Why You Would Be Stupid to do a Chase to IHG Transfer for Status
No Mas Coach published an article that showed that Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers are counting towards IHG status. My very first thought was, who cares.? No, who in the actual he-double hockey sticks cares? IHG status is almost worthless and the bump in perks from Platinum (which I get for a $49 annual fee) to Spire Elite status is almost non existent. I would know since I used to have it when welcome offers were counting towards status for a short time. One time I did get $20 in minibar credit instead of $15 though!
The only decent perk of Spire Elite status is the 25,000 point bonus you can take as your perk. Those points are worth a whopping $125. That is being generous on the value since you can buy IHG points for under $0.004 sometimes. Their points offering a lack of value and having no meaningful way to earn them is why I put IHG on my ignore list.
I was just going to ignore it and then every blog started posting about it and I thought it would be a dereliction of duty not to tell you to skip right over it. Sometimes when someone in this hobby finds a new “hack” we get like kids in a candy store. We get all excited without really thinking it through.
Why No One Should Care About Chase to IHG Transfers
If we peg the value of IHG points at 1/2 a cent each and Ultimate Rewards at 1.5 cents a piece that means you are losing 1 cent in value for each point you transfer. And to be honest that may be too high of a valuation for IHG and too low for UR points.
You may be thinking, yeah but Spire Elite comes with that 25,000 bonus. That would be a nice bump for transferring, right? If those 25,000 points are worth $125 that means the most Chase points you could transfer and break even on value would be 12,500. Because you lose 1 cent in value for each point you transfer. If you are that close to reaching Spire Elite status at this point in the year then you are going to hit it without the transfer. This MAY make sense at the very end of the year if you are less than 12,500 points away from Spire Elite status but I think this is a glitch that won’t be working for too long.
But What About Status Matches?
Many of the blogs that covered the transfer brought up that this could be useful for status matches. Again, say what? Who cares!?! Are you willing to spend $750 in value (1 cent per point lost x 75,000 points) for status matches? Heck Hilton PAYS you to take their Diamond status with the Aspire card. That will match just as easily! Same with their Gold status with a $95 annual fee. Or Wyndham Platinum for a $75 annual fee and on and on.
That doesn’t include any status matches you already do on the regular like Wyndham to Caesars Rewards that means you already have Wyndham Diamond status to status match.
Final Thoughts
It is always fun to find a loophole or a new hack. I get it that we get excited about things like that but this one is a hard pass 99 out of 100 times (or 999 times out of 1000). The value you lose making every transfer makes it a non starter.
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I agree, IHG is just rude in not recognizing status on award stays. I’m pretty much just using my points for my annual InterContinental Ambassador status. I can renew Ambassador for 40,000 points which gives me a free weekend night at an IC, which I have used to great advantage since the program started. Plus I get benefits with the free night that I would not if I used those points simply for a free night instead of Ambassador.
I do need to dig into Ambassador status more. I know there is value there but I have never looked into it much.
That free Ambassador weekend night is hardly free. First, you have to book at the Ambassador Flexible Rate, which is much higher than other rates. Second, you have to paid $150-$200 for annual Ambassador membership. A guaranteed upgrade to a pool view that’s obscured by hedges or an upgrade to a corner room is hardly and upgrade, at least to me. Anything else besides having a fancy title in your elite status plus $5 will get you small Starbucks coffee….
Point taken, but what if someone was about to miss qualifying for Spire Elite by a few points? Transferring 1,000 UR points to get 25,000 IHG points could be worth it to the right person, hypothetically speaking.
Agreed and I put in there if at the end of the year you are 12,500 points or less from the status then it can make sense to do it just for the 25K bonus points. But that will be the case for so few people.
Mark I have read this blog and many others since about 2014 or 15. Why is everyone covering this story like it is new news? It isn’t. I have transferred points from Chase to IHG twice to reach Spire (husbands account) and not the full amount, just a bit to reach Spire. How did I know to do it? Because I read it on these blogs. I know OMAAT and MMS covered it. Now everyone is acting as if it is some new development. I just started playing the points game in 2014 and I only knew to do what I read from blogs, including this one.
I think it is because transfers counting towards status was supposed to end when welcome offers stopped working towards status. But since it’s IHG their IT was only able to close one loophole.