Free IHG Reward Points for Joining e-Rewards

I recently received an email from IHG Rewards Club announcing that they’d award me 600 IHG points when I joined e-Rewards and completed two surveys within three months.  As it turns out, I’ve been an e-Rewards member for a long time so I’m not eligible for this promotion.

If you’re not familiar with e-Rewards, it’s an organization that sends out surveys and awards you currency for taking those surveys.  You can then use that currency to “buy” hotel points, airline miles or gift certificates.  For example, $25 in e-Rewards currency can be used to “purchase” 500 American Airlines AAdvantage miles, 1000 Club Carlson Gold Points or a gift certificate to Best Buy.  Once you’ve accumulated $25 in e-Rewards currency you can choose to spend your currency at one of 33 merchants (including a few charities).

Some partners have a straight redemption value.  For example, when redeeming e-Rewards currency for American Airlines miles, it’s $25 = 500 miles, $50 = 1000 miles and $100 = 2000 miles, so the redemption value is the same.  On the other hand, Club Carlson will give you a bonus for redeeming more currency. $25 in e-Rewards currency nets you 1000 Gold Points but $50 will bring 2500 points and with a $100 redemption you get 4500 Gold Points.  So you need to keep an eye on what currency is useful to you to know when it’s best to redeem.  Note that you are often limited to one redemption for a particular merchant within a certain time period so if you’re close to the next-higher-level award, it may make sense to wait to redeem.

You’ll be sent survey links and even if you don’t qualify for the survey, you’ll get a token amount of e-Rewards currency.  There are surveys that will award you $5 or more in currency but they are usually quite involved and take a fair amount of time.  I prefer the shorter surveys to fill in the time between doing other things at work.  The currency adds up before you realize it and soon enough you’ve got 500 frequent flyer miles ready to transfer to your account.  Note that the transfer sometimes takes a few days, so plan accordingly.

So if you’re an IHG Rewards Club member, check your email for a similar offer and your personalized link.