Some IHG Chase Free Night Certificates Can Still Book Any IHG Property Worldwide

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Two of the Chase IHG Rewards Club credit cards that remain in existence give cardholders an annual free night certificate which is valid at properties worth up to 40,000 points per night. One of these cards, the now no longer available IHG Rewards Club Select credit card, once offered an annual certificate that was valid at any IHG property in the world and the last of these certificates were due to expire in April/May of this year. Then the pandemic hit.

In mid-April, IHG confirmed that all existing free nights certificates earned via Chase credit cards would see their expiration date extended by 6 months but, when the certificates started appearing in member accounts, the few remaining certificates that would have worked at any IHG property in the world before their original expiration date could no longer book any property costing over 40,000 points. I tested this for myself.

Before the certificate extensions had kicked in, I had asked IHG to confirm that my expiring uncapped certificate would continue to be able to book any IHG property when its expiration date was extended and this is what I was told:

The terms and conditions for the use of the free night will remain unless there is a new directive sent out. You can always check our website for announcements.

I took that to mean that the answer to my question was “yes” but when my newly extended certificate failed to work as expected, doubts started to creep in.

At this time, I decided not to pursue the issue any further because, clearly, IHG had more than enough to deal with as it was and, as I wasn’t ready to make a booking anyway, there seemed little point in adding to the cacophony of voices demanding that IHG do something for them.

The other day, however, I finally needed to make a booking and, once again, my legacy (uncapped) certificate was incapable of booking any properties costing more than 40,000…so I turned to IHG’s “chat” feature on its website. After quickly explaining my situation to the agent, she went away to do some research and when she came back she had this to say:

I was more than a little surprised as the certificate was definitely not working as it should have been just a few minutes before this interaction (yes, regular award nights were available so it wasn’t that the properties I checked had no award availability). Before I could press the agent for more information the chat was disconnected. Rather than restarting the chat, I performed another search using the same free night certificate and the same location and dates as I had used a few minutes earlier.

Bingo! The InterContinental London Park Lane at which a night costs 70,000 points on 12 November…

…was now bookable with my Chase free night certificate.

Even the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa was bookable using the certificate!

Bottom Line

The agent’s reply to me would suggest that the certificate had always been able to book properties costing over 40,000 points, but my tests when the certificate was first issued and moments before my chat session prove otherwise…but I’m certainly not complaining!

If you are one of the few IHG Rewards Club members who still had a legacy free night certificate in their account when the world got locked-down this is very good news for you – through 31 December 2020, your certificate is still able to book any IHG property in the world…but you may need to open up a chat session to make sure.