Have you heard of the IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card? It’s a bit of a relic—but in the best way possible. Chase discontinued the card in 2018 and replaced it with the IHG One Rewards Premier credit card. Yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if you (or someone you know) still holds onto the Select card. It’s like a time capsule, preserving the perks and benefits of a bygone era.
Perks and Benefits of the IHG Select Card
For starters, the card still has the same $49 annual fee as when it was replaced. For that, you receive the following benefits.
- Automatic Platinum Elite Status
- 10% rebate on IHG points redemptions
- Anniversary Free Night (limited to rooms costing 40,000 points or less)
That’s an amazing set of benefits for just $49. The 10% rebate applies to all redemptions, regardless of how long you stay. And if you also have an IHG card that offers a 4th night free on award stays, those two perks stack in a way that feels almost unfair.
The downside is the anniversary free night. It’s capped at 40,000 points, and you can’t “top it up” with extra points the way you can with the Premier card certificate. That means the free night is either usable… or it isn’t.
What’s funny is that Chase hasn’t just left the Select card alone — they’ve actually added value to it.
Chase has never announced any plans to discontinue the Select card, and if anything, their recent behavior suggests the opposite. In late 2025, Chase upgraded the IHG Select to a World Elite Mastercard, which unlocked a stack of extra perks (like DashPass, quarterly DoorDash promos, Lyft savings, and more — some with expiration dates). I covered the details here: Why Is Chase Suddenly Paying Attention to the Legacy IHG Select Card?
None of that guarantees the card will exist forever, of course — but it’s hard to argue the Select is on the chopping block when Chase is still upgrading the benefits on a card you can’t even apply for anymore.
Recent Stays: Maximizing the Card’s Value
I’ve always been able to find somewhere to use these free nights, but it hasn’t always been easy. Here are some of the places we’ve stayed:
- Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport
- Staybridge Suites Plano – Legacy West
- Holiday Inn Express Walnut Creek
- Holiday Inn NYC – Lower East Side
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations – Cape Canaveral Beach Resort
- Hotel Indigo Asheville Downtown
As I glance over the list, I still marvel at how we stayed at so many different hotels using a card that costs only $49. None of the hotels on this list were priced below $150 per night (including taxes), so it’s safe to say that the card has been a pretty good deal.
2025 Update: One Free Night Used… and One Still Sitting There
This year has been a perfect example of why I’m torn.
My wife used her free night for a stay in Syracuse on one of her “25 for 25” trips. An airport hotel would have cost around $150 for the night, so using a free night that effectively cost us $49 was well worth it.
But now we’re getting close to renewal time, and my free night is still sitting there unused.
The frustrating part is that I can usually find one decent use per year without too much trouble… but finding two (one for each of our cards) feels like work. The 40,000-point limit rules out a lot of the hotels we’d want to book, especially in popular cities or on weekends. And since you can’t add points to make the certificate work (like you can with the Premier card’s free night), you’re stuck hunting for the right property on the right night.
How I’m Trying to Make the 40K Free Night Easier to Use
At this point, I’ve stopped thinking of the Select certificate as something we’ll use for a “main event” hotel. It’s better as a positioning night—the kind of stay you’d normally pay cash for and not feel great about it.
A few strategies that tend to help:
- Think airport hotels first. They’re often under 40K even when cash rates still sting. If you’re trying to use this in places like New York, Chicago, or Miami, good luck — those nights frequently price above 40,000 points.
- Search Sunday–Thursday before weekends. Point prices can jump fast on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Use it for a “boring” night. Early flights, late arrivals, after concerts, one-night road trip stops — perfect.
The “Killer Benefit” I’d Hate To Lose: 10% Rebate + 4th Night Free
Even if I end up not using my anniversary free night, the Select card still has a way of earning its keep.
This year, we booked a 4-night award stay at the Kimpton Hotel Theta in Manhattan in April. Thanks to the 4th night free benefit from the IHG One Rewards Premier card, the fourth night costs 0 points.
Here’s how the points broke down:
- Night 1: 55,000 points
- Night 2: 66,000 points
- Night 3: 52,000 points
- Night 4: 0 points (4th night free)
Total out-of-pocket points: 173,000.
Then the Select card’s 10% points rebate kicked in. We received 17,300 points back, which effectively dropped the net cost of that stay to 155,700 points.
Even using a conservative value of 0.5 cents per point, that rebate is worth about $86 — far more than the card’s $49 annual fee.
Getting one night removed from the total and then receiving 10% of the remaining points back is a killer combo — and it’s exactly the kind of benefit I’d hate to lose by giving up the Select card.
Conclusion: Keeping It (Because I Could Never Get It Back)
So yes, the Select card is getting harder to use than it was a few years ago. The 40,000-point free night cap matters more now, and the fact that you can’t add points makes it less flexible than newer certificates.
But I still think it’s a good deal, and I’ll probably keep it for a simple reason:
If I cancel it, I could never get it back.
For now, it stays in my drawer — partly for the free night (even if it takes some hunting), and partly because that 10% rebate is still a surprisingly powerful perk… especially when it stacks with 4th night free.
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