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Chase’s IHG credit card is probably my favorite card to have, but not to use. Most cards are good for some people, but not for others. The IHG card, in my opinion, is a good option for pretty much everyone. For a low annual fee ($49), the card offers a free night certificate each year that you renew. The free night certificate is good for a free night at any IHG property including Intercontinental Hotels, some of which are crazy expensive. So, for those who jet around the world, the card is clearly a great deal since it provides the opportunity to stay at fantastic properties for free. However, even those who stay closer to home will likely find a use for the free night. Planning a road trip? Surely there’s an IHG property (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, etc.) along the way.
But wait, there’s more (Note: I do not earn a commission from this card, so I feel free to have some fun sounding like a snake oil infomercial salesman). The card also offers:
- An automatic 10% rebate on award stays (e.g. use 50,000 points for a stay and get 5,000 points back)
- Platinum elite status
- No foreign transaction fees
The primary downside of the card is that the points earned from spend aren’t worth a lot. Many other cards offer much more value for your spend (see, for example, Best Rewards for Everyday Spend. So, keep the card for its perks, but don’t use it for spend (or, use it only at IHG properties, where it earns 5X).
The best IHG signup offer
My usual recommendation for finding the best credit card offers is to check my Best Offers page (found under the Credit Cards menu on this site). That’s what I do when I’m preparing to sign up for new cards. In this case, though, that page will likely lead you back to this one. So, here’s how…
Log into your account and almost book a stay
This has become a common approach for finding the best offers for airline and hotel cards. In this case, simply go to IHG.com, log into your IHG account, then search for and almost book a hotel:
- Search any city and time period
- Pick a hotel and click “Check Rates”
- View rates and click “Book this Room”
- On the next page, scroll down to see if a good signup offer has appeared
You must be signed in to an account that is eligible for the 80K offer for the Apply Now button to work with the above link.
Elite status offer
I currently have Platinum elite status with IHG, and when I follow the above steps I get an offer for 80,000 points after $1K spend plus a $50 statement credit:
When I log in as someone without status, though, the best I can find is an offer for 60,000 points after $1K spend plus a $50 statement credit:
Thanks to the $50 statement credit, this is better than the best available public offer (at the time of writing), but clearly not as good as the 80K offer.
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[…] save some extra money on gas. Savings will depend on your status. Remember that holders of the IHG Rewards Mastercard enjoy automatic Platinum status. Gas savings for IHG members will be as follows: […]
[…] Remember that I re-signed up for the IHG card recently? For $49 per year, this is the one card that is a no-brainer for almost anyone. And, fortunately, it is not subject to Chase’s 5/24 rules. In addition to giving you IHG Platinum status automatically, the card offers a free night at any IHG hotel worldwide each year upon the card’s anniversary, and an automatic 10% point rebate on awards. To be clear, the card is not very rewarding for spend. I keep it filed away. It’s simply a great card to have for its perks. If you don’t already have the card, make sure to read: How to find the best IHG signup offer: 80K points plus $50. […]
[…] the Frequent Miler has confirmed that the trick he wrote about last year still works. If you currently have elite status with IHG Rewards Club you should be able to find a […]
[…] The dummy booking trick again gets me $50 additional bucks. I originally wrote about this approach here: How to find the best IHG signup offer: 80K points plus $50. […]
I just called IHG customer service and told them I was interested in signing up for the CC but the 80k points link was broken. They then transferred me to an credit card rep. The CC rep verified that the 80k points offer was not publicly available anymore, but said she could offer it to me over the phone if I wanted to sign up. I tried to get her to include the $50 statement credit also, but she said she did not have access to that feature.
I accepted and applied over the phone and was approved w/80k points. I will call back again after making my $1k in purchases and try and get the $50 statement credit included.
Thanks to the suggestion from this website; I asked and received! The 80 thou offer showed up about 3 weeks after I received my card. I emailed them and wrote a nicely worded letter about how I was so excited to get this card and that now i am feeling cheated that the offer is now 20 tho more than I got just a few weeks ago. I laid it on kinda thick – honey works sometimes. They would not match the cash back, but did give me the 20 thou.points. Thanks for the great advice!!
I should have stated; I received the card in Oct 2015.
Great!
[…] Status along the way. To put it simply, I first applied for the Chase IHG credit card account opening offer of 80,000 points and a $50 statement credit. I was denied the $50 statement credit, but was approved for the 80,000 […]
[…] redeemed 30,000 points from IHG card ($49 annual fee earns a one-night voucher, sign up bonus was 70,000 points) rather than paying […]
Thanks for this! Following these steps (attempting to book room, on the bottom of website) I get 80k+ $50 credit when I’m logged in (only Gold Elite, but will lose that this year – used to travel much for work and stay at the same Holiday Inn Express) but when I clicked through, took me to 60k offer. When I’m on ihg.com and in my account profile, get 80k bonus and that appears to work. Called Chase, then 3 people at IHG Rewards – hoping to hear back with good news soon. If not, 80k + free night + no foreign transaction fees is pretty good for the first year/ $49 thereafter. Thanks for this post!
[…] large world-wide footprint with over 4500 properties. If you want to apply for the card, check out this blog post from The Frequent Miler on how to get an 80K sign-up bonus AND a $50 statement […]
[…] few weeks ago, after publishing “How to find the best IHG signup offer: 80K points plus $50,” a number of readers contacted me to let me know that the points they had earned from signing up […]
[…] Frequent Miler outlines how an elite IHG member can apply for a 80,000-point and $50 credit offer. What you need to do is to log in and start a booking process for any hotel in the world. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see this little banner. I cancelled the card a few months ago, but I’m still Platinym, so I’ve tried that, and it worked. […]
[…] How to find the best IHG signup offer: 80K points plus $50 – How to possibly get this increased offer to show up. […]
Greg, weren’t you going to churn this card (or was it your wife)? Did you and will you post the results if you get the 80K points again? Thanks.
Yes, I cancelled my card and plan to reapply around the time of my wife’s IHG card anniversary. That way our free nights will line up better. Now, though, I’m wondering if I should signup now to get the 80K +25K offer and cycle my wife into a new card next year to match my anniversary date.
I’m not seeing any offers on the confirmation page. I am Platinum Elite from having the IHG card. I called Chase a few days ago and cancelled my account, but my IHG account is still showing Platinum Elite status.
I logged into my IHG account. Searched for a room in Las Vegas, clicked Check Rates. Picked a room and clicked View rates, then Book this room. Next I am taken to the confirmation page, but there aren’t any offers or ads. I tried with my Adblock off, and also tried in Chrome Incognito, haven’t seen anything.
Hmm, well as William Charles said above, maybe the targeting isn’t specifically about status. It might be worth trying again, though, with different cities. My tests were searches for hotels in DC in October.