A couple of weeks ago, IHG Rewards Club launched a status match and status challenge opportunity. See: IHG Offering Status Match & Status Challenge Up To Spire Elite.
If you applied for a status match but haven’t heard anything from IHG, that doesn’t necessarily mean your request has been rejected. Check your IHG Rewards Club account as you might find that you’ve already received the status upgrade.
I already had Platinum status thanks to having their credit cards. I therefore submitted a status match request in the hope of being upgraded to Spire Elite thanks to my Hyatt Globalist status. Spire Elite status is somewhat meaningless as the benefits on offer are poor, especially seeing as status received from this match wouldn’t earn the Choice Benefit (one of which is 25,000 bonus points).
Still, earning a 100% bonus on paid stays is helpful, while anything that helps get an upgrade at an IHG property is useful seeing as (based on past experiences) they’re usually poor with offering that.
After submitting a status match request on June 17, I received an email from IHG confirming that they’d received my request, but since then it’s been radio silence. When logging in to my account the other day, I was therefore pleased to notice that I was now a Spire Elite member.
Based on my account activity, it looks like my status was upgraded on June 27, 10 days after requesting the match.
If you applied for a status match too, it’s worth checking to see if you’ve already been matched. You only have 90 days from the date you’re upgraded to complete your challenge in order to retain the status through December 31, 2020. That means you might’ve already lost a few days without realizing it, so the clock could be ticking on meeting the stay requirements.
IHG was limiting Spire Elite upgrades to 2,500 people, so hopefully some of you are among the remaining 2,499.
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No sign of an upgrade and no communication after the initial automated response. Not a good way to run a promotion. Even those that got the match aren’t told about it? So they are giving something away and then getting very little credit for it. Sometimes I wonder how they find their marketing people in the hotel industry
Looks like they are still rolling these out. My Spire status match posted today (7/4).
Just checked my account and I got the upgrade, too. Cool! Am reserved to stay in an IHG property in Europe in Sept so we’ll see if my new status brings any goodies.
[…] Update 6/30/19: Looks like the status matches are posting, but for whatever reason IHG isn’t sending out e-mails. Log into your account to see if you’ve been matched. Hat tip to FM […]
‘upgraded’ status match to platinum, which I already had, despite holding top tier with 4 chains. With an absolutely useless accelerate promotion no reason to stay at IHG at all.
It looks like they must’ve hit the 2,500 limit for Spire upgrades – sorry that you missed out.
Thanks for the tip. I checked and see that the upgrade was there!