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Have the IHG Premier and just approved for a Business IHG card. Great cards as we are IHG people working on getting Diamond status. The points sales which we take advantage of when they offer the 100% bonus and the 4th night free. As long as IHG keeps this all without changes, we will be IHG loyalist and ignore the other hotel brands. On top of that, we update our Ambassador status every year to have a nice upgraded experience when we us Intercontinental hotels.
You guys pushing buying the gift cards for Hilton trying to secure the $50 quarterly credit.. have you ever tried using them on property? Apparently not. For a $50 gift card, the Hilton hotel will charge you a 15% penalty for every $10 on the card used. You’ll end up only using $40 with $6 fees and $4 left on the card. Considering the friction to buy the card (around $2). That drips the value of these cards to around the annual fee of the Surpass. Don’t recommend this option.
For hotel keeper cards, I prefer the Chase World of Hyatt and Hilton Surpass. The World of Hyatt comes with an annual anniversary free night award at a Category 1-4 Hyatt, a second annual free night award at a Category 1-4 Hyatt after spending $15k in a year (mostly for non-category spending for me), and an annual entirely paid with points night at a Category 1-4 Hyatt from the $15k of spending. So, three nights at a Category 1-4 Hyatt, every year, for the $95 annual fee and $15k of non-category spending that I would be making anyway. The Hilton Surpass earns an annual uncapped free night award at a Hilton after spending $15k (mostly grocery spending for me), an annual 90k points for the $15k spending (if done in 6x categories), and an annual $200 towards a third night (if gift cards can be used for one stay). In this case, two nights (for example, in NYC) and $200 for the $150 annual fee and $15k of mostly grocery spending that I would be making anyway. I don't see a similar benefit from the IHG cards beyond the SUBs. The Premier and Premier Business each come with an annual anniversary free night award, which is nice as is the fourth night free. However, I don't see why people would put spending on either card, and I doubt most people will be staying at an IHG for only one night (or two for both cards together), so is everyone only buying points after they have exhausted their points from the SUBs for their four night stays?
Recently got the IHG Premier and will try to get the IHG Business soon. Can’t wait to try the program and enjoy that 4th night free benefit. Thanks for the detailed overview and information Matt!🫵
Great video Matt! Like others are saying here, that fourth night free perk is pretty solid. I imagine I will add the Premier late next year after I do a four card sprint through mid 2025. It ties in nicely with my United strategy with that $50 credit!
I saw that offer and was blown away! We have a trip to Tokyo coming up and we need to figure out our hotels still. My problem was it's not 300k points (that would have been great!) But rather 5 nights, with a redemption up to 60k points per night. The hotels in Tokyo were 70k-90k per night when we're going 🫠
Is Chase a better card to have ? can I get chase credit journey service without a chase card or bank account ? Can I have less than $2k limit ( letting my kids use that card).. thx
The IHG credit cards are some of the best hotel cards on the market, especially the IHG Premier and the Business card. The Premier and Business card compete very well with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless and Business cards. With the annual free night certificate that each of these cards offers, it makes them keeper cards and a little more desirable than the Hilton Surpass card. I have had the IHG Premier card for just over two years now and it was my first hotel credit card. I got it mainly for the free night certificate and because I always had a good experience when I stayed at an IHG property. To me, I think the IHG cards are slightly better than the Marriott cards because of the Platinum Elite status that comes with the Premier, where the Marriott cards offer lower tier statuses.
Those are all great points John! I’d agree that I’d value the IHG Premier Cards higher than the Hilton Surpass as I’d rather just use one free night award each year instead of the quarterly credits on the Surpass. Additionally, the combination of high status as well makes these cards super competitive. Thanks for watching John!
I got 3 I.H.g cards. 1. I.h.g $49 af cc. 2 the premier personal . Third the business version. 2023 laybor day weekend used 3 fnc to stay at Holiday inn in the Cayman islands. P2 also has $49 af cc & premier . These cards provide a lot of value for me.
I need to start paying closer attention to IHG cards. Funny you mentioned Hyatt, I remember when there was a special with Hyatt to get the 4th night free like two years ago (it may have been specific to the Baha Mar property), anyways, it most certainly did not apply to points. I wasn’t happy about that 😒
Haha yeah, IHG's 4th night free benefit definitely makes it stand out when compared to those other Hotel Chains, and can allow for quicker trips to be more feasible! Appreciate you watching CJ!
The timing of this video is incredible! I've been thing about IHG but Im just unsure about the actual hotel locations. I dont see many properties...well...I guess I'm not looking hard enough. When does the high offer expire?
