soitgoes

Yes--the reps are often either misinformed; some have a tendency to make things up (perhaps unintentionally).

turtlemichael

With jpdx's stay profile, why wouldn't the initial consideration pick him up? That would surely be done either automatically or by someone informed? Well, you'd think so. All this just makes the program look like a bit of a shambles.

jpdx

I had stays at 11 different ICs in 7 different countries.

In reading through this thread, as well as the previous "downgrade" one, there are a few rather puzzling instances of non-requalification with what should have been sufficient stays. I don't think there's any logical explanation for such random downgrades. The only explanation I can think of for the computer not picking up on all my stays is that my account address moved from Europe to the US and back to Europe.

Oh well. I'll ask for an account review in April (when I will have almost 80 paid nights). It's their program, and it's their choice whom they grant top tier status, but the uncertainty and poor customer service is quite annoying.

zipzip

re: Making things up

While calling about a reservation I asked the agent about RA and he said "each individual hotel decides who to give the status to" and went on about invitation only....

That has to be one of the best excuses. Nice guy, but clearly they are just making this stuff up

samere99

Ok. So RA status after 58 IC nights at 3 different ICs.

I had 55 nights at 2 different ICs and it did not update until I got the last 3 nights at the third IC.

Flying Lawyer

This is not a big news. Three IC always appeared to be the threshold. The number of stays is the most important issue.

dk_commuter

I had 51 nights at the end of my ambassador year - all 51 nights were at InterContinental hotels. Additionally I had 5 reward nights (but guess they don't count). I had staid at 6 different IC's.

I was not upgraded to RA.

I sent a couple of complaint emails - but only got some form letter responses from the Philippines. Specifically I asked about a "challenge" - stay X nights and get RA, but never got a real answer.

gregorygrady

This (along with some other recent experiences) is just absurd. What are they thinking not giving RA for somebody that has stayed 51 nights at IC hotels? Yet they'll (probably) give RA to somebody that has stayed 70 nights in a Candlewood and 3 one-nighters at different ICs. They really must be smoking some funny stuff in the IHG RA office. It's frankly bad enough that I just decided not to make a year-end push for RA. I'm at 46 paid nights in my rolling 365 days right now, and will have about 5 drop off next month when my "early-review" is due to come. I don't have many stays over the next 1.5 months, but was contemplating making some extra trips and even doing a mattress run at the cheapest IHG property I could fine. But I decided it just isn't worth it given all the uncertainty. I would be pissed if I threw that extra money towards IHG for no reason and they they decided not to reqaulify me with 56 or 58 nights. Just not worth the aggravation IMHO. They will have lost a lot of my business as now I will probably push all my stays to Hyatt and SPG and give up on IHG.

If IHG had a concrete number of nights to strive for, and a concrete set of guidelines for earning RA, then I would go for it. However I just can't justify it with all the uncertainty.

Jaimito Cartero

I can understand your frustration. I think that IHG doesn't have a set in stone number so they can tweak the system when they want. I think that it hurts them quite a bit, by moving the bar, and discouraging people who probably only need a few more stays.

jpdx

After some email correspondence, I just received notice that my RA status has been renewed until April 2011.

My first email was met with an absurd response: "Our records show that most of your past and future stays at an InterContinental Branded Hotel were for Reward or Free Night reservations." I pointed out that, in fact, I only had 1 award night and the 4 FFN-type free nights, and asked for a response from a supervisor. The resulting email was mildly apologetic, and informed me that my status had been reinstated and renewed until April 2011. It did, however, include this very surprising (and, according to this forum's collective wisdom, likely wrong) piece of information: "Following our earlier correspondence, the Royal Ambassador status is extended by invitation only to the top one percent tier of InterContinental Ambassador guests, based on the number of Qualifying room nights spent at an InterContinental Branded Hotel."

Make of it what you want. I have no idea why my 60+ nights (including 50+ IC nights) weren't enough to get reinstated, while some others here report renewals with as little as 53 total nights. To anyone who is not automatically renewed despite having a reasonable number of qualifying nights, I would recommend being persistent. Expect to receive denials in the beginning, and keep escalating.

Jaimito Cartero

Great news! I think that they just make stuff up at the centers, though. I'm sure so many people write in and want to know why they aren't RA. Obviously the automatic upgrade (if such a thing really exists), doesn't work so well.

mister__big

This is getting ridiculous to the point of insanity. IHG wants to win over customers of other chains (especially Hilton), but they chase away their most loyal customers by playing mind games with them. Whoever's in charge of RA qualifications needs to be replaced to avoid long term damage to IHG's reputation!

stimpy

I think it is the lesser of two evils. Instead of having to deal with people begging for RA, and trying to negotiate RA into their corporate deals, they just keep it private by invitation only.

And top 1% may mean revenue. Maybe the reason I get automatically renewed each year is that most of my stays are in Europe, paying in Euro and for quite a while now the average hotel night cost in Europe is vastly higher than the Americas or Asia. So 53 nights in Europe is worth more than 60 nights in the US. Maybe a lot more.

stimpy

Speaking of giving RA status based on revenue, here is the opposite situation over at Starwood...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...t-expense.html

Chinatrvl

Compared to RA (50 nights), SPG's 25 stays requirement for platinum is extremely easy to reach and maintain. (In 2009, I renewed SPG plat by mid February).

But anyway,
Mrs Chinatrvl, who I refered, was surprisingly granted another year of RA with 48 qualifying nights (+ at least 6 or 7 nights non-qualifying IVFF1 stays), including around 5 or 6 different ICs.