Ex RA wants it back!
 

Hello to you...

As an ex Royal Ambassador [I missed the cut and lost the ROYAL part to just a lowly normal ambassador] I know and have enjoyed the benefits e.g. upgrades and free mini bar!

I'm just about to fork out about £15000 with IHG over the next month, to stay at the IC's in Sydney, Bora Bora and San Francisco

So my question is... does anyone know of ANY way of getting RA again prior to my stay next week?

I know they used to do the referral vouchers which people chucked on ebay, but I think those have finished now? :( I've heard some vagueness about this new Spire level as well, but not sure what it means or how membership is achieved? There are some funds available if anyone can help out?

Cheers...

The new Spire required you simple 75 nights or 75000 points.

the Royal status is currently on invitation only. So maybe they will invite you if you spend that much with them :-) :confused:

But I think it's rather impossible.

How much did you miss cut by, was it only a little. If you failed only slightly on total night count but have booked high value rooms like IC Suites ringing Amb Services and asking for hotel expenditure to be taken into account has worked for some in the past.
Future bookings are not taken into account though

Which of the stated minimum's you have to make to be considered for the invitation/renewal of IHG-RA did you miss and by how much
1)3 different IC's
2)60 paid qualifying nights across al IHG brands
3)20 paid qualifying IC nights at least out of the 60 IHG nights

Remember Ambassador/RA year is a rolling 12 calendar month period and the RA qual is any 365 day period.

So if you are short by a only a limited number of paid stays AND none are about to drop off as over 365 days ago in next month or so then some IC and or IHG-brand stays in your immediate future will requal you as RA

Will your first few nights coming up be enough to requalify you ?

Of course you need to checkout and wait 4days for nights to post before RA is given back.

If you miss RA, just do this for your upcoming IC stays.

1. Book a Club room to guarantee Club, and with AMB you'll probably get a Club Suite.

2. Buy a portable cooler and go to a market and stock up on drinks and that will simulate your mini-bar.

3. Use a sharpie to write 'Royal' on any tags or paperwork. Do this infront of check in staff ^

While they did temporarily publish the guidelines for RA renewal (60 paid nights in any hotel, of which 20+ are in at least 3 different IC hotels), they've reverted to the opaque "invitation only" threshold, and there is some chatter that the requirements may have been upped to 75 total and/or 30+ IC nights. Whether or not those rumors are true, if you're close to the above, and think that your upcoming 15K spend would put you into this ballpark, by all means contact Customer Service and see if they can requalify you, or at least tell you that once you've stayed those nights you should requalify. Booking prepaid stays would strengthen your case here. This approach seems to have worked for some people in the past. Good luck!

Thanks, christravelblog,

So Spire is the new Platinum? But then there's a ROYAL Spire on top, like the old Royal Ambassador [RA]?

Thanks scubaccr,

Number 2 is the one I'm missing out by - will complete the 3x brands and the 20x IC nights, but nowhere near the 60x stays this year unfortuantely...

@stimpy

Haha... tres amusant mon ami!

1. there is no club on Bora Bora
2. that made me laugh! yeah, if I could lug a mini bar to Bora Bora via a sea plane and helicopter I would!!!

Cheers!

Thanks vsevolod4, appreciate your response! Loving the fact we're back to "grey area" - makes it all the more mysterious when you go achieve that illustrious Royal status ;)