In case you didn’t know the free night certificate that Chase IHG select cards currently offer is being devalued for certificates issued after May 1st, 2018 (with maybe one small exception) and future free night certificates offered on the Premier card will also be restricted. You’ll only be able to use the free night certificate on properties that cost 40,000 points or less. IHG has provided a list of properties that will be ineligible. We thought it would be useful to do a post on the best use of these new restricted free night certificates as we have done before on the unrestricted benefit.
Some important things to keep in mind:
- We only removed a property from this list if it was included in the list of excluded properties. There are some properties that cost more than 40,000 points that are not included on that list and because of that we have included in our list here.
- Kimpton hotels have only been redeemable from mid January of this year and sadly we don’t have enough data yet to include them.
- We aren’t using average cash price as this caused some issues in the past, instead we are using the median value. All properties that have five or fewer searches have also been automatically excluded.
Again a big thanks has to go to Pointimize who provides us with this data and AwardTravel for making it nice and organized.
Best Use Based On Cash Rates
Here are the top 30 properties that will still be eligible under the new restrictions.
Here is what the original list looked like (grayed out properties are no longer eligible).
As you can see only 13 of the original 30 properties will still be eligible.
InterContinental Properties
Here are the top 10 InterContinental properties that will still be eligible for the free night certificate.
Here is what the original InterContinental list looked like (grayed out properties are no longer eligible).
As you can see only 4 out of the 20 original properties are still available.
Our Verdict
The aim of the post was two fold:
- Put the devaluation in perspective. Out of the top 30 properties only 14 of them will still be eligible. Out of the top 20 Intercontinental properties only 4 of them will still be eligible. Obviously that’s significant but you would expect such drop off when looking at the top tier properties.
- Give you some ideas on where redeeming your free night certificate might make sense. Personally I have never been about trying to find the most expensive property to redeem the free night certificate at. It’s all about redeeming at a property that is useful for your travel plans.
I’m sure we’ve made some errors in the post, so feel free to point them out. Thanks again to Pointimize & AwardTravel for making this type of content possible.
well..before this changeover managed to stay at IC Geneva (2nd), London Park Lane (7th), and a Kimpton…fun while it lasted. New 40k cert should get some good use too…
Intercontinental Monterey,CA average price is $500 per night. Not an amazing hotel but the best location. It wd be great for uncapped chase free night but only if could find availability.
Wonder how many of these just went up
Booked the IC Toronto Centre yesterday for a trip we have coming up later this year, and after doing so it said there are are no more awards available during the stay (sorry everyone)… not the best award, but $49 is better than full price! 🙂
For IC properties, I think you meant 4 out of the “20” original properties are still available?
Correct
While I don’t “buy” the premise that the “best” or “top” IHG properties ever were linked to highest crass price of the rooms, I get it that in today’s quantitative driven society, folks want “numbers” not words, nor history, culture, “value,” or “seasonality.” (ah, but then we’ll get pounded with post after post about “value per point.”) As such, renders this exercise suspect — even if quite interesting.
Rant over.
Nice to see Holiday Inn Express Springdale makes the list…. been there, even got rare grand treatment for being “Platinum.” Ironic that this happens to be a hand-me down Best Western property. (and a very nice one at that) Would go back next time we want to hit America’s best run, most stunning National Park — Zion. (though if traveling there on shoulder seasons, cash rates can be a third of peak season)
I agree, these posts are still useful as it gives you some idea how expensive the top tier properties cost (e.g if they cost $200 then a standard redemption of $150 is still pretty good value. Whereas if they cost $1,500 then $150 isn’t).
Thanks for this post! I have been trying to figure out how to juice the most out of this weaker certificate.
Aniversary certificate on my IHG card is going to expire on April-20-2018. to utilize it do I need to complete booking and stay Before 04/20? or just booking need to be completed before 04/20?
you have to book the hotel room from now till next 1 year before 04/20
+1
Thanks William!
Thank you! now I have 10 more days to book hotel.
Last month stayed at Kimpton Monaco Philadelphia with annual certificate. Independence Hall is right downstairs, pretty a good choice
The first one listed – Hotel Indigo London – is 60k points/nt., so will not qualify for free night cert.
It’s not in the excluded list, that’s why we added it.