AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. Terms Apply to the offers listed on this page. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Offers for the IHG® Rewards Club Select Credit Card are not available through this site. All information has been independently collected by AwardWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers.
IHG One Rewards points do expire if non-elite members have 12 months of inactivity on their account. However, IHG points do not expire for elite members. Per the IHG FAQs page:
“IHG One Rewards points never expire for Elite Members. For Club members, points will expire after 12 months if there's no account activity.”
What Counts as Activity for IHG Point Expiration?
IHG Hotels & Resorts defines activity in its terms and conditions as follows:
“To maintain your account points balance and avoid points expiration, you must have at least one “earn” or “redeem” transaction posted to your account every twelve (12) months.”
Keep in mind that if you hold the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card or IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card that come with an annual free night certificate — redeeming this for a stay does not count as a “redeem” activity. Per the IHG terms and conditions:
“Use of the one night per year provided to IHG One Rewards credit card holders does not constitute an “earn” or “redeem” activity to prevent Point expiration.”
However, cardholders of the IHG One Rewards Premier Card and IHG One Rewards Business Card receive complimentary IHG Platinum Elite status — which defacto means your points do not expire due to your elite status.
Earning IHG One Rewards Points to Avoid Expiration
The most obvious points-earning option is through stays at IHG properties. However, if you are unable to book a stay during a 12-month period, IHG One Rewards members have several other ways to earn IHG points and keep their points active. These include:
- Earn points by spending on the IHG One Rewards Premier Card, IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card, IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card, or the discontinued IHG® Rewards Select Credit Card.
- Buy IHG points through Points.com — which can be a particularly good option when IHG runs a buy points promotion.
- Rent a car with Avis, Budget, Thrifty, or Dollar to earn 125 points per day on qualifying rentals.
- Earn 1,500 points plus an additional 500 points per day when you rent a car with Hertz.
- Earn IHG One Rewards points when you dine out with Open Table, the Dine & Earn program, or when you dine in with GrubHub.
Transferring Points to IHG One Rewards
- Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to IHG at a ratio of 1:1. This isn't a preferred method, as Ultimate Rewards points are worth much more than IHG One Rewards points. But it'll keep your balance alive.
- Bilt Rewards points also transfer to IHG at a ratio of 1:1. Bilt has plenty of more valuable transfer partners. But again, it can help generate activity.
- American Express Membership Rewards do not transfer directly to IHG. However, a workaround is to transfer your Amex points to Virgin Atlantic and then to IHG. This option represents a poor value. But, in a pinch, it will save your points from expiring.
Redeeming IHG One Rewards Points to Avoid Expiration
The options for redeeming your IHG points are diverse. You can redeem your points as follows:
- Reward rights: redeem your points for nights at one of IHG’s 6,200 properties worldwide. If you need some inspiration, here are the best IHG luxury redemptions and ways to redeem IHG points for maximum value.
- Points and Cash: use a mix of points and cash to book a stay at an IHG property
- Airlines: transfer your points to multiple airline partners (generally at a rate of 10,000 IHG points to 2,000 miles)
- Transfer: you can transfer your points to another IHG member ($5 fee per 1,000 points transferred)
- Shopping: take your pick from jewelry to electronics
- Gift cards: you can convert your points into various gift cards
- Digital rewards: convert your points to eBooks, software, games, and many more digital products
- Donate your points to the IHG Foundation
The 12-month clock resets when you redeem points from your account. In the past, members could generate activity by making a points redemption and then cancel it later. However, IHG has closed this workaround. The terms and conditions now read:
“If you redeem Points for a Stay and subsequently cancel that Stay, the redemption activity does not prevent Point expiration.”
The 12-month clock should still reset if you make a points redemption. Just beware if you need to make a change or cancellation to that reservation. If you don't have any other qualifying activity in the past 12 months, your points may be subject to expiration.
Get Alerted Before Your IHG Points Expire
The best way to keep track of your IHG One Rewards points expiration is through AwardWallet. Just sign up for free AwardWallet account and add your IHG account. You'll be able to see your IHG One Rewards points expiration date on your AwardWallet dashboard. In addition to tracking your IHG point balance, you can also track expiration dates for free night certificates and Milestone Rewards. Plus, you'll see the current value of your IHG points based on recent AwardWallet user redemptions:
Plus, you'll get email notifications months in advance of any expiration date — leaving you time to take action to save your points or use expiring IHG free night certificates.
Our Take
A 12-month expiration is on the short end of the scale of points validities. However, it should not be a concern to many IHG members with the diverse ways to keep points alive without setting foot in an IHG property. There is no reason for your points to expire since you can always take some action to keep your points balance alive.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Where on IHG convoluted web site can you even find out the date they show they will expire??? If you REALLY look around you can finally find the last activity they show, but that is often not the exact same date that chains will show as their expiration? They seem to make it hard to find intentionally.
Jay, IHG makes this extremely hard to find. I’m not subject to expiration (due to status) so I don’t have this information in my profile but don’t remember ever seeing it listed in a place that people can find it simply.
Useful info here…. I remember they used to have some survey program too you could get like 5 points with to keep from expiring?
