IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card Review

The IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card is worth considering for travelers who frequent IHG properties. It includes benefits like a free anniversary night each year you renew card membership.

Key Features

Spending Multipliers:

• Earn up to 26 points per $1 when you stay at IHG hotels & resorts
• Earn 5 points per $1 spent at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants
• One free anniversary night every year (up to 40k points). Plus, enjoy a reward night when you redeem points for any stay of 4 or more nights.
• Platinum Elite status as long as the Premier card is open
• Fourth award night free
• Save 20% on points purchases
• Up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® credit every four years for the application fee charged to your card

Earn more points:

• Additionally, earn 10,000 bonus points after you spend $20,000 on purchases and make one additional purchase each account anniversary year.
• Earn an additional 5,000 points when you add an authorized user.

Who qualifies for the IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card?

This card is not available to anyone who already has an IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card, or who has received a welcome bonus on said card within the past 24 months.

This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of this credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months.

You qualify for the card if you have the IHG Select Card (discontinued) and/or the IHG^® Rewards Traveler Credit Card.

Since the IHG Rewards Premier Credit Card is a  Chase card, it is also subject to the 5/24 rule, which means you’re not likely to be approved if you’ve opened five new cards in the last 24 months.

Free anniversary night

When your card membership renews each year, you'll receive a free anniversary night.

The free anniversary night is now restricted to properties of 40,000 points or less.

How much are IHG points worth?

An interesting observation is that since the free anniversary night change happened, some properties that were impossible to book with points are now easily accessible.

To see how much value you would receive from the sign-up bonus, take the retail price and divide the point cost to get the cents per point value (CPP).  CPP will vary for people since everyone has a different destination in mind.

Authorized user bonus

Another factor to keep in mind is that if you add an authorized user and they make a purchase with the card within the first three months, you'll earn an extra 5,000 points. The extra points will post to your IHG account, not the authorized users.

5,000 points for adding an authorized user:

• @ 0.6 CPP* = $30
• @ 0.8 CPP* = $40

At the 0.6 CPP valuation, the authorized user bonus is valued at $30, and at 0.8 CPP, it's valued at $40.

*Example numbers, your mileage may vary.

Important: If the authorized user is interested in applying for the  Chase IHG Premier card in the near future, do not add them. Otherwise, it will preclude them from receiving the sign-up bonus when they apply.

Fourth award night free

When you book a standard room reward night of 4 or more nights, every 4th night is free. The fourth-night free benefit only applies to 4 or more consecutive nights at the same property.

Cardmembers can utilize the fourth-night free benefit on an unlimited number of stays annually.

Important: This benefit does not apply to paid stays or points + cash bookings.

If you plan on buying points at 0.6 CPP, 4th night free means 25% off (4 paid * 0.75 = 3 paid).

• 0.6 CPP * 0.75 = 0.45 CPP

Save 20% on points purchases

When you purchase IHG points with your  Chase IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card or Traveler card, you can save 20% on points purchases.

From my interpretation of the terms, it seems like you will only receive the discount when you buy points directly on the IHG website, and not for points + cash bookings.

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