IHG Bonus Miles Package Pros & Cons

June 2016

IHG consistently offers a Bonus Miles Package option when booking your IHG hotel. Typically, you earn 10 IHG Rewards Club “base” points OR two airline miles for every US dollar or foreign equivalent spent on eligible charges at IHG hotels. The Bonus Miles Package allows you to buy an extra 200-1,000 airline rewards miles. And IHG has close to 20 airlines to which you can credit those miles including Alaska, Delta, American, United and many more.

With this IHG perk you can choose to purchase:

• 200 bonus miles each qualified night for $5 per night

• 200 bonus miles each qualified night including breakfast for $5 per night with an extra charge for breakfast, which varies by hotel

• 1,000 bonus miles each qualified stay of 1-4 nights for $6 per night

The Bonus Miles Package rate will always be more expensive than the more economical IHG Best Flexible, Advance Purchase (which will usually save you 10-20%) or other discounted rates. You are basically buying the extra airline rewards miles. So does it make sense to book this rate?

Let’s look at an example:

We value most major domestic airline rewards miles at 1.5-2.0 cents per mile depending on the airline. Said another way, you should feel good about buying rewards miles for that amount if you can, and it’s also the minimum value we suggest you seek before redeeming airline rewards miles. To see how trvlvip determines the value of a rewards point or mile, see our great Tip: What in The World are my Points and Miles Worth?

At participating hotels, IHG charges an extra $5 over the Best Flexible rate for 200 bonus airline miles each eligible night and $6 for 1,000 bonus points each stay of one to four nights. We value 200 airline miles at $3-$4 (depending on the airline), so you are overpaying if you buy the points through IHG at $5 for 200 miles. And we value 1,000 miles at $15-$20 (depending on the airline), so paying an extra $6 each day over the Best Flexible rate to buy 1,000 miles for the stay is a decent value only on stays of three days or less because you don’t want to pay a rate difference that is more than the points are worth! And if you qualify for a rate that is lower than the Best Flexible rate (e.g. the Advance Purchase rate), you are almost always better off choosing the lower rate. 

For direction on how to efficiently search for the most economical rates or best room packages, see our great Tip on this topic!

You can book online or by phone at 877-865-6578 and ask for the Bonus Miles Package. Make sure your IHG Rewards Club profile is set to earn miles.

The Wrap Up:

We suggest you forgo the daily 200 mile Bonus Miles Package because the cost is more than we think the miles are worth. And we suggest you only choose the 1,000 Bonus Miles Package on stays of one to three days where the estimated value of the miles exceeds the cost.

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