Compared to other hotel groups, IHG has a rather unique feature: the Bonus Point Package option, which allows you to purchase points during booking. The key advantage is that these are elite qualifying points.
You can typically buy up to 5,000 points per night, and since the threshold for IHG Diamond status is 120,000 qualifying points, this means you could theoretically reach Diamond status in just over 20 nights. It’s a fairly well-known shortcut within the programme.
However, pricing varies significantly depending on the hotel, and the value can fluctuate quite a bit. Look at the following Holiday Inn Express London Southwark example, buying 1,000-point bundles can be very good value, while larger bundles may become progressively more expensive.
There’s also an important restriction: points purchases are usually only available when booking the “Best Flexible Rate”. Since most travellers tend to book discounted or prepaid rates instead, this limits how often the feature is actually usable — and indirectly increases the real cost.
The good news is that this restriction seems to have been relaxed recently. I’ve now found cases where other rate types also support points add-ons, though I’m not entirely sure when this change happened. On the IHG website or app, after selecting a hotel and room rate, you can check the “Add Extras” page, and if a points upgrade option appears, it means the rate is eligible.
For example, the prepaid rate at Regent Shanghai on the Bund:
Even more interestingly, the partner rates that I shared recently also qualify. Below is a showcase of the Railcard rate, in conjunction with 3,000 bonus points, at Crowne Plaza Budapest.
From my limited observations, the pricing is not always spectacular — unlike the classic Best Flexible Rate cases where you can sometimes effectively buy 1,000 points for 1 or 2 USD. However, since these newly supported rate types are already discounted to begin with, it’s still worth keeping an eye on. If you’re booking anyway, it may be a useful way to top up elite qualifying points as a by-product.
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