If you currently hold IHG elite status, which would mean you could have earned it in 2019, 2020, or 2021 at this point, since they have extended yearly due to COVID-19, you will now have it through all of 2022, per IHG’s COVID updates page.
I personally did what was meant to be a short lived match to IHG’s top tier Spire Elite (which, even at top tier, comes with not too much – no free breakfast, no guaranteed suites, no guaranteed late checkout) in 2019 and apparently will carry that Spire status for over 3 years (at least?!)
This comes at the same time that Marriott Bonvoy has also extended all member statuses from 2021 through 2021.
This is what I’d have expected from IHG. However, I do want to take this space to point out that I am disappointed by Marriott’s decision to extend. That’s because they had essentially extended statuses early in the year by crediting elite nights to all members based on their 2019/2022 status levels.
For instance, I was Marriott Bonvoy Titanium, which requires 75 nights. They automatically gave me 38 nights early in the year, and then I got 30 nights from my Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards from American Express and Chase, since you can earn 15 Bonvoy elite nights for a personal credit card and another 15 with a business version. So I needed just 7 nights to re-qualify, which I did and I suspect many others did – really all for nothing.
I wouldn’t have minded the status extension otherwise, but doing one early in the year and the other late in the year seems to give mixed messages about what to expect next year if we aren’t in the free and clear on COVID and also means that earned status vs auto-renewed status has the same benefits with the one exception of Marriott’s Choice Benefits.
I would add that Delta has done this better, by saying that even though they will extend elite status tiers for 2022, those that earned it will have higher upgrade priority. That is beyond fair.
HT to OMAAT for catching the IHG extension.
Thoughts?
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