We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
New IHG One Rewards program announced
Back in January we heard that IHG would be completely overhauling their award program. We learned of new tier structures, bonus points, and elite levels. In April, IHG unveiled IHG One Rewards which enhanced their loyalty program with Diamond breakfast benefits, the choice of confirmed suite upgrades ( confirmable 14 days in advance and each is worth 5 nights and can be used on award bookings now ), F&B credits, and even the choice of a lounge membership at 40 nights. Let’s take a look at the new IHG One Rewards benefits you can now enjoy:
Live as of June 8th, 1pm EST
- Free breakfast for Diamond Elite members as a Welcome Amenity choice
- Complimentary room upgrades for Platinum Elite and Diamond Elite members (to suites, if available, or another premium room type)
- Early Check-In for Platinum Elite and Diamond Elite members (if available)
- Late Check-Out (up to 2:00 pm) for all members (if available)
- Redemption of Milestone Rewards – a new, technology enabled platform that lets members choose a perk (bonus points, Confirmable Suite Upgrades, Food & Beverage Rewards and an Annual Lounge Membership) every 10 nights, starting at 20 nights
Diamonds…breakfast is served!
One thing to note…the Food and Beverage credits aren’t live yet for use at properties. You can select and bank them, but they’re still working on the roll out with properties worldwide.
Let’s break down the whole program:
The brands under IHG that you can earn and burn IHG One Rewards
Here is a look at the 2023 IHG Rewards Tiers and the new IHG One Rewards Tiers
There is a brief remind of what we learned in January.
Free night certificates can have unlimited points added to them
IHG updated and enhanced the ability to to use Free Night certificates by allowing members to add unlimited points to them.
New Benefits for IHG One Rewards and a new app
A new app drops today. I was told that roughly 1% of all app users will see the update immediately ( those who have it set to auto-update) and the rest will roll out over the next few days/weeks. Let’s take a look at the new benefits.
Here’s a look at the new benefits:
Miles just tell me…is there free breakfast. Yes, Diamond Elites will now get free breakfast
Free Breakfast for top tier Diamond Elite Members is one of the most anticipated benefits that members were hoping for, but I have to say some will be disappointed that it wasn’t provided for Platinums as well, since Marriott Platinum and Hilton Gold offer some kind of benefit as well. One thing that they do provide is, at the 40 night level, a choice of whether you’d like to have a lounge membership as a “Milestone Reward.”
Discount awards night discounts for Platinum and Diamond members
Platinum and Diamond elite members will have access to these exclusive award night discounts throughout the year. We just saw this with the 20% discount given to IHG Rewards cardholders here recently.
Milestone Rewards opens the door to guaranteed suite upgrades + lounge access
Milestone Rewards will be a new, technology-enabled platform that will allow members to choose the rewards that matter most to them after every 10 nights, starting at the 20 night threshold – you can even select 1 Suite Upgrade award at the 20 night level that’s good on up to 5 nights and is confirmable. Starting in June of 2023, IHG One Rewards expanded their use from cash rates to award bookings as well.
The idea here is that the casual traveler and the corporate road warrior may have different desires and goals. So, each may choose differently. Personally, I’d be choosing suite upgrades and lounge memberships at the correlating thresholds.
- Points
- $20 F&B Rewards
- Confirmable Suite Upgrades starting at 20 nights
- Annual Lounge Membership.
You can select 1 award at every level, and 2 at the 40 night and 70 night level
Personally I’d choose
- 20 night – Suite Upgrade
- 30 night – 2 F/B vouchers
- 40 night – Suite Upgrade + Lounge Access
- 50 night – 5 F/B vouchers
- 60 night – 5 F/B Vouchers
- 70 nights – 2 Suite upgrade
In total I’d have 4 suite upgrades, good on up to 5 nights a piece, lounge access for me and 1 guest, and 17 F/B vouchers worth $340. Note that these must be used in conjunction with a stay.
IHG One Rewards nailed mid-tier Platinum Elite
IHG One Rewards mid-tier status is Platinum Elite, which can be achieved at 40 nights. Most business travelers these days have significantly reduced the number of nights they stay each year, and IHG noticed and pivoted some pretty valuable benefits to those who aren’t insane road warriors, but stay quite a bit. For comparison:
- Hyatt Explorist is 30 nights
- Marriott Platinum is 50 nights
- Hilton Gold is usually 40 nights, Diamond at 60 nights, but this year it’s 28 and 42 respectively.
At 40 nights, you could effectively choose Milestone Rewards that give you:
- 2 Suite Upgrade awards good on up to 5 nights an award
- Lounge Access membership for you and 1 guest.
- Points or F/B vouchers
Overall
Massive improvement and I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t draw a lot of business over for IHG from Hilton and Marriott. You can go here to see the full terms, FAQs of the program, etc.
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.