Category Archives: IHG

Major Downgrade to IHG Anniversary Free Night

What does this mean?

This means that some of IHG’s best properties are now off the table when planning to use the annual free night benefit. Chase’s IHG Rewards Club credit card has a $49 annual fee and comes with an free night certificate every year on your card membership anniversary. Until this change, the certificate could be used at any IHG hotel in the world. As you can imagine, the opportunity for extreme value was incredible!

Award nights in a standard room cost between 10,000 and 70,000 points at IHG hotels. Many of the top tier properties start at 50,000 points, eliminating them from the pool of available hotels for the free night benefit. For example, last April for Nicoleen’s surprise birthday get-away, we stayed at the Z Ocean Hotel in Miami Beach for 2 nights; one paid with points and one by redeeming my IHG anniversary free night.

No more free rooftop balcony suites for this guy!

Who is affected?

Any IHG anniversary free night credited to your account before May 1st still has the old terms attached and can be used anywhere. Starting May 1st, the 40,000 point limit will be applied to newly credited certificates.

To see if you currently have a free night on your account, log in to your IHG Rewards Club account and look on the “my account” page:

As you can see, I personally have an anniversary free night that was credited before the deadline. I’ll have to use it wisely! This isn’t the most popular hotel card around, but this change has personally affected me because it completely destroys one of the more ambitious vacation ideas on my bucket list. I was working on a plan to spend 2+ free nights at the only resort in the world whose standard room is a $1000+ per night over-water bungalow.

This ridiculously blown out paradise resort on Bora Bora is no longer available for IHG anniversary free night bookings. If you want some inspiration, check out the photos on this resort’s website: InterContinental Resort Bora Bora – Thalasso Spa

The end of an era

The IHG Rewards Club Premium World Mastercard is a unique hotel card. For years, several hotel cards from different issuers offered a sign-up bonus of free nights redeemable at any hotel in the portfolio of brands associated with the card. I call these kind of free nights (without hotel level or point value limitations) “unlimited free nights.”

In the last year or so, free nights as a sign-up bonus have been largely replaced with straight up bonus points. Several cards still offer a free night as an anniversary benefit after paying the annual fee. However, these anniversary nights are all “limited.” For example, on our Costa Rica trip last month we used a Marriott anniversary free night and 2 Hyatt anniversary free nights. The Marriott certificate was limited to category 1-5 hotels and the Hyatt certificate was limited to category 1-4 hotels.

As far as I know (please correct me if I’m wrong!), with the IHG anniversary free night downgrade, there are no more “unlimited” free nights out there, either as a sign-up bonus or as an card member anniversary benefit.

Does the IHG card suck now?

No. For the $49 annual fee, it’s still extremely easy to get your money’s worth on a free anniversary night redemption. My last certificate was used on a $109.48 redemption in Minneapolis. Not as impressive as our Z Ocean nights last April, but still well worth the annual fee. As of this writing the card also comes with a 60,000 point sign-up bonus, but this routinely jumps up to 80k, so I would wait if you’re thinking about applying.

Sure, you can't stay at the Thalasso Spa on Bora Bora with free nights anymore, but the nearby island of Moorea has an IHG resort that costs 40k points and is thereby still eligible.

Sure, you can’t stay at the Thalasso Spa on Bora Bora with free nights anymore, but the nearby island of Moorea is home to this IHG resort that costs 40k points and is thereby still eligible.

If you’ve used these IHG anniversary free nights for killer redemptions in the past, count yourself lucky and wise. If this is yet another devaluation/downgrade/nerf that you’re reading about without having taken advantage of the lost opportunity, chalk it up to another reason to GET OFF THE SIDELINES AND GET INTO THIS GAME ASAP! Deals disappear and opportunities morph and change. This is an incredible hobby. Get in when the gettin’s good!

Surprise Birthday Vacation to Miami Beach!

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Happy Birthday, Nicoleen!

Value tacticians don’t do surprise birthday parties. We do surprise birthday vacations! Moments after this post goes live, I will be revealing my wife’s surprise birthday vacation plans to her. I started planning this trip in early August and it’s been a well-kept secret ever since.

A big THANK YOU to all of those involved in this scheme – for keeping it a secret and for helping out with logistics.

