IHG Rewards Club Unveils Biggest-Ever Redemption Catalog for Holidays (May Explain Into the Nights Promotion)
[Sarcasm on] Breaking news everyone! I just received a press release from IHG regarding their new online redemption catalog:
ATLANTA (Nov. 24, 2014) InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) today announces the launch of its new IHG® Rewards Club Global Redemption Catalog. The world’s first, largest and fastest-growing hotel loyalty program is introducing a new and enhanced online catalog, offering thousands of retail redemption choices tailored to more than 200 countries and 20 languages.
IHG is one of the world’s leading hotel companies, with over 4,700 hotels around the world and a family of nine trusted hotel brands to meet a variety of guests’ needs – from a city center Holiday Inn® hotel, to an award winning InterContinental® resort. Its loyalty program offers advantages that no other hotel company can match including; free guest Internet for all IHG® Rewards Club members worldwide across the IHG brand family, value-priced Reward Nights with less restrictions, no blackout dates on Reward Nights, no cancellation penalties – and now, with the wide breadth of offerings in the new redemption catalog, members can truly personalize their rewards to best suit their needs.
The new redemption catalog will also give all 82 million IHG® Rewards Club members worldwide the new ability to add items to a personal wish list and to use their IHG® Rewards Club points to send gifts to friends and family in other countries.
Susanna Freer Epstein, senior vice president, Customer Loyalty Marketing, IHG said: “At IHG® Rewards Club, we are constantly looking to enhance and evolve the program in ways that truly recognize and reward our members’ loyalty – not just by giving them points but by giving them the opportunity for rewarding experiences. Our new redemption catalog makes it even easier for our members to access rewards for whatever they like – from jewelry to electronics, to the trip of a lifetime.”
To celebrate the launch, IHG has created the IHG® Rewards Club Holiday Gift Guide[1] – a list of the top ten newly added rewards – to inspire members this holiday season:
- iPad Air 2 (WiFi, 16GB)
- Snoopy & Charlie Brown Waffle Maker
- GoPro Hero4
- Michael Kors Ladies Gold Chronograph Watch
- Costa Harpoon Sunglasses
- Bose Soundlink Color Bluetooth Speaker
- Nest Learning Thermostat 2nd Generation
- 1-800 baskets Pampered Pooch Market Box
- Vintage Final Touch On the Rock Glass and Ice Ball
- Gund Grumpy Cat
The new IHG® Rewards Club Catalog also features items that are at a range of point values, so they are meaningful to members with a wide variety of point balances. The selection will constantly be changing to provide members with new and exciting choices all year-round.
IHG® Rewards Club members can view the new catalog by visiting www.catalog.ihg.com. Guests can sign up for IHG® Rewards Club by visiting www.ihgrewardsclub.com, calling the IHG Rewards Club Customer Care Center, downloading the IHG App or by inquiring at the front desk of any of the more than 4,700 IHG hotels worldwide.
If you want to see how little much your IHG Points are worth, search the IHG catalog here. A quick search of iPad Air shows several pages of options. For *only* 218,500 IHG Points, you can get an Apple iPad Air 2 16GB. I guess the Apple iPad Mini 2 16GB with Retina is a steal at only 137,500 IHG Points…
35,000 IHG Points can buy you a $100 Prepaid MasterCard Gift Card…
Last but not least, 11,000 IHG Points will get you a $25 gift card to your favorite restaurant.
[sarcasm off] I have a theory that IHG has been working on this online redemption portal for a very long time to get it ready in time for the holidays. This probably resulted in other areas of IHG being less than 100% organized (I’m looking at you Into the Nights Promo!). I am still waiting for my Into the Nights stays to count/credit. I actually finished the required tasks but nothing has showed up on my account yet.
If you have any questions (or alternative theories), please leave a comment below. Have a great evening everyone!
So what does this make your value of an IHG point then? Unless you can make travel plans corresponding to PointBreaks, I would say it’s less than half a cent. Outside of PointBreaks even low tier Holiday Inn Expresses and Holiday Inns are 15,000 points or more, and usually 20,000+ in major cities. There are the occasional instances where a 40,000 + point redemption at an Intercontinental is worth it, but those are rare.
I would agree, if I can get 1/2 a cent per IHG Point, that would be great. I like using cash and points, especially for some of the cheaper category hotels. I think the prices you get from the online redemption catalog are crazy low though.
So 20,000 points = $50 or 300,000=Ipad
I’d rather have one $100 a night hotel for 20,000 (or 4 points break nights)
Would I rather have 6+ nights at an IC hotel than an Ipad, yes. I figure at least $200 per night x 6 nights = $1,200 or so. That’s without even trying much.
I guess if you have a ton of points and don’t plan on traveling or don’t need hotel nights.
I think this is just a very cheap way for IHG buy back their points. From credit card sign up bonuses and the many promos they run, there are probably millions/billions of IHG Points outstanding. They might want to get some of their liabilities off the books before the end of the year. That is all a guess, though.
I agree…IHG is trying to get their points back and many will say…wow thats a great deal and will redeem their points for the merchandise. But we all know its a terrible value
Exactly!