Chase IHG Premier Select Card: New Card Launch With 210k Bonus + Various Credits; $350 Annual Fee

Chase has just launched the new IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card with a $350 annual fee, finally giving IHG a true premium hotel card. The welcome offer is also pretty solid: earn 200,000 IHG points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening, plus an additional 10,000 points if you add an authorized user in the first 3 months, for a total of up to 210,000 points. Valuing IHG points at about 0.5 cents each, that is roughly $1,050 in value, enough to cover quite a few hotel nights.

• IHG Premier Select 200k+10k welcome offer link

This is an excellent offer, and I have added it to our rankings as well!

• Best Credit Card Welcome Offers in the U.S. (Personal Cards) [Updated Monthly]

Chase IHG Premier Select Credit Card Overview

Benefits

• One annual 60k free night certificate, making it worth keeping long term: Each cardmember anniversary, you get an IHG free night certificate that can be redeemed at hotels costing up to 60,000 points. Just like the current Premier card, you can top it off with IHG points from your own account to book more expensive hotels. A 60k certificate has noticeably broader usability than the Premier card’s 50k certificate. It is not hard to get $300-$500+ in value at some InterContinental, Kimpton, or peak-season properties. If you can use this certificate every year, it already offsets a large part of the $350 annual fee.
• Fourth night free on award stays: With this card, when you redeem IHG points for a stay of 4 consecutive nights, the points required for the 4th night are waived. In other words, a 4-night stay only costs 75% of the points. There is no annual limit on how many times you can use this benefit, so it is very useful for people who often stay at IHG properties for several nights in a row.
• 20 Elite Night Credits every year: After opening the card, you receive 20 Elite Night Credits right away, and after that you will automatically get 20 nights each calendar year. I think this is one of the biggest highlights of the new card, because IHG Milestone Rewards also start at 20 nights. Even if you do not actually stay many nights in a year, you can start earning from the 20-night mark.
• Complimentary IHG Platinum status: While you hold the card, you automatically receive IHG Platinum Elite status, which includes benefits such as a 60% bonus on stay points, eligible room upgrades, welcome amenities, and Reward Night discounts. IHG Platinum is not especially hard to get, but at least this premium card was not downgraded to Gold like the new Premier card.
• Up to $300 in IHG Food & Beverage Rewards each year: You get one IHG dining certificate worth up to $75 each quarter, for a total of $300 per year. This benefit sounds great, but it is somewhat tricky to use: you must stay at a participating IHG hotel, charge eligible food and beverage purchases to your room, and then use the voucher to offset the charge. Each $75 certificate can only be used once and is valid only during that quarter. If you only spend $50, the remaining $25 is forfeited. So this $300 benefit should not be valued the same as $300 cash; it is easier to fully use for people who stay at IHG frequently.
• $200 annual airline statement credit: Each calendar year, if you buy at least $250 in airfare directly from an airline, you can receive a $200 statement credit. This benefit is much easier to use, since you can effectively use it all at once by buying a $250+ flight. However, the official terms currently only mention through December 31, 2027, so it is unclear whether this will continue in 2028 and beyond.
• $50 UA TravelBank Credit: As with the Premier card, you can receive up to $50 in United TravelBank Cash each year: $25 from January through June and another $25 from July through December. You need to link your IHG and United MileagePlus accounts in advance. This credit can be used directly when booking flights on United’s website, but each semiannual $25 credit has its own expiration date, so remember to use it in time.
• Up to 28X points on IHG hotel purchases: When you use this card at IHG hotels, you earn 12X from the credit card itself. IHG members generally earn 10X base points, plus a 60% Platinum status bonus worth another 6X, for a total of up to 28X. Valuing IHG points at 0.6 cents each, that is a theoretical return of about 16.8%, so you should still use this card when staying at IHG properties.
• 6X on dining and travel: Dining and other travel purchases, including rideshare, earn 6X IHG points; all other purchases earn 3X. However, IHG points are only worth about 0.6 cents each, so 6X is effectively around 3.6%. For everyday travel spending, there are still many UR/MR cards that are more worthwhile to use.
• High-spend bonuses: For every $5,000 you spend, you can earn 2 additional Elite Night Credits, with no cap. If you spend $15,000 in a year, you will also earn an extra 5 Elite Night Credits + 20,000 IHG points. In other words, if you spend exactly $15,000 in a year, on top of the 20 Elite Night Credits that come with the card, you can earn 6 Elite Night Credits from spending, plus another 5 Elite Night Credits, bringing you directly to 31 Elite Night Credits in total.
• Spend $25,000 to earn Diamond status: If you spend $25,000 in a calendar year, you can earn IHG Diamond Elite status, which is valid through December 31 of the following year. Diamond’s biggest practical benefit is the ability to choose free breakfast for two at check-in, which can be quite valuable for people who frequently stay at IHG hotels.
• Spend $40,000 to earn another 60k free night certificate: If you spend $40,000 in a year, you can earn another free night certificate worth up to 60,000 points, and it can also be topped off with points to book more expensive hotels. If you already have a large amount of business or everyday spending to put on a card, this high-spend bonus is pretty good.
• 30% discount on buying points: When buying points on IHG’s website, paying with this card gets you at least a 30% discount. However, this discount cannot be stacked with IHG’s frequent points purchase promotions, so just like the points purchase discount on the old card, it looks nice on paper but is usually not a reason to buy points specifically for this benefit. Points purchase discount roundup
• Up to $120 reimbursement for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck/NEXUS: You can get the application fee reimbursed once every 4 years. This benefit is now standard on premium cards, so it is not particularly exciting.
• Monthly $10 Instacart Credit: After activating an eligible Instacart+ membership, you can receive a $10 Instacart Credit each month, up to $120 per year. This benefit is currently available through December 31, 2027. The card also includes 3 months of Instacart+, which will automatically renew after it ends, so remember to cancel in advance if you do not need it.
• DoorDash DashPass + up to $10 per month in non-restaurant offers: If you activate within the required time frame, you can get one year of DashPass. In addition, newly activated users currently also get up to $10 per month in DoorDash non-restaurant order offers, which is another time-limited Chase partnership benefit.

