Earlier this year IHG confirmed that they would be moving towards variable pricing for award stays, rather than using award categories with fixed prices. Traditionally the most expensive award nights cost 60,000 points per night, this maximum was increased to 70,000 at the start of 2019. Now with this variable pricing IHG is charging up to 100,000 points per night. It seems that there are three properties charging this new rate:
- Intercontinental Maldives
- Intercontinental Alliance Resorts The Venetian Macao
- Intercontinental Alliance Resorts The Parisian Macao
Interestingly the cash rates of the Macau properties aren’t even that high ($200 a night in some cases). When IHG introduced variable awards I said that this really meant one of three things:
- Award prices are directly linked to the cash price of the room. This is the method Southwest uses.
- Off peak/peak pricing. The Marriott program will soon introduce peak and off peak pricing.
- No transparency, make it up as you go. This is the method that Delta currently uses to determine award flights, they have completely removed the award chart and just make changes on the fly with no notice.
Unfortunately it looks like IHG has gone for the no transparency make things up as you go route. Award prices are definitely not being tied to the cash rate ($200 property costing 100,000 points per night doesn’t fit with that narrative) it also doesn’t look like they are using off peak/peak pricing for any of these properties either. Less transparency is always a bad thing because it means these companies can make negative changes without informing loyalty members or being held accountable.
Hat tip to VFTW
