Standard Chartered has launched a new promotion for IHG Rewards Club transfers, where cardholders can get a 75% bonus when they transfer rewards points by 2 August 2020.ย This comes after previous offers for Emirates Skywards, Accor Live Limitless, and United MileagePlus.
Unfortunately, it’s not really worth your time.ย
Transfer points to IHG Rewards Club with a 75% bonus
From 17 July till 2 August 2020, Standard Chartered cardholders can transfer points to IHG Rewards Club at a ratio of 2,500: 1,750, instead of the usual 2,500: 1,000. There is no cap on the maximum bonus you can receive.ย
All transfers must be made byย 11.59 p.m SGT on 2 August 2020 to be eligible for the bonus (this refers to the date you requested the transfer, not the date the points credit to your account).
Bonus points will be credited along with base points “according to standard transfer lead times”, which typically takes 5-7 working days.
This offer is marketed to Standard Chartered X Card members, but just like the previous promotions, Standard Chartered Visa Infinite members can participate too. If you hold both cards, your points will be pooled together for the purposes of redemption.
| โ ๏ธLeap of Faith |
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Like the previous transfer promotions, the bonus doesn’t actually reflect on the transfer portal. You’ll just have to make the transfer and trust that the bonus will be credited. Based on the past three promotions, however, there haven’t been any reported issues. Remember, the easiest way to access SCB’s new transfer partners is through the mobile app, not the desktop.ย
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Is it worth transferring points to IHG Rewards Club?
Nope.ย
If you really want IHG points, the easiest way is to buy them outright.ย IHG is currently selling points with a 100% bonus, or 0.5 US cents each. If we take that as the valuation, then we see that 1,750 IHG Rewards Club points are worth about US$8.75 (S$12).
2,500 SCB Rewards points are 1,000 KrisFlyer miles, so it’s as if you accepted a 1.2 cents per mile valuation. That’s extremely low, even in the current climate.ย
It’s also hard to gauge the usefulness of IHG Rewards Club points because IHG no longer publishes an award chart. Instead, they dynamically price awards based on demand- a given property may cost more or fewer points, depending on time of year.ย
In the table below I’ve cobbled together some sample pricing for Singapore, but remember that the exact prices you’ll pay depend on the dates you pick.ย
| Property | Points Required |
| Holiday Inn Express Serangoon | 12,500 |
| Holiday Inn Atrium | 15,000 |
| Holiday Inn Express Orchard Road | 15,000 |
| Hotel Indigo Katong | 17,500 |
| Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay | 17,500 |
| Holiday Inn Express Katong | 17,500 |
| Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre | 25,000 |
| Crowne Plaza Changi | 25,000 |
| Regent Singapore | 27,500 |
| InterContinental Singapore | 37,500 |
| InterContinental Robertson Quay | 50,000 |
To put it another way, it’d cost you the equivalent of 21,429 KrisFlyer miles to book one night at the InterContinental Singapore. At a simple 2 cents valuation, those miles would be worth ~S$430. You’d be better off looking for cheap staycation cash rates which would come with extra perks like free breakfast and late check-out.ย
Conclusion
It’s good to see Standard Chartered continue to roll out transfer bonuses, but this is one to pass on. Hopefully, you’d have already cashed out your points on the very good Accor transfer bonus back in March.
Will you be transferring points to IHG Rewards Club? Do you even have any SCB points left to begin with?
Transferred out all my points to KF early June. Curious what SCB will do as there are no points to deduct for fee…..
We should know very soon