Originally Posted by
sdsearch
IHG recently changed elite benefits. Free breakfast at Holiday Inn and lounge access at Crowne Plaza was not a published benefit. Now those benefits are published as being for Diamond elites and above only.
I used to get a free breakfast at a particular Holiday Inn for years as an IHG Plat, but when earlier this year IHG officially started giving free breakfasts to Diamonds and above only, this hotel stopped giving me free breakfast as an IHG Plat.
So I suspect that any reports which predate this change in benefits may not be valid at all.
You might want to check a general thread about the change in benefits to see if any Plats are getting lounge access at any Crowne Plazas anymore since this elite benefits change earlier this year.
But under the new program it's not a published benefit that Diamonds get lounge access at CPs, is it? Generally it was at the discretion of the GM as to whether top tier (ie Spire) got access to a given CP, I believe, and I thought that was still the case with Diamonds.
See my recent post about Crowne Plaza Warsaw (The HUB), where I describe how the GM apparently had a policy of giving lounge access to any Spire/Diamond but is now rumoured to be stopping it, since Diamonds now get free breakfast (it's just a rumour I heard from one of the more senior staff last week).
It would be great if Diamonds did get lounge access as a published benefit at CP though, so I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this!