Wanted to share real quick credit card datapoint-understand this is perhaps not "news" to more longstanding and regular IHG elites and points buyers but there seems to be some recent conflicting reports and possible misinformation on merchant categories as Award Wallet MCC look-up tool lists merchant IHG Points & Cash as "hotels" but this NOT the case.

Recently took advantage of the 20% off cash and points (cancellations result in the full points value being redeposited to the account) for ~0.47 cents per point, already redeemed for a trip later this month. Used my Bilt card for a small purchase and it posted as a standard 1x. I'm glad I used my CofC Venture X for the majority of my purchase. Overall this seems like a compelling value prop for my dates at a Kimpton in tandem with the Chase IHG Premier 4th night free, Chase IHG Select 10% rebate and not paying local taxes.

Safe to say it is well established that Cash+Points is not coded as non-IHG spend, but I wanted to share a very recent datapoint for anyone who may be considering using Bilt for 2x hotel/CSR for 4x travel/etc. Best to use whaterver card you use for everyday spend, working to exhaust a sign-up bonus or other spend milestone related to status and other benefits.