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The addition of Kimpton hotels means more value for cardholders
There has been a lot of hotel news recently. Hyatt made award nights count toward elite status and extended the validity of their free night awards while Hilton enriched its program with Gold/Diamond breakfast bennies and program wide enhancements (you can read about them here). IHG not only changed the amount of points needed for redemption on nearly 500 hotels, but they introduced a brand new category that required 70k points – a big hit to the program when top tier was 50k just 14 months ago. Yikes. IHG did surprise us, yesterday, by making Kimpton hotels bookable with IHG points. This is a great addition to the bevy of hotels that IHG offers, and enhances the IHG credit card significantly.
The Chase IHG card is just $49 a year, but offers a free night anywhere in the world. Kimpton offers a slew of high-end, boutique properties, that I’m excited to give a go.
The Chase IHG Mastercard should be in your wallet, if it isn’t already, as it provides not only that free night I was discussing, but also 10% back on all IHG point redemptions. Now that some properties are charging 70k per night, that 10% adds up quickly.
Kimpton adds 65 new boutique properties for cardholders to use their annual free night. Like the Aerton in Nashville. Click here for the full list of Kimpton Properties.
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.
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