IHG Anniversary Free Night Will Be Capped at 40K
About a week ago Mark wrote about the Chase IHG card being discontinued and speculated on what we might expect. He noted that the new higher annual fee card may or may not come with the free night perk. And if it does come with the free night perk it may be category locked like the Chase Hyatt and Marriott cards are. It looks like he might be right. Chase has send out notices to cardholders warning that Anniversary Free Nights issued after May 1, 2018 will be limited to lower categories.
IHG Anniversary Free Nights
One Mile at a Time posted earlier today the notice that was sent to one reader, a IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card holder. Here’s what it says:
Update: We’re changing the Anniversary Free Night on your IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card
Thank you for being a Chase customer. On May 1, 2018, we’re changing the Anniversary Free Night benefit associated with your IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card.
Here’s what’s changing
Currently, we award this Anniversary Free Night each year after your anniversary date, and it is redeemable at any IHG property. Going forward, Anniversary Free Nights issued after May 1, 2018, will be redeemable at eligible IHG hotels with a redemption value up to and including 40,000 points.
Reward Nights cost anywhere between 10,000 points to 70,000, so this change will put their best properties out of reach. Being able to redeem that Anniversary Free Night at any property, made the card really valuable to hold long term. It will still gives you good value, but not anywhere close to what it is now.
Conclusion
This is a huge devaluation of the Anniversary Free Night for IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card holders. It also might be a hint at what we might expect for their new IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card that is expected to come out soon.
I think the card would still be worth holding after this devaluation, because a 40K night is more valuable that the annual fee of $49.
Let us know how this affects you!
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Screw their free Holiday Inn night. I stay in higher properties than that, so that certificate is worthless to me now. My wife and I planned to use that for two nights in Paris in December at the Le Grand. So instead we will burn most of our points for that, and then dump their card. I don’t want their new one.
They never made good on the offer that I signed up under, so I don’t trust them with a new offer. Fool me once…
I just received the letter from Chase confirming your article. In addition, the very last paragraph indicates that I will be getting an offer in the near future to upgrade my existing card to the new premier card.
I just shut down my account. I really don’t want a free night at a holiday inn.
I would have suggested waiting until the annual fee posted to see if they would waive it etc. but I completely understand wanting to close the card with this news.