Nicoleen’s birthday is this Wednesday, the 12th, and here is what’s in store for her:

Free Flights

We’ll be flying American Airlines and Southwest Airlines in economy for a total cost of $22.40. I planned the flight itinerary so we will maximize the time on our two-night vacation. The outgoing flight lands in Miami mid-morning and the outgoing flight departs late afternoon.

Free Hotel Stay

We will be staying at the Z Ocean Hotel, rated in the top 5% of all hotels in South Beach.

What’s more – because of my IHG Platinum Elite status as a benefit of the Chase IHG Rewards Club Select credit card, we got a complimentary upgrade to the rooftop terrace suite!

This room has a partial ocean view and a spiral staircase on the balcony, leading to a private rooftop terrace with a wet bar, lounge furniture, and our own private whirlpool!

The total cost of our two-night stay at the Z Ocean Hotel is $0.00.

All Logistics Covered

My wonderful wife does more than her fair share of the kid care planning and transportation, meal planning, school involvement, etc. in our everyday routine. She deserves to have a totally care-free experience for this vacation, so all of the daycare, time off from work, airport transportation, and trip details are covered.

“Like” the ValueTactics Facebook page and look for live updates this week as we celebrate Nicoleen’s birthday in Miami Beach!

Semi-Monthly Update (February 20, 2017)

New ValueTactics Blog Posts

– Costa Rica Field Report was my one and only post written on our recent vacation. More reports on this trip are coming soon!
– Review – Couples Negril Resort Activities is the final report and review of our Jamaican vacation from almost 2 years ago. It was the last major trip we actually paid for, before our points and miles accounts really got going.

IHG Accelerate Promotion

Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) is running one of their popular “Accelerate Promotions.” Each IHG Rewards member gets a customized list of bonuses they can earn during the promotional period. These are typically worth doing if you are planning some hotel stays in the near future anyway. IHG includes some less expensive chains like Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites. I’ve read reports of people booking a random night at a cheap hotel in order to earn points worth far more than the hotel stay cost them. To read more about this promotion check out recent blog posts by Frugal Travel Guy and One Mile at a Time.

My personalized offer this time around.

Credit Card News

There’s no block buster new cards or elevated sign-up bonuses to speak of at the moment. Chase’s 5/24 rule continues to limit many people’s possibilities as far as good sign-ups go. I plan on writing a beginner’s guide some time soon, which will address how Chase’s and other banks’ rules for sign-up bonuses should factor into your card strategy.

Nicoleen is still working on her Chase Sapphire Reserve sign-up bonus spending. I can wait to see that 100k UR points appear in her account!

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

South Dakota Road Trip

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Last month Nicoleen, I, and the 4 oldest kids embarked on our first real family vacation. We anticipated some challenges in traveling with 4 kids aged 8 and under, so we planned a pretty simple and straight forward trip. The plan was for 5 days and 4 nights in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We wanted to camp primarily, but I couldn’t in good conscience plan a whole vacation without getting something for free, so we looked for a hotel in Rapid City where we could recharge after our first day which would mostly be spent in a cramped car.

THE PLANNING PHASE

After the fun traveling Nicoleen and I have done over the past couple of years, we thought the kids deserved to get in on some of the action too. They are ages 8, 6, 4, 2, and <1 so they are just getting to the age where they will appreciate and remember their travel experiences. We figured for our first attempt at a family vacation we should do something simple, so flying and dealing with a rental car were out of the question.

We also didn’t want to push our luck on duration, so we settled on a long weekend trip. Pretty early on in the planning discussions we decided to leave the baby with grandparents. She would not enjoy the trip, would be a hassle and a half for us, and would take up a lot of space in the car with all her baby gear. That left us with 2 adults and 4 kids in a Honda Pilot; cramped, but manageable:

Living in the Minneapolis area, South Dakota seemed a logical choice. There’s plenty of stuff to do in any kind of weather, and the 10-11 hour drive is short enough to make in a single day, yet it puts you far enough away to really get away and change the scenery.

THE PLAINS AND BADLANDS

The kids were a bit restless on our long drive from eastern Minnesota to western South Dakota. I will definitely have to spend more time reading Mommy Points and Points with a Crew for some tips on traveling with kids. By the time we reached the Badlands we were all ready to stretch our legs and burn off some energy. We took the Badlands loop highway (Hwy 240) and got out to climb around a bit. The heat in early June was downright oppressive.

