IHG Rewards Club pushes up the points price of InterContinental Ambassador hotel status

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• Trent says:

  28 Jan28 January 10:00

  I have flown Royal Jordanian several times but not in years. I really enjoyed the Crown Class service on board. This was right after they joined oneworld, I did two separate trips including flights with them. Food was great, crews were great. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it! Look forward to reading what you think.

• Kevin says:

  28 Jan28 January 10:26

  Does anyone have experience of booking interconnecting rooms with Ambassador status? I’ve managed it for the Intercontinental at JNB but it seems quite fiddly. Does just one room get upgraded?
  And do people have opinions on Intercontinental hotels in Japan? We’ve booked four F seats with Avios in the summer (yes I know it will be humid). Like the look of Ana Intercontinental Tokyo but you have to pay extra to use their outdoor pool. Would we get access with Ambassador (or through booking with Emyr)? An alternative seems to be the New Otani Garden. Anyone been there?

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 11:59

    Interconnecting rooms is a nightmare, full stop. No hotel chain has it cracked. I have had probably at low budget and off the scale luxury properties. Any promise they give you is worthless as front desk staff will give away one of the rooms anyway. I’ve even been to places where the staff didn’t even know that connecting meant and thought it meant ‘next door’.

    This is what Emyr can book in Tokyo with the extra benefits listed – https://www.virtuoso.com/hotels#FacetLimit=6&SearchTerms=tokyo – on top of usual luxury chain ‘preferred partner’ deals he has with Four Seasons, Mandarin, Ritz Carlton etc.

    • Kevin says:

      28 Jan28 January 13:04

      Thank you, very helpful. Kids are now at an age where it isn’t vital but it makes life easier. Seems odd it isn’t something they’re keener to sell up front.
      Virtuoso link is helpful as well.

    • Steve-B says:

      28 Jan28 January 20:59

      I have to agree – two out of the three times in the past year it has been an absolute hassle. Worst experience at HI Birmingham Bromsgrove where no one seemed to be able to find keys! I’ve given up and now chose family rooms etc. To be fair, IC Budapest was excellent though.

• ADS says:

  28 Jan28 January 11:35

  delighted your Swiss First flight wasn’t cancelled – and that you don’t have to sue them !

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 11:55

    Which obviously I wouldn’t have done, because I’m not stupid …

• Nick says:

  28 Jan28 January 12:08

  OT – the age old problem of availability on BA using avios is normally, being flexible not an issue for us but yesterday I spent hours trying to get ex eu on QR to Doha. I’ve tried the usual
  Nordic routes plus I resigned myself to saving avios using CE to IST and then an A320 onwards all in J but no joy. I have been looking at start of April so granted peak time but usually I find something even from places like PRG or OTP. Plenty of Y seats but I wanted J, the only option I did see was from FRA but it was on a 777. I also looked for over October mainly the very end and again nothing in J. I tried lots of dates and lots of airports as I’m not bothered too much where it’s from as I’ll use avios on a RFS to get there.

  Is it just me or any suggestions or experiences from anyone else recently?

• Alanr says:

  28 Jan28 January 12:09

  O/T – there’s been various comments recently about Amex potentially changing their sign up bonus rules, some of which I might have missed. Today an Amex call centre agent told me explicitly that I would not be eligible for the 20K MR point sign up bonus for the PRG card, even if more than six months after I cancelled a previous one, with the implication being it was a lifetime restriction. When I pointed out the wording on their website about the six months rule, she said it “needs to change” because the “policy was brought in a couple of weeks ago”.

  That might explain why I’ve been denied the sign up bonus for a BA card (the free one) although I hit the target in late December. A different call centre agent said I should have got it, but some back office part of Amex denied it, giving no reason. Looks like the internal departments of Amex don’t communicate well with each other.

  • Anna says:

    28 Jan28 January 12:27

    I thought Rob said he is entitled to be notified (presumably due to the business relationship) before any such changes are implemented?

