REGISTER NOW: IHG launches a new promotion and confirms ‘easier status’ with rollover nights

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UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021: This article is now out of date, but don’t worry. We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December 2021. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

IHG Rewards Club has launched its new promotion – you can register here using code 42050 – and shared more details about how it intends to deal with status for 2022.

First up …..

Earn 2,000 bonus points (COUNT FOR STATUS) with every two nights

The new IHG Rewards Club promotion has a twist as you can see here.

It is valid for stays from 20th January to 31st March.

You receive 2,000 bonus points on every two nights you stay. Importantly, these points will also count for status. This means you can make a decent dent into your 2022 requalification.

The wording of this is poor. My understanding from IHG is that you get the bonus points after every two nights and NOT for a 2+ night stay.

This means that 2 x 1-night stays would trigger 2,000 bonus points, and a six night stay would trigger a 6,000 points bonus.

I value an IHG Rewards point at 0.4p. Your bonus is therefore worth £4 per night, which is not huge. The real benefit is that the 2,000 points count towards status.

You need to register on ihg.com here. You need to use code 42050 when prompted. Do it now before you forget.

IHG Rewards Club confirms new status thresholds

We reported last week that app users were seeing a reduced threshold of 55,000 status points for top tier Spire Elite status for 2022.

This has now been confirmed. IHG has reduced all of its ‘base point’ and night tier thresholds by 25%. This means:

Gold Elite requires 7,500 base points or 7 nights

Platinum Elite requires 30,000 base points or 30 nights

Spire Elite requires 55,000 points or 55 nights

The original requirements are shown on ihg.com here.

Your 2020 elite nights will be carried forward

As well as reducing the number of qualifying nights required by 25%, IHG Rewards Club is rolling over all of your qualifying nights from 2020.

As an example, if you were a Platinum Elite who only managed 10 nights in 2020, you will now be starting 2021 with 10 nights in the bank. You have a reduced threshold of 30 nights (so another 20 needed) to retain Platinum Elite for 2022.

Is this enough?

To be honest, I am not sure that IHG has done enough here.

Accor, Hilton and Hyatt have halved the number of nights you need to earn status – IHG has only reduced base points and nights by 25%, albeit offset by carrying over nights from 2020

Marriott has given you 50% of the qualifying nights you need to retain status for 2022

Someone who believes that they will only manage, say, 20 nights in 2021 isn’t going to get far with IHG. You WOULD get quite a long way with Hilton, Marriott, Accor or Hyatt, depending on what was carried over.

The upside for IHG is that the other chains may have made it TOO easy to retain status, allowing guests enough leeway to try to build status with another brand on top.

For more information on what other chains are doing, see here for Accor, here for Hyatt, here for Marriott and here for Hilton.

These changes will take time to show online

IHG has just announced these changes. It will take a few days for your 2020 elite nights to be carried over and for your online account to show the reduced status threshold for 2022. Give it time.

Don’t forget to register for 2,000 bonus points

What you should do now is register for the new 2,000 bonus points promotion. The link you need is here – don’t forget to use code 42050.

PS. IHG has also announced further extensions to free night awards.

Any credit card free night due to expire in 2021 will now be extended to 31st December 2021.

IHG Rewards update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: You can earn up to triple IHG Rewards base points with IHG’s new Autumn promotion. It runs from 1st October to 31st December. You can register here and our full article on the offer is here.

New to IHG Rewards? Read our overview of IHG Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG Rewards points, you can buy them here.

You will get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards points by 4th January 2022. Click here to buy or learn more.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

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IHG Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Prins Polo says:

13 Jan13 January 18:00

I stayed at a depressing Holiday Inn earlier this year where the points rate was 40,000 per night. So after 40 nights this promo will give me enough points for a free night (20 x 2k). Not sure I’ll be going out of my way to stay at IHG… (I know rates vary, but this is just an example).

Also, I’m Spire Elite, and the benefits are non-existent, so am not getting to excited about the rollover nights either. Focusing more on Hyatt and Marriott these days as these are the two chains that get the bulk of my stays now.
- Andrew says:
  
  13 Jan13 January 21:07
  
  We’re only on the 13th day of the year. Would you have been better off paying the cash rate?
  
  Hyatt is pretty hopeless for domestic stays. My most regular IHG stay is around 6 times a year for a single night. It’s a perfectly good Holiday Inn. The nearest alternatives are a Premier Inn or a Britannia.
  - Prins Polo says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 02:58
    
    I meant 2020 obviously! Gosh, didn’t realize it’s already 2021 😉
  - Andrew says:
    
    15 Jan15 January 12:42
    
    >> The nearest alternatives are a Premier Inn or a Britannia.
    
