Confirmable suite upgrades, factors and extra: Your information to IHG One Rewards’ Milestone Rewards

Earlier this 12 months, IHG launched its new IHG One Rewards program. One compelling side of this program is the flexibility to earn Milestone Rewards for each 10 nights you keep, beginning at simply 20 nights in a calendar 12 months.

You’ll be able to earn bonus factors, meals and beverage rewards, confirmable suite upgrades and even an annual lounge membership as Milestone Rewards. This is what you should find out about IHG One Rewards Milestone Rewards.

What are IHG One Rewards Milestone Rewards?

IHG One Rewards Milestone Rewards are perks you earn every calendar 12 months based mostly on the nights you stick with IHG. Particularly, you may earn Milestone Rewards each 10 nights, beginning at simply 20 nights and going via 100 nights. Any nights which might be elite qualifying, together with award nights, will rely.

You is likely to be questioning what a few of these Milestone Rewards entail. So, here is a take a look at the main points of every of the 4 Milestone Rewards based mostly on the IHG member phrases and circumstances.

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Bonus factors

Bonus factors are an easy reward possibility you can choose at every degree. When you select bonus factors, IHG will deposit the factors into your account.

Primarily based on TPG’s valuations, 5,000 IHG factors are price $25 and 10,000 IHG factors are price $50.

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Meals and beverage rewards

Much like bonus factors, you may select meals and beverage rewards at every milestone. Every meals and beverage award voucher is price $20.

As soon as you choose meals and beverage rewards at a milestone, you may redeem these rewards in opposition to meals and beverage costs throughout a keep. Nonetheless, you may’t use meals and beverage rewards on:

• Merchandising machines.
• Third-party exterior meals deliveries like Uber Eats.
• Eating places that don’t permit costs to a visitor room invoice.
• Reward retailers.
• Taxes related to minibar costs.
• Marketplaces.
• Stays as a part of a gaggle, bundle tour or conference the place a 3rd social gathering is paying costs.

You’ll be able to redeem meals and beverage rewards in any respect IHG manufacturers besides Vacation Inn Membership Holidays. You can also’t use meals and beverage rewards throughout stays at Mr & Mrs Smith properties or InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Las Vegas and Macau.

You’ll be able to solely use every voucher as soon as, so be certain your meals and beverage costs are larger than the worth of the meals and beverage vouchers. Most properties let you redeem vouchers to cowl gratuities on meals and beverage transactions — however make clear with the precise property earlier than redeeming. You will earn IHG factors in your meals and beverage stability after vouchers are utilized.

Your meals and beverage vouchers will expire 12 months after you choose them as a Milestone Reward. Lastly, be aware that meals and beverage rewards aren’t transferable, so you may solely apply them to your room invoice.

Confirmable suite improve

You’ll be able to select one confirmable suite improve after 20 and 40 nights in a calendar 12 months. And you may select two confirmable suite upgrades after 70 nights in a calendar 12 months. Nonetheless, though you may select two rewards after 40 and 70 nights in a calendar 12 months, you may solely choose confirmable suite upgrades as soon as at every milestone.

You’ll be able to apply a confirmable suite improve to most instantly booked charges, together with choose company and bundle charges. Nonetheless, you may’t use a confirmable suite improve in case you booked one of many following:

• Group charges, bundle excursions or conventions the place a 3rd social gathering is paying costs.
• Reward night time or free night time (IHG plans to make these charges eligible at a future date).
• Non-qualifying charges, together with wholesale charges, bookings via a web based journey company and worker charges.
• Pay as you go charges if a deposit is already utilized.
• Some hotel-defined packages.

You should use a confirmable suite improve to improve one room to an entry-level suite (or a premium room if a collection is not obtainable) on a keep of as much as 5 nights. You could contact IHG buyer care to use a collection improve to a reservation; it’s best to accomplish that between 14 days and 24 hours earlier than check-in.

When you cancel your keep after making use of a confirmable suite improve to your reservation, IHG will redeposit your improve into your rewards pockets in case you cancel prematurely of the lodge’s cancellation coverage time-frame.

Confirmable suite upgrades expire 12 months after being chosen as a Milestone Reward. These upgrades are nontransferable and might solely be utilized to the member’s room. You should use confirmable suite upgrades at most IHG properties besides:

• Avid inns.
• Atwell Suites.
• IHG Military Motels.
• Vacation Inn Membership Holidays.
• IHG Residences, together with however not restricted to InterContinental Residences, Voco Residences, Crowne Plaza Residences and Six Senses Residences.
• Mr & Mrs Smith.
• InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Las Vegas and Macau.

Lastly, in case you use a confirmable suite improve to safe a membership room, you will not get club-level perks as a part of your improve. And you may’t stack a confirmable suite improve with a assured improve (such as you’d get with InterContinental Ambassador). Any improve above the room secured with a confirmable suite improve is on the lodge’s discretion.

