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How to check pre-arrival upgrades at an IHG property
I absolutely love the IHG credit card from Chase. I’ve had it now for a little over a year and the card has reaped some serious benefits. Not only do I get a free night anywhere in the world for just a $49 annual fee, but I also have made a tons of points through promotions associated with the card. Now, I find the most value using these points at top tier properties like the Intercontinental Park Lane in London and how discovered a very valuable piece of information on how to check pre-arrivals upgrades at an IHG property.
Intercontinental runs it’s own loyalty program alongside IHG Rewards Club called Ambassador
A quick overview: It’s $200 to join and $150 to renew ( or use points) and Here are the advertised perks:
For this post we are focusing on the guaranteed room upgrade
I’ll be staying at the Intercontinental Park Lane later this month: I booked the classic room with points a while back when it was 50k.
But after checking my account by clicking ‘view reservation details’ you can see the reservation as been pre-upgraded
The account now reflects the pre-upgrade to a Superior room.
It’ll be interesting to see if the room gets upgraded again upon check in.
I had another reservation that I have since cancelled in Dublin that showed a 4 category upgrade pre-arrival from a standard room to a suite. Unbelievable.
Recap
I used an Intercontinental hotel that I’ll be staying at as an example, however you can apply this same technique with Holiday Inns, etc. It’s kinda nice to be able to see if you’ll be upgraded pre-arrival, what room it will ultimately be, and also if the upgrade gets upgraded at check-in.
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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