Some of my most useful hotel free-night certificates aren’t the ones capable of producing the most expensive redemptions. IHG’s 40,000-point certificates are a good example. On eligible certificates, I can add points when the hotel costs more than 40,000 points, which makes them particularly useful for trips where the date and location are already fixed.
I don’t need one of these certificates to produce an extraordinary redemption. I need it to cover a hotel I actually want, on a night I actually need, without requiring an unreasonable number of additional points. That has turned out to be a more useful benefit than the 40,000-point headline initially suggests.
How the Top-Up Changes the Certificate
The basic idea is simple. A 40,000-point certificate covers the first 40,000 points of an eligible award night. If the hotel costs more, eligible certificates allow me to add points to cover the difference.
That matters because hotel award prices don’t conveniently stop at the value of the certificate. If the hotel I need costs 45,000 points, I don’t have to choose between wasting the certificate and finding another hotel. I can use the certificate and add 5,000 points.
The important question then becomes how many additional points I’m willing to spend. A 5,000-point top-up may be an easy decision. A much larger top-up may make cash, another certificate or another hotel more attractive.
The Annual Fees Don’t Set a Very High Bar
There is another reason I’m fairly relaxed about using these certificates for ordinary stays. The IHG One Rewards Premier and Premier Business cards each currently cost $99 a year, and each provides a 40K Anniversary Free Night after the card anniversary.
At a $99 annual fee, I don’t need an exceptional certificate redemption to make the card useful, particularly because the certificate isn’t the card’s only benefit. If it replaces a hotel night that would otherwise have cost substantially more than $99, I’m already getting meaningful value from one benefit alone.
Where I Find Them Most Useful
The best uses for me tend to be trips where the hotel isn’t the reason for traveling. School and sporting trips are obvious examples, as are airport nights, conferences and one-night stops between longer stays. The date may be non-negotiable and location can matter considerably more than the hotel itself.
On those trips, I don’t particularly want to move farther away because another hotel happens to fall below 40,000 points. Being able to add a modest number of points lets me choose the hotel first and then decide whether the certificate is a sensible way to pay for it.
What That Can Look Like
Take a hotel costing €180 or 45,000 IHG points. A 40K certificate plus 5,000 points lets me avoid paying the €180 cash rate. That isn’t a spectacular redemption, but if it’s the hotel I need on a fixed night, I may be perfectly happy with it.
The Old IHG Certificates Were Very Different
Part of my own initial reaction to the 40K certificates came from remembering what the old IHG Select card used to offer. For a $49 annual fee, its Anniversary Free Night was originally uncapped, which meant it could be used at some genuinely expensive InterContinental properties. Those certificates were obviously more exciting.
That benefit eventually disappeared, and the Select certificate became capped at 40,000 points. The current Premier-card certificates are also based around 40,000 points, but the ability to add IHG points above that level makes them considerably easier to use.
How They Complement Uncapped Certificates
I therefore treat these differently from an uncapped Hilton free-night reward. With Hilton, the absence of a points ceiling gives me a reason to wait for an expensive eligible stay. With an IHG certificate that allows a points top-up, I’m more interested in finding a useful stay before the certificate expires, provided the additional points required are reasonable.
What I Want From a 40K Certificate
I don’t judge one of these certificates by asking how expensive a hotel it could theoretically cover. I look at the trips already on the calendar and ask whether the certificate can remove a real hotel cost without requiring too many additional points.
Sometimes that means using 40,000 points of certificate value plus 5,000 or 10,000 points for an entirely ordinary hotel in exactly the right place. That’s not a redemption I’m likely to boast about, but it can be a very good use of a certificate.
The ability to top up doesn’t make a 40K certificate unlimited. It simply makes the 40K boundary less important. For the fixed-date, fixed-location stays that make up a surprising amount of our travel, that’s often exactly what I need.