The Offer
- Chase is sending out offers to existing Chase IHG Select cardholders offering to upgrade them to the new Chase IHG Premier card. If you upgrade you will receive 5,000 bonus points after you upgrade and make your first purchase by June 30th, 2018
The Fine Print
- Upgrade link is chase.com/chasegreatrewards/ihg21 but seems to be non working
Our Verdict
There are several reasons why you shouldn’t upgrade to the new card. The main reason is that the new card comes with an $89 annual fee and the old card comes with a $49 annual fee. In addition rewards certificates issued before May 1st, 2019 will be unrestricted. I suspect when you upgrade your card you’ll receive a restricted free night certificate though (up to 40,000 points). This table below helps compare the two cards:
| Select | Premier | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $49.00 | $89.00 |
| Free night certificate | Yes | Yes |
| Earning rate at IHG | 5x | 10x |
| Earning rate at gas stations, grocery stores & restaurants | 2x | 2x |
| Earning rate on all other purchases | 1x | 1x |
| Elite status | Platinum | Platinum |
| Free award night when you redeem points for any stay of 4 or more nights | No | Yes |
| 10% rebate on points booking | Yes | No |
| TSA Pre-Check/Global Entry | No | Yes |
| 20% discount on points purchases | No | Yes |
Another reason not to upgrade is the fact that none of the IHG cards have the 5/24 rule applied to them. It probably just makes more sense to apply for the IHG Premier card and also get 80,000 IHG points. That way you keep your free night certificate at the lower $49 annual fee and you could always just keep the Premier card as well.
Hat tip to Miles to Memories
Planning on booking 8 nights @ the IC Cancun when they have the 50% off points sale soon. Wondering if I got the Premier card, could I break-up the stay into 2 four night reservations and get 2 nights free?
If you try to check rates on IHG website, then on the “Select a room” screen you will see a banner for the Premier card with additional $50 statement credit.
I don`t understand this global entry thing. You have to go through the Pre check stuff anyhow, so what are they trying to tell you?
way off topic but I will answer you: global entry is for international customs and immigration lines…pre check is part of TSA flight screening at airport security lines. I also just got a couple of free months of CLEAR which is available at my local airports and lets you skip the airport security line and go straight to the pre-check or regular screening machines.
What’s the underwriting like on these cards? I have lots of new accounts in the last 12/24 months, so I’m trying to figure out how long I should wait before I apply for them. I intend to get both the Premier and Traveler on the same pull if I can.
I’ve never heard of this card being that difficult to get as far as Chase cards go. I would think the main issue would be if you are already at your dollar limit with Chase.
A lot of recent data points though suggest that Chase has been clamping down on people who have too many Chase accounts combined with too many inquiries. See some of Doc’s other posts.
5k points is outright insulting.
5K Points is. When Chase and IHG announced the changes to the free night certificate I called IHG and after speaking to a manager they credited my account and my wife’s account with 15K points each, 30K points total for complaining and this upgrade offer gives you 1/3 of that? No thank you!
I will say though, if you can hold both the Select and Premier and get the benefits of both (10% points back and 4th night free) that’s not a bad combo.
5k points is really cheap. Thats enough reason for me.
If you have the old card and apply for the new card, do you then get 2 annual free nights?
Yes
Will you mentioned 100,000 points in the verdict section. Is the current offer for the premier card 100,000 or 80,000?
It’s 80k, not sure why I thought it was 100k. Let me update
I have the IHG Select card and applied for both the Premier and Traveler. I met the spend on them and received my bonuses on those three cards. 215k points. Boom.
215K IHG is more or less the equivalent of 68K UR points..
How?
I have 67K Thank You points too.
I’m guessing this is based on TPG valuations, which don’t really apply to everyone.
This is my attack plan as well.
How did you get 215K? SUBs on the two cards add up to 140K.
Also, I’ve been able to pretty easily get 0.75cpp on IHG, so 140K is worth about $1K to me.
I have the IHG Select, Premier, and Traveler. Signed up my spouse for the authorized user bonus and use the card as a Visa card when I can’t use my Amex.
Did all those points combine into one IHG reward account or do you need to set up different reward accounts.