Last week, IHG Rewards Club, the loyalty program of InterContinental Hotels put out changes to its award pricing for 2018. That will result in ~10% IHG hotels change award prices effective January 16, 2018.
Private garden at the InterContinental Dublin
These changes are not very flattering for IHG patrons as out of a total of 700 hotels changing categories ~500 will require 5,000 – 10,000 more points effective January 16, 2018. Not just this but IHG Rewards Club has also introduced a new higher redemption level, and 9 IHG hotels will cost 70,000 points per night.
| Hotel | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| InterContinental Paris Le Grand | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental Le Moana Bora Bora | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental HongKong | 60000 | 70000 |
| Intercontinental ANA- Manza Beach Resort | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental London ParkLane | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental Monterey | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental San Francisco | 60000 | 70000 |
| InterContinental Mark Hopkins SFO | 60000 | 70000 |
IHG’s top-tier hotels have become increasingly expensive since 2016. Until 2015, the maximum redemption levels were at 50,000 points. In 2016, two new redemption categories at 55,000 and 60,000 points were introduced. Now, it goes up further, as 9 InterContinental hotels will cost 70,000 points for a redemption night.
We were lucky to have stayed at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand and The Intercontinental Thalasso Spa in Bora BoraThe Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa for 50,000 points per night in 2015. It will really pinch me to shell out 70,000 points for these hotels now.
60% of the hotels that are changing categories are in the US. There are eight hotels in India getting affected with two hotels increasing in the number of reward points required and another four becoming cheaper on points going forward.
Here are the changes in India for 2018:
| Hotel | 2017 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| InterContinental Marine Drive Mumbai | 25000 | 30000 |
| Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport | 15000 | 20000 |
| Crowne Plaza Pune City Centre | 30000 | 25000 |
| Crowne Plaza Mayur Vihar New Delhi | 25000 | 20000 |
| Crowne Plaza Jaipur Tonk Road | 25000 | 20000 |
| Holiday Inn & Suites Bengaluru Whitefield | 20000 | 15000 |
The last date to book with the old redemption rate is January 16, 2018
If you are looking to redeem at a property going up in redemption points price, I would recommend locking in your redemption in the next five days, even if speculatively. If there is a redemption coming up where the property goes down in price, do call them after the revised requirements take effect to get a refund of your points.
What do you think about the upcoming changes to IHG Rewards Club? Love it? Hate it? Forget it?
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