In 2022 IHG revamped their loyalty program where they changed status levels and elite night requirements, added Milestone Rewards and rollover nights and more. This has, overall, been a very positive development, but I came across a quirk the other day that I wanted to highlight – that rollover nights from the previous year don’t count towards your Milestone Rewards in the current year.
As a quick reminder, here are the different Milestone Rewards you can pick for every 10 nights you stay with IHG starting at 20 nights:
The two most notable levels are the 40 and 70 elite night levels. That’s because you not only get to choose two rewards, but both of those levels also allow you to choose an Annual Lounge Membership which has the potential to be very valuable if you happen to stay at IHG properties with lounges (n.b. there’s no need to choose the lounge option at both levels – just one or the other will do if you want that benefit). They allow you to pick Confirmable Suite Upgrades too, but that’s also an option at the 20 night level.
Most of our accommodation is booked through the end of the year, but we recently needed to decide where we’ll be staying in November and December. I wanted to make sure I’d be earning enough elite night credits in various hotel programs, so took a look at where I was with Marriott, Hyatt and IHG (I have a Hilton Aspire card, so elite nights don’t matter beyond Milestone Rewards in their program). I have a 10 night stay with Marriott in a couple of weeks which will get me to 76 elite nights and thereby Titanium status, so there was no need to book any further Marriott stays this year.
With Hyatt, we’ve stayed with them far fewer times this year than in the last few years. I was therefore due to be at 51 elite nights at the end of the year as things currently stand when taking into account upcoming stays. To ensure I hit at least 60 nights in order to retain Globalist status, I booked us a 10 night stay at a category 1 Hyatt House in November (this is a stay we need rather than doing it as a mattress run).
That left me with IHG. I was due to be at 61 elite nights and needed 70 to retain Diamond status (there’s the Ambassador trick, but I’d prefer not to waste money on that if I don’t have to seeing as we rarely stay at InterContinentals). That was slightly annoying as I prefer to book in 4 night increments due to IHG’s 4th night free benefit on award stays, so I’d have to book a 12 night stay rather than 8 nights if I wanted to maximize that while also pushing us over 70 nights.
As luck would have it, our plans changed this past weekend and we needed a one night stay in Ohio. I booked us a night at a Candlewood Suites which will get us to 62 nights once credited and so I only need 8 nights by the end of the year which I subsequently booked.
However, when doing that I noticed something goofy:
It showed that I was currently at 61 elite night credits towards elite status, but that I needed 3 more nights to get to my next Milestone Reward. Seeing as Milestone Rewards are earned every 10 nights, I would’ve expected to be 9 nights from my next Milestone Reward as I should, theoretically, be at the 60 night level.
That’s not the case though. I was at 57 elite night credits – a difference of 4 elite night credits. Thankfully it didn’t take me too long to work out where that discrepancy arose from. When writing this post about the IHG Shareholder Discount Rate, I’d had to tally up all my elite night credits to work out if I’d earned any nights by booking that shareholder discount rate (spoiler alert: I hadn’t). During the course of that process, I’d noticed that I had 4 rollover nights from the previous year.
In case you’re wondering what rollover nights are, at the end of the year IHG One Rewards looks at the status you earned through stays. Any elite night credits you earned beyond that status get rolled over to the next year, thereby giving you a jumpstart on the next year’s journey to elite status. In my case, I’d stayed 74 nights with IHG last year. Diamond status is earned at 70 nights, so they rolled over 4 of those nights to 2023. If I’d ended last year at 85 nights, I’d have been awarded 15 rollover nights, etc.
As a result, those 4 rollover nights that I earned were included in my quest for Diamond status this year, but they weren’t included in my tally of nights towards Milestone Rewards. This can be important, as it could mean you fall short of a desired Milestone Reward level by accident.
In my case, I’ll soon be at 62 elite nights and have 8 more nights booked later this year to hit the 70 elite night credit level to retain Diamond status. If I hadn’t noticed this discrepancy, I would’ve assumed that I’d also be hitting the 70 night Milestone Reward level and would be able to pick two rewards from the following:
- 10,000 bonus points
- 5x $20 food & beverage credits
- 2 confirmable suite upgrades
- Annual lounge membership
As things currently stand though, I’ll be ending the year with 70 elite nights towards status but only 66 towards Milestone Rewards, meaning I’ll fall short of being able to pick two of those aforementioned rewards. Based on our other stays, it doesn’t look like I’d be able to fit in another 4 nights by the end of the year, so I’ll have to make do with my 60 night selection. Don’t get caught out by this yourself though – if you’re shooting for a certain Milestone Reward, make sure you’re earning enough elite night credits in the current calendar year rather than also taking into account your IHG rollover nights.
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I’m at platinum level with 51 nights so I’m short 19 nights to reach diamond status for this year. Will the 11 nights roll over to next year? Thanks
Yes, they’ll roll over to next year to give you a head start with earning status in 2024, but they won’t count towards Milestone Rewards next year.
I like IHG when it works, but to me it seems like they are still trying to figure out the final details of the new program.
Steven,
Have you guys reached out to IHG at all to confirm that this is intentional? Curious if this is an oversight, or intentional
We haven’t. I’d assume this is intentional because the rollover nights did originally count towards Milestone Rewards in the calendar year that they were originally earned in and Milestone Rewards are earned based on the number of nights you stay in a calendar year.
Let’s say you stayed 85 nights in 2023. You’d end up with 15 rollover nights the next year, none of which would count towards Milestone Rewards in 2024. That makes sense because 10 of those nights would’ve already earned a Milestone Reward in 2023 at the 80 night mark, so there wouldn’t be any expectation that you should earn a second Milestone Reward the following year.
Using your example it would be nice if the 5 unused Milestone nights rolled over into the next year as 5 Milestone nights.