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Craig recently wrote a thoughtful article about how the increased prevalence of ‘dynamic pricing’ impacts the way that smart travellers should plan their travel. One of the main points was that it now makes sense to ‘lock in’ a points booking asap, but then keep checking to see if the number of points required drops.
Grant over at US blog TravelWithGrant shared a perfect example of this – dropping a 90,000 points IHG Rewards booking down, first to 76,000 points, and then all the way down to just 48,000 points!
From my own experience, I can confirm that IHG Rewards Points pricing in particular can vary enormously – even when the corresponding cash rate stays more or less the same. It is possible to save more than 50% on some occasions.
Bottom line
This is a strategy that can be applied to any other ‘dynamic’ points/miles currency too, but the swings in IHG Points rates are remarkable. Book on the wrong day (and don’t check again) and you might end up getting terrible value from your points.
Book the same hotel for the same stay date on a different day and you might end up getting a fantastic deal!
How often do you check your award bookings to see if you can save some points?
Agreed. I saved 20k points last week on a booking at the Intercontinental Berlin. It’s a good game 🙂