New IHG Anniversary Award Night List of Excluded Properties
Earlier today I wrote about the (horrific) changes coming to the IHG credit card anniversary award night. There is no delicate way to dance around what happens to the IHG anniversary night beginning with those issued on May 1, 2018, and onwards...the value of the award nights is being decimated based on the letter mailed to existing cardmembers. The IHG credit card anniversary award night will go from being a nearly unrestricted certificate you can use at any IHG (or Kimpton) property around the world, to only being worth a stay at a property that costs up to 40,000 IHG points per night. The IHG award chart currently goes as high as 70,000 points per night, so that means there are many nicer properties in aspirational locations that cost between 40,000 and 70,000 points per night that will no longer be on the table when using this award night.
IHG Anniversary Award Night List of Excluded Properties
When I first shared that information, I didn't yet have a link to a list of excluded properties, but you can access a list of IHG properties where you cannot use the anniversary award nights here.
What is very confusing about this excluded list is that while it says the properties as a result of requiring more than 40,000 points per night, that is not actually always the case. For example, the Intercontinental Prague and Intercontinental Kansas City are both on the list of excluded properties, and yet both cost right at 40,000 points per night.
I have tweeted and emailed IHG to understand if this is intentional, and a property can indeed be excluded from the credit card anniversary night despite being at or below the stated 40,000 points per night threshold.
To be clear, it may still be worth holding onto the IHG card with a $49 annual fee since many 40,000 points per night hotels cost much more than that with cash, but the value of this anniversary award night will be nowhere close to what it used to be - especially if IHG properties can be excluded despite being at or below the 40,000 point threshold.
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