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Rather build your airline mileage balance than earn IHG points? You have the option to earn airline miles with one of dozens of airlines instead of points for your IHG stays. And now, you can earn 1,000 bonus United miles for opting to earn United MileagePlus miles and completing a stay now through September 30, 2021.
However, there are limitations to this bonus miles promotion that are important to keep in mind.
Earn 1,000 United MileagePlus Bonus Miles Promotion
IHG Rewards members can opt to earn airline miles instead of IHG Rewards points. If you choose United MileagePlus, you'll earn 2 United miles per $1 spent at IHG hotels. On top of that, IHG has launched a new promotion allowing members to earn 1,000 bonus United miles. Here's how to take advantage of this offer.
- First, sign in to your IHG Rewards account and select United Airlines MileagePlus as your earning preference.
- Book a stay for two or more consecutive nights at participating IHG properties at the “preferred rate” before September 30, 2021.
- Earn 1,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles for every completed IHG stay on top of the standard 2X earning rate.
- There is a limit of 15,000 bonus miles you can earn with this promotion.
Unfortunately, it seems that the “preferred rate” is the Best Flexible rate — which is the most expensive rate. However, I wasn't able to personally verify this fact. So if you're able to find this promotion with another rate, please leave a comment below.
Also, the promotion states that the promotion is only valid on stays of 2 or more nights. However, the terms and conditions state that an eligible stay is 1 or more consecutive nights (could have been a copy-and-paste error from an earlier IHG promotion).
Terms and Conditions
- United MileagePlus bonus miles will be awarded to your MileagePlus account within 4-6 weeks.
- This offer qualifies for IHG Rewards and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, discount, or promotion, and has no cash value.
- See the IHG website for further terms and conditions, including the full list of which hotels are participating in this offer.
Transferring IHG points to United miles
In addition to earning United miles from IHG stays, you can also transfer IHG Rewards points to United. The transfer rate is 10,000 IHG Rewards points => 2,000 United MileagePlus miles.
In recent redemptions, AwardWallet users have averaged 0.73 cents per IHG point and 2.66 cents per United mile. So, you'd be giving up around $73 worth of hotel stays for around $53 worth of flights. So, you should only transfer IHG points to United miles if you need a few more United miles to complete an award — or if you value IHG Rewards points at a lower rate.
Our Take
This might be a good promotion if you're trying to rack up your United MileagePlus miles. However, it's likely not worth it if you have to book the Best Flexible rate. Then again, if you want that maximum flexibility for cancellations and would use the Best Flexible rate for your booking anyway, then perhaps you can take advantage of this.
Don't forget to check out the other active IHG promotions, such as getting a free night when joining or renewing as an InterContinental Ambassador, or the bonus for becoming a new IHG member.
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.
There was a deal once where you got both United miles and IHG points for every stay. I guess that is not the case this time. Unless IHG is my only option, I prefer other hotel chains and earning my United points via Chase Ultimate Rewards. Its a decent deal for those who have no other choice of hotels though and can book the flexible rate with Other People’s Money.
It looks exiting at first glance to get 1,000 bonus miles, but when you look at the detail as pointed out in the article it is probably not worth it. IHG is my back up to Hilton, so I’m happy enough just to stick to earning IHG points and booking at the cheapest rate.
Excellent blog post!
It’ san excellent new. So important to collect bonus.
This does not seem to be a good promo. You are actually paying for the miles that you would be getting since you have to pay for the highest hotel rate.
United MileagePlus bonus miles will be awarded to your MileagePlus account within 4-6 weeks : normally it’s such headache to follow up about whether those miles was correctly deposited or not. It’s much simple & hassle-free to receive IHG points rather than miles for stays.
Excellent information to take into account. This type of news are really useful, specially now the my UA mileage does not expire! thanks!
The restrictive offer is only good for topping up your own MileagePlus account.
Sounds like way too many hoops to jump through and rules to remember to be woth it.
Definitely not a great value here. Would rather have the IHG points even though they aren’t the best.
Seems like too much work for 1000 points. Also switching the earning means you won’t get IHG points which usually gives you pretty bad earning rates.