IHG and ANA Announce New Loyalty Partnership

All Nippon Airways and IHG Hotels & Resorts have been running a joint hotel venture in Japan for 20 years. Today, the two companies announced a full loyalty partnership layered on top, with reciprocal status matching, dual points earning on IHG stays, and two-way transfers between IHG One Rewards and ANA Mileage Club.

The rollout will be phased, starting after October 2026. Exact conversion ratios and earning formulas haven’t been published yet, which is the piece worth watching most closely as the details land.

The Status Match

Status reciprocity is the headline benefit of the announcement, and it runs in one direction only. ANA Mileage Club elite members will receive a corresponding IHG One Rewards tier, opening up room upgrades, late checkout, welcome amenities, and the other benefits of IHG elite status without ever having stayed at an IHG property.

The tiers line up as follows.

Members at the top of ANA’s program (Diamond and Diamond+More) need to complete two elite qualifying nights at an IHG property before the top-tier match activates. For anyone planning a Japan trip with even a one-night IHG stay, that’s a trivial requirement.

There’s no reverse status match mentioned. IHG Diamond Elites aren’t getting an ANA Mileage Club tier out of this.

Double Earning on IHG Stays and ANA Flights

Members who link their IHG One Rewards and ANA Mileage Club accounts will earn both IHG points and ANA miles on every eligible IHG stay. Up until now, travellers had to pick one or the other at check-in, which has always been a frustrating choice. This is the real operational upgrade of the announcement.

On ANA flights, linked members will also earn IHG One Rewards points based on flight distance and fare class, in addition to their regular ANA miles. No specific earn rate was published, but any points-on-flights earning for a hotel program is unusual, and it should be worth something even at a modest rate.

Two-Way Points Transfers

This is the piece most relevant to points collectors. Before today, the only transfer direction was IHG One Rewards to ANA Mileage Club, at a lousy 5 IHG points per 1 ANA mile (10,000 IHG for 2,000 miles). The new partnership adds ANA-to-IHG transfers, and both programs have signalled the conversion ratios will be updated.

If the new rate in either direction lands in reasonable territory, this opens a proper two-way bridge between one of the largest hotel loyalty programs (160+ million IHG members) and one of the Star Alliance’s most useful airline currencies.

What It Means for Canadian Collectors

ANA Mileage Club has always been a tricky currency to top up in Canada. The main path is transferring Marriott Bonvoy points at 3:1, with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 points transferred. Canadian Amex Membership Rewards doesn’t transfer to ANA at all, unlike the US program.

This new partnership doesn’t change that picture much. IHG points are also hard to accumulate in Canada, with no credit card transfer partners and IHG’s Chase co-brand cards locked to US applicants. Unless you’re already sitting on an IHG balance from hotel stays or the occasional points-purchase promotion (there’s an 80% bonus live through April 30, 2026), the IHG-to-ANA transfer path isn’t something you can realistically build toward from scratch, regardless of the updated ratio.

For anyone building toward ANA redemptions today, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card remains the fastest route. It converts to ANA miles at a competitive rate and currently carries a solid welcome bonus.

Conclusion

Overall, the announcement is unambiguously good for members of both programs. Status matching alone pulls a lot of weight in Japan, where half of IHG’s 80+ hotels carry ANA co-branding. Double earning on every IHG stay removes a compromise that has always felt unnecessary.

For Canadians, the partnership matters most if you already stay at IHG properties or fly ANA regularly. The piece worth watching is the updated IHG-to-ANA conversion ratio. Buying IHG points during a promo and transferring them to ANA is technically possible today, but the current 5:1 rate makes it not worth doing. If the new rate is significantly better, that changes. Transferring Marriott Bonvoy to ANA then onward to IHG would bleed value at both hops either way – not the angle to chase.