doktor24

How to read this? If you reach 55000 points until March and program change you are Diamond for 2023 if not you are going to need 120000 points until year end?
Or lower requirement is valid for all 2022?

khabah

This is IHG's official verbiage:

You won’t see any changes in your account quite yet – the new tier structure will go live during March. In the meantime, we’ve already extended your current status and we’re extending the reduction of our current tier criteria until the new structure goes into effect.

The way I read it, we have until some point in March to earn status under the 7K/30K/55K points thresholds for Gold/Platinum/Spire, at which point the levels switch over to the new tiers; if you achieve old Gold, you get new Gold, Platinum maps to Platinum and Spire becomes Diamond. If you want to qualify on points after March, it'll be under the new, higher points requirement. Statuses achieved this year will be valid for the current cycle until 2023, at which point we'll all have to work towards status on the new points thresholds. In summation: from now until March is members' last chance for Spire/future Diamond at 55000 points.

khabah

jochen_vdk

Fully agree with you. With the double points promo I could do a large part of the actual Spire requirements in February, but to reach 80% of the points for Spire only to see "some day in March" the requirement going up from 55,000 to 120,000... no thank you.

I was Spire for some years in the past, but I dropped it since it brought me absolutely nothing, and at the same time, the promos became less and less interesting (remembering those nice challenges of fulfilling 5-6 tasks that would bring you 100,000 points...). At least the new requirements make it clear that Spire is off-limits, so I don't even have to try.

As most of the other loyalty programs don't bring me joy, I have been selecting my hotels on a case by case basis, based on my hotel preferences and not based on the loyalty program. As in most cities I stay, IHG hotels are not my favourites, I am staying much less with them nowadays.

Cyberhacker

This reminds me of one of the experiments that one of the UK consumer shows did, a few years back.

They ran a focus group for a credit card, where the options were 1 point per pound spent, or 500 points per pound spent. Everyone chose the 500 point option, without reading the small print which explained the trade-in conversion rate (the former 1 point = 1p; the later, 10,0000 points = 1p :-D ).

Given the recent "improvements" to the reward stays, the points are worth next to nothing...

Cyberhacker

For me, the interesting development is the breaking of the link between 1 night == 1,000 points for qualification

Gold has always been 10 nights or 10,000 points (7 nights or 7,000 points during Covid)
Plat has always been 40 nights or 40,000 points (30 nights or 30,000 points during Covid) etc

Now that has effectively doubled for the lower levels...

Cyberhacker

A further thought (sorry)...

These levels 10, 20, 40, 70 are disregarding the "reduced thresholds" announced with such a fan-fare late last year...

Cyberhacker

In as much as it makes the pretty pathetic IHG Rewards program even worse, such that it is nearly as bad as Accor Live?

Good point.



(That makes four posts in a row from me, so I best shut up)

nacho

Now that IHG, Marriott and Hilton all suck, which programme is left? Hyatt? The problem is their footprint especially in Europe.

Kiwi Flyer

I now have passed 55k qualifying points in 2022. I have requalified spire and have credited 25k points as my choice benefit. Choice benefit was not showing up in the app but was on the website.

Rare

Hmm. I still don’t have my choice benefit for requalifying in 2021.

So you should be set for diamond status until 2024 now, right?

Kiwi Flyer

I hope so. The website shows expiry 1/1/2024.

dw

Looks like the increased points qualification requirements makes more sense with the newly announced changes to the US Chase IHG Premier credit card-- base spending now earns 3 points per dollar (and more on bonus categories), so spending $40,000 alone (and less if some charges are in the bonus categories) will get one the new Diamond. (Though I'd personally think anyone would be crazy to put that much spend on that card, particularly in light of the fact that there's been no confirmation yet of new benefits for Diamond.)

Rare

Excellent. Might be worth going for it in February with the 2X promo. Likely will be the last year I make top tier given the new program's requirements.

darthbimmer

I qualified for Spire shortly after it was introduced and then requalified the following year. I found that Spire was almost no different from Platinum. At ICs it got me a small welcome gift along with about a 1/3 chance of a slight room upgrade; Platinum has gotten me a 1/3 chance of slight room upgrade but no small welcome gift. At lower properties Spire got me absolutely nothing over Platinum... not that Plat gets any on-property benefits at all half the time, anyway. As Spire gets renamed to Diamond in the new system-- I'm glad; jokes about Spire were legendary here-- I see that there are still no guaranteed on-property benefits with now even higher qualification requirements. That makes it an easy "Pass".

Super Mario

There are people out there who spend $40k+ on a card for 1% or even 0% return. 3 points per dollar (What is that 1.5% these days?) definitely isn't the worst out there. Especially if you combine it with 4th night free and/or the 10% rebate. Not to mention if you stay at IHG often and the extra elite qualifying points help boost your status for more points. Perhaps not a scenario for everyone. However, do many cards really get "better" with changes? Aside from the $10 af increase, I think most of us can agree this card has improved. No one expected the ability to use extra points to top off your free night cert.

I'm still hopeful that Diamond Elite may be somewhat interesting. I believe the new tiers could still offer a cost savings to the properties while also increasing engagement from the top spenders. They're certainly looking to boost credit card spend.