Get IHG One Rewards Platinum hotel status until December 2024 with just five nights

IHG One Rewards has brought back its ‘fast track’ promotion for elite status. It is, on the face of it, very generous but you need to remember that IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status doesn’t bring a lot of benefits – you need Diamond Elite to receive free breakfast.

(The real value in IHG One Rewards in my view comes from hitting ’milestone rewards’ at 20 and 40 nights to earn annual lounge passes and guaranteed suite upgrades. You do not receive these unless you do the required number of nights, irrespective of status.)

How does the IHG One Rewards Fast Track promotion work?

Full details, and registration, can be found here.

You will get IHG One Rewards Gold Elite status until December 2024 when you stay just two nights within 90 days.

Complete an extra three nights (five nights in total) within 90 days and you will be upgraded to Platinum Elite status until December 2024.

Note that the criteria relate to nights and not stays, so it is even easier to hit the target.

Only cash nights count towards the target, not reward stays.

Stays booked prior to registration do count.

What happens if I already have IHG status?

It isn’t clear. The terms and conditions are badly written and do not say what would happen to existing members.

Can an existing Gold Elite member do this, and get upgraded to Platinum Elite after five nights? I would imagine that you can.

Can an existing Platinum Elite member do this, and get an extension of their status until December 2024? I would imagine not.

This is all speculative, unfortunately.

Does this offer work alongside other IHG promotions?

Yes it does, so make you register!

Click here for our fulll article on IHG’s ‘2k Every 2 Nights’ promotion, which runs from 9th February 2023 to 14th April 2023. You will earn 2,000 bonus points for every two nights you stay, and the nights do not need to be consecutive.

The standard earning rate in IHG One Rewards is 10 points per US$1 (81p) excluding taxes.  I value an IHG One Rewards point at 0.4p although you can often do better.

Under this offer, and assuming you do an exact multiple of two or four nights, you get an extra 1,000 points (£4) per night.

Read this HfP article for full details. You can register here.

Is IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status worth having?

You can see the benefits of IHG One Rewards status on this page of their website. Our full review of IHG One Rewards is here.

Platinum Elite usually requires 40 nights in a calendar year or $6,000 of pre-tax spending, so it isn’t easy to achieve.

Platinum Elite members get a 60% base points bonus on every stay. A Platinum Elite member will also be considered for upgrades, but you need to remember that Diamond Elite members will outrank you.

At most European hotels, you will also receive a welcome gift – usually 500 points or a drink and snack. The secret is to take the drink and snack regardless, partly because it is worth far more than 500 points (worth £2) and partly because the hotel is very likely to give you the points anyway.

Remember that you can buy Platinum Elite status for $200 instead

Platinum Elite status is also a benefit of the InterContinental Ambassador membership programme. You can pay $200 to join and get Platinum Elite amongst many other benefits, with no need to stay five nights.

You can learn more about InterContinental Ambassador in our article here.

Does this promotion help me get Diamond Elite status?

No. Because you are upgraded via a status change, rather than by being given an equivalent credit of status nights, you would still need to complete the full 70 nights required for Diamond Elite.

I think this is a mistake by IHG One Rewards. A member who is given Platinum Elite (currently 40 nights) via this promotion could easily be encouraged to do the extra required to get up to 70 nights for Diamond Elite.

I doubt anyone who does five nights and is given Platinum Elite is going to be motivated to do another 65 nights for the extra benefits of Diamond Elite, even with the lure of ’milestone rewards’ on the way.

Conclusion

There is no way that you can justify a mattress run for this promotion, especially as you could just pay $200 for InterContinental Ambassador and get Platinum Elite status in IHG One Rewards as a side benefit.

However, if you need a few hotel nights anyway and a Holiday Inn or other IHG brand is suitable, this may be a reason to jump in.

You need to register for the IHG status fast track here.

Without stating the obvious, it makes sense to delay registration until you are just about to start your first stay. This gives you maximum flexibility to complete five nights within 90 days.

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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.