In 2022, IHG launched its new IHG One Rewards program. One compelling aspect of this program is the ability to earn IHG Milestone Rewards for every 10 nights you stay, starting at just 20 nights in a calendar year.
You can earn bonus points, food and beverage rewards, confirmable suite upgrades and even an annual lounge membership as Milestone Rewards. Here’s what you need to know about IHG Milestone Rewards.
What are IHG Milestone Rewards?
IHG Milestone Rewards are perks you earn each calendar year based on the nights you stay with IHG. Specifically, you’ll earn Milestone Rewards every 10 nights, starting at just 20 nights and going through 100 nights. Any nights that are elite qualifying, including award nights, will count. However, rollover nights from the previous calendar year don’t count toward earning IHG Milestone Rewards.
Here are the IHG Milestone Rewards you can earn as you hit the following milestones each calendar year (you can choose one at each level except at 40 and 70 nights, which get two):
- 20 nights: 5,000 bonus points, two $20 food and beverage rewards or one confirmable suite upgrade
- 30 nights: 5,000 bonus points or two $20 food and beverage rewards
- 40 nights (choose two): 10,000 bonus points, five $20 food and beverage rewards, one confirmable suite upgrade (limit one) or one annual lounge membership (limit one)
- 50 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food and beverage rewards
- 60 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food and beverage rewards
- 70 nights (choose two): 10,000 bonus points, five $20 food and beverage rewards, two confirmable suite upgrades (limit one) or one annual lounge membership (limit one)
- 80 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food and beverage rewards
- 90 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food and beverage rewards
- 100 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food and beverage rewards
You might be wondering what some of these Milestone Rewards entail. If so, here’s a look at the details of each IHG Milestone Rewards option based on the IHG member terms and conditions.
Related: The award traveler’s guide to IHG One Rewards
Bonus points
Bonus points are a straightforward reward option that you can select at each level. If you choose bonus points, IHG will deposit the points into your account. Based on TPG’s valuations, 5,000 IHG One Rewards points are worth $25, and 10,000 IHG One Rewards points are worth $50.
Related: 7 ways to earn more IHG One Rewards points for your next redemption
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Food and beverage rewards
Similar to bonus points, you can choose food and beverage rewards at each milestone. Each food and beverage award voucher is worth up to $20.
Once you select food and beverage rewards at a milestone, you can redeem these rewards against food and beverage charges during a stay. However, you can’t use food and beverage rewards for:
- Vending machines
- Third-party food deliveries (such as Uber Eats)
- Restaurants that do not allow charges to a guest room bill
- Gift shops
- Taxes on minibar charges
- Stays as part of a group, package tour or convention where a third party is paying
You can redeem food and beverage rewards at all IHG brands except Holiday Inn Club Vacations and IHG Army Hotels. You also can’t use food and beverage rewards during stays at Iberostar Beachfront Resorts, Mr & Mrs Smith properties and InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Las Vegas and Macao.
Most properties allow you to redeem vouchers to cover gratuities on food and beverage transactions. Know, though, that you can only use each voucher once, so be sure your food and beverage charges are greater than the value of the food and beverage vouchers. You’ll earn IHG points on your food and beverage balance after vouchers are applied.
Your food and beverage vouchers will expire 12 months after you select them as a Milestone Reward. Finally, note that food and beverage rewards aren’t transferable, so you can only apply them to your room bill.
Related: How to earn and redeem IHG food and beverage rewards
Confirmable suite upgrade
You can choose one confirmable suite upgrade after staying 20 and 40 nights in a calendar year. Additionally, you can choose two confirmable suite upgrades after staying 70 nights in a calendar year. Although you can choose two rewards after staying 40 and 70 nights in a calendar year, you can only select confirmable suite upgrades once at each milestone.
You can apply a confirmable suite upgrade to most directly booked rates, including reward nights and select corporate and package rates. However, you can’t use a confirmable suite upgrade if you booked one of the following:
- Group rates, package tours or convention stays where a third party is paying
- Stays using an IHG free night certificate or InterContinental Ambassador complimentary weekend night (IHG plans to eventually make these stays eligible)
- Non-qualified rates (such as wholesale rates and those booked through online travel agencies)
- Employee rates
- Prepaid rates for which a deposit is already applied
- Some hotel-defined packages
- Stays through https://www.anaihghotels.co.jp/ or Japan hotels’ independent sites
You can use a confirmable suite upgrade to upgrade one room to an entry-level suite (or a premium room if a suite isn’t available) on a stay of up to five nights. You must contact IHG customer care between 14 days and 24 hours before check-in to apply a suite upgrade to a reservation. However, note that suite inventory is unavailable at some properties and limited at others.
Suppose you cancel your stay after applying a confirmable suite upgrade to your reservation. In that case, IHG will redeposit your upgrade into your rewards wallet if you cancel before the time frame defined by the hotel’s cancellation policy.
