IHG has announced that the IHG Rewards Club is getting a makeover in March 2022. While they have not announced any new benefits yet, they have sent out information on the new status tier structure. This includes a new tier level, updated tier qualification levels, and changes to the status bonus.
The new status levels
There are two main things to notice about the new tier structure. Firstly, there appears to be a new Silver level sitting between the Club level and the Gold level. Secondly, the current Spire level is being renamed to Diamond.
I mentioned that Silver appears to be the new level, but it is really a bit of a sleight of hand. The newly named Silver level has it will have the same night qualification requirements as the current Gold level. So in a way, Gold is sort of the new level. Having said that, as we shall see, the qualification requirements of the new levels don’t match up with the existing levels.
Here are the qualification requirements (and status bonus) for the updated status tiers:
For comparison, the current requirements are shown in the following picture. These reflect the 30% reduction in requirements instituted last year and will be in place until March when the table above takes its place.
In comparing the two charts, it can be seen that you are going to need a lot more Status Points to qualify on the basis of status points. On the other hand, while the number of nights is increasing from the table shown, they are moving closer to the normal requirements.
Your current IHG elite tier will apply for 2022
While the above requirements will apply from March in order to qualify for a new tier, IHG will leave members on their current tier for 2022. Unless you happen to go up a tier, of course. The new table will be used to determine your status in 2023.
Boosted Status Bonus
It is worth noting the new levels of status bonus under the new program. Generally, the number of bonus points you will earn due to status will be increasing. The exceptions are at the two ends. At the entry level, Club remains with no bonus. On the other hand, at the top end, the Diamond tier sees a bonus of 100%.
Final Thoughts
I’d heard rumours of a revamp last year, and now it looks like it is actually happening. While this announcement tells us about the new tiers, and the requirements to attain them, there is little information about what benefits these will bring.
It looks as though we will have to wait until March to find out.
