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IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card review
IHG has a monster footprint repping 5000+ hotels in 100 countries and have brands that meet the needs of every traveler across the spectrum. There are endless ways to accrue large amounts of IHG points, and having the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card in your wallet means you can stretch those points even further since it offers a 4th night free on award bookings. IHG also added a TON of new benefits which make the card even more valuable. Let’s take a look:
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
For the $99 annual fee, the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card yields IHG One Rewards Platinum Status, a 4th night free when booking with points, an annual anniversary 40k night, and a $50 United Travel bank credit. Been in my wallet since it was released.
*Note if you have a Chase IHG One Rewards personal card or you’ve received a welcome bonus in the past 24 months you’re ineligible to add this to your wallet
Welcome Offer
170k Bonus Points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$99
Points Earned
IHG One Rewards
- Enjoy an Anniversary Free Night at IHG Hotels & Resorts. Plus
- Good on properties up to 40k per night
- You can add points to this certificate
- Enjoy a fourth reward night free when you redeem points for a consecutive four-night IHG® hotel stay.
- Earn Structure
- Up to 26 total points per $1 spent when you stay at IHG Hotels & Resorts
- 5 points per $1 spent on purchases on
- travel,
- gas stations,
- restaurants.
- Earn 3 points per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Automatic Platinum Elite status as long as you remain a Premier cardmember
- Global Entry, TSA PreCheck(R) or NEXUS Statement Credit of up to $120 every 4 years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to your card
- Member FDIC
- No Foreign Transaction
- $99 annual fee
175k after $3k spend in 3 months is the best we’ve seen.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
4 reasons I keep this card in my wallet
- A free anniversary award night every year you keep the card, worth up to 40k IHG One Rewards ( you can add unlimited points to this award night as well ) This easily offsets the annual fee for me.
- 4th night free when redeeming points
- Cardholder award night sales where you get notice to book in advance or exclusively for cardholders
- The United credit offset roughly half the annual fee
Annual night certificate effectively pays for the card’s annual fee year after year.
As I mentioned above, every year you keep the card, you’ll get a free night certificate. There are a ton of 40k and under hotels in the world whose nightly rate is WAY over $99. In fact…I wrote an entire article about it. Read that here.
Even better…you can now add points to the award night to stay at pricier properties. For instance, I stayed at the Six Senses Maldives which cost 100k a night. When I did it, I took advantage of the 4th night free, but I also added on a 5th night for 100k points. Now, I could do the same thing, but instead of paying 100k, I could apply this free night award and add 60k IHG points to it. A pretty awesome deal if you ask me.
Read about the Six Senses Maldives here
IHG One Rewards Platinum Status
IHG One Rewards Platinum status gives a 50% bonus when staying at IHG properties and has lead to some pretty nice upgrades. I’m currently at a Kimpton and they upgraded us to the nicest, non suite, room at the property. For what it’s worth I’m Ambassador as well, but we were using free annual night certs and it was a $75+ spread in price between base room and the room they gave us. It’s not something I expect with Platinum, but it happens.
There is also a promo running that gives you triple points when staying at IHG properties – that’s 45x
The 4th night free benefit offers tons of value.
I think one of the most interesting benefits is the 4th night free benefit when using points for the redemption. I mentioned this for my honeymoon, but I’ve been able to take advantage of it multiple times. I made use of the benefit twice at the Kimpton La Peer in Los Angeles.
Case in point: Kimpton La Peer LA.
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
For the $99 annual fee, the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card yields IHG One Rewards Platinum Status, a 4th night free when booking with points, an annual anniversary 40k night, and a $50 United Travel bank credit. Been in my wallet since it was released.
*Note if you have a Chase IHG One Rewards personal card or you’ve received a welcome bonus in the past 24 months you’re ineligible to add this to your wallet
Welcome Offer
170k Bonus Points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$99
Points Earned
IHG One Rewards
- Enjoy an Anniversary Free Night at IHG Hotels & Resorts. Plus
- Good on properties up to 40k per night
- You can add points to this certificate
- Enjoy a fourth reward night free when you redeem points for a consecutive four-night IHG® hotel stay.
- Earn Structure
- Up to 26 total points per $1 spent when you stay at IHG Hotels & Resorts
- 5 points per $1 spent on purchases on
- travel,
- gas stations,
- restaurants.
- Earn 3 points per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Automatic Platinum Elite status as long as you remain a Premier cardmember
- Global Entry, TSA PreCheck(R) or NEXUS Statement Credit of up to $120 every 4 years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to your card
- Member FDIC
- No Foreign Transaction
- $99 annual fee
175k after $3k spend in 3 months is the best we’ve seen.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
4 reasons I keep this card in my wallet
- A free anniversary award night every year you keep the card, worth up to 40k IHG One Rewards ( you can add unlimited points to this award night as well ) This easily offsets the annual fee for me.
- 4th night free when redeeming points
- Cardholder award night sales where you get notice to book in advance or exclusively for cardholders
- The United credit offset roughly half the annual fee
What’s the best deal ever
We have seen:
- 5 free reward nights, up to 60k per night, after $4k spend in 3 months
- 150k after $3k spend in 3 months and no annual fee first year,
- 175k after $3k spend with the fee,
- 140k + a free night up to 40k.
If you’re like me and already have the now retired IHG Rewards Select…you’ll save even more by stacking.
Let’s take the situation I was describing above. A 4 night stay at the Six Senses Maldives = 100k points per night
With the IHG Rewards Club Premier card we’re talking about 300k for a 4 night stay ( 4th night at 100k isn’t charged).
The now retired, IHG Rewards Select offers a 10% discount ( up to 100k points per year ) on IHG redemptions. That means I’d get another 30k points back, reducing the 4 night stay to just 270k points. Unreal!
Stacking benefits with Intercontinental Ambassador
Intercontinental Ambassador is a membership program that you buy for $200 a year or 40k points. It comes with several benefits for members – the biggest are listed below.
But…there some really cool things that stack with Six Senses in particular. Since I mentioned Six Senses above – I figured it was worth pointing a couple out. These are valid on point bookings as well
- Free breakfast ( very valuable at Six Senses )
- Signature Amenity ( like a 50 min massage for two )
- Room upgrade
- Wellness platter
If you’re thinking of going to a Six Senses property and using IHG points…it could very well be worth buying an Ambassador membership.
Is it restricted by 5/24?
All Chase cards are now restricted by 5/24
Do you have this card?
Yes, I picked it up during 2021 and hold it concurrently with the now retired IHG Rewards Select
Overall:
There are two big reasons I think this card makes sense for people
- 4th night free benefit when booking with points
- Annual Free Night at 40k and under properties
These two alone easily recoup the $99 fee and then some.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.