InterContinental mulling positive changes to the Ambassador scheme

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

• John says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:11

  Sounds promising. Hopefully the removal of “weekend” from BOGO was not just a mistake in the survey. Had real trouble finding somewhere to use my BOGO this year due to the restriction.

  Hilton managed to convince all their Waldorf-Astorias to give Gold and Diamond free breakfast for two, so another poor show from IHG if they can’t.

  I wouldn’t regularly pay €45 even for two people, but in cheaper countries I might be tempted to pay half the asking price for 2. I wonder if individual hotels would let you transfer the benefit between days, i.e. a couple could both take breakfast for free on day 1, then sort themselves out for day 2 (this would actually be helpful if leaving for an early flight – I don’t like “wasting” my free breakfast at Hiltons!)

  • Rob says:

    9 Aug9 August 09:21

    You would pay it at the Amstel. It is basically breakfast served like a 3-Michelin Star meal, you feel like you should have worn a tie.

• Ian M says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:21

  Looks good. Seems odd however that for a small fee (small when you consider all the benefits and free night certificate) you could get free breakfast for a year, but IHG won’t give Spire members (much harder to earn) free breakfast at Holiday Inns etc.

• Shutterwhale says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:23

  Talking of coincidences…

  https://theshutterwhale.com/blog/2018/8/8/could-changes-be-coming-to-the-intercontinental-ambassador-program-platinum-elite-status-and-free-breakfast

  • Rob says:

    9 Aug9 August 09:20

    I did see that but 2 readers sent it to me yesterday – when you’re on 25k daily visitors very little gets past us!

• Paul says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:28

  I can’t say I was impressed by the offer laid out in the survey. Everything was for one person irrespective of who you had with you. One breakfast one access to lounge per stay not per night.
  IHG are well behind the curve and my recent experience of the IC The Willard in DC means I won’t be in a hurry to get ambassador status or indeed book IHG ahead of Hilton any time soon

  • kelly says:

    9 Aug9 August 07:13

    The Willard is definitely a let down for the IHG brand – don’t compare the brands by this one hotel! I wasn’t impressed at all on our visit; it fell short in many areas.

    • John says:

      9 Aug9 August 07:48

      It’s not a one-off though! Many IHG hotels fall short compared to their equivalents in other chains… for example see every UK Holiday Inn Express versus UK Hampton

    • Kipto says:

      9 Aug9 August 10:30

      Oh dear. I have booked 2 nights at the Willard in April with my family on points. What was wrong with it ?

    • will says:

      9 Aug9 August 11:54

      IC HK and IG Singapapore are two excellent hotels if you’re ever in those parts of the world.

• guesswho2000 says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:34

  How long, in real world experience, does it take for the Ambassador package to arrive? I signed up in early June, and have received a ‘replacement’ Ambassador membership card (a week or so later), but still not the rest of the stuff, like the free night voucher!

  • Dave R says:

    9 Aug9 August 07:36

    Mine showed up after about a month this year. It was a scaled-down package compared to previous years. The box and luggage tag etc are no more and the bonus pointss are now delivered electronically so it was just a letter and the weekend night cert.

    • Leo says:

      9 Aug9 August 08:33

      +1. It did at least show up which was a vast improvement.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        10 Aug10 August 09:45

        Hmm. I’ve dropped them an email, maybe it’ll take a bit longer as I’m in Australia, but 2 months is pushing it. Cheers guys!

  • Kevin says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:23

    Mine never came and one day I’ll get round to chasing them.

• Sam Wardill says:

  9 Aug9 August 06:51

  Pretty poor show for a paid membership. As Diamond Hilton I get free continental breakfast guaranteed for me and one guest. The Hilton Brisbane actually gives me (and all Diamonds) full breakfast and they also extended this to my 3 kids when they joined me. I’m IHG Spire Elite and this gets me diddly squat!

  • John says:

    9 Aug9 August 07:49

    Any reason you mention the Hilton Brisbane in particular? Practically every Hilton outside North America will do the same

    • AndyGWP says:

      9 Aug9 August 15:48

      Lets not exclude North America too much though!

      As Gold, myself + 1 got free breakfast (as well as 1k points “MyWay” benefit) a few weeks ago at the following:
      – Atlanta Hilton (and also gave me lounge access even though not on an exec floor)
      – Chattanooga Doubletree
      – Austin Hilton (though was upgraded to Exec Floor to be fair)
      – New Orleans Waldorf Astoria (well, $15p/p credit, but this was on a 3rd party booking)

      All my recent experiences in the States have been excellent.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        10 Aug10 August 09:46

        My experiences in the US are good, the only issue is no booze in exec lounges!

• Mr Dee says:

  9 Aug9 August 07:02

  Good the free breakfast is being considered!

• TGLoyalty says:

  9 Aug9 August 07:16

  Rather breakfast or lounge for two than Platinum elite status, have the black card myself but feel PE gets you nothing in terms of recognition.

  IHG really are behind when it’s comes to perks for its two top tiers. If they fixed that I doubt they’d need to mess around with ambassador as I think for the price it’s already got a few nice perks

  • KevMc says:

    9 Aug9 August 08:44

    I got PE through the black card and a few stays, but only ever had the intention of using it to status match to HH Diamond, which I did – a far better list of benefits.

    I do have Ambassador until the end of this year, and adding these benefits may see me renew it, but personally I’d rather have breakfast for 2 rather than the $20 F&B credit.

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