quitecontrary

Thanks.

Tim O'Brien

welcome

quitecontrary

And one more question - does the year reset so that you only get RA for a year from the date you're upgraded or do you keep the same year end effectively having more than a year as RA? Thanks in advance.

scubaccr

The RA year always follows your 12monthly Ambassador year, so your RA that you earn part-way through your Ambassador year is dated until same end-of-month expiry of your current Ambassador year (actually no different from referrals)

Of course come the expiry of Ambassador/RA in nn months, you then
a)get free Ambassador for 12months
b)are up for renewed as RA if last 365 nights meets the criteria

quitecontrary

Thanks for that - so no incentive to do it in say first 6 months as you'd only get the remaining 6 months of RA status. Will spread stays over other hotel groups in that case - I'll have no problem staying the 20 nights at ICs - will just make sure I hit the other targets towards the year end.

Buzzman

I got my requalification note on the website today (my Ambassador year end is 1/31). My count taken personally was 67 IHG overall and 27 at IC's.. yesterday when I called I asked for their count on my stays... they had me at 83 IHG qualifying nights with 31 qualifying nights at IC's. This leads me to believe that they take into account overlapping stays, as I had quite a few nights at IC's when I booked more than one room....

KrisflyerPPS

Your point about overlapping stays is an interesting one as I do a fair bit of multiple room bookings on stays too - I guess I'll ask for the same count when I'm up for renewal at the end of this month.

Does anyone know whether a weekend stay using a weekend night certificate counts as 2 nights towards re-qualification, or just the 1? On my account they always show as 2 nights but I've never been able to get a clear reply on that question when I've been in touch with Ambassador Services, just the usual bumpf about it being by invitation etc..

scubaccr

Easy answer .. it depends on what the IC Hotel posted for you for your 2night Bogo Stay !

RA totaliser simply counts up qual nights on your account the last 365 days, so if Bogo stay posts as 2qual nights, that is also 2nights towards RA re-qual
(Whereas if bogo stay correctly posts as just the 1x qual night, you just get 1night counting towards RA renewal)

scubaccr

Disagree , as there is value here. I know as an existing IHGer things need to be looked at more carefully, but take as an an example brand new IHGer eg

1. Guest signs up to IHG @Rewards and Ambassador Feb 1st 2014
2. Guests stays 10nights a month in mixture of IC's and non-IC's and after 6months meets RA qual criteria and is automatically upgraded to RA for period August - Jan... Just 6months of RA
THEN
3. Come Jan2015 when IHG look at guests expiring RA, for possible renewal, guest has required nights in last 365days and auto- requals as RA for a further year.
4. In effect making RA with 60nights in first 6months of your Ambassador year actually gives you RA for 18months ^

Reason I said as existing IHGer it is less clearcut, is all your nights in your previous Ambassador Period (last 6months) are still counting in first 6months of new Ambassador year (the rolling 365 day period), so eg if you have 30nights in last 6months of previous Amnbassador year, then in first 6months of next Ambassador year you only need 30nights more to reach RA .
(ie the 60nights do not have to be in same ambassador year, but can span any 365 days in your Ambassador year(s))

quitecontrary

Thanks scubaccr - that makes sense. It had occurred to me that you would get the RA for the next year anyway based on the previous 365 days rule.

Petrus

Did not renew for RA, but from the messy IHG data it seems I only had 48 qualifying/revenue nights. About 40 were IC's mind...

PLAT RA > PLAT AMB on 31/12/14

hclee01

Hi

I purchased my AMB membership in early April 2014 and upgraded to AMB on 7 April 2014. Received my AMB PLT card with expiry on 1 May 2015.

In early June 2014, a friend referred me for RA status and was upgraded in late June 2014.

I had stays in April 2014. Can I check if this will be counted as qualifying nights for RA renewal?

I have checked with IHG via email and this was the response provided:

Thank you for your email.

Our record shows that your account will expire 01 May 2015. Since the Royal Ambassador status is being determined 365 days from expiry, the criteria mentioned below can be determined from stays that will post to the account from 01 May 2014 to 01 May 2015.

You may request for the account to be reviewed mid weeks of April for us to determine if the account is eligible for the Royal Ambassador Status for another year.


Is the explanation right that those stays in mid April 2014 when I first joined AMB membership will not count?

Currently, if I include those stays starting from mid April 2014, I would have achieved around 60 nights (spread over 6 ICs and total of 51 night stays in IC). If the stays in mid April 2014, I would have short of a couple of nights for re-qualification.

Would appreciate if fellow FTer can shed light on the computation. Many thanks!

KrisflyerPPS

I do now have some sort an 'official' answer on this from Ambassador Services, and to say that it's complicated is an understatement.

Counting up the nights posted on m.ihg.com I've got 68 qualifying nights in the last 365 days of membership prior to expiry, 40 of which are in 9 different ICs. My first email enquiry to Ambassador Services came back with 54 nights, and the second seeking clarification of the first, 59 nights. My subsequent phone call had the agent claiming I had 57 nights because some were allegedly "dead nights", although despite asking, no actual definition of what those were was given.

I finally got put through to a Supervisor who confirmed I had 68 nights, but who stated that the criteria posted were merely a guide and that RA status renewal was not automatic, and that it was still only offered to only the top 1% at the point in time when renewal is due. I was told that I'd have to wait till the expiry date of my RA membership to see if I was being offered a renewal.

So the moral of the story is you may need to chase renewal up but it really is a shame that what is otherwise a fairly good loyalty program appears to still be so riddled with inconsistencies and confusion.

Land-of-Miles

Renewal normally shows up a month out.

grompf

So, heres a weird question. Say my RA expires on Jun 1/15, and I have a stay from end of May/14 to Jun 1/14. Do any of those nights count towards my qualifications for 2015?

Do I get the 1 night for Jun 1/14?