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

UPDATE – DECEMBER 2021:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.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.