Upgrades at InterContinental with Diamond + Ambassador Status

[Kowalski]

Hi all,

From my experience so far with having both IHG Spire/Diamond status + InterContinental Ambassador status, the upgrades received when staying at InterContinental are no different than when I only had Spire status. One of the benefits of Ambassador status is “Guaranteed one category room upgrade”, and of course upgrades are a benefits of top tier IHG status. I had hoped for an extra level of upgrade (two categories higher) with both Diamond & Ambassador. What are other people’s experience? It seems to me that if you have top tier IHG status, there is no further upgrades if you buy Ambassador status, despite the “Guaranteed one category room upgrade” claim.

I have a booking today at the InterContinental in Warsaw, I’ve received an email this morning to let me know “Your stay just got even better! As part of your IHG® One Rewards Diamond Elite benefits, we’ve upgraded your room at InterContinental Warsaw”. I can see on the app that I have indeed been upgraded one category. But the email claims this is as a result of my Diamond status. Surely I should then get another upgrade thanks to the Ambassador status? But I know from experience this isn’t the case.

What are other people’s experiences? Is the upgrade benefit of the Ambassador status worthless (if you already have status with IHG)?

• This topic was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

There’s no doubling up with upgrades.

AMB they are guaranteed but with Diamond they aren’t.

At least with AMB if they can’t upgrade you’ll get 10k points. You don’t get that with diamond.

Of course the biggest benefit of AMB is the BOGOF voucher where you can save more than the $200 it costs.

[aseftel]

All Ambassadors are at least Platinum of course. I imagine as a Diamond Ambassador you’ll be higher up the pecking order for upgrades (although below Royal Ambassadors). In my experience, you will get a double upgrade as an Ambassador on a LuxLife rate.

[Aliks]

I have 3 reward nights booked at the Montreal I/C starting tomorrow, and just got my email telling me they were pleased to offer me an upgrade to a King Classic room with Montreal view. I just checked on the IHG site and the price differential is £3 per night.

Should I kick up a fuss at checkin pointing out that this upgrade is barely worth talking about? or continue exit any commitment to IHG for future bookings?

[ChrisC]

As far as they are concerned it’s an upgrade.

hotels have stratified rooms so much that an east side room with a view of one part of the city is an upgrade over a west side view of it. Or a higher floor north view is better than a lower north one.

(At least you got an email. I’m due at an IC tonight and not or a sniff of one yet)

[Pangolin]

ChrisC wrote:

As far as they are concerned it’s an upgrade.

hotels have stratified rooms so much that an east side room with a view of one part of the city is an upgrade over a west side view of it. Or a higher floor north view is better than a lower north one.

(At least you got an email. I’m due at an IC tonight and not or a sniff of one yet)

Maybe receiving an email is considered an upgrade also 😉

[PeteM]

Aliks wrote:

Should I kick up a fuss at checkin pointing out that this upgrade is barely worth talking about? or continue exit any commitment to IHG for future bookings?

I’d say it’s worth mentioning at check-in, perhaps in an amused/humorous way and see if there is “any way they could do better”? Unsurprisingly, the more “premium”/expensive the city, the worse the upgrades in my experience.

[BuildBackBetter]

Aliks wrote:

I have 3 reward nights booked at the Montreal I/C starting tomorrow, and just got my email telling me they were pleased to offer me an upgrade to a King Classic room with Montreal view. I just checked on the IHG site and the price differential is £3 per night.

Should I kick up a fuss at checkin pointing out that this upgrade is barely worth talking about? or continue exit any commitment to IHG for future bookings?

If it was just £3 a night more, you could have booked that room?

[NorthernLass]

Offer to pay the £3 pn if they will give you a further upgrade!

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

If it was just £3 a night more, you could have booked that room?[/quote]

This 👆 … play them at their own game!

[PeteM]

I wonder if it’s £3 more than the current price, but perhaps the price at which OP booked is a lot less. Have certainly had this in the past.

