A few months ago, IHG announced that it would add a new elite tier above its then-highest Platinum status. Yesterday, that elite tier was finally unveiled. IHG already had Gold and Platinum status, so what would come next? Diamond? Supreme? Neither. IHG chose a name that sounds straight out of the GRE: Spire. Today, let’s take a look at the requirements and benefits of this new Spire status.
To qualify for Spire, you need to stay 75 nights per year at IHG properties or earn 75,000 elite-qualifying points. Compared with the Platinum status that comes with the Chase IHG credit card, Spire offers the following additional benefits:
- In addition to the base 10 pts/$, you also get 10 pts/$ in bonus points. (Platinum members only get 5 pts/$ in bonus points.) If you are a Spire member and also have the IHG card, you can earn a total of 10+10+5=25 pts/$ in IHG points. By comparison, Platinum + the IHG card earns 20 pts/$.
- You can choose one of the following two benefits:
25,000 IHG points or nominate one friend for Platinum status
Given how common IHG Platinum status has become, choosing the 25,000 points is clearly the smarter option. But what if I can’t stay that many nights in a year and also can’t earn that many elite-qualifying points from IHG hotels? How else can I get Spire? In fact, the signup bonus from the IHG credit card counts as elite-qualifying points as well—not just for Chase, but also for China CITIC and SPD Bank cards in China. And the Chase IHG card has had an 80,000-point signup bonus this year. If you receive that 80,000-point signup bonus, you can be upgraded to Spire status, and with the extra 25,000 points, that is effectively a 105,000-point signup bonus!