Can't help but think the introduction of Milestone Rewards is going to completely screw up incentivising spend in terms of hotel revenue (especially if they've culled RA's)...

So, the theory with RA is that in return for gaining a "high value/spending" customer, the hotel provides amenities (the pain of early/late room access, upgraded rooms, club lounge expenses, minibar write-off, lost breakfast revenue, etc etc) - but that's "worth it", because that customer is incentivised to spend more with the hotel in that one stay in order to keep that "status".

Fast forward to post-milestone world, and I look at the difference between what I get as a RA, vs what I'd receive *anyway* through my account - which is, by nights and points (across all of IHG, so irrelevant the IC spend):

• Free breakfast (diamond)
• 8 (I think at last count) Confirmed Suite upgrades for up to 5 days each (milestones)
• Club Lounge access (across the portfolio, not just at IC for 2 years) - (milestone at 40 and 70 nights)
• Late checkout (through standard Ambassador)
• In *theory* an upgraded room, if available (AMB)
• F&B credits (milestone rewards + $20 per stay in 2024)
• etc etc.

So if I get all that WITHOUT needing to consider spending that little bit more to "keep status" - I'm going to directly hit the hotel's bottom line and provide no benefit to them for my stay. I could do my stays on points (and still get all that, and indeed upgrade my room) - earning a pittence for the property while (unlike with RA guests) delivering no added value to them as a targetted guest.

To my mind, as a programme, RA needs to *massively* up its game in terms of benefits - or there's almost no point in aiming for it in future with the new Milestone Rewards and Diamond breakfast benefit in place. Indeed, anyone "dropping down" from RA to AMB+Diamond with a lounge milestone is likely better off in terms of getting the most benefits from IHG with less financial impact (for this year, anyway).