Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. My fiance and I live in the North Bay (about an hour north of San Francisco), so we decided to do a mini staycation in San Francisco so we could go see Beach Blanket Babylon (a San Francisco classic) and do some shopping near Union Square. I have both the Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card (no longer available – $49 annual fee) and the Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card ($89 annual fee). I had an unrestricted free night certificate available on my Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card and wanted to splurge and stay at a nice IHG property. To get started, I went to the IHG website, filled in my hotel search, checked the Reward Nights option, and clicked the Search button.
In San Francisco, there are several IHG properties and 2 InterContinental hotels, both costing 70,000 IHG Points per night. I liked the Mark Hopkins InterContinental hotel since it is in a great location and near Union Square. Since there was award space available, I was very hopeful that I could use my free night certificate to book a night at this hotel.
I logged into my IHG acount and clicked the 1 Free Night link under my points balance.
Here are the details of my free night certificate. It shows the expiration date and which credit card the free night certificate came from. I then clicked the Book Free Night button.
As you can see, “Chase Anniversary Free Night” magically appeared and I clicked the Search button again.
Just like before, there were several available IHG properties in San Francisco, including the Mark Hopkins InterContinental that I had my eye on. I clicked on that hotel and then clicked the Select Hotel button,
I then had to choose between a Standard Room or a Deluxe Room, the choice was easy – Deluxe Room here we come!
I then had to select the rate. For this particular night, the hotel only cost $227, which is pretty low since I’ve seen this hotel in the $400-$500 range in the past. I then clicked the Free button.
I reviewed all the details of the reservation, including the $73 valet parking fee, selected my Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card, agreed to the terms, and clicked the Book Reservation button.
Sweet! My reservation was confirmed and it was time to pack my bags.
The reservation also showed up in my IHG account.
Lastly, I also received an email regarding the reservation.
I am definitely going to miss using my free night certificate at any IHG hotel in the world. It was a good run and I stayed at several great hotels in exchange for paying the $49 annual fee on the Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card. If you have any questions about redeeming your free night certificate, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
We’ve stayed at the Barclay in NYC and loved it. It’s old world charm vs a Kimpton. Last year we stayed at the Intercontinental in Singapore for 2 nights using my free night and my wifes. ;)
Dang, you stayed at some really nice IHG properties! I also stayed at the Paris Indigo a few years ago, that was pretty nice, but not as nice at the Park Hyatt Vendome.
I used 3 FN certificates to booked Hotel Indigo Rome – St. George for our next month Italy trip, daily rate is going for $500 per night, not bad for paying Chase $49 AF IHG card. I just received another unrestricted FN certificates, but I can’t find any reward room available in the same hotel, over the years this is the best hotel credit card.
Hands down best hotel credit card, glad you got great use of your many free night certificates :)
I have one night in September booked here with last year’s certificate and am looking to use my new certificate for the second night. The hotel has the Entire year’s calendar blocked for any award nights. What is with that?
My question, is it worth keeping the ihg select card now that uncapped anniversary nights are no more?
Yes, I think so. I plan on keeping both of my IHG CCs and using the free night certificates every year. It shouldn’t be too hard to get more value than the $49 and $89 annual fees.
Pingback: United Miles Beatings, Chase Travel Insurance, Mount Fanjing Temples, Instagram Search Engine - TravelBloggerBuzz
Grant, now that you have both the $49 and $89 versions of the IHG card, do you have 2 free nights in your account? Or just one? I’m debating applying for this, and I already have the $49 version.
I currently have 0 free nights since I used my $49 AF free night cert recently and haven’t had the Chase IHG Premier CC for at least a year to receive the $89 AF free night cert. But I should have 2 new free night certs when those annual fees post.
Got it, thanks. I’m in the same boat myself, I just used the $49 AF free night cert. Let’s see how this goes.
My Chase IHG Rewards Select CC has the $49 AF post in November and my Chase IHG Rewards Premier CC has the $89 AF post in July. I should know more in July.
has anyone had a problem using the certificate for someone else?
adding the cert owner’s name to the reservation should work, but in my case 2 people would need to check in before the cert owner.
thanks for any DPs
You should be able to reserve the room for 3 adults and add a note to the reservation with the names of the other 2 adults. I would also contact the hotel 1-2 before the check in date and double check that everyone’s name is on the reservation. You should not have any trouble.
Pingback: Hotel Review: Kimpton Sir Francis Drake Hotel near San Francisco's Union Square (55K IHG Points)