From 2009-2013 I was what can best be described as an IHG "Flyertalk-Pointsplat", namely my Plat IHG status was due to signing up for the ludicrous number of promos on this board and scooping up the 60,000 points required for Plat from those promos within 10-15 nights.

The qualification changes forced me to look again at IHG Plat and I found it to be an empty vessel, upgrades, breakfasts and lounge access are property dependent (and in the case of lounge or breakfasts, usually non-existent), the 72-hour availability is an expensive joke. The 50% extra points are the only real benefit, but an IHG point has nothing like the value of a Marriott point, and is more approximate to an HH point. That didn't matter when you could "rack and stack" the promos, but that became distinctly risky behaviour. As a result I didn't chase Plat for 2014, and was busted to Gold.

This year I've stayed 5 paid nights and 2 awards, over 3 brands, so only need 3 more to retain Gold, but can't even see the value in that. Gold status this year bought in about 4000 extra points, 2 free breakfasts (say 4000 points) and 2 upgrades worth I guess another 4000 points. I guess I could get the 3 nights by simply doing PBs for 15,000 points, though as can be seen, this is all so very marginal...