(EXPIRED) IHG Offering Status Match & Status Challenge Up To Spire Elite

IHG Rewards Club is offering an opportunity for members with elite status at other hotel chains to match that status for 90 days. You’ll then be able to maintain that status until December 2020 by completing a fairly easy status challenge.

The Deal

• Match your status from other hotel loyalty schemes to IHG Rewards Club. You then have 90 days to keep that status until December 31, 2020 by staying the following number of nights:
  • Spire Elite – 10 nights
  • Platinum Elite – 5 nights
  • Gold Elite – 2 nights
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• The promotion is valid in the United States & United Kingdom only.
• Current Spire Elite members are not eligible for this promotion.
• Upon Registration (as defined below), members will be given the opportunity to match a competitor’s hotel loyalty program status. You must register for the promotion between June 17, 2019 – July 26, 2019.
• By clicking “Match My Status” you are registering for the promotion and agreeing to receive IHG Rewards Club marketing communications and the terms and conditions of the promotion and Privacy Statement.
• Members will be awarded a status match after completing the requirements of submitting their first name, last name, email address, IHG Rewards Club member number, hotel loyalty program you want us to match, your status with that program, and an attachment showing proof of status.
• In order to maintain the status IHG Rewards Club grants you beyond 90 days, you must have two (2) Qualifying nights to maintain Gold Elite, five (5) Qualifying nights to maintain Platinum Elite, and ten (10) Qualifying nights to maintain Spire Elite, in which you will maintain this status through December 31, 2020.
• If you do not meet with required nights, you will be eligible for the tier you did qualify for during the Promotion. Hurdle completion must be completed 90 days after date of registration (“Registration”).
• Only 2,500 members will be granted Spire Elite status. Spire Elite upgrades will not include the Exclusive Choice Benefit.
• There is no cap for Gold Elite or Platinum Elite.
• Status match is available only once to each member.

Quick Thoughts

IHG Rewards Club status is the most underwhelming of any of the big chains. Even their top tier Spire Elite status doesn’t offer free breakfast at their brands that don’t automatically include a free buffet breakfast, nor do they offer guaranteed room upgrades or suite upgrades.

Having said that, I’ve submitted a status match request to my Hyatt Globalist status, so I’m hoping I’ll be one of the 2,500 people that gets granted Spire Elite status. While it offers very few tangible benefits, earning 100% bonus points on paid stays is nice. The terms state that Spire Elite upgrades won’t receive the Exclusive Choice Benefit (the best of which is 25,000 bonus points in my opinion), but that’s hopefully only relating to the initial status match. If you were to stay 10 nights within 90 days, I’m hopeful they’d class that as status that was “legitimately” earned and would thus be eligible for the Exclusive Choice Benefit.

A lot of people will have Platinum status already thanks to their IHG credit card. For those that don’t and are over 5/24, this is an easy way to get that status for minimal effort.

IHG is being generous with the stay requirements to maintain the status. Only requiring 2, 5 or 10 nights to maintain Gold, Platinum or Spire Elite status is better than I’d have expected, especially seeing as you’d normally require 10, 40 or 75 nights in a year respectively.

IHG hasn’t specified which status matches to which, but some of the options seem fairly obvious. IHG lists Hilton Silver, Gold and Diamond as eligible for status matches, so they’d presumably be matched to Gold, Platinum and Spire. Similarly, Hyatt’s Discoverist, Explorist and Globalist will likely match to Gold, Platinum and Spire. I regard Hyatt’s Explorist status as being better than Spire, but I doubt they’d match it that high.

I submitted my status match request yesterday but haven’t received notification yet as to whether I’ve been matched to Spire. With only 2,500 up for grabs, I’m not holding out too much hope.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.