Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. I had a great time attending yesterday’s FTU Virtual Seminar and I enjoyed chatting with other attendees at the virtual mixer. Last week, I wrote PSA: Keep Checking IHG Award Prices for Price Drops, Then Rebook or use Free Night Certificates. In that post, I showed you how I kept checking award prices of the Kimpton Muse Hotel in NYC and used an IHG Free Night Certificate once the price dropped to 40,000 IHG Points and below. In today’s post, I will show you how I rebooked a 4 night award stay twice and saved 42,000 IHG Points.
Since I have the Chase IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card, I took advantage of the fourth night free benefit where the fourth night is completely free. I have an upcoming Crowne Plaza Hotel stay that I originally booked on October 31 for 90,000 IHG Points total. As you can see, the first 3 nights are 30,000 IHG Points per night and the fourth night is free. 90,000 IHG Points for a 4 night stay is an average of 22,500 IHG Points per night which seemed like a good deal to me. Fortunately, the deal was about to get much better over the coming weeks.
Every few days, I checked the award price of the same Crown Plaza Hotel to see if the price dropped. On November 10, I noticed that the price dropped so I cancelled my existing reservation and received the 90,000 IHG Points back into my account. A few readers commented on my previous IHG post and told me that some hotels have interesting cancellation policies, so make sure you can completely cancel your reservation and receive all your IHG Points back into your account before cancelling your reservation.
On November 10, after I cancelled my previous reservation, I rebooked the same reservation for 76,000 IHG Points total. The price for the first 2 nights dropped, but the fourth night was still free. 76,000 IHG Points for a 4 night stay is an average of 19,000 IHG Points per night which seemed like a great deal to me. Fortunately, the deal was about to get even better.
This morning, on November 14, I noticed that the price dropped again, so I cancelled my existing reservation and received the 76,000 IHG Points back into my account.
On November 14, after I cancelled my previous reservation, I rebooked the same reservation for 48,000 IHG Points total. The price for the first 3 nights dropped, but the fourth night was still free. 48,000 IHG Points for a 4 night stay is an average of 12,000 IHG Points per night which seems like an amazing deal to me. I’m not sure how much cheaper this stay will get, but I have another month to go, so I will see what happens.
If you have any questions about rebooking IHG hotels or about the Chase IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card fourth night free benefit, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
I think as we move away from pandemic panic to the new normal of Covid remaining with us forever, travel will open back up and programs like IHG will make cancellation and rebooking on dynamic awards will be more restricted.
Hi Dan, I think IHG will have similar cancellation policies as Marriott, Hilton, and other hotel chains to remain competitive. I hope cancelling and redepositing points doesn’t get more difficult or tricky.
Thank you for posting this update! I had checked my IHG reservations after reading your first post and the price was the same. After reading your updated article today I checked the price and it HAD gone down AND it was now low enough I could use my 2 “free” annual night certificates! Double score! Thank you again, I appreciate the article.
Hi Clyn, I’m glad my second post was the inspiration needed for you to check your existing IHG reservations for price drops. It is all about timing and luck to check your reservations at the right time :)
You also inspired me to recheck my Kimpton reservation made over the summer and that one came down significantly! So I modified the reservation (didn’t cancel) to get the lower points redemption (difference in points was immediately credited to my account).
Hi Dan, that is great news. I guess modifying the reservation is also a good way to rebook instead of cancelling the original reservation and creating a new booking. Glad you were able to save a few thousand IHG Points :)
I tried the same maneuver at IHG Dubai but but was not successful with the 4 or 5 nites set up with one free night. CSR was not successful either. She came back with higher point price so I kept my existing reservation. Apparently the lower price was some kind of special promo.
Hi Nid, sorry you were not able to rebook and get the lower price. Maybe it was some special promo price, who knows.
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