The New & Improved IHG One Rewards Program Is HERE!

Overnight IHG has (finally!) released details of its new & improved IHG One Rewards Program. The old IHG Rewards was quite frankly unrewarding compared to Hilton & Marriott, no free breakfast at top elite levels, patchy upgrades & non-existent late checkouts. Whilst we wouldn’t get too excited IHG has made some GOOD changes with the launch of IHG One. Let’s take a look at the new program…

IHG One Rewards Membership Tiers

Below is a chart that shows you what IHG One Reward Membership Tiers there are, how many nights/points you need to reach each one and what benefits they have…

There is finally a FREE breakfast!

IHG Diamond Elite can now select FREE breakfast as their welcome amenity (definitely more valuable than some points or drink/snack.)

If you choose FREE breakfast as your welcome amenity you will receive hot breakfast for two people. Whilst some items can be excluded e.g. alcoholic beverages it does appear to be a ‘full’ breakfast as opposed to just a continental breakfast. Obviously, if the hotel offers breakfast to everyone you will need to choose a different welcome amenity, it won’t get you any extra offering on the basic breakfast.

IHG One Rewards Milestone Rewards

The most exciting part of IHG One is the launch of their Milestone Rewards. With this members can get confirmed suite upgrades, lounge access, and more. Every 10 elite nights in a calendar year between 20 – 100 entitles you to select from various perks. You can view these below…

Food & Beverage Milestone Rewards

Each Food & Beverage Milestone reward is worth $20 and can only be redeemed during a stay. You can use multiple rewards at the same time, with the redeemed account taken off your folio. You can’t use these rewards at Holiday Inn Club Vacation, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, or InterContinental Alliance resorts.

How does the IHG annual lounge membership work?

IHG is finally adding lounge access as an elite benefit (when you choose it as one of your Milestone rewards.) This is a great change as previously NO elite members were entitled to lounge access (unlike with Hilton Diamond, Platinum Elite etc.) If you wanted lounge access you had to pay a premium for it even if you were staying 75-nights+a year!

If you choose annual lounge membership as one of your Milestone rewards you will get access to lounges for the entire year in which it’s earned, plus the following 12 months. So, for example, if you earned choose the lounge membership in July 2022 you would have access until December 2023. This is valid at virtually any IHG property with a club lounge & is valid over an unlimited number of stays, regardless of whether you’re paying cash or redeeming points

How do IHG One Suite Upgrades work?

In another major benefit to IHG’s reward program, you can now choose a Confirmable Suite Upgrade as one of your Milestone rewards. These can be used on a CASH booking of up to 5-nights and can be applied by calling IHG One Rewards customer support between 14 days and one day prior to arrival.

Is it a guaranteed upgrade?

If there is a standard suite available when you call customer support you can then use your Confirmable Suite Upgrade to guarantee that room (upgrade can be up to a standard suite, though if that’s not available you can confirm an upgrade to another premium room that’s not a suite). In the future IHG is planning for this process to be online but for now, you still need to ring up.

Conclusion

The addition of free breakfast for top tier Diamond Elite members & the new Milestone Rewards program, offering everything from suite upgrades, to lounge access means that IHG has finally a reward program that is comparable to that of Hilton & Marriott. What do you think about IHG’s latest loyalty program IHG One? You can read more about it on the IHG website here – https://www.ihg.com/onerewards/content/gb/en/home