IHG Buy Points With a 100% Bonus (November 2026): What 0.5 Cents per Point Really Gets You

The offer at a glance

This is roughly the ninth buy-points sale IHG has run in 2026, and the structure will look familiar if you have bought before: a sliding bonus that rewards larger single transactions, capped at 100%. What is different this time is the ceiling — IHG has lifted the annual purchase allowance for the promotional window, which matters far more than it sounds.

The bonus ladder — and the 39,000-point trap

The bonus is not a flat rate. It steps up with the size of a single transaction, and the steps are steep enough that the size of your purchase matters more than almost anything else in this offer.

Now look at the boundary between the 90% and 100% tiers, because this is where people lose money without realising it.

Suppose you need 75,000 points. Buying 39,000 gets you 74,100 points for roughly $390 — just short of your target, at 0.53 cents each. Buying 40,000 gets you 80,000 points for about $400.

The same logic applies at the bottom of the ladder. A 4,000-point purchase earns no bonus at all and costs a full cent per point — twice the price of the best tier. If you only need a small top-up, it is almost always cheaper to buy 5,000 and take the 80% bonus than to buy exactly the number you are short.

What each tier actually costs per point

IHG does not price points perfectly linearly, so the effective cost drifts slightly inside each band. In practice the differences are small enough that the tier boundaries dominate the maths, but here is the full picture with the bonus applied.

Note what the 100% tier means in plain terms: you are buying points for exactly half of IHG’s own asking price. That is the whole offer, and everything else is detail.

Break-even: 0.5¢ cost vs 0.55¢ value

Here is where IHG differs from most airline buy-miles offers, and it is worth being precise about it.

Independent valuations converge on roughly 0.5 to 0.6 cents per IHG point, with a median around 0.55 cents across the portfolio. Compare that to the 0.5 cents you pay here and the conclusion is unusual: buying at the top tier is approximately fair value, not a loss.

That is the opposite of the typical airline promotion, where the purchase price sits 50% or more above what the currency is worth and only a specific premium redemption rescues the deal. With IHG the bar is much lower — you only need an average redemption to break even, and any above-average redemption is profit.

The break-even sits at exactly 0.5 cents per point. Everything above that line is profit on the purchase — and in practice the range from 0.55 cents upward is where most IHG redemptions land once you are targeting premium properties on the right dates. At the top of the table, a 1.2-cent redemption on 400,000 points returns $4,800 against a $2,000 outlay.

The multiplier that changes the answer

If you hold an eligible IHG credit card, every fourth reward night on a stay of four or more consecutive nights costs zero points. Nights four, eight, twelve and so on are free, and there is no annual cap on how often you use it.

This is the single largest lever in the program, and it interacts with a points purchase more powerfully than anything else available.

The arithmetic is straightforward. A four-night award stay normally costs 4 × nightly points. With the benefit it costs 3 × nightly points for the same four nights — so every point you spend delivers 33% more room value. An 0.55-cent redemption becomes 0.73 cents. A 0.9-cent redemption becomes 1.2 cents.

Two important restrictions. The benefit requires a points-only booking — points-plus-cash does not qualify — and it applies to standard rooms, not suites. It is available on the IHG One Rewards Premier, Premier Select and Business cards, and on the no-annual-fee card with a $5,000 annual spend requirement that begins in 2027.

One nuance worth knowing: IHG waives the actual fourth night, whatever it costs. If night four happens to be the most expensive night of your stay — a Saturday, a concert weekend — your saving is larger than 25%. If it is the cheapest, slightly less. It is not a fixed discount, it is a specific night removed.

Worked examples: three real bookings

Abstract cents-per-point figures only go so far. Here is what the purchase looks like against three representative stays. Cash rates are illustrative and will vary by date — run your own numbers on the dates you actually want.

1. Four nights at a central London Holiday Inn Express

• 35,000 points per night, cash rate around $290
• Four nights normally: 140,000 points for about $1,160 of room value — 0.83¢ per point
• With fourth night free: 105,000 points for the same $1,160 — 1.10¢ per point
• Buying 52,500 points at the 100% tier costs about $525 and yields 105,000 points
• Net saving: roughly $635, or 55% off the cash rate

2. Four nights at an InterContinental resort

• 60,000 points per night, cash rate around $400
• Four nights normally: 240,000 points for about $1,600 — 0.67¢ per point
• With fourth night free: 180,000 points for the same $1,600 — 0.89¢ per point
• Buying 90,000 points at the 100% tier costs about $900 and yields 180,000 points
• Net saving: roughly $700, or 44% off the cash rate

3. Four nights at a Regent or Six Senses property

• 110,000 points per night, cash rate around $950
• Four nights normally: 440,000 points for about $3,800 — 0.86¢ per point
• With fourth night free: 330,000 points for the same $3,800 — 1.15¢ per point
• Buying 165,000 points at the 100% tier costs about $1,650 and yields 330,000 points
• Net saving: roughly $2,150, or 57% off the cash rate

The pattern is consistent, and it gets better as the property gets more expensive. Four-night stays at premium properties are where this purchase earns its keep: the higher the cash rate, the further the point cost lags behind it, and the fourth-night-free benefit multiplies the gap. The Regent example above returns 1.15 cents per point against a 0.5-cent cost — a 130% return on the purchase.

