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

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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.

IHG Rewards Club

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.

Intercontinental 2000 bonus points

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 One Rewards update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.

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.

Category

IHG One Rewards

Comments (58)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Phillip says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:03

    I guess the only thing with IHG is that credit card spend counts for status unlike the other hotel groups.

  • Andrew says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:09

    And remembering that reward nights count towards your target too.

  • Liz says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:09

    The link requires a promo code??

    • Rob says:
      13 Jan13 January 17:36

      ….. which is listed at least three times in the article.

      • Dance-Ace-Base says:
        13 Jan13 January 17:42

        but you don’t need the code or that link. That’s only there to give HfP their affiliate commission. You can go straight to IHG

      • Liz says:
        13 Jan13 January 20:52

        Duh! I read the whole article and didn’t see that! Brain fog!!!

    • ChrisC says:
      13 Jan13 January 17:39

      which is listed in the article!

      But if you register via your IHG account then no code is needed – I did it earlier this afternoon via the app

      • Alex Sm says:
        14 Jan14 January 19:05

        Same here. I also clicked on Rob’s link and landed straight on the promo page, without any need for a code

        • Rob says:
          14 Jan14 January 19:40

          Must have updated overnight – last night it wanted the code putting in by hand.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:16

    The Hilton did both – full (not quite) points rollover and 50% cut in thresholds. Combine that with the double nights promo at the end of last year it made getting diamond relatively easy.

    Annoyingly for me there’s no extras offered to those who qualified for diamond based on the regular criteria. I had already stayed over 60 nights before lockdown 1

    The reason I say not quite to the full points rollover is that it was capped at 60 points because in normal years 60 is the diamond qualification level – it’s 30 this year so I think as I have 60 nights in my account even if I stayed no nights this year then 30 nights will roll into 2022

    It’s a hard balance for hotel chains but I think IHG have the balance right here. It’s been so easy to hit diamond with Hilton that if travel recovers quickly in the second half of this year we may see hotels overrun with status members

    • Rob says:
      13 Jan13 January 17:36

      No they won’t. A night cannot rollover twice (I looked this up because I am in the same boat). If you do zero nights this year, zero will roll over, even though Diamond requal only requires 30.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        13 Jan13 January 21:05

        But every new night will roll over, correct?

        meaning 30-40 nights this year could make a significant dent into next years qualifying

        • Rob says:
          13 Jan13 January 21:37

          Correct.

        • Martin says:
          14 Jan14 January 08:35

          I don’t think they will roll till after 30 nights stayed.
          Got stung a previous year.
          Nothing rolled over till I hit the target on the then current year with actual nights stayed.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            14 Jan14 January 09:12

            Yea but all 2020 nights carried over therefore I’m assuming everyone who hit diamond last year already has 30.

          • Brian W says:
            14 Jan14 January 12:23

            But that’s what a rollover night is, it’s any night accumulated in excess of the current years target. Normally Diamond is 60 as a target. You stay 70, you earn Diamonds and 10 nights rollover into the following year.

  • ChrisC says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:46

    I’ve been more than happu with what IHG have done.

    They extended status until the end of 2021 last March / April which I thought was pretty good

    The 2*3 months AMB was also welcome along with extension of the weekend cert if you hadn’t already used it.

    And this annoucement of roll-over of any nights you managed to do last year is also a good thing.

  • Dance-Ace-Base says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:50

    Moving stays to IHG to gain status seems daft.
    If you stay anyway, fine.
    Otherwise, buy Ambassador ($200 for Platinum in an instant, with a 2-4-1) or get the credit card.
    Even Spire isn’t worth making any effort for.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      13 Jan13 January 21:05

      Depends free 25000 points c£100 isn’t a waste of time.

      • C says:
        14 Jan14 January 08:31

        Agree. While historically IHG has been my last choice hotel program (after even Radisson Rewards, albeit that primarily because every year they seemed to have a good hotel where my employer had a preferred rate somewhere I was going on business during a promo period), after getting the IHG Platinum card I managed to reach Spire largely on CC spend in 2020 (+3 nights at CP/HIX, and bonus points from non-GBP business travel in Jan/Feb). The free night voucher plus 25,000 point Spire bonus is a good benefit – that alone will result in 2 nights at a top IC hotel (one on voucher, one on points), without a single night stay. Add in a few stays and well-timed bonus offers, and one can be well on the way to three nights at high-end properties.

        But it’s still absurd even Spire elite don’t get free breakfast. That would cost very little, and be a significant selling point.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:52

    I managed a measly 2 nights with them last year, but nothing has rolled over? I’m still gold so thats good

    • BrightonReader says:
      13 Jan13 January 17:58

      Does no one read articles anymore??

      “These changes will take time to show online

      HG 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”

      (my capitalisation)

  • RussellH says:
    13 Jan13 January 17:53

    I have registered – no reason not to.
    But this seems incredibly optimistic to me. I would expect most of us to be still pretty much locked down at the end of March.
    🙁

    • Andrew says:
      13 Jan13 January 18:05

      Indeed, unlikely we are going anywhere until May.

      • james says:
        13 Jan13 January 18:52

        Agree, it’s pretty pointless for 95% of usual customers, should have run until end June

        • The real John says:
          13 Jan13 January 19:26

          But it’s not a UK-only thing is it? People in some places will be able to make use of it

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