TravelinSperry

Even cash will do it.

bob12403

+1 here. Successfully used cash several weeks ago to renew.

jesusm130

My friend who expired their diamond status on 12/31/2022, still could use the diamond benefit on February 9, 2023 trip in Boston Intercontinental because the last year's diamond status was still working although the date was expired.

lowkeyflyer

Been saying this from the beginning, hotels definitely still see the status as long as you do. Even if the date text is wrong.

Admiral Ackbar

IHG extended everyone's status until February 28, 2023 (the expiry date on the profile doesn't reflect this)

Gongzuokuang

Worked for me. Purchased Ambassador and system extended Diamond until 12/31/24.

Gongzuokuang

I know some don't approve of these "tricks", but there is another side to that argument.

I earned Diamond (Spire) from stays. Pre-pandemic I earned Spire many consecutive years, mostly from international travel to Asia. China and Hong Kong have been effectively closed for several years and therefore I've not stayed much. They just reopened, and I've already got my first trip scheduled. Had this "trick" not worked, I would have considered other hotel options. These loyalty programs are designed to promote loyalty, and allowing me to resume my travel with the status I had pre-pandemic keeps me monogamous and spending at IHG properties.

I'll add that I had not considered the Ambassador program in the past. When I read about this "hack", I explored a bit and came to realize that Ambassador might be a good fit for me as I often stay at Intercontinental properties. So not only did this keep me sticking with the IHG, it's likely to keep me buying the Ambassador "upsell" each year.

jesusm130

Thanks for letting me know. I will inform my friend and ask her to pay for the ambassador if she wants to keep the diamond status! Thanks!

quitecontrary

I would hold off - may not be sticking as there are many whose accounts are reverting to 12/22 expiry of Diamond status including my husband who was a long term Ambassador.

yurtripper

Today there's a bunch of reports from people on Head for Points who originally had their Diamond extended by purchasing Ambassador (ie to 31/12/2023 or 31/12/2024) and are now seeing their Diamond status revert to ending on 31/12/2022.

It looks like both Cash renewals and Points renewals are affected by this, yet others are still showing the original extension without any reversion.

I guess we'll find out on March 1 where we stand but perhaps IHG is finally closing the Ambassador loophole for retaining Diamond?

HadesNL

Very interesting development,

The AMB-trick was intheknow since the launch of "Spire"status in 2015,
it managed to survive till now because the only discussion of this little miracle was here on FT, LL and HfP only

only after the reboot of "Spire" into "Diamond" plus with it: better benefits,
did this AMB-trick go mainstream into 'the Hobby" as all US-titan blogs suddenly pumped:
"although IHG's hotels are nonaspirational without lucrative creditcards referals/commisions,
Diamond is the new bandwagon to jump on and ride the gravy train!"

Less impressed if said blogs now come with headlines like "Ouch" & "Brutal" & "Yikes",
instead of humbling to acknowledge the fact that the AMB-trick was overpumped,
& no blog has told upfront and informed their readers that
the risks remains that besides demotion from Diamond,
IHG might also claw back points gained under false "Diamond"status
AND might even going so far to block/seize accounts !

IHG may not be the smartest but they are the most ruthless!
For a trip back to memorylane:
IHG Account Terminated (after registering for several promotion codes)
You get the jist: misuse can be interpreted by IHG in a very broad sense aka promos are only valid for those targeted

COLINDAD

Are European members the only individuals reporting this circumstance?

Obviously, HFP caters to Europeans, but I wonder if some North American members are also seeing this development.

The reason I mention this is that the two web-sites do have slightly different web pages.

I have not checked this out, but the USA version I believe clearly indicates that the status extensions will be thru 2/28/23. Does the UK or other European web-sites state something similar?

Just not trying to have everyone panic, that's all.

FWIW, I purchased my Ambassador status on 12/31/22 and my Diamond status still shows as ending on 12/31/23; the real question is whether any North American members who purchased Ambassador after 12/31/22 are no longer seeing their Diamond status being extended to 12/31/24 -- which was arguably the extension date for Ambassador purchases post 12/31/22.

If they still are seeing a 12/31/24 date, perhaps it could be attributable to the possibility that the IHG web-pages displayed between the US site and the UK site are sometimes slightly different -- and perhaps, the UK site did not have the language that I believe the USA site does, about extending all statuses thru until 2/28/23?

fumje

I notice this statement in the "february estatement" email just received:
I've not followed all the drama around instant diamond / amb purchase / point-blog hype, but I imagine this is related? I don't usually read these emails very carefully, but I don't see it in any of the handful of older emails I popped up.

ElmhurstNick

I didn't come anywhere near the current Diamond qualification in 2022. For some reason IHG gave me an extra year of Spire after 2019 even though i hadn't requalified, I guess because I was a Kimpton IC for three years before that. So I've been Spire and now Diamond all this time due to the pandemic-related extensions.

IHG has finally figured this out and offered me a promotion to retain Diamond status - 8 nights in the 45 days ending March 31. I signed up for it, but I don't think I'll get there as i have a 7-night Hyatt stay as my main upcoming leisure travel, and I'm not travelling for work anymore. I'll have one stay each of the next two weeks already planned, and I have no trips planned for the second half of March.

In the long run, it doesn't really matter much, as most of my stays these days are one-nighters at HI/HIX/avid and it's usually a better deal to forgo the earning and do points+cash. I'm not going to waste a Chase 5/24 slot on getting their card, I'd rather save that for a Hyatt or United card. If they downgrade me, I'll wait until the summer and see if they offer a reasonable path back.

beachmouse

I first got Spire status by doing surveys on the e-Rewards platform back when points from that were elite-qualifying. Started paying for Ambassador when that was changed to non-qualifying and have dutifully renewed ever since even during the pandemic. But then there probably aren’t many people like me out there. I figure that after the 15K bonus points for Ambassador renewal, it’s about $100 net and I’ll make that up in free breakfasts at about 3 nights in a year at full service properties.

Renewed Ambassador last week and my North American-based self is still seeing Diamond Elite until 12/31/2024 on my account.