Maybe I’ll try opentable
I’ve been using the IHG Open Table with random success. Sometimes I can make a booking, sometimes every restaurant listing says ‘no tables available witin 2.5 hours of your booking request’. Even though there are table available at the same restaurants via the standard Open Table site. Any idea how to get around tis?
I was very pleased to see that my Feb 2020 anniversary night, which was due to expire in Feb 2021, is still valid up until end of December 2021. The Feb 2021 anniversary night, will then expire just 5 weeks later at start of Feb 2022.
As someone above has mentioned, The Kimpton Clocktower in Manchester, UK (Principal) is indeed a lovely hotel
Sometimes, using the points I bough some digital book or magazine in order to extend the validity of IHG points.
I like the option of extending the deadline for my IHG points. That is great!
I prefer Hilton but IHG is my back up scheme. I like that redemptions in IHG are generally better value than Hilton, but one irritation is that only basic rooms are generally available for points.
Good to know this –> Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, IHG suspended the expiration of all IHG Rewards points to June 30, 2021.
This is great news, very good information
I guess I’d have to have an IHG account for them to expire. Never stayed at an IHG hotel and have no plans to at the moment.
Interesting article, always like to keep up on exp. policies.
Thanks for the feedback! We are working through refreshes of all of our expiration policy posts. Aiming to do one a week, so stay tuned for more! 🙂
Although redeeming the free night that comes with the IHG® credit card does not reset your expiration date, does it not grant you platinum status?
In that way, because you are an Elite member, your points don’t expire anyway. Where am I missing something here?
Great point! Indeed, by having the IHG Premier (or legacy Select) card, you avoid expiration. But, if you close your account (but still have a free night after all of the recent extensions), you’ll be subject to expiration even if you redeem that night.
This says “Note that the 12-month clock is reset when you redeem points from your account. If you end up needing to cancel that booking and redeposit the points, your activity clock has not adjusted back to the original date. So, a great way to generate activity would be to make a points redemption, even if you might need to cancel it later.”
Is that still true? I read (on a different site) that they’ve changed this, and you can’t keep points alive this way anymore. It’d be worth double-checking.
You’re exactly right. This was a workaround, but it’s been closed now. We have updated the post to fix this.
Too bad — I was hoping it still worked (it was a useful workaround). But thanks for checking, and for updating the post.
I’ve stayed at some great IHG hotels in the UK. Can’t recommend ‘The Principal’ in Manchester enough. Well worth a visit.
They should stop the expiration of the points especially since the pandemic is still ongoing.
IHG has paused it through June 30, 2021. In case they don’t extend that, we wanted to make sure members generate qualifying activity!
Thank you for the information. I usually buy IHG points once a year when they offer a 100% bonus on purchased points
That’s definitely an easy way to generate activity!
I have some points that are about to a expire, so I used the IHG dining club to extend for one year. Great perk!
Renting a car to extend the expiration date is very straightforward.
Does Elite status (Spire) also prevent expiration?
It does!
I think IHG should introduce the account pooling feature as well.
Are IHG extending expiry date for non-elites due to COVID-19? If so, by how much?
That’s in the post 🙂 Expiration has been paused through (at least) June 30, 2021
it’s good that they stopped the expiration of the points because of the pandemic.
Although there are numerous ways to prevent IHG points from expiring, it’s still been considered as one of the hospitality programs which provides the shortest validity period, which is one year only. Most of the program points do not expire until inactivity after two years or even three years. Still, IHG has quite many brands and hotels around the world, and it’s much possible to extend the validity of points from simply staying. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent that the IHG points do not expire for Elite Members, thank goodness!
For those with IHG Rewards elite status points don’t expire, but anniversary nights do. Therefore, given that many of us are not traveling during the pandemic, I’m glad IHG is extending the expiration dates for anniversary nights. I now have four nights (two each for 2019 and 2020), although only three appear in my IHG online account and app, I’m waiting for IHG to make the fourth one visible.
So if I undestand corrtly, in order to create activity, I can book an IHG hotel stay (on 3/7/21 for example) and
cancel it (on 3/23/21 for example, so my points would be redeposited on 3/23/21)
then my points expiration date would be adjusted to 2/23/22?
Please let me know if I understand this correctly.
Thanks.
That’s how it used to work. Unfortunately, IHG changed the terms and conditions (and we have now updated the post to reflect this change). If you redeem points on 3/7/2021, your expiration will extend to 3/7/2022. However, if you cancel, the expiration date resets to what it used to be.
Thanks for the great info!
Anyone know if your rewards night for 2020 expired? I did not use mine due to the pandemic and haven’t really followed up to see if that will carry over to this year or if it’s just a loss.
It should have been extended! The length of the extension depends on the original expiration date: https://awardwallet.com/blog/ihg-2021-elite-status-requirements/
Has anyone had luck getting points reinstated? I just had 60,000 points expire in my wife’s account that we forgot about.
Not to my knowledge, but it never hurts to call customer service and ask. Make sure you have your wife’s account linked to AwardWallet so you receive alerts before points expire.
bonus. But I just used my free night and don’t need and points on here right now. Thanks!
