Happy

When the Select card is at its anniversary, there would be a one line, 0 pt value, activity entry that tells you the OneReward status the select card brings you. The earliest date in this household is Sept. So I cannot show you an example.
However, the no fee Travel card used to be a Gold status, it just changed to Silver, as below -
Traveler Credit Card Silver Upgrade 0 pts
Before the anniversary you will continue to see Platinum if you only have Select. At anniversary is when the one line entry would show up.

We dont really care about whether we would remain Platinum or demoted to Gold - it makes no difference to us. We only care about whether the 4th night free feature stays (with both the Premier and the no fee Travel card), and if the 10% rebate on the Select card remains.
Our plan is to cancel both the Select and the Travel in one person's account, as the 40K cap makes the FN cert hard to use. In the past Chase let you have multiple cards so we keep paying the $49 AF but really not justified since we have to find place to use the FN cert so not to feel losing out... Better to just get a new Travel card with 0 AF, good sign up bonus again and enjoy 4th night free plus 0 fores fee. The other person will keep the Premier for 2nd year so at least pay Chase one year's AF (the 1st year was fee waived).

beltway

I assume that the Select cardholder has a) a very low current point balance or b) no plans to redeem points for awards any time soon. The 10% rebate on awards is a nice feature, especially for those of us who can also justify paying $49/keeping the card by having good uses for the capped 40K FNCs.

Happy

The Select cardholder currently has 210K, still very high. Last year I was able to use just under 50K out of that account on a 4th night free stay at an excellent new built HIX. This year there is no opportunity whatsoever with 3 certs expiring one after another we had no choice but to use those, and were not even for any particular trips but a trip made to use such certs.
Then the 10% of 210K is only 21K. The Travel card currently offers 120K sign up bonus with only $2K spend, 0 AF 0 Forex. In order to be eligible, one must not hold any IHG card at application (I haven't looked at the details whether it is like BonVoy that it has a 90 days clean period or not.) Hence that account both the Select and the Travel cards must go.

The next trip we can use the points is in Nov. But we each have a 40K cert expires at end of this year - those have to go first.

The Select card anniversary is in Sept. Not sure we would want to pay for the "possible" 21K rebate that might or might not occur before Sept 2023. Under the old trick, you only need to spend $105 to gain the 21K if needed. With the $49 AF, it really means your "saving" is only $56... Not worth it to forfeit a good sign up bonus on a new card. Should Chase keep its old policy to allow people having multiple cards of different types, we might just keep it. But now you cannot get another new card sign up bonus even prev bonus is received 2+ years ago, you have to look at bigger picture and decide whether the current benefits are worth it.

We only use the cert internationally. We barely able to use the remaining 40K certs in each of our account in Cairo and London this Fall. I would much prefer they give out points even at lower level than the 40K than a cert.

The past months we had to use 3 expiring certs by making unnecessary road trips which turned out more hassles than enjoyable. We used 1 in town at a Staybridge near the new Hard Rock casino but at the end did not even bother to visit after perusing the dining venue options.

Basically, in our case it is really a struggle to use the cert, being under the notion of not to waste it, we actually waste more - gas, time, and wear/tear on our car on the unnecessary overnights out of town. Very akin to penny wise pound foolish.

This weekend we once again made an unnecessary road trip to use 3 Marriott 35K certs that have been extended multiple times and will expire on June 30th no matter what. We do not like certs esp very often those 25K properties serve our purposes. We much prefer to get points instead.

beltway

I’m considering a very different approach. Like you and many others, we have several FNCs to use up this year (including a 40K-capped Select cert). But instead of dropping cards, I’m thinking of doing a product change.

Right now we hold six IHG cards:

• Select, Premier, Traveler, Premier Business
• Premier, Traveler (DW)

I’m giving serious thought to PCing my DW’s Traveler to Premier. That would give us four uncapped, top-uppable FNCs to use anywhere on the planet (plus the Select cert, assuming Chase doesn’t kill it off for good) starting a year from now. I don’t doubt for one minute that I can get appreciably more than $99 in value out of each.

Happy

Have you seen how the top up feature works in IHG account?

ONLY the certs from the premier card can be topped up. This is a serious shortcoming. I have both the Premier card AND the Select - the cert from the Select can NOT be topped up. So you would need to wait for the NEXT anniversary after product change to the Premier card then the FN cert could be topped up. I do not know when you product change, would the current Select history immediately counts toward to the new product.
I much prefer to get rid of DH's existing Select and Travel, then he can get either a Premier or a new Travel card because his last bonus is over 2+ years ago. For our household the no expiration date on Pts trumps the limited life of the FN cert anytime. A lot of the properties we used in Europe are between 10 to 25K categories - truly great value to use pts when the rates are in 150 to 250 euro range. Like a German friend said, IHG reward point pricing makes no sense before Dynamic pricing, and still makes no sense after Dynamic pricing.

Besides I have the Marriott requalifying to do each year and the benefits over there still are better, especially in international locations.

Schnit

Except it is not waived in the first year.

beltway

There are currently no offers for the Premier card that waive the first-year AF, but there was just such an offer last year. (My notes state it was available on 6/4/21; can't say how long that offer was open.)

Schnit

Has anyone hit the 20k spend bonus on the new cards yet? I dont see any tracker on the website. How quickly did everything hit?

Happy

was waived last year.

Correct.