AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
This promotion has ended; please review current/active promotions.
IHG announced a promotion offering 1,000 bonus British Airways Avios for stays of two nights or more. The promotion is valid for bookings and stays completed by October 31, 2023. To participate in the promotion, you must be a member of both programs and set your IHG earning preference to BA Avios.
Key Terms
- Earn up to 1,000 bonus Avios per stay.
- You must book and complete your travel by October 31, 2023.
- To qualify, a stay must be two or more nights at a participating property.
- You earn bonus and base Avios with the promotion.
- Eligible bookings must be made through BA channels or from the IHG promotion page here.
- To take part, members must select British Airways Avios as their earning preference.
- Earn a maximum of 15,000 Avios with this offer.
- Allow four to six weeks for the Avios to post to your account.
- To participate in the offer, participants must be members of IHG One Rewards and the British Airways Executive Club.
Selecting BA as Your Earning Preference
To take advantage of the promotion, you must select British Airways as your preferred IHG earning partner, not IHG One Rewards points. However, doing so is simple, and you can change your preference back at the end of the promotion.
Head over and log into your IHG One Rewards account, and on the account page, click “Preferences.”
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and in the earning, preferences box select “Airline Miles”.
Finally, select British Airways from the drop-down menu and insert your frequent flyer number and name. Then hit save, and you are set to go earning Avios.
Remember to ensure that your number is 100% correct and that the name matches exactly the name on your British Airways Executive Club account.
Is This A Good Deal?
As a general rule, earning airline miles instead of points for hotel stays is never recommended. The rates are terrible, and you are far better off earning and burning IHG points than Avios.
That being said, if you have zero need for IHG points in the mid-term, are in dire need of some Avios, and have some stays coming up, this promotion can make a lot of sense and help you reach your travel goals.
Boosting Your BA Avios Balance
Fortunately, you have many options if you need to boost your Avios balance to reach your next award. You can transfer almost every flexible points currency to BA, including American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles, Marriott Bonvoy points, and Bilt Rewards points.
You also can transfer Avios freely between the four airline programs that use the currency. These include Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar Airways. While this is an excellent way to consolidate your Avios for an award, it adds even more external transfer options.
You can transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Qatar Airways Privileges Club and then move them on to another loyalty program. This makes Citi a defacto transfer partner for BA as well.
Our Take
If you regularly use IHG points, this promotion is not lucrative enough to forego earning IHG points for the duration. You are best served looking elsewhere to boost your Avios balance. On the other hand, if you have no use of IHG points and need Avios, then this bonus promotion is an easy way to top up your British Airways account.
Whether you choose to participate or not will ultimately depend on your travel goals and upcoming travel plans!
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.