Originally Posted by
Tony300S
I think the "4th Night Free" benefit will be a great perk, and per the terms it's unlimited in use:
"Members can utilize the 4th Reward Night Free benefit on an unlimited number of stays annually."
Example.... let assume TWO 4-night reward stays at an upper tier 60K point per night hotel.... Total cost 480,000 points.
With the current Select CC 10% rebate you'll get back 48,000 points and spend 432,000 as a result.
With the new Premier CC 4th night free you'll save 120,000 points and spend ONLY 360,000 points.
That's a savings of 72,000 points or basically more than an extra night worth $360 @ a $0.005 point value.
Also remember, the 10% rebate is/was capped at 100K points per year. I can seen though that this will benefit the points rich IHG members much more than casual users, but then again isn't that what a top tier hotel CC should be?
Plus the TSA Pre/Global Entry is basically a $25 per year value outright since it's capped at $100 every 4-years.
4th night free definitely has value, but not as much to me. Not that they have to cater to me. As someone who generally stays 1-2 nights, the 10% clearly wins in my scenario. I also have Global Entry. That perk is showing up more and more. Although, few sub-$100 annual fee cards come with that.
Overall, this Premier card is not a bad card at all. It may enter my wallet one day if the numbers work for me. However, it being the "Premier" card is a huge miss. Chase has eaten into some of AMEX's business as of late. The Reserve being a good example of that. IHG is also somewhat comparable to Hilton. The Hilton AMEX portfolio wins. There should have been a $450 annual fee card here. Perhaps I am wrong, and that is too premium for the IHG market. I do wonder what a $450 af, Ambassador or Spire status, VISA Infinite, with unrestricted free night, etc would do for them. It surely would pique my interest.