A “sneak peek” of the new tiers of elite status for the IHG Rewards frequent guest loyalty program has been released from InterContinental Hotels Group as part of what is being called The New IHG Rewards effective as of Saturday, January 1, 2022 — and among the changes are a new level called Silver Elite; and the name Spire will be changed to Diamond so that the tier itself will be more straightforward to understand.
New IHG Rewards Elite Tiers Revealed: A Side-By-Side Comparison
The elite status tiers and earning structure have supposedly been redesigned so that you can earn more IHG Rewards points and have more ways to use and redeem them than ever before, as new tiers equals more rewards. No matter what is the elite status tier which you have earned, you will earn more bonus IHG Rewards points — meaning that earning points towards Reward Nights and more will be even easier, according to InterContinental Hotels Group.
The current and new nights qualifications, current and new point qualifications, and current and new bonus points values for each elite status tier are as follows — side by side for easy comparison:
| Elite Status Tier | Current Nights Qualification | New Nights Qualification | Current Points Qualification |
New Points Qualification |
Current Bonus Points |
New Bonus Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
| Silver | Not Applicable | 10 | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | 20 percent |
| Gold | 10 | 20 | 10,000 | 40,000 | 10 percent | 40 percent |
| Platinum | 40 | 40 | 40,000 | 60,000 | 50 percent | 60 percent |
| Diamond | 75 | 70 | 75,000 | 120,000 | 100 percent | 100 percent |
Note that for the year 2021 and for this year — due to the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic — the levels have been temporarily reduced until the new elite status tier structure becomes effective sometime in March of 2022, and current elite status which was set to expire has been extended through 2022; so you will not notice any changes in your membership account at this time.
The temporary lowered levels for 2021 and 2022 are as follows:
| Elite Status Tier | Reduced Nights Qualification | Reduced Points Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Club | 0 | 0 |
| Gold | 7 | 7,000 |
| Platinum | 30 | 30,000 |
| Spire | 55 | 55,000 |
Final Boarding Call
Having earnings of elite status tiers counting towards a new elite status structure is somewhat bizarre, as not all of the details — such as exactly what benefits will be available at each tier of elite status — have not yet been revealed…
…but there is one thing on which we can count: no matter how well are the intentions of the people at IHG Rewards, the entire picture is never rosy, as we will eventually learn what some of the negative aspects are to the newly refreshed frequent guest loyalty program…
Photograph ©2021 by Brian Cohen.
