The Secret Way to Get Instant IHG Spire Elite Status
Being recognized as an elite member of a hotel chain usually means that you’ve slept 25, 50 or possibly even 75 nights in a hotel. You give a lot of your business to said chain and those hotels are keen to lavish you with upgrades, extra bonus points, amenities and more. But what if there was a way that right now you could have elite status with a hotel chain, all for staying only 1 or 2 nights? Let’s talk about the secret way to get IHG Spire Elite Status.
Holiday Inn Barsha King Bed
Who is IHG?
IHG, or Intercontinental Hotel Group, managed a portfolio of hotels that you know and you’ve probably stayed in before. Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Intercontinental Hotels and Crowne Plaza are some of their most recognizable brands. They also have other properties like Staybridge Suites, Hotel Indigo, and Candlewood Suites.
Their one redeeming value? Chances are that wherever you’re traveling, there is an IHG hotel close by. Their points are relatively easy to come by, either by purchasing them during a sale, booking a room with a points/cash rate, or transferring from their partner Chase Ultimate Rewards.
IHG Spire Elite Status
IHG hotels have three elite levels; Gold, Platinum, and Spire. Gold and Platinum aren’t anything too special, and Spire Elite is their top tier program. Honestly, the Spire Elite level doesn’t offer that much more over Platinum Status (which can be achieved by simply holding their Chase Credit Card).
Nonetheless, you do get a few good benefits:
- 100% bonus points
- Elite Rollover Nights
- Raid the Bar $10 credit
- Room Upgrades
- A Choice Benefit once you hit the status
- 25,000 points or Platinum Status for a friend
- Hertz Five Star Status
How to Get Elite Status… Instantly
You have two ways to earn elite status, normally. You can earn 75,000 base points or stay 75 nights in their hotels. Base points are earned based on room night rates and nights are well… nights.
But, what if there was a way to get those 75,000 base points right away? You could have elite status tomorrow and skip the line. In fact, if you get elite status today, you will have their top tier elite status through 12/31/2020 since you earn it for this year and all the rest of next year.
Intercontinental Toronto CN Tower
Chase Ultimate Rewards is a transfer partner of IHG and … surprisingly … their points transfers count as base points for elite status. This means that if you transfer points from your Ultimate Rewards account over to IHG, you will move up towards elite status.
Personal Example
I just recently linked my IHG account to my Chase account, and when I do that I always set up an initial transfer of 1,000 points to make sure that everything worked out correctly. Here was my account snapshot before I made the linking of the accounts. You can see that I was at 74,000 points and 67 nights.
Then, I moved over the 1,000 points from Chase to IHG and I went over to 75,000 base points.
You can also see that in my status tracker, I am now prequalified through 12/31/2020. This means that Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfers COUNT towards elite base points with IHG for Status.
But it’s still IHG
IHG has been the red-headed step child of hotel loyalty programs, mostly for their elite program. Despite having one of the largest footprints in the world, their benefits have lacked. They don’t offer free breakfast to their elite members which, if you really think about it, is pretty ridiculous.
They also have a huge lack of aspirational properties. If we’re being honest, there is absolutely NOTHING aspirational about staying at a Candlewood Suites or even a Holiday Inn Express, despite their funny and witty commercials.
Status Match
I think the real sleeper benefit here is the potential of a status match. Airlines and hotels are known for doing plenty of status matches to try and get your business from their competition. Giving you elite status doesn’t cost them a dime, but it does mean potentially thousands or tens of thousands in revenue for their brands.
If you’ve got IHG Spire elite status, it’s an easy stepping stone to petition Marriott, Hilton, even Hyatt to give you elite status. If your travels take you to places with an abundance of those properties, what better way to earn a ton of points than by having elite status?
Bottom Line
Getting top tier elite status in a hotel without so much as spending 3 nights with them is a huge feat, and especially considering how easy it is to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, is a no brainer.
Don’t forget, the two easiest ways to earn elite status are with the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Cash. Personally, I like the Ink Cash (easy to earn 125,000 points a year with the 5x at office supply stores)
July 18, 2019
The thought of someone transferring 75k UR over to IHG makes me a little queasy…
July 18, 2019
Well, you don’t have to transfer all of them. You could always top off your account like I did. And, you will get some free nights out of it.
July 18, 2019
HOw could you match this to Hyatt status?
July 18, 2019
They don’t have a status match currently published, but they used to a ton in the past. I would imagine that it’ll come back eventually.
July 18, 2019
You took my breath away when I got to the line about transfer UR’s to IHG and I’m a HUGE IHG fan. I guess if you just have so many points you can just piss them away it’s fine but if you have that many points I’d think you’d already have status at your preferred hotel as well. I put this into the category of buying iPads with airline miles.
July 18, 2019
Depends – I can generate UR (and I’m sure plenty of other people can as well) very easily. You can top off your account, or just generate them at less than 4/10 of a cent each. If that’s the case, it’s pretty cheap!
July 18, 2019
DON’T DO THIS unless it’s a 1,000 and you’re over 🙂
otherwise Chase UR are worth much more for airline miles #FlyFirst
July 18, 2019
Perhaps!
July 18, 2019
Important note to include: UR only transfer to IHG at 1:1. That means if you do this only to get Spire status you’re getting ripped off .
Bad idea.
July 19, 2019
Great tips….and don’t forget their recent purchases of Kimpton and Regent Hotels (2 upscale and luxury chains) They are actively increasing their luxury offerings.