    • Michael Jennings says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:34

      If the website is still saying you are entitled to it, there are laws that require that they give it to you, too.

      • Cate says:

        28 Jan28 January 13:14

        I’ve been giving this some thought and my current leaning is that they’re not cracking down on customers but on their own call center staff encouraging customers to churn and putting offers on cards they weren’t supposed to. If so It follows that churning is still in but you if you phone up and ask they have to say no because everything they say is recorded.

    • Rob says:

      28 Jan28 January 14:28

      100% entitled to get advance notice of APR and sign up and benefit changes. Churning terms could be a grey area but I would expect to know.

  • mark2 says:

    28 Jan28 January 13:32

    My wife has just had the sign-up bonus on a Gold card, where she applied only six months and a few days since she cancelled the last Platinum. And the target was reached in less than two weeks; now to upgrade to Platinum and hopefully to refer me for Gold in a few weeks.
    Something probably will change, but we have to wait and see.

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:30

    I have a written statement from the Amex press office saying nothing has changed ‘but might’ …..

    • Liz says:

      28 Jan28 January 20:39

      I had a long very argument with online chat last week about missing small shop credits on a card I want to cancel. She told me that under no circumstances is anyone one the online chat team allowed to do manual credits – this is now their protocol. She confirmed that I would get the missing £10 credit even after the card is cancelled but I won’t get it before 8 wks from end of the promotion. She gave me the reference number of the chat as confirmation we will get the credit on a cancelled card. So looks like they are really clamping down on manual credits.

      • Tilly says:

        28 Jan28 January 21:21

        I have £10 still to credit from shop small and was toldhave to wait until mid Feb before chasing again. The agent did do a manual credit though for £50 on the Gucci offer.

      • CV3V says:

        28 Jan28 January 21:51

        I got a manual credit for the Costco promo, however it wasn’t only when i was on the phone to amex i realised it was only for the costco website, not the shop! They still gave me the credit.

      • Liz says:

        28 Jan28 January 22:23

        I am missing Small Shop 10 credits in total. Was just trying to push them on this one card to allow me to cancel but she wouldn’t budge. Next argument will be to get the £10 after cancellation.

      • Toby Walsh says:

        28 Jan28 January 23:34

        The credits will still add after cancellation!

        I cancelled after shop small last year not realising missing credits. Received a postal statement some months later and the account was in credit asking me to call them.

  • Taza says:

    29 Jan29 January 05:20

    On this note, does making PayPal payments to one another still count as a purchase?

    I’d like to make use of he bonus points but don’t have anything to purchase so PayPal payments would be ideal.

• Cate says:

  28 Jan28 January 13:20

  Whoa….paying for seat selection in First – how mean!

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:35

    Not sure i’d bother. How bad could First be to want to aviod being allocated a seat? I would hope they are all exceptional

    • Cate says:

      28 Jan28 January 14:42

      If you are travelling on your own then most would prefer a single seat. Long haul sitting/sleeping by a stranger is something you might not want, unless that stranger is Brad Pitt then I’d happily make that sacrifice………

• Dominic Barrington says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:47

  I flew AMM/LHR in RJ Business Class in November (and, indeed, the bizarrely short TLV/AMM hop). I was very impressed by it. There is a sort of old-fashioned feel to it (lunch was served ‘properly’ from a trolley), but it was very pleasant. It’s not on a par with the big Middle East carriers, but the seat was comfortable and the hospitality good. The IFE did not seem to have a huge amount of choice, but this was only a fairly short flight. I don’t know how I would view it as a choice for ‘long’ long haul or overnight, but I was very happy.

• Nadeshka says:

  28 Jan28 January 19:29

  Swiss First was our first ever redemption after we got into this points and miles game.
  Flying CPH-NRT as a student thanks to BMI Diamond club is what got us hooked nearly 10 years ago!
  It was truly a first class experience, though I don’t recall paying for seat allocation then …

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 22:03

    It did let me select a seat tonight, 2 days before departure. 1A available 🙂

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