RAPID CITY

The first night of our trip we stayed at the Holiday Inn at Rushmore Plaza in Rapid City. Click here for a full review of the hotel and for some of my logic on choosing it. We arrived long after the kids’ bed time and had a challenge getting the little buggers to sleep in our oversized room. But eventually they succumbed:

Those are some tuckered out kids!

The hotel was more than we expected in terms of amenities, cleanliness, and decor. Read the COST BREAKDOWN down below to see what a deal we got (HINT: it was free!)

BLACK HILLS

Overall the Black Hills is a wonderfully diverse and accessible area for kids and adults alike, with plenty of variety in recreation opportunities. I had been to the Black Hills several times as a kid, and Nicoleen and I went there together in 2004. For the main segment of our trip we set a few ground principles:

We won’t try to see everything in one trip. First of all it’s impossible. Second of all, it relieves the pressure to make it to any given attraction; we can always hit it the next time we’re here.
We won’t plan our days in advance. Especially because the kids are along, we need to stay flexible. This will also help us deal with any bad weather we might get. Having one or two rainy day activities in the hopper at any given time will help greatly if the skies don’t cooperate.
Let’s not fill up every day with activities. The campground has a pool and lots of rocky areas to explore. The kids will have just as much fun roaming around as they will on a structured outing, and mom and dad will probably need some down time to just sit and have a beer.

These principles ended up being pretty helpful. Of course we did a few of the must-see attractions like Mt. Rushmore, the wildlife loop at Custer State Park, and Needles Highway.

The whole family (less the baby), squinting for the camera at Mt. Rushmore. It was in the upper 90s by noon.

Rushmore cave

. . . but the kids’ best memories of the trip will probably be of swimming at the campground pool, climbing around the rock outcrop behind the campsite, swimming, meeting little friends from neighboring sites, and swimming.

RAFTER J-BAR RANCH CAMPGROUND

For our three nights in the tent, we chose Rafter J-Bar Ranch Campround outside of Hill City, SD. I have stayed at Rafter J-Bar on most of my previous Black Hills trips and year after year it continues to deliver.

We stayed in the main camp, at site #2, which is right across the road from the office/store and pool. The whole place is very clean and well taken care of. Our site with no electric was $43.95 +tax per night. That’s spendy for a tent site, but still cheaper than a hotel.

Nicoleen and I were disappointed to find out that the campground was no longer a “ranch campground,” as they emptied the stables several years ago and no longer offer trail rides. However, we were happy to see that not much else has changed. The staff is still friendly, the pool is still wet, and kids still enjoy exploring the natural areas.

Rocks don't change. Me in 1992 and my kids in 2016!

Rocks don’t change. Me in 1994 and my kids in 2016!

COST SUMMARY

Lodging (hotel): $0.00
Lodging (camping): $139.10
Fuel cost: estimated $175
Food, Shopping, Entertainment: estimated (very ballpark) $300

Total cost for 4-night road trip to South Dakota: ~$604.10
Savings from using value tactics: at least $215.55

COST BREAKDOWN

Although this trip didn’t utilize a lot of free travel tactics, we used value tactics throughout. We put all our spending on credit cards to earn more points and miles and we bought a cooler full of food before we left home, to keep our dining costs down. We also realized that with all these young kids along, simple activities like the swimming pool and campfires would be just as fun for them (and free) than trying to cram every day full of paid entertainment.

Travel Cost:
Nicoleen’s loaded down Honda Pilot got around 17-18 mpg on average. The constant air conditioning and many hills brought the fuel economy down. We spent about $175 on gas. There weren’t any Super Americas along our way, so we were unable to utilize our normal free gas tactics.

Lodging:
The campground was $139.10 for three nights. This seems expensive for camping but it’s a tourist area so all the rates are higher. Even so, it’s not a bad price for 3 nights’ lodging for 6 people! The hotel was a different story: we got a room that retails for $215.55 and paid $0.00 for it! It cost us 35,000 IHG points, for a redemption value of 0.62 cents per point. Not a very good rate, but it was still nice to get the hotel at no cost!

