How to Get the Most From Your Edit and IHG Credits

If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you get credits for Edit hotels and for IHG or Select hotels when you book TWO nights through the Chase travel portal. With the personal Sapphire Reserve, you get one $250 IHG or Select hotel credit and two $250 Edit credits every year. The Sapphire Reserve for Business gets the same, but starting in 2027 it goes up to four $250 Edit credits per year. These credits expire every year on December 31st, so you have to use them up by the end of the year or you lose them! Booking two nights is what triggers Chase to give you the credit back, and it's only up to $250. So if you only pay $230 in cash and the rest in points, Chase is only going to give you $230 back. You want at least $250 in cash charged to your card, and then you can pay the rest with points.

Look for a points boost

The number one thing I do when I get into the Chase travel portal is look for a points boost. This is where you get the best deal! Just remember the points boost only matters if you are paying part in points and part in cash. If you are just paying cash, it's cash for cash and you aren't really getting a great deal, unless the cash price is low already.

If it's an Edit hotel, I know the deal is usually pretty good if the stay is around 50k points or less with the points boost. If I'm stacking credits, around 60k points or less is usually a really good too if the points boost is also pretty good. The really good deals are going to be 30k to 40k points or less on either of them!

To get an idea of how good the deals could get, I start by looking at where I'm going and figuring out when the off-season is. The off-season will show you what the best deal could potentially be. Then you can slowly work your way towards the dates you actually want and see how the price changes. This is an approach I take pretty consistently!

How I book it

1. Pick your hotel and room.

Once you find a hotel with a points boost, select the room you want and put it in your cart.

2. Go to your cart and scroll to the bottom.

There is a spot at the bottom where you can click to pay part in points. Here is a reel that shows how I do it.

3. Put in just enough points.

Put enough points in so you still pay at least $250 in cash if you are only using the Edit credit or the IHG credit. If you are stacking both, leave $500 in cash so you get both credits back.

How I do the math for my reels

When I share a deal in my reels, the points I show are what's left to pay after the credit. Here is how I figure that out.

Say a hotel is normally $1,000 for two nights. That would usually be around 100k points, but with the points boost it's only 50k points for the two nights.

First, I figure out how many points the $250 credit covers. You take $250 divided by $1,000, then multiply that by the points:

• $250 ÷ $1,000 = 0.25
• 0.25 x 50,000 points = 12,500 points

So the $250 covers 12,500 points. Then you finish the equation to see how many points are left:

• 50,000 - 12,500 = 37,500 points

That 37,500 is what I share in my reels as the points due.

Sometimes I share how much it is for the two nights, but most often I share the price per night, so I cut that leftover number in half. In this example, that's 18,750 points per night. Hopefully that makes it easier to understand!

If you are stacking credits, do the same thing with $500:

• $500 ÷ $1,000 = 0.5
• 0.5 x 50,000 points = 25,000 points
• 50,000 - 25,000 = 25,000 points due, or 12,500 points per night

Why I love the Edit perks

If I know I'm already going somewhere, I want these Edit credits to supplement my stay because not only can you get a better deal on points, you also get the perks! That's free breakfast every morning, plus typically a $100 hotel credit, and sometimes extra credits on top of that (every hotel is a little different). I don't usually spend a lot of money on breakfast, so to me it's an extra treat and it feels like I'm really spoiling myself on vacation.

I don't want these credits to go to waste, so it's worth it to me to do the research. Sometimes I will also find a hotel nearby for a little staycation, and that's worth it to me too!

Some of the deals I have booked:

• The Grand Hyatt Deer Valley had a 250% points boost, so our two-night stay was only 21k points for both nights combined!
• The Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach was around 17k points a night, versus about 30k points a night through Hyatt (see blog post for how I booked my 4 nights).
• I'm using another Edit credit in Florence this year, and it's only going to be about 22k points a night versus 45k points a night through Hyatt!

My points are stretching even further, and I'm getting to enjoy really great benefits. If you want more tips on booking Edit hotels, read this blog post.