What the IHG Diamond Shortcut Costs

On October 1, Chase and IHG added a $350 card to their lineup, and the number that sells it is $25,000. Spend that much in a calendar year and the card grants Diamond Elite status for the rest of that year and all of the next. The shortcut is real. What it costs depends on where that $25,000 would otherwise have gone.

What changed on October 1

The IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card is new. The three existing cards, each an IHG One Rewards credit card from Chase, were repriced and partly renamed on the same day: the Premier, the Business (formerly Premier Business), and the One Rewards (formerly Traveler). The launch bonuses below require an application by November 18, 2026.

A few details sit below the headlines. The bonus restriction on the Premier Select is specific to that card: it is unavailable to current holders and to anyone who received its bonus in the past 24 months. The Premier and One Rewards bonuses are unavailable to anyone holding any personal IHG card, or who received any personal IHG bonus in the past 24 months. Chase's pages do not mention the 5/24 rule, but the points, miles, and travel press report that Chase has said it applies. For existing cardholders, Chase's release says only that they will be notified in October and that annual fees will be adjusted in 2027. The same press adds that the higher fees begin at each holder's 2027 account anniversary, that most other changes begin January 1, 2027, and that existing Premier cardholders keep Platinum through December 31, 2027. Those details come from reports of what Chase said, not from a Chase page.

The card that was not in the announcement

The IHG One Rewards Select Credit Card, the one with the $49 annual fee, appears nowhere in Chase's press release. It has not been open to new applicants since 2018, and I still hold it. Chase's release says only that existing cardholders will be notified in October and that annual fees will be adjusted in 2027.

For the Select, cardholders report a change-in-terms notice that doubles the fee from $49 to $99, effective December 2, 2026 and charged at each holder's 2027 renewal. The rest is less settled. The points, miles, and travel press reports that the anniversary night rises from 40,000 to 50,000 points and can be topped off with additional points, and that Platinum status and the 10 percent points rebate on award stays continue. Cardholders also report that Chase's benefits page now describes the top-off without stating the point cap, and that the terms behind it still contain wording from another IHG card. A holder should confirm each item on the account.

If that holds, the Select becomes the cheapest Platinum in the lineup, and it is closed to new applicants. The Premier now carries Gold, with Platinum at $15,000 of spend. The Business is $200. The Select would be $99, with Platinum status and a night worth $250 to $300 at the two valuations used below.

That sets up the comparison a Select holder faces. The Premier Select costs $251 more a year than a $99 Select. For that, it adds the $200 airline credit, up to $300 of food and beverage credit, a night capped at 60,000 points instead of 50,000 (worth another $50 to $60), 20 elite night credits, and the path to Diamond. By Chase's wording, the Premier Select's bonus restriction applies only to holders of that card, so owning a Select does not block it. Whether an existing Select can instead change into a Premier Select is not confirmed, and this piece does not cover it.

The ladder to Diamond

I recomputed the Premier Select spend ladder from Chase's own terms. The card grants 20 elite night credits once a year, adds 2 for every $5,000 spent, adds 5 more at $15,000, and adds 20,000 bonus points at $15,000. Base earn is 3 points per dollar, before the 6 points per dollar on dining and other travel.

Diamond lasts through the end of the following calendar year, so crossing $25,000 early in a year stretches it toward two years of use. Chase also limits the Diamond award to one IHG card account per member, so a second card does not repeat it.

What Diamond adds over Platinum

The Premier Select already carries Platinum. So the question is not Diamond against nothing. It is Diamond against Platinum, and IHG publishes the difference. The bonus on base points rises from 60 percent to 100 percent. Diamond adds a dedicated support line and breakfast on the welcome amenity menu, and swaps the Hertz Five Star tier for President's Circle. Guaranteed availability, complimentary upgrades subject to availability, early check-in, and the 2 PM late check-out are the same at both levels.

The bonus is the part with a number. At a base of 10 points per dollar, 40 more percentage points is 4 more points per dollar of eligible room spend. I value an IHG point between 0.50 and 0.60 cents, and both ends are judgment calls. At those values, $2,500 of eligible room spend a year is worth $50 to $60 of extra points. $5,000 is worth $100 to $120. $10,000 is worth $200 to $240. For a light IHG user, that is small. For a heavy one, it is real.

The price is what the spend would earn elsewhere

Spending $25,000 on the Premier Select earns 75,000 points at the base rate, plus the 20,000 bonus at $15,000. That is 95,000 points, worth $475 at 0.50 cents and $570 at 0.60 cents. The cost of the shortcut is whatever the same $25,000 would have earned on a different card.

Treated as a lump of spend, Diamond is close to free, or slightly ahead, at 2 percent and costs $430 to $525 a year at 4 percent. Most of the cost is not the fee. It is the lost earn. The table counts only the spend. Dining and other travel earn 6 points per dollar on this card, so the comparison tilts toward it if the $25,000 is mostly those categories.

The fee, with and without stays

Several credits do not need a hotel night. The $200 airline statement credit requires one purchase of at least $250 made directly with an airline, once per calendar year, and it runs only through December 31, 2027. The card also lists up to $50 a year in United TravelBank credit, which requires registering the card with a United MileagePlus account, and up to $120 toward Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS every four years, or about $30 a year. If every one of those is used, they total about $280 against a $350 fee, which is negative $70 before a single night is booked.

The rest of the value sits in IHG stays. The 60,000 point anniversary night is worth $300 to $360 at the two valuations above. The food and beverage credit is $75 a quarter, but it posts only to the primary cardmember, applies only to food and drink on a room bill, and expires unused at the end of each quarter. Use all four and it is $300. Use one and it is $75. The card is, in practice, an IHG stay card with a $200 airline credit attached.

Limits, stated plainly

Every current fee, bonus, earn rate, credit, and spend threshold above is Chase's published wording. I read all four Chase card pages and Chase's press release on October 6, and IHG's tier benefits come from ihg.com. The earlier fees, statuses, and night caps shown as "was" come from launch-day press coverage, because Chase's pages do not state them. The point values are judgment calls, which is why the math appears as a range and not a single figure. The existing-holder dates, the application of 5/24, and the Select's 50,000 point night, top-off, Platinum status, and points rebate come from reports in the points, miles, and travel press, and no Chase page confirms any of them. The Select's fee increase is the one change backed by a written notice, as cardholders describe it.

One question is open. Chase's terms state that an IHG member receives only 20 annual elite night credits regardless of how many IHG cards are linked to the account. The points, miles, and travel press report that the credits from different IHG cards do stack. The card pages had not been corrected as of October 6, so nothing above relies on stacking. This piece also does not cover moving an existing IHG card to the Premier Select by product change, because no confirmed report exists for it yet.

None of this is a recommendation to apply for any card. It is the arithmetic, with the one number that varies from person to person, what the spend would earn elsewhere, left for the reader to set.