How to get the most out of this purchase

The profile that gets the biggest return

• Four or more nights at a premium property. An InterContinental, Kimpton, Regent or Six Senses stay of four nights is the ideal target, because the fourth-night-free benefit does the heaviest lifting exactly where cash rates are highest.
• An eligible IHG card in your wallet. With the fourth night free, a standard 0.55-cent redemption becomes 0.73 cents and a peak luxury redemption clears 1.2 cents. The benefit is what turns a fair price into a clear discount.
• Peak or high-demand dates. This is where points outperform cash most dramatically. Cash rates during events, holidays and high season rise faster than point costs, so the gap widens in your favour.
• A purchase of 40,000 points or more in one transaction. That is the threshold for the full 100% bonus.

Four ways to stretch the purchase further

• Round up to the tier boundary. If your target lands between 11,000 and 39,000 points, buying 40,000 costs about $10 more and delivers thousands of extra points. Nothing else in this offer returns that much per dollar.
• Book four nights rather than three. The fourth-night-free benefit only triggers at four consecutive nights. Adding a night can lower your effective points cost per night by 25%.
• Aim at premium brands. The same 40,000 points is worth roughly $200 at a budget property and $400 or more at an InterContinental on a strong date. The points do not change; the redemption does.
• Book the award as soon as the points post. Points usually arrive within minutes, but award inventory can move. Lock the room before the dates you want get picked over.

One clarification worth having up front: IHG cardholders get a 30% discount on points purchases, but it applies only at the normal price and cannot be stacked on a bonus promotion. The 100% bonus is worth substantially more than 30%, so this offer is the one to use.

How to buy the points step by step

1. Sign in to IHG One Rewards before you look at pricing. The bonus and the tier thresholds are targeted and often only display after authentication. Do not buy from a screenshot someone else posted.
2. Check how much of your annual allowance is left. The 200,000 cap is per calendar year and includes points already purchased, gifted or received as a gift in 2026.
3. Price the award first. Search your actual dates for reward nights and note the points required. IHG opens award bookings around 50 weeks out.
4. Run the cents-per-point check on your target dates. Divide the cash rate by the points required and multiply by 100. Anything at or above 0.55 cents is a solid return on a 0.5-cent purchase, and premium properties on peak dates routinely clear 0.9 cents.
5. Round your purchase up to a tier boundary. If you are within a few thousand points of 40,000, buy the extra — the marginal points are dramatically cheaper.
6. Buy in one transaction. The bonus is applied per transaction and multiple purchases cannot be combined to reach a higher tier.
7. Book the award as soon as the points post. Usually that is immediate, but allow up to 72 hours, and remember award inventory can disappear while you wait.

Terms that change the decision

The full conditions are longer, but these are the clauses that actually affect whether you come out ahead:

• The 200,000 cap is pre-bonus, and it is a calendar-year limit. If you already bought 50,000 points in 2026, you can buy 150,000 more during this offer, not 200,000.
• Gifting counts against the same cap. Points gifted, or received as gifts, reduce your remaining allowance on the same 200,000 basis.
• Exceeding the cap locks you out for the rest of the year. Once you cross 200,000 purchased points in 2026, you cannot buy again until January.
• Purchased and bonus points do not count toward elite status.
• Points are non-refundable and the offer cannot be combined with any other promotion.
• Allow up to 72 hours for posting.
• The offer is non-transferable and intended for the named recipient. Forwarded links may not work.

Frequently asked questions

Verdict

0.5 cents per point is the cheapest IHG sells its own currency, and unlike most buy-points promotions this one is priced at or below what the points are actually worth. That makes the decision unusually clean: the price is not the question, only the redemption is.

Two numbers settle it. The purchase cost is 0.5 cents. The average point is worth 0.55 cents — so you start level rather than behind, and everything above average is margin. Add the fourth-night-free benefit and a four-night award stay delivers 33% more room value per point, which is what pushes a good InterContinental redemption past 0.9 cents and a peak luxury booking past 1.2 cents.

So: buy 40,000 points or more in a single transaction, point it at a four-night stay at the premium end of the portfolio, and let the fourth night free do the rest. A $1,650 purchase against a $3,800 Regent stay is the shape of the trade — 57% off the cash rate, at the lowest per-point price IHG will sell at this year.