If you’re into travel a transferrable points card like the Venture X or Chase Sapphire Preferred is a must have. These are the best way to spend day-to-day. They’re also table stakes in a full card portfolio. Travelers wanting the most from their trips should add at least one airline and one hotel card for additional perks. The IHG Premier Mastercard (bonus referral link) may not be the best hotel card in the world. However it just might be the best non-luxury hotel co-branded card out there.
A generous earning structure and a full suite of perks and benefits make this card worth having. The IHG Premier Mastercard’s $95 annual fee is more than offset by a free night award. But more on that later. First, let’s talk about why this card is a good fit for anyone who stays in hotels often.
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IHG Hotels and the One Rewards Program
Hilton and Marriott lead the race when it comes to hotel brands and loyalty programs. At the back of the pack are the likes of Wyndham and Choice. IHG and Hyatt occupy that goldilocks middle ground where quality and value intersect most often. The Chain has 18 brands in its portfolio, anchored by Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. With more than 6000 properties worldwide they’re not far behind the top two chains. IHG is well ahead of Hyatt’s ~1600 hotels.
Even if you’re fully loyal to Hilton or Marriott it’s ideal to have status in a backup program. It can be a lifesaver when rates are high or you need a room on short notice near an airport. An IHG Premier Mastercard covers that scenario with brands like Holiday Inn Express or Staybridge. It also includes places you’d want to spend a vacation like Hotel Indigo or Intercontinental.
The IHG One Rewards loyalty program was recently reinvented to be more competitive with its larger counterparts. There are five levels of status. Members can move up to the Silver tier after just 10 nights and gain milestone rewards at 20 nights. With free nights starting at 10,000 points and each night awarding over 2000 points earning and redeeming are easy.
The IHG Premier Mastercard offers a 140,000 point welcome bonus. Cardholders will have something above 150,000 points after completing the spending requirement. With the program’s fourth night free benefit members should be able to book 3 vacations with that amount of points. The program also offers a points+cash discount on rooms for travelers who prefer that option.
IHG Premier Mastercard Benefits
The annual free night certificate is valid for rooms up to 40,000 points. In most cases that’s value well above the card’s $95 annual fee. You can top off the certificate with additional points as well. The IHG Premier Mastercard also offers a $100 statement credit for purchases made at IHG properties in the first year. Guests can split that into 3-4 meals over several stays. It’s not a $100 use-it-or-lose-it offer. A $100 TSA Pre-Check credit and $50 in United Travel Bank funds when booking on United means it’s easy to come out ahead in value without doing any real spending on this card.
There are several other benefits which are common to Chase cards. But the real killer benefit of the IHG Premier Mastercard is the platinum elite status. Platinum is the second-highest status level in One Rewards, but if you examine the tier benefits the difference between Platinum and Diamond status is negligible. It’s not worth pursuing Diamond unless your employer is paying for several weeks in IHG hotels every year.
This is where the card really stands apart from Chase’s World of Hyatt card. The Hyatt card only comes with Discoverist status, the first step above Member and equivalent to IHG’s Silver status. I’ve stayed in four IHG properties in the 3 months since I got the card and received an upgraded room on each stay. The boost in status has really made stays noticeably smoother, particularly at check-in. The recognition of status is very good.
Earning With IHG Premier Mastercard
While a hotel card can’t compete with a transferrable points card for everyday spend, this one comes pretty darn close in delivering value. It awards 5 points on travel, dining, & gas, 3 points on general purchases, and a total of 26 points per dollar at IHG brands. (Including the points you would have received anyway booking rooms with another card.)
This card offers a solid return on all spending, but consumers are better off earning transferrable points or cash back. I do love that the IHG Premier Mastercard has a gas category though. One Rewards points are worth around 0.6 cents apiece. Getting 5 points per dollar means you’re effectively getting a 3% rebate. For many people, including myself, using this card to buy gas means coming out slightly ahead of what other cards offer. Plus it’s easy to just think of it as your gas card, and steadily collect around 750-1000 points per month.
Spending with IHG is where this card really stands out. Getting 26 points per dollar is the best you can do with a hotel card, even if you value other programs’ points more highly. One Rewards allows you to choose bonus points as a welcome amenity. I’ve found that in practice many hotels deposit those points even before you check in and ask for them. So one night in a $100 room should get you 3100 or 3200 points total. The card also offers a 20% discount when buying points on IHG.com. Points are often on sale there for 0.5 cents each. IHG Points may not be the “best” but they are often the best to buy with cash. It’s always a good idea to compare the price of the room you’re looking at to the cost of buying points to book it.
One Rewards Premier Final Verdict
For me getting and keeping the IHG Premier Mastercard is a no-brainer. Even if you use up all your points and decide to carry another hotel card it’s worth keeping this one for the status and getting your free night every year. Because of Chase’s 5/24 Rule you should strongly consider applying for this card before you reach your card limit.
Paying $95 and receiving a free night annually is the proposition offered on a lot of hotel cards. I believe this one offers the best status for the price. Its main competitor from Chase is the World of Hyatt card and I think there’s more utility and value in One Rewards. Strictly speaking it may not be a must have, but it’s definitely a nice to have whether it’s the second card in your wallet or the 22nd.
