barracuda93

When we see reviews of amazing IC Hong Kong, usually they are written by people who stay at club level or even suites. I certainly believe that top rooms there are stunning and possibly one of the best out there, but then we talk about several hundreds of dollars. The lowest prepaid rates for basic room is IC HK are around 2000 HKD (and those cannot be used for Amb cert) and go up to 3500+ HKD. And basic room won't give me much, as guaranteed upgrade is mere 1 category, of which there are plenty, and given a popularity of the place and richness of significant part of tourists, I estimate chance of getting a lucky upgrade to one of the best view room as near to zero. I would have tried my luck at 150 USD price point, but not at 300+ USD.

Personally I see two ways to make sense out of Ambassador: either one needs to spend lots of money and book pre-suite level in top ICs (which would give tremendous value, but requires a level of spending outside of my reach), or restrict oneself to less popular and less advertised properties, carefully picking those that really exceed. Also, I'm 100% sure I won't get a club in HK, Tokyo or Seoul, but I might be lucky to get it, say, in KL or Vietnam (more of a random guess, but you get my idea).

rbAA

That is a common problem with BOGO's as they are usually at Best Available rates, so with the typical discounts available off that rate, it is never truly a 50% savings.

I am using mine at IC SIN in January and the AMB cert rate is SG$333 (US$240 apx) daily for a low category room vs. SG$255 for the lowest rate without BOGO. Still, comes to only US$120 per night after the free night is subtracted. Not a bad use, but not sure how good this property would be. I usually prefer to use it at the IC HK but not able to before the BOGO expires 2/18.

yurtripper

I go the latter way - I look for the cheaper properties then book Club rooms so I can truly live it up for the weekend. With Ambassador, you won't get bumped up to Club level just by booking one category below, and so you won't get breakfast included either. I don't see the point in Ambassador if I only book a standard room - I'll just get a slightly better room with some fruit and a 4pm checkout but I'd still need to pay for breakfast, snacks and drinks like I'm a non-status member. The BOGO is worthwhile in itself but for a fully paid visit I'd normally have better options with MR/SPG to get the full monty (as I'm Plat).

barracuda93

That's exactly the issue I'm facing as well. Even with MR Gold (probably will be Plat by Feb) I have much better guaranteed benefits even when booking the cheapest room, than with Ambassador status at IC. So when I see, say, a price of 7500 THB for a basic room in IC Bangkok, what's the point even with a BOGO, when I can book a nice SPG property for about 8000 THB for two nights and have lounge access and upgrade to the best available room. Same goes for IC HK. If I'd want to throw away cash there, I'd book Ren, JW or Sheraton.

So far ICs in Vietnam and KL look promising in terms of value (in KL club level is affordable; in Vietnam for some reason the price hike is ridiculous), and I am still expecting someone give me good tips on ICs in China. There are tons of them there, and surprisingly it looks virtually no one stayed there (aside from Shanghai and Shenzhen).

rbAA

Well, China has so many IC's at low rates, I seldom used one there, except for Shanghai. IC Beichen in Beijing maybe, a bit north of the Wangfujing area, but convenient by Metro, or IC Nanjing, IC Wuxi and IC Suzhou, which I frequented often. Wuxi used to allow breakfast in the restaurant and that was very special due to the wide assortment of food types.

I thought you wanted to avoid a Chinese visa cost? You could fly into Shanghai and get up to SHA for the fast trains to any of these.

yurtripper

TBH, I wouldn't sweat the small stuff so much. BKK is a market unto itself with a vast range of choices. I find that IC often makes more sense when there is a less compelling array of options. For example, if you ever stretch your wings to Europe you could do a lot worse than check out the (brand new) IC Ljubljana.

http://www.headforpoints.com/2017/11...lovenia-hotel/
http://www.headforpoints.com/2017/11...-hotel-review/

Ambassador is not so much a slam dunk in value terms for those who favour the cheaper properties when you look at the buy-in cost ($200), but renewing it for points once you have it is a lot easier to justify.

In the meantime, just book a weekend in a Club room at IC KL and thank me later.

tentseller

Amb will give you a room upgrade, it is common to get the same room with a "better" view or just higher floor. It is not policy or T&C to upgrade non-club room to club room by Amb alone.

Some with a famous view (IC HK) you need to book Harbourview to get that view. any upgrade from a city view room will still be city view.

I would agree that with all you stringent requirement IC KL club room would be your best option.

barracuda93

Cost and trouble (there is no China embassy in Taiwan). But I can arrange a visa free transit in some major hubs in China, which normally allows 72 hrs and travel inside the province (144 hrs for Shanghai, covering Hangzhou etc). I'd prefer to avoid trains and long distance buses though.

barracuda93

I have used 32k points to join, of which I got back 15k (10k targeted sign-up promo, which is now public, plus 5k from Amb package � had to claim it with support), so actual cost is 17k points for me.

I actually have a booking for it already, but still plenty of time to decide whether use it or something else (like IC Landmark72 Hanoi). But as for the Club goes, KL seems the only affordable option so far.

barracuda93

As far as I understand, they must give one listed category up. But many ICs have fictional categories solely for this purpose. In such case yes, upgrade might be a pure formality on paper.

Well, they will have to upgrade to Club level room if you book a room straight below, but they won't give Club access.
At the same time, less popular hotels tend to go beyond T&C at times to make a customer happy and likely to return. I have got free Club access couple of times, when I haven't been entitled for it by my status (with SPG Gold, if that matters). I assume it may happen with some ICs, though of course not in the major ones.

That's somewhat surprising, thanks for letting know. Well, I can mail a hotel and ask first, anyway BOGO rate is flexible one.

I'm almost convinced now
Will check the hotel in Jan, if everything is nice, gonna use my BOGO booking there for summer.