BBxCoreb

yea, what i heard was that SG and other SEA countries are in the pipeline to join the dining rewards program in later half of this year (that was during June/July)

Modo

Now well in to the third month and still no membership pack.

I'm now in a position where I make very few visits to the participating hotels. The whole value of the membership "Enjoyment" has been massively devalued.

And yet again they don't reply to e-mails!

BBxCoreb

Singapore was just added to the IHG Dining Rewards Club list. THe participating hotel is Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre. Early enrollment at $340(around there)

iFlip23

I joined up last week. I had a call from the sales department down in Melbourne and they said they'd knock $50 off the $329 normal sign up price, and give me $100 credit instead of $50 credit to spend at any Hotel - so it was kind of a no brainer, especially with a free night in any hotel, on any day thrown in too as part of the perks of joining the scheme.

Didn't really want to join, but the fact I'd now be Plat Amb and I have a fair bit of travel coming up this year made me sway to it and I joined.
Looking forward to my honeymoon and if I get any room upgrades. Even though it says "guaranteed" the pessimist in me thinks otherwise...

3544quebec

I think the value is there at $AU279 with the free night and a $100 dining credit (assuming that the new program isn't continuing with the Priority Privilege standard operating procedure of lying through their teeth to get people to sign up) but I am a bit confused by your reference to room upgrades.
As far as I know the IHG Dining Rewards program does not offer a room upgrade benefit just a status upgrade benefit. If you've also purchased Ambassador membership then you have the benefit of a guaranteed room upgrade at Intercontinental properties and the Dining Rewards membership won't add anything to that benefit. The status upgrade to Platinum will get you an upgrade at other brands subject to availability but if you are expecting guaranteed upgrades based on your Dining Rewards membership then I think you may be disappointed as no such benefit is offered.

The other thing to consider is that if the Dining Credit follows the old Priority Privilege Dining Credit voucher model your $100 Dining Credit will really only be worth $75 as the 25% F+B discount that your membership gives you is not applied to the amount paid with the credit. So you will be using the $100 credit for what you would normally pay $75 for with your card - not a deal-breaker but just something for people who are weighing up the value of membership to consider ( the standard membership package $50 F+B credit in reality being worth $37.50)

Modo

Correspondence with the Ambassador team is extraordinary. They keep quoting a response time from the clearly disjointed team running this program - and then miss the deadline.

To add insult to injury I have just been sent the new "Set Your Sights" promotion. One of my targets is to join Dining Rewards and earn 10,000 points!!!

Even by IHG standards... this is a fiasco.

Do they have a lurker here?

3544quebec

If you truly believe that then I think you grossly overestimate IHG's Customer Service standards

Modo

LOL -thanks for that, all grist to the mill when dealing with refusing to pay the credit card invoice - or more accurately getting a refund!

My use for this scheme would be the last quarter/half of the year, as I'm more often using hotels in Europe and North America in the first half of the year..

Nickolash27

This has popped up in my Set Your Sights challenges. I get 10,000 points for joining. I'll have a look at it in Jan.

baggyred

Managed to get upgrades to suites with both of my stays in melbourne last week. The bump up to platinum has already paid for itself!

perthite

The latest offer to me is $249 and a second $50 voucher. I wonder how low they can go?

og

So it seems Dining Rewards is behind the (literally) dozens and dozens of "hang-up" calls that have been made to my mobile / cell phone over the last 6 months or so. Calling number is (Australia) 03 9038 5712. I phoned it back and the agent gleefully identified it was IHG and Dining Rewards was the object of the game. Thing is that I've been charged $4 for each accepted call when overseas - and its still a hang-up from the caller upon my answering of the phone. I told the agent to stop calling - immediately - and that I was sick to death of this process. Oh, I won't be interested in Dining Rewards even if it was good - just because I'm sick to death of the cold calls. Bad call IHG.

And no, I'm still not interested even though I'll get 10k points for signing up.

iFlip23

Correct. I wasn't referring to the IHG Dining Rewards having room upgrade, I was referring to the increase of my status to Platinum, and that then, in theory enables guaranteed room upgrade in all non IC properties within the IHG brand.
In reality it wasn't the benefits that I joined the program for, it was the free nights that enticed me.
For what I paid for both the IHG Dining Rewards, and the Ambassador program I went from Gold IHG, to Platinum Ambassador that wouldn't even cover one night stay at one of the properties I'll be staying at this coming 12 months.
I have a fair bit of travel planned in the next 12 months, so the free nights will come massively in handy and if the new found level of status helps with room upgrades along the way, then even better for me.

It really was a no brainer.

So you're effectively getting it for $149 and it comes with a free night? I'd snap their hand off at that price.

tboons

Received an email about the dining program in Singapore. Let's see. The free night is tempting and if the price is right!

LuisHK

Seems like only 1 HI is participating in S'pore.

I'm still at cross roads to consider whether IHG will be my back-up program - and whether is worth it to pay for 2 nights via ambassador and dining program