GUWonder

Such poor salesman would have long ago realized that IHG elite status at those Holiday Inns is not doing a whole lot either way on most stays. And these IHG promo Diamonds aren�t going to materially change the dial on that except perhaps to grow the pool of IHG Diamonds who start educating the hotels about delivering on Diamond benefits.

Ghoulish

Oh I agree, the numbers of Diamonds from the "glitch" will be minimal.

IHG has gotten 16 nights from me this far as a result.

First time I've ever gotten a good breakfast and upgrades at US hotels after being HHonors Diamond for years.

Perhaps the only downsides vs HHonors are the limited award rooms (Hilton seems to always have them available) and needing a Chase card to get 4th award night free (Hilton is 5th night free by default).

I was referring to the poor loyal IHG Rewards member locked into the brand when it wasn't the best choice in an area, to ultimately get the same benefits others status match/ambassador trick /glitch their way into.

Sauraigne

The poor salesman has a little advantage over me. While I had to unload ~~ 170k USD from my own pocket to get all my statuses and maintain them, sometimes making unnecessary vacations with even more extra spending just to "finish" the yearly renewal without access to US credit cards, poor salesman kept dealing with all these Holiday Inns from his employer's pocket.

Would swap places any day.

FTDDD

It seems the promotion straight to diamond is dead.
I do not have an IHG account - can I still receive diamond somehow? By signing up and paying the 200 USD for Amb?

Any help is much appreciated! Cheers

js1993

For a first-time Amb purchase, does it make any difference if one pays $200 or uses points? I believe there's some deal where buying Amb and staying two nights by Jan. 31 (?) gets you 20,000 points, but I don't see this deal on IHG's site.

Believe there are no fast-track options right now.

xenole

The 20k points + 2 nights deal was there for me a few days ago, but has vanished now. Only got the $200 and 15k offer now, which in itself isn't too bad I suppose. The 15k points means a free night near me on certain days, or a good chunk of somewhere posher.

Going to renew anyway, but no idea if it does keep me as diamond, or I drop to Platinum. Not going to get enough nights / points this year to keep diamond as travel has been up and down due to work commitments (plus prices have shot up meaning extra stays I might have made aren't worth it)

FTDDD

So just buying AMB will not give me diamond or any other status automatically?

Thanks

Ghoulish

You'll get Platinum immediately.

navatwal

any Advice for the below.?

a lot of activity on this thread !

Ghoulish

First things first, I would find out why Diamond isn't already extended to 2023.

If that's not successful, I would be sure to buy Ambassador now to secure Diamond for 2023. It's worth far more than $200 imo.

If Diamond drops off at the end of the year you'll have no way to extend.

ninjalot

Which hotel? How many categories was the upgrade? Was it peak holiday period? How full was the hotel? I chatted to a manager during a stay recently, which is where I heard that from, take from that what you will. I guess you could've just happened to be the highest status guest and hence got the best upgrade.

Sauraigne

I won�t tell exact hotel just to avoid potential problems for me or hotel staff (I don�t know if there can be any, just precaution).

but
1) it was in Indonesia
2) the absolute peak season and almost 100% booked
3) from the most basic fare and room to the highest suite, except the �president� one

ninjalot

Yeah, fair enough. I saw your other post about the event at the hotel. It sounds like luck of the draw. My impression was they do some kind of ranking to "break ties" using status, points, stays, brand loyalty, repeat stays. I wouldn't count on it everywhere, esp at higher-end brands.

My point is, I think some Diamonds who got their the hard-way might feel a bit upset about the instant Diamond + Ambassador loopholes. At the very least they should take comfort that they'll still likely get better treatment than an instant Diamond, if push came to shove and only one could get benefits. I'd hope so anyway!

Sauraigne

I don�t really think that hotel staff can differentiate. In Marriott they can�t really do this.

regarding the �honest VS cheaters� - I TOTALLY get the feeling when you paid 4K of your hard earned dollars for a business class seat, and then someone just comes from economy being a smart ... and bumps into the seat next you.

not fair? Definitely, I would escalate and kick him out of my cabin.

But let�s get deeper into it. Economy is overbooked. A horribly behaving poor person that never ever belonged here gets into the seat next to me. Fair or unfair?

A guy that got his miles just for having a USA credit card with insane sign up bonus used them onto a reward ticket and bumped into the seat next to me. Fair?

A guy that got paid for his seat by his exployer got bumped�

A girl that was paid for her ticket by Arab Sheikh on her way to some dirty escort work in Dubai bumped..

you got my point, I think. The world is always unfair in every possible way. There are so many �cheats� and it�s so hard to draw the line between �legit� and �cheated�, between �hard earned� and �lucky�.

im not sure that anyone is competent enough to judge, so I personally choose to relax and respect as much as I can that people around can always find a way to sneak into.

JetAway

I really don't understand the heartburn so-called "real" Diamonds would have over this. It will have absolutely no effect on the benefits "real" Diamonds will get. Very few people managed to sign up for the promo before it was closed and an even smaller number will actually go to the trouble and expense of qualifying. On the bright side, a few hotels will get extra revenue they might not have seen. Hotels and airlines have elite challenges and promos all the time, even "mistake" ones. It's all part of doing business.