[Aliks]

I booked with points so I don’t know the price differential at the time of booking, 10th Feb. All I know is that the room prices are now down about 10% in GBP.

In practice the only room upgrade worth having is to a suite with executive club access but I doubt they will offer that.

The only time I had such a double upgrade was at a newly opened Crowne Plaza in Jaipur – and that really was a nice treat!

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

No email but I’ve just checked the IHG app and I’ve been upgraded for 6 out of 7 nights of my stay.

Done as 3 separate bookings so may not have been picked up by their system plus the upgrades night is next Sunday so may be out of their upgrade window.

but I’ll sort it out when I check in.

Value is definitely more than £3 though 🙂🙂

[Aliks]

Update on Montreal Intercontinental: We checked in and a very friendly lady did her best to recognise our diamond status. They didnt have a suite available for all our booked nights, but she let us have a really good suite for the first night, including club access. If we are lucky and there is a cancellation maybe we can keep this room, but if not we will get the best available ordinary room.

She also gave us a goodly number of drinks vouchers instead of breakfast. . . .

[John]

Aliks wrote:

The only time I had such a double upgrade was at a newly opened Crowne Plaza in Jaipur – and that really was a nice treat!

Don’t you have to pay taxes on the rack rate when you get upgraded in India?

[ChrisC]

Last night of my stay was upgraded before I got here.

Been given club access as well which should be more than acceptable.

[Oliviaseo]

Gold and Diamond jewelery from UK new and pre owned – lot of text you can take from our website. Every collection has a lot of info that you can take. Diamond bracelet

[Aliks]

ChrisC wrote:

Don’t you have to pay taxes on the rack rate when you get upgraded in India?.

This was about 5 years ago and there was no extra charge.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Oliviaseo wrote:

Gold and Diamond jewelery from UK new and pre owned – lot of text you can take from our website. Every collection has a lot of info that you can take. Diamond bracelet

Can I choose it as my milestone benefit? If I had to press you, would you say it’s closer to Elizabeth Duke @ Argos than say Bulgari?

[ChrisC]

Aliks wrote:

ChrisC wrote:

Don’t you have to pay taxes on the rack rate when you get upgraded in India?.

This was about 5 years ago and there was no extra charge.

Not sure why you’re quoting me because I didn’t write that!

[Aliks]

ChrisC – I know, I know – I was trying to reply to John but clicked the wrong button and just lazily edited my message.

Anyway, to finally summarise and give credit to the Intercontinental team in Montreal – I moved out of my corner suite this afternoon, and into a top floor extra sized room which is quite sufficient. On top of this, the girl on the desk this morning (ie not the same nice lady as last night) apologised for not being able to upgrade to a suite, due to being pretty fully booked, and gave us free breakfasts for the next 3 days.

Great service, without any need to haggle it out – much appreciated! I now have one more Intercontinental booking, in Sofia in September and if this goes well, I would be happy to return to the IHG fold.

Incidentally, the lounge here in Montreal is very grand looking and has nice enough food and drink but is practically unused. Its opposite the reception desk, so you can look in every time you pass, and there is almost never anyone sitting in there. Not clear why.

[SGJNI]

Aliks if you are Diamond, breakfast is free to begin with or have I missed something?

[Aliks]

SGJNI – I am Diamond based on previous Spire Elite status, but for diamond, breakfast is only one of the options.

We chose to get the drinks vouchers instead, and were generously given a fistful. The next day we were comp’ed breakfasts on top of our stash of drinks vouchers.

[SGJNI]

Hi Aliks
Interested in your thinking. How much was breakfast vs how valuable was a voucher? Is booze THAT expensive?
Cheers!

[NorthernLass]

Best way to a double upgrade IME is status + Emyr booking. My best one so far was superior room to junior suite at the Kimpton Fitzroy last year. It was a 3 for 2 deal as well so staggeringly good value.