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This bit of advice comes with a slight health warning: don’t do it. Let me explain…

Until 31 August 2016, you will earn double air miles on stays at IHG Hotels. Miles available include Avios, AAdvantage and Etihad Guest. While that sounds good, if you earn air miles directly with IHG hotels you will not earn IHG Rewards points. IHG Rewards Club is one of the most generous loyalty schemes out there, and is currently the subject of a massive potential points boost via its IHG Accelerate offer, so you really should give points-earning (as opposed to miles-earning) a very serious look, particularly at the moment.

Even if you have absolutely no use for IHG Rewards points, you still may well be better off just earning the IHG Rewards points bonus via the Accelerate promo and then converting them to airline miles. 10,000 IHG Rewards points gets you 2,000 Avios, for example. Indeed even IHG seem to pretty heavily point to the fact you’re better off earning points via this nod to Accelerate on the home page for the air miles offer:

The number of miles you earn with IHG Rewards Club varies depending on the airline. The full list is here, and as an example you’ll earn 2 Avios per $1 spend with BA Avios (so in the promo, you’ll earn 4 Avios per $1). Note that the number of IHG bonus miles you can earn is capped at 10,000 in the promotion period.

So my advice? Sign up for Accelerate and earn some serious bonus IHG Rewards points. If you are desperate to earn air miles, try calculating whether you are better off earning the double miles direct, or earning the mammoth bonuses via accelerate and then converting.