More and more companies in the travel industry are trying to figure out the best way to weather this storm. Airlines, hotels, and even CLEAR are extending status!
Image source: Frontier Airlines.
Frontier Extends Miles (…But Not Elite Status!)
Frontier is joining many airlines and trying to keep their frequent travelers, despite much fewer trips this year! Check out Frontier’s full COVID-19 Policy here. Frontier has paused expiration of all miles in their system. Anyone with mile that would have expired form March 1, 2020 onward will have them extended. As of now, Frontier isn’t sure when the extension will continue, but they promise to notify you at least 90 days out.
They also aren’t sure what to do about Elite status yet… “We are exploring all options to best serve our current Elites as well as any potential new Elites in 2020. We are not yet ready to share details…” We’ll do our best to keep you up to date when we hear more.
Ask CLEAR for Three Months of Free Membership
Who here has CLEAR? I’ve never joined, though some of the same folks that love TSA PreCheck and Global Entry have told me good things about CLEAR. If you do have a membership, you might be pretty bummed you can’t use it right now. One of the folks over at Thrifty Traveler was able to get their CLEAR membership paused for three months. Their billing was pushed out three more months, and it sounds like they’d still have access if they did have to travel in the meantime.
IHG is Reducing Elite Status Requirements in 2020
First and foremost, your current IHG status will be extended through January 2022! (Of course, for those of us with the IHG card from Chase, it doesn’t matter quite so much.) If you were planning on attaining status in 2020, it just got a bit easier. Check out the chart below for your 2020 IHG Elite Status Requirements.
All IHG points about to expire will be extended through the end of 2020. If you have Gold, Platinum, or Spire Elite Status with IHG, you points never expire, so you have nothing to worry about! The hotel chain is also extending all of your free nights: Any Ambassador Free Weekend Nights are extended for three months. If you’re a lucky Chase IHG cardholder, your 2020 Free Night Certificate is automatically extended through December 31, 2020.
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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 
IHG has been one of the better companies to do business with during the pandemic… called for a refund on a non-refundable reservation and they totally refunded in a day. I’d give them business any day because of it. That’s true customer service. United is another story. Super predatory.
A simple NOOB question about the “revised” IHG Rewards Club chart shown:
To achieve the next level of status on the chart (say, from Platinum Elite to Spire Elite), does a member have to acquire BOTH 55,000 qualifying points AND 55 qualifying nights (by 12/31/20) –or– is it acquiring 55,000 qualifying points OR 55 qualifying nights?
Hey George! I have to assume it’s either/or, that’s usually how status works with the hotels – once you complete one of the requirements, you earn the status.