Some people do not like my take on devaluations like this one (a change in hotel categories that causes many hotels to cost more points) but the truth is that these happen on a regular basis and our job is to try and find ways to continue taking advantage.
With this latest IHG devaluation, it will hurt those that redeem points but provides more value for those that have the IHG credit card (thanks to the annual free night).
New IHG Devaluation Increases Value of IHG Credit Card
Link: IHG 2018 Points Change
There were almost 700 hotels that changed in categories (in regards to the points required for a free night) but the really bad part was the addition of yet another tier. This tier now requires 70,000 points for a single night for top IHG hotels. The top hotels used to require 50,000 points and then went up to 60,000 and now we are at 70,000 points for one night!
Here are the top IHG hotels that changed to 70,000 points per night:
- InterContinental the Clement Monterey (Monterey, CA)
- InterContinental San Francisco (San Francisco, CA)
- InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco (San Francisco, CA)
- InterContinental The Willard Washington D.C. (Washington, DC) – see a review of this great hotel here
- InterContinental Boston (Boston, MA)
- InterContinental New York Barclay (New York, NY)
- InterContinental New York Times Square (New York, NY)
- InterContinental London Park Lane (London, UK)
- InterContinental – ANA Manza Beach Resort (Okinawa, Japan)
- InterContinental Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
- InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa (Bora Bora)
- InterContinental Le Moana Bora Bora (Bora Bora)
- InterContinental Paris – Le Grand (Paris, France)
All of those hotels will now cost you (after the change which should be in the next couple of weeks) 70,000 points for a single night! To see all the changes, visit the link above.
How Does This Make the IHG Credit Card More Valuable?
Which brings us to the title – that the IHG credit card just became more valuable. It is not because of the sign-up bonus but because of the anniversary benefit of this card – the free night at any IHG hotel. With an annual fee of only $49, that has always been a steal but now could save you a lot of points if you like to redeem for a high end hotel!
As long as they leave the IHG credit card anniversary night alone, that card’s annual benefit is going to offer some huge value. Thanks to IHG devaluing their top tier of hotels (sarcasm, of course!), that benefit just became even more valuable than it was before, thanks to it remaining constant as a free night.
However, I would not expect them to leave it like that forever! I foresee them either hiking up the annual fee (which would still be a great deal depending on the property you redeem at) or, more likely, limiting it to a certain “category” of hotels – something like hotels through the 40,000 point level. Hyatt does that with their anniversary night so I would not be surprised to see something similar here.
There are many hotels that dropped in price as well so check out the list. On a personal note, I cannot believe they are raising the point amount for the Holiday Inn Thessaloniki! I checked it thinking they had dropped it but was surprised to see it go up. At present, it is in a developing area of the city with a lot of construction and I did not find the hotel itself that great. Oh well, at least it makes appearances on the IHG Points Break list (which this devaluation did not affect).
The CC didnt become any more valuable then it was when it 60k or 50k, the $$ rate hasnt gone up and unless a person in the past would have used 60k for a night they arent saving anything. If anything the net result will be that its costing a person more. why? most people dont want to stay say at ICHK for only 1 night and then check-in elsewhere, so by staying any more then 1 night it will cost an extra 10k
If a person normally would have shelled out 60k then youd be correct
In any case its still a nice deal even if it was 50K per night for $49.
I agree. The value of the card hasn’t risen at all. The value of points has fallen. That’s it.
Inane logic on display here.
You sir are an ignoramus. Please spare us this drivel on a going forward basis. Indefinitely.
Thanks for adding such value with your own insights. You don’t have to read the posts and certainly don’t have to comment unless it is your way of correcting all the internet wrongs!
The value has actually gone down significantly. It’s very rare to get much use of a high-end hotel for just one night. Most people would want to stay 2+ nights, so now you’ll need to shell out a whole lot more points, or pay cash, to stay the extra nights.
What’s with BA making their bloggers pump credit cards at every opportunity, to the point of writing nonsensical posts?
I’ll answer all these comments with this one. For all of you still stuck in 2013, let me break it down:
If you redeem for the high end IHG properties (which many cardholders do), this latest devaluation will save you points. Yes, the decal stinks but it happens every year. When it does, it makes the redemption of free nights with the IhG card a saver for high tier nights.
Oh, I get nothing for the IHG credit card, by the way. Trying to simply show the value that this card has as it is devaluation proof (until they devalue the card).
No, that’s false logic. You only save the $$ amount you would have paid cash. And you conveniently ignore my main point, that if you want to spend 2+ nights in a top-tier hotel…which most normal people would want anyway, then you have to outlay a lot more points to make a full stay.
I did not ignore it, just didn’t think it was something that is relevant to the fact of the value of the single night with the card. Many people do what we do with hotel cards – have two for a couple and use them back-to-back.
There is no $ involved, it is only points. So it is the savings of points that one would spend. Obviously, we disagree, but I appreciate your perspective anyway and I think we can agree that these devaluations stink. 🙂 Have a nice weekend!
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