IHG free night certificates used to be simple, but not always useful.
For years, the annual free night certificates from IHG credit cards had a strict limit: they could only be used at hotels costing 40,000 points or less. That made them valuable, but also frustrating if you were looking in an expensive city, during peak travel dates or at a more desirable property.
That’s still true for some IHG certificates. But if you have the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card or IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card, the rules are much more flexible. You can now add points from your IHG account to use the certificate at hotels charging more than 40,000 points.
That one change makes a big difference in how you should approach redeeming these free night certificates.
Instead of treating the certificate as something you have to squeeze into a 40,000-point redemption, I now think of it more like a 40,000-point voucher. If a hotel costs more than that, I can decide whether adding the extra points makes sense.
But if you still have the older IHG Rewards Select card, you’re playing by the old rules. Those certificates are still capped at hotels costing 40,000 points or less.
So the best strategy depends on which IHG card you have.
IHG Rewards Select Free Nights
My approach to the free nights from the old IHG Rewards Select card hasn’t changed because the rules haven’t changed. These certificates are still limited to hotels costing 40,000 points or less.
I learned my lesson about being too picky when I almost let a free night expire. The annual fee on this card is only $49, so if I can use the free night at a hotel where the room would cost more than $50, I’m already ahead.
And honestly, is there any hotel room you’d actually want to stay in that costs less than $50 anymore?
Holiday Inn Express – Palm Desert
That doesn’t mean I’m always using these free nights at a roadside Holiday Inn Express. There are still plenty of IHG properties that cost 40,000 points or less.
But I’m also not going to hold one of these certificates forever while waiting for the perfect redemption. With the Select card certificate, the goal is simple: find a decent hotel, stay before the certificate expires and get more value than the annual fee.
IHG Rewards Premier Free Nights
The certificates from the IHG One Rewards Premier cards are different.
The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card and IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card both come with an anniversary free night certificate, valid at hotels charging up to 40,000 points. The important part is that you can add points from your IHG account if the hotel costs more than 40,000 points.
With Marriott Bonvoy free night certificates, you can only add up to a certain number of points to a certificate. IHG’s setup is more flexible, which means a Premier certificate can be used at hotels that would otherwise be completely out of reach for a capped 40,000-point free night.
That doesn’t mean every redemption is a good one. It just means more hotels are now possible.
For example, we used one of our IHG Premier free night certificates for a pre-cruise stay at the Kimpton EPIC Hotel in Miami.
That’s exactly the kind of redemption where the Premier certificate is useful. A Kimpton in downtown Miami before a cruise is not the same thing as grabbing a random roadside hotel for the night. It’s a stay where location matters, cash rates can be high, and using a certificate plus some extra points can make the whole thing feel much less expensive.
I’m not saying every Kimpton redemption will be a great use of a certificate. IHG award pricing changes, and you still need to compare the number of extra points required against the cash rate. But this is the kind of stay where I’m happy to use a Premier certificate as a 40,000-point voucher instead of saving it for a hotel that happens to price under the old cap.
That’s the point. I no longer look at my IHG Premier free night as something I need to burn at a hotel costing 25,000 or 30,000 points just because I’m afraid I won’t find something under the cap. I now look at it as a 40,000-point voucher that I can apply toward a stay where the location, cash price or overall trip plans make the top-off worthwhile.
That opens up far more possibilities for the kinds of trips where hotel costs can get annoying fast, like a pre-cruise night in Miami, a weekend in New York or a stay in another expensive city.
How I’m Using Each Certificate Differently
Because my wife Sharon and I each have both the old IHG Select card and the newer IHG Premier card, we’re in a slightly unusual position.
Between the two of us, we get two capped 40,000-point Select certificates and two Premier certificates that can be topped off with points. That means I’m treating them differently.
The Select certificates are the practical ones. I’ll use those at hotels that fit under the 40,000-point cap, even if the redemption isn’t amazing. If the stay saves more than the annual fee and keeps the certificate from expiring, that’s good enough.
Last year, Sharon used her free nights to stay at airport hotels while completing the JetBlue 25-for-25 promotion. That’s a perfect example of where these capped certificates still work well. They may not produce flashy redemptions, but they can still save real money when you need a clean, convenient place to stay.
The Premier certificates are the ones I’m willing to save for better redemptions. I’m not looking to waste them at a 25,000-point hotel unless there’s a very good reason. Since I can add points, I’d rather use those certificates somewhere that would normally be harder to book with a capped free night.
Final Thoughts
The ability to add points to IHG Premier free night certificates changes how I view them.
The old IHG Select certificates are still useful, but they require more flexibility. You need to find a hotel priced at 40,000 points or less, and sometimes that means accepting a perfectly fine redemption instead of waiting for a great one.
The Premier certificates are different. Since they can be topped off with points, I’m much more willing to save them for higher-priced hotels where the certificate offsets a meaningful chunk of the redemption.
That doesn’t mean I’ll use one just anywhere. But it does mean I no longer feel boxed in by the 40,000-point cap.
And since we also have other hotel free night certificates from credit cards, I can use those for the more ordinary roadside stays when needed. The IHG Premier free nights now have a better job: helping make expensive hotel nights a little less painful.
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