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40,000 points sign-up bonus for IHG Rewards Club Black Visa still working

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On our credit cards pages, I list a link for the IHG Rewards Club Black credit card which shows 40,000 points.  I don’t make a big song and dance about it, because the link was sent out in January and – whilst the web page is still live – it wasn’t clear if it still worked.

I’m pleased to say, though, that it does.

A HFP reader applied for the IHG Rewards Club card at the end of October and just received his first statement.  The 40,000 bonus points posted OK.

For the first year, this card is a pretty good deal:

There is a £99 fee, admittedly

You receive 40,000 IHG Rewards Club points for signing up.  You should be able to get at £200 of value from these for free nights at InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Indigo etc hotels.  If you used them for 8 free nights during the PointBreaks promotions then the value you receive would be off the scale.

The earnings rate is OK.  2 points per £1 on normal spend (worth 1p) and 4 points per £1 on foreign spend (worth 2p).

Importantly, when you spend £10,000 in a year you receive a voucher for a free night at ANY hotel in the IHG group.  I used mine at the InterContinental New York last year, a very nice five-star – see my review.

Given that most Visa and MasterCard options for earning Avios are not great – the Tesco MasterCard is the best option for most at 0.6 Avios per £1, unless you qualify for HSBC Premier – this card is OK.

Putting £10,000 through the card would earn 20,000 IHG points to add to your 40,000 points sign-up bonus.  Used together with the free night voucher, you will have enough for 2 free nights at, say, InterContinental Le Grand in Paris, IC Times Square New York, IC Hong Kong, IC Park Lane London etc – worth at least £500.

Knock off the £99 fee and that is a net return of 4% on your £10,000 of spending.

You also receive Platinum status in IHG Rewards Club for as long as you hold the card.  If you stay at Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, HI Express etc properties on a regular basis, you should find that the £99 fee pays for itself purely for the Platinum card.  (This benefit is not mentioned on the website, but it does exist.)

The link to the 40,000 points sign-up page is here.  Confusingly, the card is still called Priority Club Black Visa despite the rebranding to IHG Rewards Club earlier in the year.


IHG One Rewards news

IHG One Rewards update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: IHG is not currently running a global promotion.

New to IHG One Rewards?  Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.

Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Comments (32)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • James67 says:

    Any idea if the member was a first time applicant for the card? I am curious if, it being a paid card, we can get a second bonus. In the past there was a promo toget the 40k + the fee waived so perhaps the fequent January credit card offers may bring something better.

    • Gary says:

      I had this card last year, cancelled in Feb this year and successfully signed up again for 40,000 last month too – so I can confirm it does work for a 2nd time. Points already posted and used for a night at Intercontinental The Strings in Tokyo which was a minimum of £156. Happy days! Whilst I know there is a link around to a video that confirms platinum status with the black card, the 40,000 points do also count towards the 60k platinum trigger – unlike bonus points earned in hotels now (a mean change by IHG if you ask me!).

    • Ed E says:

      Yes, first time applicant. Never had a PC or IHG card before.
      I am still waiting for the points and status to hit my actual account but as have documentation on card statement, I am not at all worried.

      (written in the lobby of a HIX, waiting for a room to become available to check in and complete Big Win!)

      • Jamws67 says:

        Thanks Ed. Last time I had caed points posted very quickly so might be worth giving them a call.

        • Ed E says:

          Morning James,

          The points posted today with no prompting from me. I will however now contact them to get my account upgraded to Platinum! Ed

          • Ed E says:

            Have now been given my Platinum status as well. I did send an email on Monday to ask about it and now, Thursday, it is showing as I log in.

            Great news!

  • James67 says:

    Thanks Gary, timescale almost same a my own. I will wait to January to see if the fee is waived and if not I will apply February.

  • CV says:

    I got the 40,000 bonus, once it posted to IHG account (after credit card statement date) my IHG status went to gold, a few days later (and an email to IHG) and it was changed to Platinum just in time for a free drink at a stay with Holiday Inn.

    Combining the 40k bonus with the Big Win bonus, promo codes bonus and actual hotel stays i will be sitting on 160,000 points which is excellent considering at beginning of October i had zero points.

    Also was able to use the IHG Best Rate Guarantee to get an upcoming stay in London free free(!). I needed the room so tested it out via Trivago which helpfully points out when IHG isn’t the cheapest, then need to closely read the TnCs to make sure exact same as IHG rate.