    Now you are really depressing me
Simon D says:

13 Jan13 January 19:12

I am guessing that no-one has any news on the Ambassador promotion free nights that are due to expire at in April? I am not confident about being able to make use of that!
- Barbara Wakely says:
  
  13 Jan13 January 23:42
  
  My ambassador free weekend night is expiring on February 1st. I have made several enquiries about the possibility of extending it. Today’s response from IHG says
  “Now with regards to the extension you were asking Barbara, were troy sorry to say that we don’t have any extension available for the Ambassador Weekend night certificate since this is a onetime benefit as part of your Ambassador membership.Though I believe our hotel in Melbourne is now available for reservations so why not take advantage and make a reservation while it is still available”
  I am not sure if they are suggesting Melbourne Australia or Melbourne Florida but neither location is feasible under current lockdown. Ridiculous suggestion. So I guess that’s a no then.
  - Paul Jones says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 09:19
    
    I’ve already lost 2 nights and IHG have been consistently dreadful in sorting this. I’ve got 3more expiring one of the month My latest response
    
    Hello Mr. Jones,
    
    I trust that all is well.
    
    I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being our Spire Royal Ambassador member and for also being part of our Kimpton Inner Circle program. We really do appreciate you for choosing us for your travels.
    
    I would like to apologize for the cancelled reservations and for the travels that did not push through due to the pandemic. I completely understand how frustrating this must be for you.
    
    As much as I wanted to help you with extending your Ambassador and Inner Circle certificates, I am unable to do so at this time for we have not yet received any updates from our management team. IHG continues to make improvements and adjustments by still carefully monitoring the situation and how it progresses.
    
    I have documented this on a corporate level and we will definitely give you an update, Mr. Jones.
    
    Thank you for understanding.
    
    Given that I’ve been constantly in touch about the IHG CC free night voucher that has still not been sorted 11months down the line (feb last year qualified 10k spend and verified by creation ) I’ve really no faith in IHG whatsoever
    I’ve been a RA for 10 years now btw. So much for loyalty then.
    - Jonathan says:
      
      14 Jan14 January 12:51
      
      If they won’t sort a RA/Inner Circle member out then no chance for us plebs!
      
      Out of interest what was your ballpark stay pattern to qualify & retain both of them?
      - Paul Jones says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 05:38
        
        Hi Jonathan,
        I stay around 100+nights mainly Intercontinental and globally.Tend to mix points and says together when staying for leisure. Always contact hotel I’m staying in to discuss upgrades and availability. Have built up a good contact list of GM’s over the years which helps massively as inconsistent offerings is the norm with IHG.
Dean Selway says:

13 Jan13 January 20:27

Anyone know if ihg ambassador is going to be extended?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  13 Jan13 January 21:07
  
  I hope not I want a new 2-4-1
Anna says:

13 Jan13 January 20:39

Where exactly are we going to stay before March 31st?! They could at least have extended it until the end of April in the event Easter travel becomes a possibility.
- Anna says:
  
  13 Jan13 January 20:45
  
  Though I have signed up x 3 if that gives HFP anything!
- Andrew says:
  
  13 Jan13 January 21:20
  
  Just been talking about this with family.
  
  My SIL was done on Monday, her parents done yesterday, my brother today (spare doses available as he was collecting my SIL from work).
  
  In 3 weeks time, they’ve got 50% protection. In 15 weeks time they’ve got 95% protection.
  
  So that means the earliest they’ll be able to do anything together with confidence is the Mayday weekend.
  - Steve says:
    
    14 Jan14 January 05:45
    
    Because you are protected doesn’t mean you can’t spread it right? So it will be more about when the right number of people had it.
Wendy Jones says:

13 Jan13 January 21:08

Just a quick heads up for anyone converting their Tesco points to vouchers and vouchers to Avios by the 18th… when I signed in to convert my vouchers today there was a message on the app that said the app will be down for maintenance on the 16th and 17th. So to be safe you really should do it in the next 24 hours.

I may have missed an announcement on this, but I looked quickly before posting. I also don’t know where else to put this in order for the HFP writers to see it. (Ah, I see an email address below on the submit page, so I’ll email them as well)
- kitten says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 11:15
  
  Tesco’s revenge?
DS says:

13 Jan13 January 22:09

Does Mr & Mrs Smith hotels count for this promotion?

“IHG Rewards points can be earned and redeemed at participating Mr & Mrs Smith hotels when booked through IHG’s direct channels.”
https://www.ihgplc.com/en/news-and-media/news-releases/2020/ihg-rewards-ties-the-knot-with-mr-mrs-smith
Craig says:

13 Jan13 January 22:37

Looks like I’ll start this year on 53 nights then and requalify this month!
Alan says:

14 Jan14 January 00:24

I’d say they’ve done plenty given you can earn right up to top status via credit card spend with IHG, unlike others.
- QFFlyer says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 05:32
  
  Agreed, that was my first thought.
- Dave says:
  
  14 Jan14 January 15:32
  
  You’d have to spend £55000 on their credit card to get Spire!! What does top tier Spire get you? Next to nothing, not even breakfast!
  I’ll stick to Hilton/Marriott.