Food, Shopping, and Entertainment:
This part is very subjective and reporting my costs here is pretty meaningless. You can spend what you want on these parts of the trip. We were pretty frugal and only spent around $300. It seemed like we got little snacks along the way whenever we wanted, so in that sense we didn’t hold back. But I think bringing that huge cooler full of food and drink really helped this cost stay down.

OVERALL this was a very fun trip! The kids were a challenge sometimes but I think they really got a lot of good memories out of the deal. Road trips are hard to work value tactics into, but the free night at the hotel was definitely a welcome segment of the trip.

Hotel Review – Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza, Rapid City SD

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The Holiday Inn at Rushmore Plaza in Rapid City, South Dakota, was an unexpected shot of luxury on our family road trip earlier this month. I’m not talking ‘Four Seasons’ luxury; but luxury compared to the 12 hour packed car ride it took to get there, and luxury compared to the 3 nights of tent camping we had to look forward to.

We had planned to spend our first night in a hotel rather than to start the camping right away. We would be getting to the area in the evening and it would not be feasible to set up camp in the waning daylight, with a quartet of freshly un-couped kids. Using awardmapper.com I quickly found the only hotel that could accommodate us was the Holiday Inn due to its 6-person “2 bed executive room” option. There were other hotels in Rapid City I could book with points, but I would have had to book two rooms to fit the whole crew, so 35,000 IHG points ($215.55 including tax was the cash price) for one large room at the Holiday Inn would have to do.

ROOM

We booked the 2 bed executive room, which was pretty much the only non-suite room in town that sleeps 6 people. This is an oversized room with 2 queen beds and a fold out couch.

The room was very clean and came fully equipped with microwave, fridge, 2 TVs, and a desk. Our only complaint was the tiny size of the bathroom. This would have been fine if the vanity area out in the main room had a sink. It looks like a sink belongs there but instead it’s just a mirror and counter top. Trying to bathe 4 kids after swimming and get 6 of us ready for bed in a closet sized bathroom was inconvenient.

The non-sink vanity – a missed opportunity for added convenience

Aside from the small bathroom, the room was comfortable and spacious. The mattress was one of the best I’ve ever slept on! It was perfectly supportive yet soft, and it isolated movement extremely well. A kid could jump up and down on one side of the bed and not even wake up someone sleeping on the other side.

AMENITIES

The Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza has a very decent pool and two hot tubs. The workout room has a few machines and a punching bag (which our 6 year old son was fascinated by). We were the only ones using the pool on the Friday morning when we left.

The hotel has a full height center atrium featuring a cascading waterfall between the two elevators. Attached to the atrium is the Gold Bison Grill and the hotel bar. According to pictures I can find online, the whole place seems to have been renovated in the last couple of years. We thought the decor and ambiance were excellent in the public areas. The Thursday night when we arrived there was a lively bar crowd, but they weren’t loud or obnoxious.

Right next door is Rushmore Plaza, the large convention center in Rapid City, so there are plenty of nearby restaurants available, although the main shopping area is halfway across town. The Holiday Inn has a convenience store right by the front desk for any snacks or personal items you may need.

DINING

The only experience we had at the Gold Bison Grill was the breakfast buffet. Kids eat free with a paid adult so it was a great deal for us. The cost of the buffet was about $12 per person. The food itself was pretty good for a hotel breakfast. There was a self-serve waffle station and a staffed omelet station in addition to all the standard American hot and cold breakfast choices.

The bar is located between the front desk and the restaurant and has a very open layout. It has lots of comfortable seating around small tables; nice for more intimate gatherings. I stopped by before checking out to cash in the free drink coupon I was given upon check-in as a Platinum Elite IHG Rewards Club member (a benefit of owning the IHG Rewards Club Select card).

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

Due to its proximity to the convention center, the number and type of clientele probably varies drastically, depending on what the convention center is hosting.
When we arrived on a Thursday around 9:30 PM, there was a line to check in. Preferred check-in is another benefit of being an IHG Platinum Elite, which allowed me to skip the line and check in at the preferred guest counter.
The Holiday Inn Rushmore Plaza is recently renovated, with a nice restaurant, a decent pool, and (from what we experienced) very clean and spacious rooms with excellent beds. I would definitely stay here again. It was probably a bit of overkill for our purpose of simply resetting after the long day of road travel, but it was the only place in town I could use points to get a large enough room for our family of 6.

Playing Catch-Up (February 2016)