Chase Is Offering an 80% Transfer Bonus to IHG — Here's Why You Should Probably Skip It

Chase Ultimate Rewards has rolled out an 80% transfer bonus to IHG One Rewards, running from 12AM ET on November 1, 2026 until 11:59PM ET on December 3, 2026. The standard 1,000:1,000 transfer ratio becomes 1,000:1,800 during the promo window, transfers are instant, and there's no cap on how many times you can use it. On paper, that looks like a gift. Look at the maths, though, and it's a deal most people should walk past.

The core problem is what IHG points are actually worth. At a typical valuation of around half a cent each, 1.8 IHG points per Chase point still works out to less than one cent of value per Chase point. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are generally valued at roughly 1.7 cents each, thanks to strong transfer partners like airline and hotel programs where redemptions stretch much further. Moving points to IHG at this bonus rate means deliberately shredding around 40% of their value — even with the headline 80% boost.

There's also a cheaper way to stock up on IHG points if that's genuinely what you want. IHG regularly sells its own points for about 0.5 cents each, often with promotions on top. Buying them outright at that price beats converting points that could be worth closer to two cents each elsewhere. Unless you have a very specific, high-value IHG redemption in mind — and you've done the maths on it — buying beats transferring.

Worth knowing for context: Chase runs a transfer bonus to IHG two or three times a year, typically in the 50% to 100% range, so an 80% offer is nothing special. Earlier in 2026 there was a 100% bonus, and it faced the same fundamental problem. The issue isn't the size of the bonus — it's that IHG sits near the bottom of Chase's transfer partner list in terms of point value, and no temporary percentage bump changes that.

For travellers sitting on a pile of Ultimate Rewards points, the takeaway is simple: save them for partners where they go further, or use them through Chase's own travel portal or pay-yourself-back options if you just want cash-out value. Anyone chasing free hotel nights at IHG properties is better off watching for point sales, where half a cent per point is the going rate. This promotion runs until early December 2026, so there's no rush to decide — and in most cases, the right decision is to leave your points exactly where they are.