IHG Milestone Rewards: Your options and what to choose
One compelling aspect of the IHG One Rewards program is the ability to earn Milestone Rewards for every 10 nights you stay, starting at just 20 nights in a calendar year. These Milestone Rewards can take the form of bonus points, food-and-beverage rewards, confirmable suite upgrades or even an annual lounge membership.
Here’s what you need to know about IHG Milestone Rewards.
What are IHG Milestone Rewards?
IHG Milestone Rewards are perks you earn each calendar year based on the nights you stay with IHG. Specifically, you’ll earn Milestone Rewards every 10 nights, starting at 20 nights and going through 100 nights. Any nights that are elite qualifying, including award nights, will count. However, rollover nights from the previous calendar year don’t count toward your earnings.
Here are the IHG Milestone Rewards you can earn as you reach the following milestones each calendar year (you can choose one at each level, except at 40 and 70 nights, which get two):
- 20 nights: 5,000 bonus points, two $20 food-and-beverage rewards or one confirmable suite upgrade
- 30 nights: 5,000 bonus points or two $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 40 nights (choose two): 10,000 bonus points, five $20 food-and-beverage rewards, one confirmable suite upgrade (limit one) or one annual lounge membership (limit one)
- 50 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 60 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 70 nights (choose two): 10,000 bonus points, five $20 food-and-beverage rewards, two confirmable suite upgrades (limit one) or one annual lounge membership (limit one)
- 80 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 90 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
- 100 nights: 10,000 bonus points or five $20 food-and-beverage rewards
Let’s look at each IHG Milestone Rewards option and how much value you can net from each.
Bonus points
Bonus points are a straightforward reward option that you can select at each milestone. If you choose this option, IHG will deposit the points directly into your account. Based on TPG’s September 2025 valuations, 5,000 IHG One Rewards points are worth $25 and 10,000 points are worth $50.
Related: How to earn IHG points via stays, credit cards and more
Food-and-beverage rewards
Similar to bonus points, you can choose food-and-beverage rewards at each milestone. Each food-and-beverage award voucher is worth up to $20.
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Once you select food-and-beverage rewards at a milestone, you can redeem these rewards against food and beverage charges during a stay. However, you can’t use food-and-beverage rewards for:
- Vending machines
- Third-party food deliveries (such as Uber Eats)
- Restaurants that do not allow charges to a guest’s room bill
- Gift shops
- Taxes on minibar charges
- Stays as part of a group, package tour or convention where a third party is paying
You can redeem food-and-beverage rewards at all IHG brands except IHG Army Hotels and select Six Senses locations. You also can’t use food-and-beverage rewards during stays at Iberostar Beachfront Resorts and InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Macao.
You can only use each voucher once, so be sure your food and beverage charges are greater than the value of the voucher before you redeem it. You’ll earn IHG points on your food-and-beverage balance after vouchers are applied.
Food-and-beverage vouchers expire 12 months after you select them as a Milestone Reward. Finally, note that food-and-beverage rewards aren’t transferable, so you can only apply them to your room bill.
Related: How to earn and redeem IHG food-and-beverage rewards
Confirmable suite upgrade
At the 20-night and 40-night markers, you can choose one confirmable suite upgrade. Additionally, you can choose two confirmable suite upgrades after staying 70 nights in a calendar year. Although you can choose two rewards after staying 40 and 70 nights in a calendar year, you can only select confirmable suite upgrades once at each milestone.
You can apply a confirmable suite upgrade to most directly booked rates, including reward nights and select corporate and package rates. However, you can’t use a confirmable suite upgrade if you booked one of the following:
- Group rates, package tours or convention stays where a third party is paying
- Stays using an IHG free night certificate or InterContinental Ambassador complimentary weekend night (IHG plans to eventually make these stays eligible)
- Nonqualified rates (such as wholesale rates and those booked through online travel agencies)
- Employee rates
- Prepaid rates for which you’ve already made a deposit
- Some hotel-defined packages
- Stays through https://www.anaihghotels.co.jp/ or Japan hotels’ independent sites
You can use a confirmable suite upgrade to upgrade one room to an entry-level suite (or a premium room if a suite isn’t available) on a stay of up to five nights. To apply a suite upgrade to a reservation, you must contact IHG customer care between 14 days and 24 hours before check-in. However, note that suite inventory is unavailable at some properties and limited at others.
Confirmable suite upgrades expire 12 months after being selected through the IHG Milestone Rewards program. These upgrades are nontransferable and can only be applied to the member’s room. You can use confirmable suite upgrades at most IHG properties except:
- Avid Hotels
- Atwell Suites
- IHG Army Hotels
- IHG Residences
- InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Macao
- Iberostar Beachfront Resorts
- Ruby hotels
Finally, if you use a confirmable suite upgrade to secure a club room, you won’t get club-level perks as part of your upgrade. You also can’t stack a confirmable suite upgrade with a guaranteed upgrade (like you’d get with an InterContinental Ambassador membership). Any upgrade secured with a confirmable suite upgrade is at the hotel’s discretion.
