IHG One Rewards Premier Select Card: First-Rate Perks for Frequent Guests

Rich welcome bonus

For new cardholders, the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card features the following generous bonus: Earn 200,000 Bonus Points after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Cardholders can also earn an additional 10,000 bonus points after adding an authorized user in the first three months of opening the account.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best credit card bonuses for new cardholders

High rewards

The IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card can get you the most points out of any of the IHG consumer card options. And that's for IHG spending and non-brand spending as well.

For IHG stays, cardholders can earn 28 total points per dollar. This includes the 12 points you get for paying with your card, 10 points from automatic and complimentary IHG One Rewards membership, and an additional 6 points from the Platinum Elite status rewards boost. Altogether, your IHG stays can be quite lucrative when you use your card.

Plus, beyond rewards for IHG spending, you’ll also earn high rates in useful categories: 6 points per dollar spent on travel and at restaurants and 3 points per dollar spent on all other purchases.

Robust credits and benefits

The card’s most notable perks include its anniversary free night and an annual $300 in food and beverage rewards. Cardholders also get a fourth reward night free when they redeem points for a stay of four nights or more, as well as an annual $200 airline credit that can be used toward flight purchases.

Altogether, these credits can more than make up for the card’s $350 annual fee.

High annual fee

Among premium travel cards with annual fees inching toward $1,000, a $350 annual fee is competitive, especially considering the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card’s lucrative offers. But that fee is still a considerable amount to pay yearly.

For half the cost of the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card, you can get some of the same benefits with the middle-tier IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card. With that card, you can earn up to 24 total points per dollar on IHG stays, a $100 food and beverage credit, a $100 airline credit, elite status, plus the sought-after anniversary free night award (although only up to a 50,000-point value).

Perks come with hoops to jump through

The IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card is packed with various credits and perks, but they're not automatic, and using them will require a little work.

The card's "fourth reward night free" benefit is only useful if you're already redeeming points for an IHG stay of four nights or more. The card's $300 food and beverage credit isn't awarded all at once, but rather distributed in $75 quarterly installments, and only applies to purchases charged to your room bills at participating IHG hotels. The $200 airline credit only takes effect once you make a flight purchase of more than $250 directly with an airline.

These can still be valuable perks, but you must already be committed to traveling — and staying primarily at IHG properties — to take full advantage of them.

Lack of flexibility

NerdWallet values IHG points at 0.6 cent each. This is a lower points value than what you'd get with some other hotel rewards programs or from a general travel rewards card.

And as noted above, a hotel-branded card is only useful if you’re loyal to that specific brand. If your travel and stays are more varied, consider a general travel card instead.

If you want a general premium card at a similar price point, the $395-annual-fee Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card can be a good option. It earns 2 miles per dollar spent on purchases, 5 miles per dollar on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel, and 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Miles are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for statement credit against travel purchases and when used for brooking travel through Capital One. Miles can also be transferred to any of Capital One’s partner airline and hotel programs.