How to Earn InterContinental Points

The InterContinental Hotels Group rewards program, called Priority Club, says it’s the best rewards program of any hotel chain. I swear I’ve read that on another hotel rewards website, and even if I haven’t it’s worth taking those kinds of self-descriptions with a grain of salt. Still, the array of hotels under the InterContinental umbrella means you should be able to find something in your price range in most places you’ll be traveling – and there are a few other ways to earn InterContinental points, too.

It’s important to note that the official Priority Club website (which is linked at the bottom of this article) offers different information about how to earn InterContinental points depending on where you live. I’ve used the information for United States residents to write this article, but if you don’t live in the U.S. then you’ll need to visit the official website and choose where you live to get the information that applies to you.

How to Earn InterContinental Points

Hotel Stays
Hotels in the InterContinental family include more than 4,200 properties around the world. The number of points you earn with each stay depends on the hotel you choose.

With Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo, you get 10 Priority Club points for every $1 spent on eligible charges.

With Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites, you get 5 points for every $1 spent on eligible charges.

With InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, you get 2,000 points for your entire stay at qualifying room rates.

In each case, you can choose to earn airline miles instead of Priority Club points – the number of miles you’ll earn vary by the airline you’re using, so be sure to find out which makes more sense for you.

Air Travel
Whereas the InterContinental partnerships for, say, hotels or car rentals might not be as extensive as some programs, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a longer list of airlines on which you can earn miles through a hotel’s rewards program. Writing just about all the airlines in the partnership program – and what you earn with each – could quite literally take up a whole article on its own.

But since that would be a silly thing to do, what with all the information already on the Priority Club website, I’ll just give you a few highlights here.

As is usually the case with these rewards programs, the number of miles you can earn varies – sometimes significantly – depending both on the airline you choose and the hotel you’re staying in. Some of the time you’re earning a set number of miles per hotel stay, and other times you’re earning a certain number of miles for every $1 in qualifying charges.

I’ll let you check out the complete list of airlines InterContinental partners with to find the carriers you use most, but I will mention that seeing budget carrier Southwest Airlines on this list is a pleasant surprise.

Credit Cards
There’s only one Priority Club credit card – so there aren’t as many choices, but there’s less to be confused by, too.

With the Priority Club Rewards Visa Signature Card from Chase you earn 30,000 bonus points right off the bat when you first use the card. This is, they’re quick to point out, enough for two free nights at many Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express properties.

Beyond that initial chunk of bonus points, you earn 10,000 more bonus points each year when you spent $15,000 over the course of the year. You’ll get 1 point for every $1 spent on the card, but 3 points for every $1 spent when you use the card at InterContinental Hotels properties.

Car Rentals
There’s only one car rental agency on the partner list for InterContinental Hotels, but it’s a big one – Hertz.

When you book a car rental with Hertz and show your Priority Club membership number, you earn 125 base points for every rental day. There’s also a special discount code for Priority Club members to use (CDP 22754) for savings on Hertz rentals.

Cruises
Many rewards programs, run by both hotels and airlines, have their own version of a travel agent of some kind – and booking trips through that agency helps you earn more points toward the rewards program. InterContinental Hotels is no different in this regard, although instead of a general travel booking service they focus on cruises.

It’s called Priority Club Rewards Cruises, and when you book a cruise through that service you can earn up to 20,000 points. The number of points you earn depends on how long the cruise is that you’re taking, so in order to get those 20,000 points you’d need to book a 13+-day cruise. The lowest number of points you’ll earn, for a 1-5 day cruise, is 3,000 points.

Dining
InterContinental Hotels has its own dining program through which you can earn points toward rewards, which is always a great way to earn points.

To start earning points, enroll in the Priority Club Rewards Dining program and register one credit or debit card. Just for joining (and spending your first $25), you’ll get a bonus of 500 points. Then it’s just a matter of eating out at the dining establishments which are on the “participating restaurants” list in order to earn 5 points for every $1 spent at any of those places when you use the card you’ve registered.

There are often bonus point offers going on, including ways to earn big chunks of bonus points or certain periods when you’ll earn double points, so it’s worth checking the site before you go out to eat to see if you could earn more points easily.

Shopping, Flowers, & Gifts
There are several retailers that work with InterContinental Hotels to help you earn points in the Priority Club program. This isn’t a comprehensive list, so be sure to check the Priority Club website for all the participating retailers, but here are a few:

• Flower delivery (Florist.com, FTD)
• Vinesse wines
• Gift Sense
• OfficeMax.com
• USA Today subscriptions
• Priority Club Rewards Shopping (by shopping through the Priority Club website, you can earn even more points from all kinds of online retailers you already know and love)

Meetings
Are you in a position where you plan meetings or gatherings regularly? Then why not earn points for your efforts?

When you book a meeting of any kind at a hotel in the InterContinental family, whether you need conference space or just a block of at least 10 hotel rooms, you can earn up to 3 points for every $1 you spend. There are more than 3,600 hotels you can choose from in the United States, Mexico, Latin America, or Asia.

Financial Services
When I first started researching all the ways you can earn points with the various airline and hotel rewards programs out there, one of the more surprising ways (at least to me) was by using certain financial services – and InterContinental Hotels is yet another in the series that has partnerships with several financial services providers to help you earn points in their Priority Club program.

You can earn Priority Club points with:

• Chase Home Mortgage
• LendingTree
• Sentry Insurance
• EverBank
• Chase Checking Account

Each service provider will reward you with a different number of points, sometimes for engaging them and sometimes just for getting a quote.

To learn more about the Priority Club program, visit the official InterContinental Hotels Priority Club website.

photo by tskdesign