A few weeks ago, IHG announced the introduction of a new top membership level, but did not divulge its name. Unfortunately, in addition to this IHG new membership level, they also announced quite a few negative changes as well
- Points now expire after 12 months of inactivity. Thankfully, if you have the IHG credit card, you have automatic Platinum status and any Gold or Platinum members points will not expire. If you don’t have the card yet, it’s one of the better ones – here’s why I recommend getting two cards at once.
- Shortly afterwards, they announced that nearly 300 of their hotels were changing categories (of course, most going up in points)
IHG new membership level details
The IHG new membership level was supposed to go live as of July 1st but, as with most things, there were a few delays. According to Loyalty Lobby, the IHG new membership level will be called “Spire”, which I guess makes sense as a spire is like the top of a building, but seems a bit strange upon first glance.
The page with the IHG new membership level benefits is here, although it doesn’t have the new name as of the time of this writing. You’ll have to make do with my fancy Paint-skills of making it “red” (which is reportedly the new color). I don’t really mind my “top tier” Platinum status becoming mid-tier because IHG platinum has been worth about a bucket of warm spit for me anyways…
IHG Point Breaks
The best way to use your IHG points is with Point Breaks, which is a list of hotels that go on sale every 2-3 months for only 5000 points / night. Here is a list of the current Point Breaks through the end of July, with a map
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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