IHG Rewards Club has just become the latest program to announce plans to extend elite status, and more, following in the footsteps of Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, and Marriott Bonvoy. Let’s take a look at the details.
In this post:
IHG Rewards Club extending elite status by 12 months
IHG Rewards Club will automatically be extending all members’ elite status through January 2022, which represents a 12 month extension. This applies to all active Gold, Platinum, and Spire Elite members.
Personally I think there has been no major rush for programs extending status as we see how the situation evolves, though it’s still interesting to see that IHG took the longest to make this announcement, since they by far have the weakest elite benefits of the major programs.
Personally I have IHG Rewards Club Platinum status through the awesome IHG Premier Card. The card has a reasonable annual fee and offers all kinds of awesome ongoing perks, including Platinum status, an anniversary free night certificate, a fourth night free on award redemptions, and more.
I get lots of value from the anniversary free night certificate
Other IHG Rewards Club extensions
Prior to this, IHG Rewards Club had already announced other positive developments:
- IHG Rewards Club is extending anniversary free night certificates that are currently active through December 31, 2020, and those issued in 2020 will be valid for 18 months (rather than the usual 12 months)
- InterContinental Ambassador complimentary free night certificates are being extended by three months (for members as of March 15, 2020)
- For those looking to earn IHG Rewards Club elite status (either from scratch, or looking to upgrade a level), elite requirements have been reduced by 25% for 2020
- IHG Rewards Club has paused points expiration through December 31, 2020
I get lots of value from the anniversary free night certificate
Bottom line
It’s nice to see IHG Rewards Club also extending elite status by a year. While IHG has weak elite benefits, they have a huge global footprint, so for me they’re a useful backup program.
Are you happy to see IHG extending elite status by a year?
Would be nice if that great PLATINUM status at HOLIDAY INN would include a cup of real brewed coffee in the usually vacant restaurant....instead of instant coffee in the room.
Just saying what everybody knows!
The ambassador three month extension is pretty garbage in comparison. Non renewal ahead for that one.
Well they also just extended my Royal Ambassador Status 12 months including another free weekend night and a royal ambassador free night in 2021
I’m pretty happy at this point.
My PlatinumElite is not showing any expiration date at all. Others with that problem?
I just checked my account and sure enough the Premier free night issued in 2019 that was going to expire in a few months was extended to December 31st, 2020. However my Select card free night issued in March 2020 expires in 12 months, not 18 months.
It would be nice to be able to just convert them to points and not worry about the expiration for this year's free nights.
Fingers crossed for my October Hotel Indigo Nashville trip reservation. I've never been.
Mine still says:
Aspire
Ambassador EXP. 01 March 2021
If that's the expiration date for the Ambassador, where can I find the Aspire status expiry date?
Good news. Hey Ben, how about you posting a question "Has anyone heard about JetBlue extending Mosaic status?" Just sayin...
IHG has such impressive tech. My spire elite status is showing an expiration date of Dec 31, 2019!
My Ambassador status shows the original expiration date, whilst my Spire Elite status already shows the extension. Would make sense to equally extend the Ambassador status by 12 months.
What about the paid Ambassador status that was recently renewed?
@ Gene a hotel status is playing games with your family's health?
Seriously? Get a grip.
@ Ben -- As usual with IHG, they have to play games with Royal Ambassador (and thereby my family's health). If they don't want give us an extension, I guess we won't stay at their hotels anymore. Idiots.
Really Jan 2022? Im platinum member since last april, so my original end date should be April 2020 yet its been 1st June for past months, now when I checked after reading your article it says 1st september! so yea..what the heck