iHG Ambassador price hike on the way

[Paul]

Just had my renewal advice from IHG with the usual $200 or 40000 points.

Interestingly the email continues

“ We’d like to let you know that our membership fee will increase soon. Renew by 1 October 2024 to take advantage of the current price.**

Not sure if I should risk waiting to see if there are better offers! I have been Ambassador for May years as it has been valuable but less so now that Diamond status doesn’t follow. I’d happily pay a higher fee if Diamond was included.

[BBbetter]

The whole program needs to be revamped.
Less business travel and more leisure nowadays. Weekends are usually busier anyway.
Number of ICs getting smaller.

Expand to Regents, SS and Kimptons, make it all weekdays and increase the fee. More people will happily pay for it.

Why not offer it as a premium tier on top of current one, if you don’t want to go all in? IHG has zero creativity.

[LittleNick]

Agree @BBbeter, it could do with expanding to the other “lux” brands in the portfolio and perhaps giving some status nights thrown in too the equivalent of platinum, would incentivise member a final push to diamond. Obviously these would require fee increases but could definitely be worth it

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

$225 for “Expand to Regents, SS and Kimptons, make it all weekdays” and I’m fully on board. Heck, £225 and I’m on board. Sadly I think it unlikely I’ll make a visit to the Regent Berlin before it closes.

[Lady London]

@BBbetter has summed it up.

Plus since it’s no longer possible to keep surfing Diamond by maintaining loyalty and renewing continuously even if you weren’t staying soon the maths no longer works.

No reason to start or renew Ambassador membership until you’re staying now.

It was worth paying the $17 or so a month without staying if your Diamond membeship was bubbling along. But now there’s no reason to bubble at even slightly more ie $19.

@Blair WS’s suggested attractiveness features – and maybe not even all of them all at once – would have kept the interest of quite a few. Important to look like you’re giving something even while you’re taking away, IHG.

I wonder where IHG sees their now quite narrow Interconti brand going?

[u07ch]

If you do travel a lot Ambassador is a great money saving program. It works for me and it works for IHG. It works for IHG as I stay at IC’s more often than I do at Ritz Carltons or Park Hyatts. Even if I ignore the room upgrades and weekend certificate the dining credit alone pays for my membership every 3-4 months.

The best ihg perk isn’t in ambassador it is in the rewards program; the club lounge access at 40 nights.

[RobH not Rob]

When did the renewing Ambassador to maintain Diamond “unofficial benefit” close ?

I was planning to renew next month to keep my top status.

[NorthernLass]

That party’s been over for some time, @RobH! Widely discussed here and on other sites. Strategies going forward for getting free brekkie include triggering lounge benefit, booking via Emyr or only staying at HIEX and Staybridge suites 😂

[RobH not Rob]

Thanks Northern Lass, I’m not always around the forums due to time constraints but I figured they’d close it off at some point.

Had a good run I guess, can’t complain.

[strickers]

I’m currently Ambassador, it expires on the 1st Jan and I’ll use the free weekend night in October. My next planned IC stay is October 2025, there is absolutely nothing in the current offering that makes it remotely worth signing up for until I need it again. As @BBbetter says, it is in dire need of a revamp to make it worth rolling over automatically.

[Paul]

It’s really interesting to see the views of others and always something of a surprise when those views match my own. My year is up on the 31st August and I am using the vouchers at the O2 before then. I should also get enough nights by Dec 31st for a lounge pass, even if it requires a couple of mattress runs.

Leaving the renewal till just before it’s required is where I will end up, but I was concerned about what the increase was going to be. It seems it’s just $25 and I can live with that. Much more and there really needs to be major changes to the programme for it to continue to be attractive. The biggest loss was the removal of Diamond and I still struggle with the rationale behind that.

[NorthernLass]

Not sure what you mean by rationale – it was only ever an IT glitch! Ambassador normally gives you Platinum status, but if you were already Diamond that was inadvertently extended before IHG tweaked the IT.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

The rationale was the business as a rational actor seeking profit! I don’t lament the loss of the rollover Diamonds. The IHG scheme is actually very well calibrated now to reward stays and avoid the Hilton problem of their hotels and lounges being full of (ahem….entitled) paper Diamonds from the US.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

NorthernLass wrote:

Not sure what you mean by rationale – it was only ever an IT glitch! Ambassador normally gives you Platinum status, but if you were already Diamond that was inadvertently extended before IHG tweaked the IT.

Indeed and it existed for many years and was known about within IHG yet they didn’t do anything to fix it until the mainly US blogs started advertising this ‘hack’ at which point IHG did decide it was something they wanted to fix becuase it was costing them and hotels actual money.

It’s the same as lots of IT glitches companies seem happy to live with some to a certain level of usage but there are clearly lines that they don’t want crossed in terms of numbers of people making use of them.

And then people complain when something is corrected!

[Thegasman]

There was no reason to fix it previously as top tier IHG status had no meaningful benefits. Once Diamond arrived with free breakfast they fixed it pretty quickly.

[John]

Well it was probably because Spire was relatively useless, I mean IHG even renewed my Spire once or twice when I wasn’t Amb and nowhere near qualifying by the usual methods. Now that Diamond is more meaningful it makes sense to not give it away for free

[RobH not Rob]

. . . so I know I’ll drop down from Diamond to Platinum in theory on 1st Jan.

I believe there is a short run off period before Diamond actually becomes Platinum. Any idea how long thst is? A few weeks / couple of months or has that gone too?

[BBbetter]

Lol, i asked the same qn just a few days back. Have a stay in second week of Jan and would be nice to get breakfast covered. Hope they have some IT issues in Jan and delay refreshing status!

[Lady London]

I think it’s 2 months.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Pretty sure it was 31 Jan in 2024 for a family member who had had rollover Diamond. They defo had the status on a Lisbon stay last weekend of Jan.

[Paul]

As a data point only and not exactly Diamond issues I stayed in the IC Hanoi on Jan 2nd and my lounge pass expired on December 31st. I was not allowed access on the basis of my lounge pass but was given access as a gesture of goodwill and that was made very clear