Confirmable suite upgrades expire 12 months after being selected through the IHG Milestone Rewards program. These upgrades are nontransferable and can only be applied to the member’s room. You can use confirmable suite upgrades at most IHG properties except:
- Avid Hotels
- Atwell Suites
- IHG Army Hotels
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations
- IHG Residences
- Mr & Mrs Smith properties
- InterContinental Alliance Resorts (Las Vegas and Macao)
- Iberostar Beachfront Resorts
Finally, if you use a confirmable suite upgrade to secure a club room, you won’t get club-level perks as part of your upgrade. You also can’t stack a confirmable suite upgrade with a guaranteed upgrade (like you’d get with InterContinental Ambassador). Any upgrade above the room secured with a confirmable suite upgrade is at the hotel’s discretion.
Related: What credit card should you use for IHG stays?
Annual lounge membership
You can select an annual lounge membership at the 40-night or 70-night milestone. If you do so, you’ll get a lounge membership through the end of the current calendar year, plus an additional 12 months. So, if you select a lounge membership as a Milestone Reward in January, you’ll keep it through the end of the following year.
If you have a lounge membership, you and a guest will get access to the hotel’s club lounge and amenities within the lounge when staying at IHG properties with a club lounge. You must be on a qualifying stay, although IHG’s member terms and conditions state that reward nights, free nights and stays booked through an online travel agency are eligible. However, stays at Mr & Mrs Smith properties and InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Las Vegas and Macao aren’t eligible.
You’ll get access during your stay or until checkout, though properties can restrict your access due to “renovations, closures, or other facility limitations.” Additionally, lounge membership does not get you club lounge amenities or services beyond the physical lounge.
Related: Everything you need to know about IHG One Rewards’ annual lounge membership
Redeeming IHG Milestone Rewards
Once you reach a milestone, IHG will send you an email. This email will state the date by which you must select your Milestone Reward and provide a link you can click to select your reward.
You can also check your progress toward earning another Milestone Reward when logged in to your IHG account. For example, my IHG Milestone Rewards summary shows that I need to stay 13 more nights this calendar year to earn a 20-night Milestone Reward.
I’d recommend waiting until the last minute to choose IHG Milestone Rewards unless you want to choose bonus points, a confirmable suite upgrade to apply to a stay in the next 14 days or a lounge membership you plan to use before the end of the year. After all, food and beverage rewards, confirmable suite upgrades and annual lounge memberships expire based on when you select them.
Related: How to maximize redemptions with the IHG One Rewards program
Which IHG Milestone Rewards are best?
There’s no right answer to which IHG Milestone Rewards are best. That’s part of the value: You can choose what’s most valuable to you.
It’s difficult to put a value on a confirmable suite upgrade or an annual lounge membership, as these benefits depend on how you’ll use them and how much value they’ll add to your stay. The value of an annual lounge membership also depends on how many times you’ll get IHG club lounge access as a benefit of your membership.
Even the choice of bonus points or food and beverage rewards isn’t clear-cut. Although TPG only values IHG One Rewards points at 0.5 cents each, I can usually get closer to 1 cent of value when redeeming IHG points.
I can’t tell you which IHG Milestone Rewards will be best for you, but here’s how I rank the choices at each milestone:
- 20 nights: My first choice would be a confirmable suite upgrade since it would be nice to guarantee a suite for one stay in the next 12 months. My second choice would be 5,000 bonus points since I value these points at about $50, and my third choice would be two $20 food and beverage rewards since these are worth up to $40.
- 30 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food and beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
- 40 nights: My first choice in some years would be an annual lounge membership. However, I currently have an annual lounge membership valid through the end of the next calendar year, so choosing another one this year wouldn’t provide additional value. My second choice would be a confirmable suite upgrade since if I stay 40 nights each year, I can likely get good value from another confirmed upgrade. My third choice would be 10,000 bonus points since I value these points at about $100, but I can get more value on some redemptions. My fourth choice would be five $20 food and beverage rewards since this reward is worth up to $100.
- 50 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food and beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
- 60 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food and beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
- 70 nights: My first choice would be two confirmable suite upgrades since it’s the most valuable option at this milestone. My second choice would be an annual lounge membership if I didn’t select one as a 40-night Milestone Reward and didn’t already have one valid through the end of the next calendar year. My third choice would be 10,000 bonus points since I value these points at about $100, but I can get more value on some redemptions. And my fourth choice would be five $20 food and beverage rewards since this reward is worth up to $100.
- 80 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food and beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
- 90 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food and beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
- 100 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food and beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
Related: How much value does IHG One Rewards status provide when you book directly?
Bottom line
The launch of the IHG One Rewards program and its Milestone Rewards in 2022 have encouraged me and my husband to stay with IHG more. The improved perks have also encouraged one of us to strive for Diamond Elite status every year.
Previously, we’d both relied on the Platinum Elite status provided as an automatic cardholder perk of the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card and didn’t worry about accruing a specific number of nights with IHG each year. But with the addition of breakfast as a welcome amenity choice for Diamond Elite members and Milestone Rewards, there’s now a compelling argument for us to focus our IHG stays on one of our accounts.
Even if you don’t plan to earn IHG elite status, you may still want to aim to stay at least 20 nights each year to earn a Milestone Reward. After all, you can select 5,000 bonus points, two $20 food and beverage rewards or one confirmable suite upgrade after staying just 20 nights in a calendar year.