When it comes to hotel loyalty programs, IHG Reward Club is one of the easier ones to understand. You earn points that you can redeem for hotel rooms. That’s pretty much it. No worrying about if you’re supposed to get a suite upgrade (you’re not) or a free breakfast (not unless everyone at the hotel gets one anyway).
Their co-brand credit card shares that no-nonsense sensibility. The IHG Premier Credit Card offers some great benefits for a reasonable annual fee, which makes it a great card to consider adding to your collection.
Here are six reasons you should consider getting the IHG Rewards Club Premier credit card from Chase:
Great Sign Up Bonus
The IHG Rewards Club Premier card is currently offering 4 Free nights valued up to 40,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. (This is our referral link for the card. If you use our link to sign up and are approved for the card, we receive a referral bonus, which is greatly appreciated).
As with most Chase cards that earn rewards, this card falls under the 5/24 rule. If you’ve applied for more than 5 cards in the last 24 months, you’re almost 100% going to be denied when applying for additional cards from Chase. To understand more about the 5/24 rule, check out this post.
The offer also is not available to either current cardmembers of this credit card, or previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months.
Hotel Options Where You Can Redeem Points For Oversized Value
I put the base value of IHG points at 0.5 cents since that’s what I can purchase them for during one of IHG’s frequent point sales. However, if you pick your spots, they can be worth much more and I find them to be some of the most useful hotel points out there because of the value across the wide variety of IHG hotel brands.
You’re able to redeem points to stay at a really nice hotel, like a Kimpton property in Chicago or you can use the points to stay at a roadside Holiday Inn Express. It’s this flexibility that I really like about IHG hotels in general and using IHG Rewards Club points to redeem for free hotel nights.
Earn 10x Points For IHG Hotel Stays
The IHG Rewards Club Premier card earns 10X points when you stay at any of the 5,200+ hotels worldwide. That’s a great return, netting a minimum of 5% back if you value points at 0.5 cents each. It’s worth even more if you can get 1 cent per point value or more, like in the example above. There’s no other card, not even the Sapphire Reserve or Citi Prestige, where you can earn 10% or more back on an IHG hotel stay.
Fourth Night Free On Award Bookings
When you have the IHG Rewards Club Premier card, you receive the fourth night free on any reward night stay of four nights or more.
For each standard room Reward Night stay of 4 or more nights, every 4th night is free. Applies only to 4 or more consecutive nights within the same Reward Night point redemption room stay at the same property. With this benefit, eligible members will be charged the Reward Night point redemption rate for the first 3 nights, and 0 points for the 4th night of the stay, as applicable.
This effectively reduces the number of points needed for a stay by 25%.
You Get A Free Night Every Year On Your Card Anniversary
Every year, you receive a voucher good for a free night which is good at hotels with a current point redemption level of 40,000 points or less. Free night stays must be redeemed, and stay must be completed, within 12 months from date of issue. You can visit IHG.com/AnniversaryFreeNight for a list of hotels that don’t accept the Anniversary Free Night certificate.
This certificate used to be good at any IHG hotel, but not to worry as there are plenty of places that charge 40,000 points a night worth staying at.
Automatic IHG Rewards Club Platinum Status
Cardholders are upgraded to IHG Rewards Club Platinum Elite status. This usually requires 40 stays at IHG hotels per year. IHG Platinum is one of the best hotel loyalty levels that can be obtained through having a co-brand card.
As I said in the opening, IHG’s loyalty program isn’t the most beneficial one for top tier elites, but you’ll get a 50% bonus on points earned when staying at IHG hotels, complimentary room upgrades, priority check-in and extended checkout (if available).
I’ve never gotten much at a fancy IHG hotel for being a Platinum guest but smaller Holiday Inn Express or Candlewood Suites will often upgrade us to a larger room or even a suite.
Bonus: TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry Reimbursement
Since so many other cards offer this benefit now, it’s losing some of the value. You’ll receive up to a $100 credit every four years for application fees charged to the card. This is the only base-level hotel card to offer this benefit. It also leaves one less excuse not to get Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check.
Final Thoughts
Those are seven reasons you should get the IHG Rewards Club Premier card. You’ll recover the $89 annual fee with the 125,000 points from the signup bonus the first year and from the free night certificate for the following years. I view the IHG card as a great one to sign up for and keep for the long term.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
