My favorite perk of the no longer available IHG Select credit card was the free night you could use at any IHG hotel worldwide. When Chase revamped the cards this year, one of the changes with the free night benefit of the new IHG Premier card was that redemptions became limited to rooms costing 40,000 points or less.
Since current cardholders were given one more year to take advantage of the unlimited night, I had to make it count.
Now that the Kimpton hotels are fully part of the IHG family, you can use IHG Rewards Club points (and the free night certificate from the credit card) at their hotels. When I looked, most Kimpton hotels cost between 50,000 to 65,000 IHG points. One of their hotels would be a perfect place to use my free night.
I decided on the Kimpton Gray in Chicago. It turned out to be an amazing hotel but was also an amazing use of a free night certificate I received for paying a $49 annual fee. Rooms for the night were going for over $400.
We needed to stay for two nights so I went ahead and booked the second night for 50,000 IHG points. That night would have cost $432.
Since you can often buy IHG points for 0.5 cents each, you can get a room for $250. Considering what other hotels were charging in the area, getting a room at The Gray for $250 would be a steal. Not to mention, I receive a 10% rebate on redeemed points with the IHG Select card.
Final Thoughts
Taking advantage of deals like this makes me smile. We got to spend time at a beautiful hotel in the Chicago Loop area for two nights and paid less than $300. I’ll still be able to get a good value for the free nights from our IHG cards (Sharon still has one unlimited free night left) but it won’t be as easy to get an phenomenal deal anymore.
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