And the new IHG top tier is confirmed as ….. Spire Elite

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• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  11 Jul11 July 09:59

  Weird name and without any real benefits zero chance of winning me over from Hilton

• Christian says:

  11 Jul11 July 10:03

  What – that’s it? “Months of consultations with our valued guests…listening to what our customers want” etc. etc. and they come up with this? Who were these people? There is nothing here. It’s the hotel equivalent of “We couldn’t think what to get you for your birthday so we bought you a book token”. Again.

  Where are the “benefits”. Actually, just where’s the imagination? Free breakfast should have been the starting point. That’s at least a tangible benefit worth having. Then there’s so much else – Spire rooms, flunkies to walk you to your room scattering rose petals, a lift just for me that I won’t have to share with anyone else…. Anything would be better than this. It’s just so lazy.

  I have a trip to Atlanta in two weeks I’m about to book hotels for, so let’s see if Spire actually means anything in practice.

  • czechoslovakia says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:17

    Rob, you need to get a “like” button installed – even if only for this post.

• Lady London says:

  11 Jul11 July 13:01

  Wondering why so many people want free hotel breakfast in mid-range hotels. Mostly unless the hotel is very special I run a mile from hotel breakfasts.

  • Waribai says:

    11 Jul11 July 14:32

    If you’ve got work to do it saves time. For me it really comes into its own with toddlers in tow. High chairs, suitable buffet items and can get back to the room in a jiffy!

  • Leo says:

    11 Jul11 July 15:42

    I’m with you on this. Free breakfasts are almost an HfP obsession! If I haven’t paid for it I don’t miss it.

    • Brian says:

      12 Jul12 July 05:36

      Free breakfast is one of those things where you think you’re getting loads of value, simply because, if you are stupid enough to pay for it, it costs upwards of thirty pounds for two, in many cases. A bit like thinking that 50,000 points is good value for an Intercontinental simply because if you were stupid enough to pay for it, it would cost upwards of 250 pounds.

• testpie says:

  11 Jul11 July 13:39

  Platinum Members of old – Don’t forget to login to IHG then go to the link below to claim your 25,000 free points:

  https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/us/en/account/choice-benefits

• Saf says:

  11 Jul11 July 16:19

  Free breakfast should be standard with Spire, at least it’ll match Hilton Gold.

• Geoggy says:

  11 Jul11 July 17:58

  How have you managed to get Spire then Rob?

  Harking back to your piece on cancelling the IHG credit card, it sounded like you were some way away from qualifying and needed the 60k credit card bonus?

  • Rob says:

    11 Jul11 July 21:20

    Explanation on Tuesday! Only dragged out as I am away (see Instagram!) and need to rework the piece first which cannot happen until Monday.

    This also explains the rather dull article line up tomorrow 🙂

• AndyGWP says:

  12 Jul12 July 09:04

  I have 60k points at present (guess how I got exactly that number 😀 lol ) , and even with your info above Raffles, I can’t figure out how much effort would be involved in hitting another 15k. At a point per £, it would need a £15k spend which doesn’t seem worthwhile at all. Am I missing an easy option.

  (I only went for the card initially, as I had two expensive stays at a Holiday Inn coming up @ £100+ p/n, and it was cheaper to use 20k per night points instead and pay the £99 credit card fee 🙂 – love this site, so thanks for helping me start to think that way. It may not be classed as best value but it was for me – loathed the thought of paying that much for a Holiday Inn!)

  • AndyGWP says:

    12 Jul12 July 09:06

    (I obviously meant £7.5k of spend! 😉 Still not sure it’s worth it when there a more lucrative sign-ups)

    • mark2 says:

      13 Jul13 July 14:09

      I got a Virgin card to get 10,00 miles which I transferred to IHG. This was to spend, but it counted towards status, although a transfer from my wife’s IHG account did not. I also got 600 points from e_Rewards and a couple of minor purchases leaving me 4,364 short for Spire with a stay booked on 28 Sept. I think I can do it with 2000 from e_Rewards and the rest on the credit card. Tomorrow Rob is revealing a wheeze but I suspect it may be for people who stay in hotels regularly.

      • Rob says:

        13 Jul13 July 15:31

        The wheeze is the same you detailed above, but your wife concerns me 🙂

        What exactly happened there? Her Virgin to her IHG?

        • mark2 says:

          13 Jul13 July 16:39

          No, her IHG to my IHG. this did not count towards status.

        • Rob says:

          13 Jul13 July 17:34

          Ah OK. I would have expected that.

  • Dave R says:

    13 Jul13 July 15:04

    You could book a couple of stays using the 5k bonus points rate.

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