Chase’s New $350 IHG Card Offers 200,000 Points—Plus $400 In Flight Credits Before Your First Renewal

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It also gives you enough elite nights to choose a confirmable suite upgrade without first earning those nights through hotel stays. I covered the changes to Chase’s IHG card portfolio earlier, but the new IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card deserves a good look. I’ve generally thought of IHG cards as something to get for the bonus and keep for the benefits. This one gives me a reason to consider putting some spending on it, too. And Chase confirmed to me that its elite nights stack with those from other IHG cards. For someone who already has both the Premier and Business cards, adding Premier Select means 50 annual elite nights total starting with the existing cards’ January 2027 deposits which is enough to choose hotel lounge membership without stays or spending. 200,000 Point Initial Bonus The launch offer lets you earn 200,000 IHG points after $5,000 in purchases within three months of account opening. At my half-cent valuation, the 200,000-point bonus is worth $1,000. Having another IHG personal or business card doesn’t, by itself, disqualify you. The published restriction applies to current holders of this particular card, and previous holders who received its new cardmember bonus offer within the past 24 months. Chase told me that 5/24 applies. The card offers a $200 airline statement credit per calendar year through December 31, 2027. It takes a single purchase of at least $250 in flight tickets booked directly with an airline. Open the card this fall, make a qualifying purchase in 2026, and make another in 2027 before your first anniversary. That’s $400 back against airfare you’d otherwise buy, compared with a $350 first-year fee. The spending has to land in the appropriate calendar year, so I wouldn’t leave the December purchase until the last minute. That’s a particularly good first year deal. For ongoing value, one $200 airline credit leaves $150 of annual fee to justify. The currently published benefit ends in 2027, so we’ll see if it continues after that. But $150 should not be hard. The Free Night And Hotel Dining Benefits Additional key benefits include: A free night after each account anniversary, capped at 60,000 points. You can add your own points for a more expensive redemption. A 90,000-point night would take the certificate plus 30,000 points. The stay must be completed within 12 months of issuance. This starts at your first anniversary. Up to $300 a year in IHG Food & Beverage Rewards. You get one $75 voucher each quarter. It expires at the end of the quarter, must be applied to eligible charges on your room folio during a participating stay, and any unused balance disappears when you redeem it (e.g. use just $45 and you lose the other $30). Every fourth night free on qualifying points stays. This applies to consecutive standard room award nights at the same hotel. Certificates don’t substitute for the points nights needed to trigger it. Automatic Platinum status. That brings benefits including upgrades subject to availability, but it doesn’t include Diamond’s breakfast welcome amenity choice. Up to $50 in United TravelBank cash. Register to receive $25 in each half of the year. The first-half deposit expires July 15 and the second-half deposit expires January 15 of the following year. I wouldn’t value the dining vouchers at $300 unless I already expected eligible hotel dining in every quarter. And while a 60,000 point certificate can replace $300 worth of points at my valuation, it’s less flexible than 60,000 points in an account since you have to use it for one night before it expires. There are smaller benefits as well like an application fee credit of up to $120 every four years for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS; no foreign transaction fees; and a 30% points-purchase discount that doesn’t stack with other purchase promotions. There’s also a year of DoorDash DashPass and three months of Instacart+, with enrollment by December 31, 2027, plus monthly $10 non-restaurant DoorDash and $10 Instacart offers through that date while the relevant membership is active. A Suite Upgrade Choice Without 20 Hotel Nights The card comes with 20 elite night credits on opening and annually thereafter. Chase allows six to eight weeks for the initial credits, with subsequent annual deposits due by February 1. They count toward both elite status and Milestone Rewards. At the 20-night milestone you can choose 5,000 points, two $20 Food & Beverage Rewards, or one confirmable suite upgrade. I’d take the upgrade. That upgrade can cover an eligible stay of up to five nights, including a points stay. You call IHG between 14 days and 24 hours before arrival to confirm an available entry-level suite. It isn’t a promise that every hotel will have a suite for your dates, and the rules exclude free night certificates and certain brands and rates. The award expires 12 months after selection. At 40 nights you get two milestone choices, which can include both annual hotel lounge membership and another confirmable suite upgrade. The lounge membership covers the member and one guest on eligible stays at hotels with a participating lounge. It lasts through the end of the year you earn the milestone and the following calendar year. Elite Nights Stack Across Cards Chase confirmed to me: Cardmembers who hold multiple IHG One Rewards Credit Cards will receive the applicable Elite Night Credits each card provides. For existing cardmembers, annual ENCs will first be deposited in January 2027. New accounts opened on or after October 1, 2026, will receive their applicable ENCs upon card opening. In addition, cardmembers can earn 2 ENCs for every $5,000 spent on each eligible card, with spending tracked separately by card account. That corrects the non-stacking language many folks originally noted on the application page. For existing cardholders adding Premier Select, the January 2027 deposits mean: Premier Select plus either Premier or Business: 35 annual elite nights. That leaves just five qualifying hotel nights to reach the 40-night lounge-membership choice. Premier Select plus both Premier and Business: 50 annual elite nights. That gets you the 40-night choices, including lounge membership and a suite upgrade, plus the 50-night reward choice, without hotel stays or card spending. The timing is different for new accounts: cards opened on or after October 1 qualify for their opening credits now. Existing accounts receive their first annual deposits in January. And the spending counters stay separate—$3,000 on one card and $2,000 on another won’t combine into a $5,000 block that earns two nights. $15,000 In Spending Is More Interesting Than It First Looks The card earns 12 points per dollar at participating IHG hotels, 6 on dining and other travel, and 3 on other purchases. At half a cent per point, those are returns of 6%, 3% and 1.5%. Chase’s advertised “up to 28X” at IHG includes base hotel program earnings and the Platinum bonus not just the rewards for credit card spend. But there are spending rewards that change the calculation. You earn two elite nights per $5,000 in purchases, plus five additional nights and 20,000 bonus points at $15,000 in calendar-year spending. Here’s what the card alone produces, assuming the nights credit in the same calendar year. The spending thresholds are cumulative so actual qualifying hotel nights would add to these totals. Calendar-Year Spending Total Card Elite Nights Additional Spending Benefits Earned $0 20 20-night milestone choice $15,000 31: 20 + 6 + 5 20,000 bonus points; also reaches the 30-night milestone $25,000 35: 20 + 10 + 5 Diamond status through the following calendar year $40,000 41: 20 + 16 + 5 Additional free night capped at 60,000 points, with points top-up allowed; also reaches the 40-night milestone On $15,000 of purchases earning 3 points per dollar, you’d receive 45,000 points plus the 20,000-point spending bonus. That’s 65,000 points worth $325 at my valuation, compared with $300 from a 2% cash back card, before assigning anything to the eleven additional elite nights or the 30-night milestone choice. That’s better than just a basic return of just 3 points per dollar which I view as about 1.5%. At $40,000, you’d have 140,000 points from those same unbonused purchases and the spending bonus, worth $700 versus $800 in cash back. You’d also have Diamond status, the additional free night, and enough nights to select lounge membership and another suite upgrade. The Brand New IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card Topics on this page Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.