Related: 7 ways to get a hotel room upgrade
Annual lounge membership
You can select an annual lounge membership at the 40-night or 70-night milestone. If you do so, you’ll get a lounge membership valid through the end of the calendar year after the one in which you earned it. So, if you reach the 40-night milestone in November 2025, you could select an annual lounge membership valid through the end of 2026.
If you have a lounge membership, you and a guest will get access to the hotel’s club lounge and its amenities when staying at IHG properties that have a club lounge. You must be on a qualifying stay, although IHG’s member terms and conditions state that reward nights and free nights are eligible. However, stays at InterContinental Alliance Resorts in Macao aren’t eligible.
You’ll get access during your stay or until checkout, though properties can restrict your access due to “renovations, closures, or other facility limitations.” Additionally, lounge membership does not get you club lounge amenities or services beyond the physical lounge.
Related: Everything you need to know about IHG One Rewards’ annual lounge membership
Redeeming IHG Milestone Rewards
Once you reach a milestone, IHG will send you an email titled “You just unlocked a Milestone Reward.” This email will provide a link you can click to select your reward. You can also check your progress toward earning another Milestone Reward when logged in to your IHG account.
I recommend waiting until the last minute to choose IHG Milestone Rewards unless you want to choose bonus points or a lounge membership. After all, food-and-beverage rewards and confirmable suite upgrades expire based on when you select them — so you’re best off selecting the former in time to apply to your current stay or the latter to a stay in the next 14 days or so.
Related: The 19 best IHG hotels in the world
Which IHG Milestone Rewards are best?
There’s no right answer to which IHG Milestone Rewards are best. That’s part of the value: You can choose what’s best positioned for your needs.
It’s difficult to put a value on a confirmable suite upgrade or an annual lounge membership, as these benefits depend on how you’ll use them and how much value they’ll add to your stay. The value of an annual lounge membership also depends on how many times you’ll get IHG club lounge access as a benefit of your membership.
Even the choice of bonus points or food-and-beverage rewards isn’t clear-cut. Although TPG only values IHG One Rewards points at 0.5 cents each, I can usually get closer to 0.8 cents of value when redeeming IHG points.
I can’t tell you which IHG Milestone Rewards will be best for you, but here’s how I rank the choices at each milestone:
- 20 nights: My first choice would be a confirmable suite upgrade since it would be nice to guarantee a suite for one stay in the next 12 months. My second choice would be 5,000 bonus points since I value these points at about $40, and my third choice would be two $20 food-and-beverage rewards since these are worth up to $40 but are more difficult for me to use than points.
- 30 nights: My first choice would be points, and my second choice would be food-and-beverage rewards for the same reason as above.
- 40 nights: My first choice would be an annual lounge membership, as I value having IHG club lounge access. My second choice would be a confirmable suite upgrade because if I stay 40 nights each year, I can likely get good value from another confirmed upgrade. My third choice would be five $20 food-and-beverage rewards since this reward is worth up to $100. My fourth choice would be 10,000 bonus points since I value these points at about $80.
- 50 nights: My first choice would be food-and-beverage rewards, and my second choice would be points for the same reason as above.
- 60 nights: My first choice would be food-and-beverage rewards, and my second choice would be points for the same reason as above.
- 70 nights: My first choice would be two confirmable suite upgrades because it’s the most valuable option at this milestone. My second choice would be an annual lounge membership if I didn’t already select one as a 40-night Milestone Reward and planned to stay at at least one property with a club lounge before accruing 40 elite qualifying nights the next year. My third choice would be five $20 food-and-beverage rewards since this reward is worth up to $100. My fourth choice would be 10,000 bonus points since I value these points at about $80.
- 80 nights: My first choice would be food-and-beverage rewards, and my second choice would be points for the same reason as above.
- 90 nights: My first choice would be food-and-beverage rewards, and my second choice would be points for the same reason as above.
- 100 nights: My first choice would be food-and-beverage rewards, and my second choice would be points for the same reason as above.
Related: How much value does the IHG One Rewards program provide when you book directly?
Bottom line
Even if you don’t plan to earn IHG elite status, you may still want to aim to stay at least 20 nights each year to earn a Milestone Reward. After all, you can select 5,000 bonus points, two $20 food-and-beverage rewards or one confirmable suite upgrade after staying just 20 nights in a calendar year. Although you can only apply a confirmable suite upgrade to stays of up to five nights, earning this valuable perk after staying just 20 nights in a calendar year can provide good value.
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