Milestone Rewards gone live!

[ChrisC]

Options now showing as able to select

In ‘my account’ there is a line saying

“Congrats! You earned a Milestone Reward! Choose your reward” (with an arrow to the right)

Click on there and your choices show.

Few things

(1) the F&B credits are selectable but not usable at present at hotels (coming soon) but the details say they need to be used within 365 days of selecting.

(2) for the suite upgrade they only apply to ‘entry level suites’ or ‘premium rooms’ and it appears that you need to book the Best Flexible Rate to get them but the t&cs actually mention

“Confirmable Suite Upgrade can only be applied to stays that are on an eligible rate, e.g., Best Flexible, Member Discount, Government, and select Corporate and package rates”.

So I’m wondering is say the railcard discount rate is an eligible rate.

(3j there is a deadline – 9th September to chose the reward. That’s 3 months time. Not sure if that’s a fixed date or not or if it’s tied to the date you jump up a level.

All of the rewards for each 10night jump are visible as well.

Back on the “my account” page there is a tracker saying how many more nights you need to trigger the next reward.

[strickers]

Same for me, two nights away from 50 so hopefully some decent F&B credit for the Maldives next year. I need to read the suite upgrade in a bit more detail to see whether it’s worth it considering I will have lounge access, I have 7 nights at the IC Chennai next Feb so with this and Ambassador I can’t see a huge benefit.

[Andrew J]

And according to hotel staff yesterday the free diamond breakfast goes live today.

[dst87]

I’m checking in to a Holiday Inn tomorrow for a stopover. Be interesting to see what they offer!

[ChrisC]

Just received an email

YOUR NEW DIAMOND ELITE BENEFITS ARE READY FOR YOU CHRIS

The all-new, all=for-you IHG One Rewards is officially live at out 6,000+ hotels and resorts. Start planning your nect trip to experience all your new perks and get rewarded along the way!

[aseftel]

ChrisC wrote:

Just received an email

YOUR NEW DIAMOND ELITE BENEFITS ARE READY FOR YOU CHRIS

The all-new, all=for-you IHG One Rewards is officially live at out 6,000+ hotels and resorts. Start planning your nect trip to experience all your new perks and get rewarded along the way!

No sign of the ‘Reward Night Discounts’ yet though

[NorthernLass]

Not had the email yet. Does it indicate which hotels are participating (they initially said some Kimptons would be exempt).

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

What are people choosing? My Whatsapp is lighting up with conflicted Diamonds unsure what to choose.

[Aston100]

I think I’ve done less than five nights with IHG this year.
However, I seem to be able to pick a 20 night milestone option (surely the confirmable suite upgrade is the obvious choice no?)
Clearly I’ve missed something obvious – anyone able to explain? In my defence, I’ve got Covid, which will be my go to excuse for everything for the rest of the week.

[Aston100]

Also, under what circumstance would 5k points be a better choice than a confirmable suite upgrade of 5 nights?
Don’t understand the logic here.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Aston100 wrote:

Also, under what circumstance would 5k points be a better choice than a confirmable suite upgrade of 5 nights?
Don’t understand the logic here.

The suite upgrades are conditional on the rate you choose. And many of us routinely use special rates that MAY (not sure) be ineligible.

[AndyUK101]

For me personally, I’ll aim for either 40 or 50 nights and go for the lounge access, suite upgrades and beverage vouchers in that order and purchase points to requalify as Diamond

I do 120-140ish night a year in hotels and will put the rest of my stays into Hilton to keep Diamond there

As a point of reference, 7 stays in 4 different HI/CPs recently

Upgraded rooms on 5 of the 7 stays (on the 6th the hotel genuinely looked full)
Breakfast was offered proactively last week and this week on my stays
Amenity points still post if you go with the drink option

And it feels like there is some value in having status now, I checked out of my HI a day earlier than planned this week and the receptionist amended my booking to a 2-night stay rather than 3 on checkout without me asking, something I wasn’t expecting

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

We still await clarity on the lounge access ‘trick’ for those who can avoid hitting 40/70 nights till Q4 2022 – meaning one could leave milestone selection till Jan 2023 and thus lock in lounge access till 31/12/2024. It seems very far-fetched but some in the blogosphere are convinced that’s a correct reading of the T&Cs.

[ChrisC]

Not sure why there is confusion over how long the lounge benefit lasts for since they even give this example

“Once Annual Lounge Membership is chosen it will be valid to the end of the year plus an additional 12 months (E.g., Annual Lounge Membership Milestone choice selected June 2022 will be valid until 31 December 2023)”

Why is that so hard to interpret?

One thing that might queer the pitch on when to select is the deadlines to choose them

The current date in the app says ‘pick one by 9/9/22’ which is 3 months on from the date the scheme lauched.

Now it depends if they advance the next selection date by 3 months (so to end 9th Jan 2023) or they move it back to start from 1st September to end on 31st Decemner).

If the former then yes selecting on say the 2nd Jan 2023 would last until Dec 2024.

[dst87]

dst87 wrote:

I’m checking in to a Holiday Inn tomorrow for a stopover. Be interesting to see what they offer!

Checked in last night – 2 rooms booked – and when asked if we wanted breakfast I asked to use the Diamond amenity for it. She said I was the first, and had to go and unwrap a bundle of ‘free breakfast’ coupons. Not bad! She also gave us two – one for each room – which was obviously a mistake but I wasn’t going to argue.

She also mentioned that all of the new amenity cards have a space to write on the hotel that issued them. She said some hotels had issues with business folks stashing up a load of them from different hotels and having a booze up one night in the hotel. 🤷‍♂️

All in all, feels like a win!

[AnotherUser]

As Diamond, do you have to choose between free breakfast or drink vouchers? In some hotels, free cocktails might be a better option than breakfast…

[NorthernLass]

I’ve noticed that some ICs and Kimptons are now including breakfast in some of their rates (especially non-refundable ones) so I’m wondering if they’ve raised prices to factor this in as well. So people paying a fair bit less (over £100 pn in some cases), will be getting the “Diamond” benefit regardless! Though if you do pick one of these rates, I guess you could ask for your drinks vouchers instead, and have both.

[yorkshireRich]

I confess to never really bothering with IHG much although I feel there customer service seems to be better than Hiltons from the few dealings I’ve had. Anyways, I’ve just checked into the intercontinental Sofia and didn’t expect too much. I did however sign upto the link what Rob put out the other week so I’m platinum elite at the moment. They gave me a room upgrade and gave me free drinks or points.

Seems too easy, but I was impressed nevertheless. I’m tempted to try and keep this status now I think. (Think diamond may be out of reach in the timeframe).

[dst87]

AnotherUser wrote:

As Diamond, do you have to choose between free breakfast or drink vouchers? In some hotels, free cocktails might be a better option than breakfast…

You have to choose which amenity you want – welcome drink, points, or breakfast.

For more than a one-night stay, the value of the breakfast is certainly going to be higher.

Rob’s advice certainly still holds true: it seems to be worth picking drink or breakfast. In both of my stays since the change I was awarded points in addition to the other amenity anyway.

[AnotherUser]

Absolutely – breakfast or cocktails is a better choice than points. It’s just I had a 1 night stay booked and I misread this as free breakfast and drinks!