intercontinental hotel group announces "into the nights"

the IHG group announced their new "into the nights prom." this is very similar to last year's the big win promo. in both of these promos, personalized offers are given, and if you complete enough offers, a large reward is offered.

this year, register here between september 4, 2014 and december 31, 2014 for your individualized offers. my offers this round were as follows:

• 8,800 points for 6 staying 6 nights
• 100 points for taking their short survey
• 5,600 points for booking 3 stays on the IHG app
• 4,800 points for 2 holiday inn hotel stays
• unsure if this means we need two different holiday inn hotels or two holiday in stays all together
• 2,000 points for booking one stay using the bonus points package plus breakfast
• 28,700 points or two free nights for completing 4/5 offers
• i can't find anywhere what "two free nights" really means. does this mean two free nights at any hotel (i.e., hotels that normally cost 50,000 points per night), or does it mean that the total number of points earned is enough to redeem for two nights (i.e., at hotels that normally cost 15,000 points per night).

last time, i ended up staying at a holiday inn right beside my house in order to get over 100,000 points. the amount that i spent was less than the value of the points that i earned in the bonus, so it was worthwhile for me.

this time, in order to get 41,200 points, i would need to book at least three nights.

• do the survey
• two holiday inn stay booked via the IHG app
• one IHG hotel stay with a bonus point package booked by the IHG app

if the two free nights really is for any two nights at an intercontinental hotel, then i'd be willing to play this game. so let's see if they can clarify this for me soon.

links from the web: what hotels have to offer, vancouver airport efficiency, loosing hotel bibles, air france and ebola

1) view from the wing summarizes some interesting points on a publicly available document that details what holiday in express hotels must offer. back in december, he did the same for best western hotels.

2) vancouver airport is canada's most efficient airport according to the ATRS global airport benchmarking report. while it sounds nice, it doesn't actually mean much for the consumer. it simply compares output (number of aircraft movements and passengers, non-flight revenues) to the input (number of full time employees and outsourced services. in reality, it is more a measure of cost efficiency rather than efficiencies for the traveler. in america, atlanta and oklahoma rank top in airports with more and less than 15 million passengers, respectively.

3) guests staying in travelodges in the uk will no longer have access to free bibles. "the company decided that having a Christian book in rooms did not reflect the country's 'multicultural society.'" i just remembered those bibles as one of the only books you were allowed to (and encouraged to) steal.

4) air france flight crews have petitioned against flights to ebola-stricken african countries. one of the things the airline says is that they screen the temperature of all passengers. and while that is fine, i wonder how effective this is when the incubation period, according to the ever so trustworthy wikipedia, averages 8-10 days. then again, i'm not really an infectious disease or community medicine specialist. 

intercontinental hotel's "big win" first quarter promo is up

IHG (intercontinental, crowne plaza, holiday inn, indigo, etc.) released their first quarter promo a few days ago. you can log in to their website for details. they ran a similar promo this year as well, which i didn't really participate in as i was gunning for platinum status with starwood.

all hotel programs have varying bonuses throughout the different quarters, and IHG has an interesting one for the first quarter. it gives you various tasks to complete (which typically involve staying at their hotels), and then collecting bonus points. what makes this offer neat is that it appears to be customized depending on your previous stay patterns. it could be that your offers are completely different than mine.

the promo runs from january 1, 2014 to april 30, 2014. the offers that i received were:

• stay more and earn: stay a total of 4 nights and earn 8,000 points
• explore our brands: stay at 2 different IHG brands and earn 16,000 points
• win in a weekend: stay 2 saturday nights and earn 8,000 points
• IHG mobile app booking: book 2 separate stays through our IHG app and earn 8,000 points
• stay smart: stay at 2 holiday inn hotels and earn 8,000 points
• survey the win: complete a simple survey and earn 100 points
• win big: complete 6 of your offers and earn 48,000 points

at the very least, everyone should do the simple 5-minute survey for the 100 points. if you are in a rush, the survey can be done in less than a minute by pushing random buttons. i don't think it cares.

for myself, i've already booked a stay at the crowne plaza changi airport for my 11-hour stay in february while i'm on transit in singapore. so in order to take advantage of this offer to its maximum, i'd simply need to:

• book 2 separate saturday nights via the mobile booking app for holiday inn properties -- luckily, i live 100 meters away from one
• book 1 other IHG hotel ... whichever one is the cheapest/most convenient.

in doing so, i'll earn 96,000 points. in my own experience, each individual point is worth roughly 0.5 cents (most major cities) to 1 cent (edmonton, alberta). sometimes they're worth more if you can catch their 5,000 point break specials. remember that when paying by points, it takes care of both the base cost of the hotel and the taxes.

at 96,000 points, that's worth anywhere from $480 to $960, all by booking 3 hotel nights. also, remember that you will earn points themselves for the stays themselves, usually at a rate of 10 points (5-10c) per dollar spent. it's something to consider.