I'm so glad this video was useful! The high offer for 5 Free Nights on the IHG Premier ends on 9/5, so very soon! I'd definitely recommend using the location tool on IHG's website to see the feasibility of which locations you'd want to prioritize.
When they say spend a certain amount within three months to get the points, when does that date start? Does it start from the day you are approved or from the date you activate the card? Always appreciate your videos Matt!!! ❤
4th night free is such a great benefit! Coupled with the 100% points sale where you can buy points for 0.5cpp, it’s a very compelling value proposition! Great video Matt! IHG is a program that I’m planning on staying at more often for the reasons you mentioned.
Thanks so much Stan! Yeah I love the 4th night free benefit. I should have talked more about the ability to buy points because that's definitely an underrated perk that can make using the 4th night free benefit more feasible. Appreciate you watching!
Exactly haha this is too real- I should have talked more about the PTO side of things. Just way more feasible if I want to take multiple trips in a year to go for the 4th night free benefit and 5 nights in one place can be stretching it. Thanks for watching JP!
Personal preference and mileage may vary. I don’t really have any IHG hotels near me (that I would want to go to) where I can use the “free night” without topping off the card. I would probably just buy the points on their points sale and book the three nights on points to get the 4th free, but I have no use case to do so at the moment. Personal preference, I lean towards Hilton for more frequent stays and Hyatt for higher end stays (food and beverage credit at Hilton and no resort fees at either on nights booked with points but you pay those fees at Marriott and IHG).
Completely agree with you Ryan! Mileage definitely does vary when it comes to the CC world especially Hotel Cards. Yeah the 40k point cap for the IHG Free Night can definitely be a bit limiting so I get that. Yeah no resort fees for higher-end stays with Hilton & Hyatt are a big perk as well. Thanks for watching Ryan!
True- but you have to pay with points to get the 4th night free. Much easier to do that via one of the IHG Cards and earning points from the welcome bonus. Thanks for watching!
I got 150k bonus points offer from Amex but after lots of research and my usage I choose venture x .. I use venture x as all other category card as well with 2x which beats all it’s competitors
For a 1-2 times traveler a year like me venture x suits me perfectly … Amex is good if we travel all least 5 times a year .. being an immigrant priority pass from venture x cover me internationally any way and it’s a Visa card so no restrictions outside USA
Great informative video. I am new to the credit card game. I was wondering with authorized users, when they use the card, the amount they swiped will show up on my statement and I have to pay it back? How does it work exactly?
Yes so you can have multiple bank accounts linked to your Account in terms of paying your statement. But yes you are correct in that all spending even on the authorized user card will show up on that statement. Let me know if that makes sense. Thanks Paul!
Great video. I agree with most of your rankings. For me personally I would move Amex Gold to S tier since you do use it for everyday spend with groceries and dining out, with the CSP i would move it A tier I value being able to transfer to SW. I would move the Hilton Surpass to A tier because I feel lts more valuable than the base hilton card between the SUB and the multipliers.
I purchased a $50 Hilton gift card in May 2024 to trigger the statement credit and it didn’t work. I spoke with an AMEX associate who told me the $50 credit doesn’t apply to gift cards. If this worked for you, please let me know how you did it since my attempt was unsuccessful.
I wish the Hyatt card had a better sign up. I want the FNC. I don't think it belongs in S. There aren't enough benefits. Maybe if gave Globalist or more elite nights
Wait, yes all 3 cards have a 3x for dining so it would seem that it doesn't matter what card you use. However, doesn't the Sapphire also give you a 10% annual bonus on all the spend you put on that card? So technically using the Sapphire for dining would be a slightly better option because it's going to give you some bonus points on your anniversary.
Of course appreciate your kind question Melissa! Basically- that Flight Credit can be liquidating by using the United Travel Bank to activate the Credit. Basically, you are getting a $50 United Card per quarter to activate the Credit by going that route. Of course you can do other things such as upgrade yourself on a flight to activate the credit as well. Appreciate you watching!
Serious question…why do so many people bother making the Chase Trifecta? You can have the Chase Freedom Flex and the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve and you get everything in the trifecta except for 0.5 catch all points that you would get with the Freedom Unlimited. 0.5 isn’t that big of a deal and it’s fewer credit cards to think about and one less inquiry on the report.
I stayed in a Choice Hotel brand hotel in Copenhagen and it looked and felt like a Marriott brand hotel. The Choice Hotel brand in Scandinavia are different and elevated compared to America. You can use your choice hotel points to book a Scandinavian Choice Hotel.
Did you consider the Cap One Venture? I ended up going with the Citi Strata Premier over the Cap One Venture as my second entry level travel card to go along with my Chase Sapphire Preferred.