  • Lyssie says:

    I have been confused for some time by how you calculate Avios earning per £ with the Tesco MC (listed here as 0.6/£1).

    However, setting aside the bonus Avios for a moment, if you spend £1 at Tesco as a Clubcard holder, you earn 1 Clubcard point. 250 of these, representing a £250 spend, equal 600 Avios. 600/250 = 2.4, so is the base earning rate not 2.4 points at Tesco?

    Additionally, for every full £4 spent in the same discrete transaction, you would earn another 1 Avios, meaning that same £250 spend would earn at a rate of 3 Avios/£1.

    Hmm, I may have just answered my own question – is the rate listed the non-Tesco purchases rate? I guess as the card is mostly used by our household for all groceries and petrol, I wasn’t seeing why one would exclude the additional points.

    • Lyssie says:

      *for all groceries and petrol at Tesco

    • callum says:

      No, the rate is for spending anywhere. You get that 1 point per pound regardless of what credit card you use.

      In fact, I’d personally say the Tesco rate is less than 0.6 considering that’s only possible to achieve if you spend in multiples of £4. For me I’d imagine it averages much closer to 0.3 per pound.

      • Rob says:

        That can’t be true – you’d need to be making an average purchase of just £6 to be getting that. Remember that one large payment on the Tesco card (which would effectively earn exactly 0.6 per £1) brings up the average considerably.

    • Rob says:

      That earning rate includes the normal earnings at Tesco, ie 1 per £1. You get whether you pay cash, Tesco credit card or any other credit card. Tesco is VERY naughty in its marketing material for the card, because when they say ‘5 points per £4 spent’ they include the base points which you get anyway.

      The only exception is petrol bought at Tesco garages. That does earn you 1 point per £1 purely on your credit card spend on the Tesco MasterCard.

    • olybeast says:

      And what about when you use it not at Tesco? 😉

    • CV says:

      I used to have the Tesco credit card, an easy measure of it for collecting points was to check your Clubcard statement and see how many points were collected via Tesco Bank – for me, it really wasn’t much so i eventually cancelled it.

      • sandgrounder says:

        It’s serious benefit is the ability to earn 1CC point per £ spent on Tesco fuel. You earn this even if you pay on another card (despite what the Ts&Cs say). Combine that with an Amex Gold in the first year and you’re earning 5.4 Avios/£ as opposed to 4.2 with a standard Clubcard (for example). As such it’s an important permanent resident in my wallet, but I can’t remember the last time I actually charged anything to it.

  • Ian says:

    Can you convert this to Avios?
    Thanks

    • Rob says:

      Yes, but the rate isn’t great. 40k Priority Club = 8,000 Avios (or 10,000 if you wait until BA has its next ‘25% bonus on hotel transfers to Avios’ conversion bonus).

  • steve says:

    Does anyone know if the Platinum status applies to all card holders? Eg our Priority Club Visa (standard) is in my name, but if I applied for the PC Black in my wifes name and I was a second card holder, would my account change to platinum?

    I doubt it because I am guessing it is the “account holder” that gets the bonus and therefore the status, but wondered if anyone could clarify.

    • Rob says:

      The Plat status is automatic – nothing for you to do – so I don’t see how supplementary cardholders can get it.

      • steve says:

        That’s what I thought. Was just wondering how useful it was to sign up for the card for the wife as I wouldn’t get the 40k points as I already have a card 🙁

  • Jamws67 says:

    Does anybody know if nights booked under the 10% members discount are qualifying rates for big win and other promo codes?

    • Rob says:

      Should be, because its 10% off Best Flex isn’t it? If its 10% off Advanced Purchase then there could be some risk, depending on how cheap Advanced Purchase is initially.

      • Jamws67 says:

        I think it is 10% off any rate you choose. When you bring up rates now they display 2 tabs; one being the normal rate and the other the members 10 % discounted rate. Quite clever way for them to recruit new members actually.

  • Fido says:

    I’ve also had two Black cards within the space of a year and got the 40k both times. Would give it a good six months before re-applying though because they initially questioned why I was after another card because they could see my cancellation letter from the previous one. The good thing with the second one was they somehow botched the application, re-submitted but as the normal non-fee card. So I got 10k for that and when I complained I’d got 40k credit on top of that. Because the card account was still the regular one though I cancelled before they “upgraded” to Black and then didn’t have to pay the £99 either. It was a faff but, as Gary says the points count towards status and if you time it right you can get Platinum for a couple of years running with staying at IHG at all.

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