The is a new-ish card with a (temporarily?) improved bonus offer. There is a sign-up bonus of up to 100,000 IHG points + $50 statement credit + $5,000 more IHG points for adding a new authorized user. Here are the highlights:
- 100,000 bonus IHG points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months from account opening + $50 statement credit after first purchase.
- 5,000 bonus IHG points after you add your first authorized user and make your first purchase within 3 months from account opening.
- Free night certificate at card anniversary. Valid at IHG® Hotels with a current point redemption level of 40,000 points or less. Stay must be completed within 12 months from date of issue.
- Free status upgrade to IHG® Rewards Club Platinum Elite for as long as you remain a Premier credit cardmember.
- For each standard room Reward Night stay of 4 or more nights, every 4th night is free.
- Earn 10,000 bonus IHG points after you spend $20,000 on purchases and make one additional purchase each account anniversary year.
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck Fee Credit of up to $100 every 4 years.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees.
- $89 annual fee.
This total bonus level is the highest that I’ve seen on any IHG card. This is a pretty new card, but if you’ve gotten a bonus from this card within the last 2 years, please note the following:
This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of this credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months.
Note that this is the new “IGH Club Premier” card, so this language should mean that if you have the older and different “IHG Club Select” card, you can still apply for this card and get the sign-up bonus.
For now, the 5/24 rule does not apply to this card. On many Chase cards, there is an unofficial rule that they will automatically deny approval on new credit cards if you have 5 or more new credit cards from any issuer on your credit report within the past 2 years (aka the 5/24 rule). This rule is designed to discourage folks that apply for high numbers of sign-up bonuses. This is applied on a per-person basis, so in our household one applies to Chase while the other applies at other card issuers. As of right now, the 5/24 rule does not apply to this card.
What can you get with 100,000 IHG points? The best redemption value for IHG points is for free hotel nights. The other options offer significantly less value. While the points don’t translate directly to a dollar value, but overall you should expect around 0.60 cents of value per point. This would place 100,000 IHG points at a $600 value. You can perform the calculations for hotels that fit your needs. I tried a bunch of other various combinations and got between 0.5 cents and 0.8 cents per point equivalent value. Personally, I assign the points a more conservative value of 0.50 cents per IHG point based on my past award redemptions. (I don’t stay at the fancy places much anymore.)
IHG stands for Intercontinental Hotel Group which has over 5,000 hotels including the following brands:
- Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts
- Crowne Plaza
- Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express
- Staybridge Suites
- Candlewood Suites
- Hotel Indigo
- EVEN Hotels
IHG Rewards Club puts out a new list of every few months where you can redeem a hotel night for only 5,000 to 15,00 points. There are some nice hotels on the list, but the locations are very specific and few people are sufficiently flexible with their travel to constantly take advantage of these deals. However, you could get value of over 1 cent per IHG point with a hotel on this list.
IHG points expire after 24 months of inactivity, so if you keep up your activity then you can save up these free nights for later. Chase Ultimate Rewards points also convert to IHG points.
Ongoing rewards structure. I might book my IHG nights on this card, but the rest of the rewards are pretty bad. Remember that IHG points are worth less than other points like Hyatt or Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
- 10 IHG points total per $1 spent at IHG properties.
- 2 IHG points per $1 spent at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants.
- 1 IHG point per $1 spent on all other card purchases
I would only consider keeping this card if you can use the anniversary night certificate with the 40,000 point maximum value.
Bottom line. The has a current sign-up bonus of up to 100,000 IHG points + $50 statement credit + $5,000 more IHG points for adding a new authorized user. As with most of these co-branded cards, the best value is obtained by regular IHG hotel customers. After accounting for the $89 annual fee, the total first-year value of this card is still over $500 if you value IHG points at 0.55 cents per point.
As it does not fall under the Chase 5/24 restrictions, I plan on applying for this card later on if it’s still available. I already applied for the as I think it is a better offer, and am currently fulfilling the spending requirements on that one.
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