Tag Archives for IHG.
Several readers asked me yesterday what to make of IHG hotels’ systems being down. I figured “it’s just poor IT” and things will return to normal eventually. That remains true, but the hotel giant acknowledges they’ve been hacked.
For the night of Saturday, August 5, 2023 – generally the last night bookable at the end of IHG’s calendar right now – most hotels in most cities that have loaded reward night inventory are pricing at just 16,000 points per night.
A week and a half ago IHG was pricing many of its best hotels around the world for about half the usual points. This didn’t last. I told everyone to book quickly, and many did.
Some people were worried that IHG would cancel the reservations, claiming they were a mistake, but this did not happen. IHG has been silent on what happened. However this strange pricing is back.
Not only does it take more base points to become a Diamond, those base points are going to become harder to accumulate.
IHG One Rewards is pricing many hotels at about half their usual award rate. This isn’t true everywhere or for all dates, but does appear to be worldwide.
You’ll find some Kimptons at 45,000 points; Intercontinentals between 35,000 and 45,000 points; Crowne Plazas from 25,000 points and Holiday Inns from 20,000 points. Again, not everywhere, but there are reports of Maldives and Bora Bora properties showing up at just 35,000 points.
Chase already has current transfer bonuses to Marriott and British Airways. They had a transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic last month.
Now they’re running a 50% bonus on transfers to IHG One Rewards through August 15. You shouldn’t take advantage of this bonus (and definitely shouldn’t ever transfer Chase points to IHG without a bonus).
You can read full benefit details here. Now that benefits are (mostly) live at hotels we’ll start to see how compliant properties are and how the new program works in practice. Regardless, there’s only improvements here in terms of benefits, addressing what has been the key weakness in the IHG program.
IHG One Rewards is offering up to quadruple points on stays May 18 – August 31, 2022. There’s additional bonus points for credit card customers, too.
IHG launched new elite benefits that include free breakfast for Diamonds, confirmed suite upgrades (as a choice benefit, starting at just 20 nights!), and club lounge access (another choice benefit).
There was just one problem I flagged. Not all benefits apply on award stays. The program changes are an improvement for everyone, to be sure, but not for everyone equally. And IHG One Rewards is addressing this.
While this new program is much more rewarding for chain loyalists, whether at 20 nights a year or 70, they haven’t applied these improvements consistently to treat reward nights rewardingly, so they aren’t yet treating members who earn benefits as valued when they’re cashing in their hard-earned points. Hopefully IHG will see this as a weakness and address and improve it. Terms and conditions matter when expecting hotels to comply, or addressing non-compliance with customer service. If this isn’t what the program intended, they’ll update the terms and conditions of these benefits accordingly.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
