here.
Just had to make an emergency trip to Michigan for my mom’s funeral and stayed 3 night at the local HIE. I only needed 10,000 points per night for 2 nights and had to pay for one night. Total for 3 nights was 20k points and $150. I received a little more than 10k points back from accelerate. I’m also a spire elite member which got me a few more points for the night I paid. Using my annual reward night in July to spend a night at a resort in Daytona on the beach.
There is a 100k offer out there right now if you Google it. The spend is a little high, but you have a year to do it in, and you will get 80k if you don’t reach it. I got the card 2 years ago with 80k and have been waiting for a repeat. Got the 100k for my husband this time around. We are planning a 2 week road trip up the east coast next year, and I plan to pay for as many nights with points as I can.
Very sorry for your loss :(
You got an incredible valuation, about 1.5 cents per point. The 10k point stays are usually great value.
The 80k offer is live now. Link through the banner in the post above or through the link in the sidebar.
Holiday Inn Expresses are great for road trips. They seem to be everywhere and frequently just off major freeways. Free breakfast. (Lots of carbs but generally some fruit and oatmeal.) Usually, but not always a good price.
I usually just get the eggs/bacon/black coffee.
My husband completed all his Accelerate promotion activities while on a road trip with his grandson. They mostly stayed at Holiday Inn Expresses. When we ran out of point, I booked with IHG credit card. He ended up gathering an extra 40,000 points. HIs offers were: stay once, stay 5 nights, use IHG credit card.
The critical detail in achieving the goal is PAID stays. I called three times (once before the trip, twice after) to confirm my reservations/stays would qualify. And I was told pre and post travel yes. Then, afterwards, they said “Nono, only if it’s paid. You used a rewards night on one of the nights”. Which held me back from the 19,200 points. Ugh! We’re still in the process of trying to “fix the problem”.
I’ve had my IHG card (my only travel card) for a couple years and stumbled upon the Accelerate program on the second day of a month long cross country road trip in June, so the timing couldn’t have been better!
Yeah, the stays have to be “qualifying.” Which basically means paid