If you paid $616 for 110,000 IHG One Rewards points and Diamond elite status, it was an error and you were one of the 227 people who were fortunate to take advantage of that offer.
$616 For 110,000 IHG One Rewards Points and Diamond Elite Status Was an Error.
I thought about it long and hard; and I decided to purchase Diamond Elite status for 2025 with IHG One Rewards, as I have an IHG One Rewards Premier credit card from Chase and was eligible to do so — but Tuesday, December 31, 2024 was the last day to take advantage of this opportunity.
Waiting was apparently a mistake on my part, as I wound up paying $768.00 for 110,000 IHG One Rewards points and Diamond elite status. I am currently having that work in my favor; but had I jumped on the offer immediately, I could have saved $152.00 and paid $616.00 instead.
I sent a short message to Chase through its official channel; and after waiting five business days, I received a response from a representative who clearly did not understand my question as to why I paid $152.00 more for the exact same offer as other people. Instead of answering my question, that response detailed on how I must spend at least $40,000.00 to retain Diamond elite status for next year.
I then called customer service at Chase, who then transferred me to customer service at IHG One Rewards. I was told that the 227 people who purchased Diamond elite status for less money than what I paid for it accidentally received an additional discount of 20 percent off of the already discounted 20 percent of what cardholders of the IHG One Rewards Premier credit card from Chase would pay for points — which in this case counted towards elite status.
Final Boarding Call
I already used 72,000 of those points for a stay at a hotel property that would have cost me a total of at least $602.37, which winds up to be 0.00836625 cents per point; and as 110,000 points cost me $768.00, that comes out to 0.00698182 cents per point — so I am somewhat ahead of the “game”. If I can redeem the remaining 38,000 points at a similar rate — equivalent to $266.00, to be more exact — I essentially earned Diamond elite status for free in 2025; so I really cannot complain, as I still believe I took advantage of at least a decent deal.
All that remains is to see what Diamond elite status with IHG One Rewards is like for the remainder of 2025 — never mind the fact that I already have top tier elite status in two other lodging membership programs and mid-tier status in yet another membership program this year…
All photographs ©2023 by Brian Cohen.
