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If you are the kind of person who enjoys really obscure travel hacks, then this offer is for you! IHG Rewards Club offers something called IHG Trip Extras. This service is powered by Viator, which is part of the Tripadvisor family. The idea is that you pre-book your holiday activities from the comforts of home (or your hotel room).
Between now and 31 December, 2019, IHG Rewards Club members can earn 1,000 bonus points for booking any tour/activity via IHG Trip Extras. Like me… you probably aren’t thinking “I need to pre-book a holiday activity” – you are probably thinking “I wonder what is the cheapest activity available?!?”
The cheapest activity I could find cost $1.70, or roughly £1.30. An entry ticket to a classic car museum in Istanbul… Of course I won’t be anywhere near Istanbul in the foreseeable future, but I’m happy to buy 1,000 IHG points for £1.30!
An efficient way to search is to test various cities without specifying a date, whilst using the Filter & Sort tool to rank the activities from lowest price to highest…
There doesn’t appear to be any limit on the number of bonus points you can earn. But obviously I wouldn’t go crazy, despite the temptation of earning 75,000 elite qualifying miles – sufficient for the top Spire status – by booking 75 museum tickets for £100! You don’t really want to have your account flagged for audit by abusing this offer.
I have no idea whether my experience is typical, but my first two test transactions went through fine. (and the points arrived a few days later) Then, on future days there was simply no way to confirm any further purchases. Whether this was due to my IHG account being flagged or my use of non-USA payment methods, I don’t really know… (and this isn’t the sort of thing where you call to ask for help!)
Offer Terms
Offer available for purchases made before 11:59 PM ET December 31, 2019. Points will be awarded within 4-6 weeks of the completion of the activity. To qualify, activity must be booked through this site. Canceling your transaction will invalidate this offer. Offer is subject to change. All other IHG® Rewards Club Terms and Conditions apply.
Help Each Other Out!
$1.70 was the cheapest activity I could find. It was relatively easy to find $2.50 audio tours in certain major US cities. But if you find something cheaper, let us know in the comments section and help out a fellow InsideFlyer UK reader.
Dead, as not accepting payment card!
That is my problem as well. I suspect that it’s the same issue as USTA Daily Getaways – you are rejected without a USA payment card.
i recall being able to use a non-USA payment card for the Daily Getaways this year
Annoyingly the ‘Terms of Use’ link at the bottom of the payment page doesn’t work, so I can’t even check what the actual problem is
for me, i noticed there is text near the top of the page indicating to change the credit card, so the error was due to the card.
Yes, but no. I’ve tried various cards from various countries and it’s definitely not a question of my banks declining transactions.
I believe so too, it’s not the banks, its the site that is declining the transactions, but it’s strange if US cards are also being declined
Same not accepting my payment AMEX, oh well can’t win an all from uk
I’ve found a self-guided walking tour of Bangkok for $1.25 – just make sure you change the number of guests from the default ‘2’ to ‘1’.
https://www.ihg.com/trip-extras/us/en/activities/details?activity_xid=131230P10&search_id=1752666
Nice one.
Did you manage to book it?
Subsequent to writing up this article I found one in Calgary for 77 cents.
Nope, nothing seems to work now. Tried both Revolut MasterCard and Visa with a US address, but neither was accepted 🙁
There’s something in the card number that indicates whether it’s a US bank or not. It doesn’t matter what you list as your address.
this trick has been blocked since a few days ago, stop tring to check out, it just does not work on any payment method..
maybe someday it will become work again, but not for now.
For IHG Trip Extras, it has being disabled! Following its popularity last week. My purchase for $1.35 last went through and I have received the points ! However, the option was blocked a few hours later.
🙁
Tried a couple of cards but doesn’t work. UK Credit Cards.
Also can’t reduce number of guests to less than 2.
Tried the Calgary option and the Bangkok option.
Disappointing.
Nice one. I just came across another IHG hack by accident. In my Accelerate promo I got one which offered 4.5k bonus points if I booked a points and cash room. I booked one solely to purchase 5000 IHG miles I needed. Upon cancelling the reservation (within minutes of booking) I realised that IHG had credited me with the 5k points I purchased AND the 4.5k bonus points. I hadn’t expected to see the latter because I assumed they wouldn’t have posted until after a stay!
That is standard procedure. The Points & Cash target triggers when you book it. You don’t actually have to stay.
I know you guys are doing the cheap things to earn points but the some of the guided tours of london look quite good £4 for an audio tour not a bad price – shame they have blocked this and /or made it hard to buy.