Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  Last weekend, I needed to book a last minute IHG hotel stay that cost 47,000 IHG Points.  Laura had a 40K Free Night Certificate and 3,000 IHG Points in her account.  Since we are both IHG Business Rewards Members (free membership), I decided the *easiest* and *quickest* option would be to transfer 4,000 IHG Points from my account to her account.  I submitted the points transfer request and planned on booking the hotel stay right away.  Unfortunately, IHG had other plans.  After submitting the request, the confirmation message said “Your order has been received and will be processed in the next 72 hours.”  72 hours?!  I was planning on checking into the hotel tomorrow afternoon…

Long story short, instead of transferring valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards Points or Bilt Rewards Points to Laura’s IHG account, she bought 5,000 IHG Points since IHG was running a 100% bonus on IHG Points.  In case you are wondering, the IHG Points sharing / transfer took about 2 days (~46 hours to be precise).

Here is the timeline of events.  I submitted the request at 7:38pm on March 22.

When I learned that the request would take up to 72 hours, I set up an AwardWallet Balance Watch request.  This feature will automatically check a specific account for new points every hour for the next 7 days and alert you as soon as the points appear.

At 4:58pm on March 24 (roughly 46 hours after submitting the IHG Points transfer request), AwardWallet notified me that the points transfer had processed and Laura’s IHG balance increased by 4,000 points.

More than 24 hours later, Laura received this email at 6:00pm on March 25 that said she received 4,000 IHG Points.

I logged into my IHG account and saw that the 4,000 IHG Points were deducted from my account on March 24.

Laura logged into her account and noticed that 4,000 IHG Points were added on March 24. On March 22, both the 5,000 IHG Points she purchased and the 5,000 bonus points were credited to her account. Later that same day, she booked an IHG stay using her 40K Free Night Certificate along with 7,000 IHG Points. We checked into the hotel on March 23 and checked out on March 24 – before the 4,000 IHG Points were posted to her account.

We then decided to transfer the 10,000 IHG Points in her account to my IHG account so that all the IHG Points would be in my account and could be used with my IHG Free Night Certificates.  As you can see, there is no mention of the 72 hour transfer period anywhere on this page.

There is also no mention of the 72 hour transfer period anywhere in the terms and conditions either:

Point Transfers: Points may be transferred between two specifically designated Member accounts in increments of 1,000. Members may transfer or receive up to 500,000 points per calendar year. A new Member can transfer or receive Points 30 days after enrollment.

An authorization to transfer Points form must be submitted to transfer Points. Once the Point Transfer has been completed, the transferor relinquishes all rights to the transferred Points, subject to local laws; no cancellations or refunds are permitted. Beginning December 6, 2023, Diamond Elite and IHG ® Business Rewards members enrolled for 30 days may transfer points free of charge. For all other Members, the Member authorizing the transfer will be charged $5 US per 1,000 Points transferred, payable via valid, accepted credit card or approved payment method.

Except for the Point transfers allowed under these Terms and Conditions or authorized in writing by IHG, Points may not be sold, bartered, attached, seized, levied upon, pledged, or transferred under any circumstances, including, without limitation, by operation of law, upon death, or in connection with any domestic relations dispute and/or legal proceeding.

This offer does not have an expiration date and will continue at IHG’s discretion. IHG may withdraw points from a member’s account if they were deposited into the member’s account in error and may revoke all points in a member’s account if the member abuses the IHG One Rewards program, including but not limited to abuse of the point redemption process. IHG expressly reserves the right to remove a member’s points, reverse a member’s points transfer, downgrade their status, or cancel their account if fraudulent activity is detected. Any fraudulent or other prohibited activity relating to a member’s account or the IHG One Rewards program is subject to the IHG One Rewards Membership Terms and Conditions, including any of the identified actions that may be taken in response to such activity.

The first and only time you see that mentioned is after you submit the IHG Points transfer request.

I appreciate that sharing / transferring IHG Points is free for IHG Business Rewards members, but I wish that IHG transfers would be instant.  If not instant, they should clearly state and set expectations that the transfer will take up to 72 hours.  Lastly, the email that alerts you that you have received IHG Points should also be more timely, there is no reason for the subsequent 24 hour delay.

If you have any questions about sharing / transferring IHG Points, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend everyone!