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Use Your Chase IHG Free Night at the IC Bora Bora While You Still Can
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Quick summary
A popular hotel loyalty certificate is being devalued for bookings made after May 1, limiting its use at top-tier properties.
Currently, it is still possible to redeem this certificate for high-value stays, such as overwater bungalows at a luxury Bora Bora resort, with notable availability in early 2019.
Award night and certificate night inventories differ at this property, so searching specifically for certificate nights can reveal more options.
Travelers can potentially stack certificates for consecutive nights by coordinating with others or using certificates from different years.
What to consider
After May 1, certificates will only be valid at properties costing 40,000 points per night or less.
Certificate bookings are restricted to the lowest-category room, but at this Bora Bora resort, all rooms are overwater bungalows.
Certificates must be booked (not just used) by their expiration date, and changes are not allowed after expiration.
What you'll miss from the article
Step-by-step guidance on searching for and maximizing certificate night availability at high-end resorts before the devaluation takes effect.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Soon, the most valuable IHG properties will no longer be eligible for the Chase IHG Free Night Anniversary certificate. However, there's still time to redeem them for the maximum possible value — an overwater bungalow at the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa — and there's availability!
Here's how you can book this free night, and potentially how to even stack free nights.
Stay here for free. (Photo courtesy InterContinental Bora Bora Thalasso)
Chase Free Night Inventory at the IC Bora Bora Thalasso
One wouldn't expect free nights to be widely available at a property usually costing over $1,000 per night, but that is what's showing at the IC Thalasso. Perhaps the reason is a misconception about the Chase free night inventory. Cardmembers have observed that many IHG hotels seem to share inventory for award nights and Chase anniversary free nights. However, that is definitely not true at the IC Thalasso. See what happened when I tried to book an award night:
I got a notice of "Rooms are not available for Reward Nights on one of more of the selected dates." And when I clicked on "View available dates" for this location, there weren't any.
However, when I performed the same search for an anniversary night, I saw something different. To do this, I went into my account and clicked "Redeem" on the free night.
Which unlocked a new rate under Rate Preference.
And when I searched the same date at that same IC Bora Bora Thalasso, the night was free.
This difference was not just for one random date. My most recent search showed only one date available in the next year using points, but when I searched for Chase anniversary free nights, I saw lots of available dates.
Unfortunately, you cannot view a calendar for the Chase free night like you can for award nights — you have to search each date individually. Spot checks from this year showed little availability before December. But from December I checked consecutive dates for four months and found two open weeks in mid-December, and almost every day in January, February and March of 2019 open!
(Photo courtesy of the InterContinental Thalasso Bora Bora.)
It appears, however, that the IC Thalasso only makes one unit available for the Chase free night. So if the availability you see differs from what I've said here, other TPG readers may have beaten you to it.
Please, however, don't reserve a room unless you actually intend on using it. I see inventory at this resort pop up all the time just a few days in advance — meaning people book award nights far in advance, then cancel them just outside of the cancellation window, not leaving enough time for someone else to plan a trip and take that spot.
Stacking Chase IHG Anniversary Free Nights
Bora Bora isn't easy or cheap to get to, so traveling across the globe for one free night may seem extreme. But stacking free nights would make the journey more worth it. The most obvious way to do this is by booking back-to-back free nights with a cardholder partner who also has a free night certificate. IC Thalasso actually allows three adults on a reservation, so you could even find a third friend with a free night and book three consecutive nights. Though that may make your stay slightly less romantic — or more romantic, if you're into that sort of thing.
After May 1, you can still stack Chase anniversary free nights at hotels with a redemption value of 40,000 points per night, such as the InterContinental Bali. (Photo courtesy of the InterContinental Bali.)
This is how I used certificates from consecutive years to book consecutive nights at the IC Thalasso. Take a look at the certificate in your IHG account. The expiration date for the certificate represents the day by which the certificate must be booked, not used. With availability listed over 11 months out, you could use it for a booking well into the next year. An important note, though: After the expiration date of a certificate, no changes can be made to the reservation to which it was applied.
Because the certificate is valid for just over a year, there is a 10-day overlap where you could have two certificates in your account. Then you can find availability and use your certificates to book consecutive nights.
The free night certificate is only available in the lowest-category room, but luckily at the IC Thalasso, all accommodation is overwater bungalows.
After redeeming both certificates for consecutive nights next January, I'll be getting two nights worth $2,091 for $98 — the price of two annual fees.
Of course, you don't have to book these consecutive nights at the same time, but at properties with limited availability, you may want to ensure both nights are available before booking a certificate you won't later be able to change.
December - March is wet season in Bora Bora, so the weather can be a toss up, but when I think of weather back home in Chicago in January, this suddenly seems tolerable.
Other Ways to Maximize Your Stay
While you can only book the lowest-level accommodation with the free night certificate and Platinum status won't get you an upgrade, InterContinental Ambassador "status" will, if available. The $200 per year status gets you a mountain-facing bungalow upgrade, four bottles of water per day (a premium on the island) and 4pm late checkout.
Use Ambassador status to get an upgraded view of this mountain.(Photo courtesy of the InterContinental Thalasso Bora Bora.)
I'l be padding days on either side of my reservation to stay at cheap(er) accommodation on Bora Bora and watch availability as the date gets closer. If a day opens up, like I mention above they often do, I'll tack on an award night.
No one is happy about another credit card perk devaluation. However, if a Bora Bora overwater bungalow has been on your list, there's still time to make it happen for next to nothing.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
