floridatraveler90

I have had the IHG Select $49 annual fee card since 2014. I have been offered on many occasions a poor offer of 5,000 IHG points to upgrade this to the Premier Credit Card. I personally find this offer comical to get rid of such a great credit card.

When the Premier was first introduced I was under the 5/24 rule with Chase so I couldn't sign up separely to have both. However, I do remember seeing quite a few people mention on here that they were planning on keeping both the Select and Premier. I am now planning on doing the same thing. Will this cause any issues moving forward? Or will I be able to keep both cards for as long as my account is in good standing, get 2 rewards nights each year, and be able to use the 4th night free benefits?

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Jon Maiman

I have had both cards for years. No issues at all.

--Jon

serpens

You didn't mention the 10% points rebate from the old card, but that carries forward, too. Like Jon Maiman, no issues. My only regret was timing. The free night is issued on or shortly after the anniversary, and by coincidence, my anniversaries were only one month apart. I would rather they were staggered more.

DiverDave

Same here! And with both cards, I get 4th night free on an award stay AND 10% rebate on the points used!

Definitely keeping the $49 card!

travelingdrsuz

I had both, but I didn't upgrade; I applied separately to get 130,000 bonus points. It all went fine. I finally canceled the old one to save some money after yet another bad IHG experience. Even with the free night, it was becoming less worth it, so having two was not relevant to me, but it was totally fine. I am sure they were just happy to take my money. But take the points, not the "upgrade."

lwildernorva

Same experience here. I have both the Select and the Premier, and the benefits stack. I believe that if you're committed to the IHG universe, having both cards is well worth it. $139 per year gets you two free nights at properties up to 40K. Even with some recent games some properties have played by getting themselves to 41K points, there are still lots of useful properties for the free night certs. The combination of stacking a 10% points rebate and the fourth night free effectively lowers the points needed for award stays by a little over a third.

And I agree: the points offered for an upgrade from the Select to the Premier provide no incentive to lose the benefits from the Select.

downinit

Just hope they don't do the same thing as they did for Hyatt and merge everyone into the new card with no bonus offer at all. I will be keeping both cards until that inevitable day comes, but getting value out of the cert is definitely becoming much more of a challenge as variable pricing and the end of the COVID slump are making the list of 40k properties to get worse by the day. It seems like $200 is about the best I value I can get right now. At least they have made booking the Chase nights easier and now allow combining multiple certs on one reservation.

lwildernorva

Keep in mind that the combination of the (apparently) imminent lifting of pandemic restrictions combined with the summer tourist season means that there will probably be poor value out of the IHG Rewards program for redemptions this summer. On the other hand, if you could time your third and later stays before August 16 to be multiple night stays, there could be an excellent points earning opportunities this summer.

Sometimes you gotta earn, sometimes you gotta burn. I suspect this summer is a better time to earn in the IHG program with the hope that in the fall and winter, there will excellent redemption values. That is the strategy I've decided to pursue for the remainder of 2021.

MD/DC Flyer

There is no problem having both. I've applied last year to the Premier for the 140,000 points and the 4th night free. My intention is to keep the select and downgrade the Premier to the no annual fee version, keeping the 4th night free benefit and foregoing the certificate which is extremely hard to use anywhere worthwhile.

vincewy

For the best use of 2 free nights, I applied (and got approved) for Premier almost the same date as my Select 3 years ago, so both my anniversary nights will be issued around the same period going forward.

Now, is there anyone out there who also got Travelers in addition to Select and Premier? On top of that, having Travelers upgraded to Premier with 3 free nights each year?

Regarding devaluation, I plan to book a 4 nights stay with points at earliest possible date to lock in good rates, worst case scenario is you'll have to cancel but still get the points back, great if the rate ends up skyrocketing and your trip sticks.

serpens

My understanding is that the Traveler card has a $29 annual fee and there is no free version of a Chase IHG credit card. Certainly when I downgraded a Premier card, I was told my only option was Traveler at $29 per year.

MD/DC Flyer

According to the chase website the traveler has no annual fee. https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/ihg...B&gclsrc=aw.ds

serpens

Maybe it's the difference between PC and new app.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...l#post33233979

Liz F

Can you please explain the 10% stacking. So if a stay is 100k points, I end up paying only 81k if I have both CC

bladerunner6

You end up paying: (100,000)-(100,000 x 0.10)=90,000