I used the IHG dining club at one restaurant to extend my miles by a year. https://ihgrewardsclubdining.rewardsnetwork.com/
Lost all my points when they went from “never expire” to 12 months. Tried to get them back by pointing out how easy it was to keep the account active – IF YOU KNOW POINTS NOW EXPIRE – and stating I would have done so if I had ever been notified of the new policy. They blew me off. I’ll use other chains.
I believe the points on all hotel chains now expire. Good luck.
You can also buy a few points in their shop to extend the expiration date. I haven’t been using these as much as the other point types.
If you book a stay at an IHG property through any means besides directly through their own websites or when you show up at the property, you will earn no points. I found this out the hard way.
I am so glad to hear this does not count as the chase 5/24 I will be applying for this tonight
It’s worth the $49 for the credit card. Keeps points from expiring and get a free night at basically any IHG property once a year. In addition the 10% rebate on reward redemptions is awesome. Even though I rarely use the card unless using for a point bonus promotion, I get a lot of value from having it.
Yes, the cost of the card annual fee is sensational.
I love Opinion Check-In for keeping our accounts alive, because even if disqualified from the survey, one earns 5 points “just for trying”.
it does help keep the account current with minimal effort!!
Great program for earning and redeeming points (esp for those with families); not so much for elite benefits.
Its so easy to keep points from expiry that by making them to expire IHG just added unnecessary hassle to its loyal customer in my view. Maybe their aim is that someone will simly forget to extend points validity or something.
I find the surveys to be an easy way to save points. Even if you don’t “qualify” for the survey, you get 5 points. Obviously, that isn’t enough points to care about, but it does reset the clock and extend your expiration date.
IHG is also an e-rewards transfer partner.
With so many ways to extend the life of your points there is no reason to let them expire. Thanks for the great info.
It’s a good thing that points do not expire if you are an elite member. Didn’t know that.
I had 2k points, never used them or had any plans, so they expired. I’ll have to look for this list next time.
Lot of partners to keep the points.
Anyway, I have some points here since a couple of years and I haven’t found any good redemption.
The hotels offering a quite good redemption are not a lot and the points break of the latest 2-3 years are in localities (and I bet the majority of travellers) I am not interested.
Plenty of transfer partners to use to keep your ihg account alive out there, try virgin atlantic amongst others.
Good info on IHG points – will remember to do something to keep mine alive!
oh platinum member the points do not expire? so just keep the IHG card would be fine?
You got it.
Is this a Chase card? Subject to 5/24??
Yes, it is a Chase card and is not currently subject to 5/24.
Great info. I have to do something soon keep these points alive. Regretfully I don’t stay at too many IHG properties
You can also buy an e-book for as little as a few points on IHG’s site to keep your account and points active and extended for another year.
IF you redeem for an award night and then later on cancel the booking and the points go back to your card, is this considered an activity and you can just keep doing this?
Yes 🙂
If you are platinum or spire, the points will not expire
You also can make exchange on Points.com site to prevent expiry
I wonder how the free annual night on the credit card affects this
It has no impact but being a cardmember gives you Platinum status, which means your points won’t expire!
One of the meager benefits of Platinum.
It would be great to see IHG increase benefits for their elites.
I agree. I prefer Hilton for that reason. Some of the free breakfasts are pretty awesome (Doubletree Istanbul, Conrad Tokyo etc)
Only the truly lazy can’t manage to book a reward and cancel it every 11 or so months…
But thanks to Award Wallet we get a reminder! 🙂
sweet!! Thanks for the reminder on this!
Does anyone dabble very much in the IHG rewards program, to the point where you’re earning points from something other than stays? I will stay in a Holiday Inn property every now and again so I have a few points, but the points are valued so low that it seems silly to use IHG as an UR transfer partner or to use IHG for partner rewards when they all can also get you United miles or whatever. I haven’t really figured out how to maximize this rewards program…any advice would be much appreciated!
Best bet is to try to game the frequent promos – some can be pretty lucrative.
I love my Chase IHG credit card, not for every day spend, but for the annual free night. A nice hotel in an expensive location for $49, what a deal!
thanks for the update on IHG! I do the surveys and never have to worry until my brain can’t do the surveys ;o)
Thanks for the reminder, now if their web site wasn’t down I could check on my points 😉
Hi you didn’t mention as an elite member your points don’t expire .
Mahomed, thanks for pointing that out. I’ve added it to the first sentence!
As I said recently, there should never be a reason for points to expire unless you purposely do so. Most programs have portals, or surveys as noted above, etc. It’s too easy to keep points active to ever lose them.
The digital rewards start from (I think) 300 points. This is a fairly easy and cheap way to keep points alive.
If you a book a stay 11 months out, then end up cancelling it (plan can change etc etc), does the expiry date get pushed even further out?
Yes, it would. 🙂
That’s a good tip, thanks!
IHG is also an E-rewards and an E-miles partner so you if you like those programs, miles can be earned that way.
Until a few months ago, those miles were elite-qualifying so a lot of people used the E-rewards survey awards to move up to the next elite level. Unfortunately, they caught on and now they post as bonus miles.
I believe as long as you have status the points do not expire.