GOOD NEWS: IHG Rewards Club is extending your hotel elite status to January 2022

IHG Rewards Club has finally seen the light and is joining Hilton and Marriott in extending your elite status automatically by 12 months.

Your elite status will automatically be carried over for the whole of 2021 and your benefits will carry on until January 2022 when the annual status reset happens.

Even better news for Spire Elite members

The news is even better for top tier Spire Elite members.  (The full list of IHG Rewards Club tiers and tier benefits is here.)

You will automatically receive ANOTHER ‘choice’ benefit allowing you to claim either 25,000 free IHG Rewards Club points or gift Platinum Elite status to a friend.

Please note that this is not active now.  It will take IHG a few weeks to extend memberships and, for Spire Elite members, attach the new ‘choice’ benefit to your account.

Ambassador free night vouchers are also extended

If you have InterContinental Ambassador status, your weekend free night voucher has been extended by three months.

This only applies to members on the books as of 15th March 2020.

IHG had already announced that it was extending Ambassador memberships by three months but had been refusing to budge on the free night vouchers.

IHG is still reducing the elite status criteria for 2021

If you don’t have IHG Rewards Club status at the moment, or want to move up a level, IHG Rewards Club is still keeping its lowered thresholds in place.

Spire Elite is cut from 75,000 base points to 55,000 base points, or from 75 nights to 55 nights.

Given that you will receive the 25,000 points ‘elite choice’ benefit for achieving Spire Elite, it is worth pushing for if you are getting close.

Full details of these changes are on the official IHG travel advisory page, which is here.

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IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

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

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

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.