Introduction to IHG Points

• Point value: The average value is 0.5 c/p, so 100 IHG = $0.5 (Points Value and Analysis). In other words, a hotel night worth $50 would generally require about 10k IHG points.
• How to redeem: You can search and book directly on IHG.com. Hotels are divided into 11 award tiers, with redemption rates ranging from 10k to 70k points. Cash + Points redemptions are also available. If you have the IHG Premier credit card, when redeeming points for three consecutive nights, you can get the fourth night free. That means four nights cost only 75% of the points normally required.
• Point expiration: If there is no activity in your IHG account for 12 months, your points will expire. If you hold a co-branded credit card or have IHG Gold status or higher, your points will not expire.
• My take: If you want to get strong value from IHG points, they are often best used for hotels near major attractions or during special high-demand periods, such as New Year’s Eve in Times Square, New York. IHG’s strength is its broad footprint and large number of properties across the U.S., so it is usually easy to put your points to use.
• Related credit cards: Chase IHG Premier, Chase IHG Rewards Club (older version)
• Detailed analysis: Introduction to IHG Points and Elite Status

My Take

IHG has finally launched what is truly a premium co-branded card. Previously, the biggest advantage of the IHG Premier was its low annual fee: a single 40,000-point free night certificate could basically offset the annual fee, making it a great sock-drawer card. Premier Select is clearly taking a different path: the annual fee jumps to $350, but the anniversary free night certificate increases to 60,000 points, and the card adds 20 Elite Night Credits, $300 in IHG food and beverage credits, and a $200 Airline Credit. If we only count benefits that can be relied on over the long term, I think the most important one is still the 60,000-point free night certificate. A 60,000-point certificate is another tier above the new Premier 50,000-point certificate, and it can likewise be topped off with points. As long as you use it each year at a more expensive InterContinental or Kimpton, getting $300+ in value is actually quite easy, so the annual fee itself is not as scary as it may first appear. What really makes this card interesting to me is the 20 Elite Night Credits. IHG Milestone Rewards start at 20 nights, so cardholders effectively start each year already at the 20-night line. If you actually stay another 20 nights in a year, you reach 40 nights, which is an important IHG Milestone threshold where you can choose a Confirmable Suite Upgrade or an Annual Lounge Membership. For people who are already chasing IHG status, this is more valuable than simply being granted Platinum status. The $300 IHG Food & Beverage credit looks generous, but I think it definitely needs to be discounted. It is not a straight $300 credit per year; it is $75 per quarter, and you must be staying at a hotel, charge the purchase to your room, and use it in one transaction. If you stay at IHG properties often, it is of course easy to use. But if you only stay two or three times a year, you may very well end up using only half of this benefit. By contrast, the $200 Airline Credit is currently very easy to use: you only need to purchase at least $250 in airfare directly from an airline each year to trigger $200 back. The issue is that the current terms only run through the end of 2027, so I would not use this benefit to judge whether the card will still be worth keeping five years from now. If the $200 Airline Credit works normally in both 2026 and 2027, and you add the $300 IHG Food & Beverage credit, the $50 UA TravelBank credit, and a 60,000-point free night certificate, the $350 annual fee becomes very easy to justify. You could even say the benefits are stacked a bit too generously. Of course, whether you can actually get face value from all of this depends entirely on how often you stay at IHG properties each year. The application rules for this new card are also quite interesting. Under Chase’s currently published terms, as long as you do not currently have the Premier Select and have not received a new cardmember bonus for the Premier Select itself in the past 24 months, you meet this card’s new cardmember bonus restriction. The terms do not say that holding another personal IHG card makes you ineligible to apply, which is somewhat different from the IHG Family Rule on the new Premier / no-annual-fee card. So if you already have the IHG Premier, based on the current terms, holding the Premier does not automatically make you ineligible for the Premier Select sign-up bonus. For longtime IHG users, this point is actually very important.

Application

• You must not currently have the IHG One Rewards Premier Select, and you must not have received a new cardmember bonus for this Premier Select card in the past 24 months.
• Because this card is issued by Chase, actual approval still depends on Chase’s own application rules.
• If you already have an IHG member number, remember to enter it when applying to avoid the system creating a new IHG account for you.

• Chase application status check link (login required). Or call: 888-338-2586
• The 5/24 rule: if you have opened more than 5 new cards in the past 2 years (including cards from other banks), you will not be approved for a new Chase card
• You can be approved for at most two Chase credit cards within any 30-day period
• If you have received the welcome bonus on this card within the past 24 months (48 months for the Sapphire family), your application will be automatically denied
• You can call the reconsideration line (800-453-9719) to expedite credit card approval or request another review of a denied application.
• Having a Chase Checking account can help with getting approved for a credit card
• More information on applying for Chase credit cards

Application Link

• Chase IHG Premier Select application link