IHG has provided elite status soft landing

IHG has – seemingly quietly – given a soft landing to IHG One Rewards members who didn’t earn elite status at the same level last year that they’d had previously.

I hadn’t noticed this on our accounts because I re-earned Diamond status through earning 70 elite night credits last year, while my wife maintained her Platinum status by virtue of having the IHG Premier and Select credit cards. Neither of us was therefore due to lose the status we’d previously had.

However, we discovered this thanks to someone who’s part of a private feedback group run by IHG One Rewards. An email from them inviting comments stated the following:

Based on last year’s performance, your status was recently maintained at the same level or dropped to the level below your 2023 loyalty status. Did you notice your status change? If so, how did you feel about this? Was it what you expected?

Additionally, please also tell us how and when you would like status changes to be communicated with you!

What I wasn’t sure about is if this was specifically related to people from the UK, or if it was a status soft landing rolled out to all IHG One Rewards members. Apparently the IHG credit card in the UK has been discontinued and IHG had stated that they’d be giving a soft landing to those cardholders to lessen the impact of the changes. Perhaps IHG had decided to give a soft landing to all UK-based members (the person who shared details of this was originally from there).

Thankfully we have a Facebook group with lots of helpful members. I asked this question in there last night:

If you don’t have an IHG credit card and expected to lose status this year based on your stays last year, did you drop to the expected level, or did you only lose one level of elite status?

Several US-based members subsequently confirmed that they had received an elite status soft landing from IHG, only dropping one status level rather than further which would’ve been expected based on their stay activity in 2023. It therefore looks like this soft landing has indeed been rolled out to all IHG One Rewards members.

While Gold or Platinum status doesn’t provide any particularly meaningful guaranteed benefits with IHG, some properties can be unexpectedly generous with what they offer non-Diamond members. IHG also runs award sales a few times a year, giving 15% off award stays of 1-3 nights. Those are typically reserved for cardholders and those with Diamond or Platinum status. If you previously had Diamond status and have now dropped to Platinum courtesy of the soft landing, it’s nice that you’ll still have access to those promos for another year.

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