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Annual lounge membership

You’ll be able to choose an annual lounge membership on the 40-night or 70-night milestone. When you accomplish that, you may get a lounge membership via the tip of the present calendar 12 months, plus a further 12 months. So, if you choose a lounge membership as a Milestone Reward in January, you may preserve it via the tip of the next 12 months.

You probably have a lounge membership, you and a visitor will get entry to the lodge’s membership lounge and facilities inside the lounge when staying at IHG properties with a membership lounge. You should be on a qualifying keep; IHG’s member phrases and circumstances state that reward nights, free nights and stays booked via a web based journey company are eligible. Stays at Mr & Mrs Smith properties and InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Las Vegas and Macau aren’t eligible, although.

You will get entry throughout your keep or till checkout, though a property can limit your entry as a result of “renovations, closures, or different facility limitations.” Moreover, lounge membership doesn’t get you membership lounge facilities or companies past the bodily lounge.

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Redeeming IHG One Rewards Milestone Rewards

When you attain a milestone, IHG will ship you an electronic mail with “It is time to decide on your Milestone Reward” within the title. This electronic mail will be aware that you’ve got 90 days to pick a Milestone Reward after you earn it.

However, in observe, IHG is typically permitting longer for choices. One of the best ways to find out the deadline for choosing your reward is to log in to your IHG account and click on on “Select reward” from the banner on the high of the web page. You will see the deadline on the web page that hundreds.

You too can verify your progress towards incomes one other Milestone Reward when logged in to your IHG account. For instance, my dashboard reveals I want to remain eight extra nights to earn a 30-night Milestone Reward.

I would suggest ready till the final minute to decide on Milestone Rewards until you wish to apply a confirmable suite improve to an upcoming keep or plan to decide on bonus factors. In spite of everything, meals and beverage rewards and confirmable suite upgrades expire based mostly on when you choose them.

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Which Milestone Reward is finest?

There isn’t any proper reply to which IHG One Rewards Milestone Rewards are finest. That is a part of the worth: You’ll be able to select what’s most useful to you.

It is troublesome to place a worth on a confirmable suite improve or an annual lounge membership, as these advantages depend upon how you may use them and the way a lot worth they will add to your keep.

Even the selection of bonus factors or meals and beverage rewards is not clear-cut. Though TPG solely values IHG factors at 0.5 cents every, I can normally get nearer to 1 cent of worth from my factors.

I am unable to inform you which Milestone Rewards can be finest for you. However here is how I would rank the alternatives at every milestone:

• 20 nights: My first alternative could be a confirmable suite improve since it will be good to ensure a collection for one keep within the subsequent 12 months. My second alternative could be 5,000 bonus factors since I worth these factors at about $50, and my third alternative could be two $20 meals and beverage rewards since these have a set $40 worth.
• 30 nights: My first alternative could be factors and my second alternative could be meals and beverage rewards for a similar cause as above.
• 40 nights: My first alternative could be an annual lounge membership since I’ve numerous InterContinental stays booked subsequent 12 months at properties with membership lounges. My second alternative could be a confirmable suite improve since if I am staying 40 nights annually, I can seemingly get good worth from one other confirmed suite. My third alternative could be 10,000 bonus factors since I worth these factors at about $100, however I can get extra worth on some redemptions. My fourth alternative could be 5 $20 meals and beverage rewards since this reward has a set $100 worth.
• 50 nights: My first alternative could be factors and my second alternative could be meals and beverage rewards for a similar cause as above.
• 60 nights: My first alternative could be factors and my second alternative could be meals and beverage rewards for a similar cause as above.
• 70 nights: My first alternative could be two confirmable suite upgrades because it’s essentially the most useful possibility at this milestone. My second alternative could be an annual lounge membership if I did not choose one as a 40-night Milestone Reward. My third alternative could be 10,000 bonus factors since I worth these factors at about $100, however I can get extra worth on some redemptions. And my fourth alternative could be 5 $20 meals and beverage rewards since this reward has a set $100 worth.
• 80 nights: My first alternative could be factors and my second alternative could be meals and beverage rewards for a similar cause as above.
• 90 nights: My first alternative could be factors and my second alternative could be meals and beverage rewards for a similar cause as above.
• 100 nights: My first alternative could be factors and my second alternative could be meals and beverage rewards for a similar cause as above.

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Beforehand, I would relied on the Platinum Elite standing offered as a perk of the IHG Rewards Premier Credit score Card for so long as you are a cardholder and did not fear about accruing a selected variety of nights with IHG annually. However with the addition of breakfast as a welcome amenity alternative for Diamond Elite members, now that is a compelling argument for accruing nights with IHG to earn Diamond Elite standing and Milestone Rewards.