I was just looking at a Saturday in IC Miami in March that was 37k points or $380. There are still great redemptions to be had. At that 1 cent valuation, 10x points is a 10% return. No to mention the EQP, or combining with 4th night free / 10% rebate.

Add on top of that, a huge suite upgrade and free mini-bar and free club and you see why people like IHG and the Ambassador program. I've gotten Pres Suite upgrades at the IC Miami and other IC's. Even on points.

since you can always buy IHG points at 0.5cpm. so the return is only 5%, and no more EQP will be earned after March.

Which you can get at Marriott without having unpublished levels which restrict you to only 213 IC hotels worldwide😀

That's not what they say in the Marriott forum these days.

No you certainly cannot get that at Marriott, beyond the occasional suite upgrade at certain hotels. Mainly former Starwood hotels. And there are very few clubs in Marriott, RC aside, that can match with an IC Club.


Again, please don't mess with RA. Leave it exactly as it is.

Marriott & Hilton give out easy higher(top) status via creditcards.

With IHG it is only to the middle tier (plat via cc) which gives hope that future higher status can only be achieved by nights/stays/$, rewarding loyal guests instead of just holding a co-brand creditcard.

Unfortunately, outside of ICs w RA/Amb and Kimptons with IC, IHG hotels simply don’t have a history or culture of recognizing elites, and I don’t expect that to change just because IHG Rewards decides to rename the top tier.

(This is based on my experience as a Spire, an Amb and a Kimpton IC.)

With the Premier card going up $10 and with points having been devalued, they could have at least raised the 40k point limit on the free night.

incorrect. Marriott Titanium is NOT given out via any credit but yes Hilton Diamond is given out via a credit card.

Just stack your Marriott Creditcards and have almost the amount of nights needed for Titanium:

Even the kn**w*t of TPG are promoting this trick https://thepointsguy.com/news/earnin...tanium-status/


That is not much in true loyalty as staying paying guests but easy candy via financial products.

This can cause a lot of pressure of waves of elites travelling again using
hotel benefits and infrastructure.

Stacking credit cards will get you 30 nights max. Titanium requires 75 nights. How's that "almost"?

In normal years, it isn't.

In pandemic years '20 and '21, Marriott comped elite nights based on prior status, so many got 25 or 38 nights added to the total. You can also choose 5 elite nights for your 50-night reward. So a prior titanium could have gotten 15+15+38+5 = 73 elite nights without a single BIB. But that's in the past now.

Did I remember wrong or wasnt it supposed to come news today about the new program?

Gave it some thought since the announcement but am not interested. I don't want the credit card, I'm not interested in maintaining a high points balance when there is dynamic pricing, and the four properties in the area near where my father lives in suburban Chicago are lousy.

I like new build HIX and I don't mind avid for a one night sleep, but I don't need status for either of those. They have made a mess out of Kimpton and my travel patterns stopped working for Inner Circle. It is still worth collecting IHG from stays until they downgrade me, but not a lot of them.