I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express recently, and I was given a promo card to earn 1000 points for watching a video. The video was about the new IHG Mastercard in the US, which looks pretty cool - and offers some great benefits. I am expecting that there will be one for Canada soon, but I am sure it won't be half as good as this one. Anyone heard anything about a new card in Canada?

There are already 2 IHG Mastercards in Canada. Why would there be more?
http://www.capitalone.ca/credit-card...ub+Credit+Card

I am well aware of the current CDN credit cards that Cap One offers. My point is that Priority Club is no longer - the rewards program is now called IHG Rewards Club. The words 'Priority Club' are plastered all over those CDN credit cards - not exactly promoting the re-branding and new features of the IHG Rewards Club.

Since the re-branding and new benefits have now been translated to a US credit card that Chase offers, I am wondering how long it will take for Cap One (or another bank?) to follow suit. IHG is marketing the program like crazy, so you'd think that the credit card offers would be sweetened?

Perhaps a call to Cap One would shed some light if nobody has any idea what is coming down the pipe?

Don't get all excited. The IHG Rewards card in the USA hasn't arrived on anyone's doorstep either. At this points it's pictures and a video. It's not clear whether Chase (the USA bank for IHG) will send these out prior to you needing a replacement card for some other reason (new expiration date or otherwise).

The benefits of the card aren't changing, only the benefits of the program itself. So it's just extra cost for them to send out the card sooner than "necessary". Do you want your annual fee to go up next year because too many people requested the new look card "just because" they wanted it?

That's rather disappointing. I thought the new card had additional benefits. That leads me to believe that nothin' new and improved will be coming out in Canada then, either. Thanks for the info!

Latest statement came with an insert stating new branded cards will ship "next year" so Chase will be refreshing the Priority Club branded cards prior to their expiration (mine is 2016).

I'm not sure what extra benefits the USA card could add (other than an EMV chip, please, so that we can use it more easily in Canada!). It already comes with IHG Platinum Status (since at least a year ago), it already comes with a free night certificate each year at renewal time, it already comes with a 10% rebate on all points redemptions, and it already comes with no foreign exchange fees / no foreign currency fees. (Which makes it an ideal card for international travel, except for not having the EMV chip.) It already earns bonus points on gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants (plus the most bonus points on IHG hotel stays, of course).

(It recently added the bonus for restaurants, after dropping the bonus for drug stores. But that was related to the IHG Rewards change, that was months earlier, and it was in reaction to many other cards dropping drug store bonuses, probably after "too many" people used drug stores for "manufactured spend".)

So what more did you think the card was adding?

The IHG Rewards program itself is added free internet worldwide at all brands (for elites this year, for everyone next year), but that has nothihg to do with the card.

Still, if the Canadian card is lacking some of the benefits that the USA card has, you could hope that the Canadian card gets new benefits even if the USA card doesn't (because it already has them).

Here's what the Canadian card offers:

1. No free night on renewal
2. No discount on reward nights
3. No bonus for spending except at ihg---2 points per dollar, 5 points for ihg spend
4. foreign transaction fees/currency fees are charged.

It only provides guaranteed Platinum status on renewal. 30,000 point sign up bonus. No waiver of fee in year one. $120 per year.

Very little value.

Yeah, so now you can see why I am eager to find out if a new and improved Canadian card is coming our way because of the rewards club re-branding. There is obvious room for improvement! The annual fee doesn't even really cover the 30,000 point sign up you get.

Why would you think that? It's just part of the general rebranding of the frequent stay program. Little or no changes, still the same issuer. When current cards expire, new ones will be sent out with the new design. If you sign up for the current one, it's likely you'll get the new version. As noted, the benefits up here are meagre compared to those in the US and are unlikely to change since there's not the same degree of competition in the Canadian market. Platinum status is about the only real benefit, and worth $120 in my view, if one is not going to make it under the new points/nights/brands formulae.

I guess I was hoping that with the re-branding would come new credit card benefits - and I assumed the new card that was being promoted in the US included improvements, and hoped the Canadian card would improve, too.

You think that the $120 annual fee is worth it for the Platinum status alone?

no. see all the threads about how platinum status at IHG is very hit or miss.

Platinum status used to mean that at certain hotels (which you had to research* ahead of time to find) you'd get free internet and/or free breakfast (of some sort) that was not available to non-elites.

But now that in 2014 free internet at all brands worldwide within IHG will be available just for being an IHG Rewards member (not dependent on status), it seems to me that Platinum status may be less important to pursue at (high to you) cost, because now it only means free breakfast at certain* hotels and sometimes maybe an upgrade of some sort, who knows.

*Finding out which hotels give you what Platinum benefits is not easy. The hotels themselves don't advertise it. So you have to rely on reports from people who've stayed at the exact same hotel with the same status recently enough (because the policies can change over time). (Or have your own recent enough experience in the same hotel, if you stayed there before.) If you can't limit your stays to either hotels where you can verify this ahead of time and/or hotels where it doesn't matter (like Express in the US/Canada, where there's not much to upgrade to usually and breakfast is free to everyone anyway), Platinum benefits can be very hit & miss.