#1son

it was a good run and I drank more than I should have over my 8 years or so in the the Royal Ambassador program (and I was an ardent IHG fan)

however in 2018 many long-time RA members like me were were treated quite poorly in connection with the requalification procedure (or lack thereof) and I vowed not to contact anybody or complain in 2019 if there was a repeat, to just move on

the Requallfication thread here has become rather tiresome, I do not want my user name on some wiki list, do not want to contact somebody's supposed high-powered contact at IHG to beg or to complain over IHG's ham-fisted approach to trying to make everyone happy except their most loyal customers and not overly interested in outlining my specific spending history

in 2018 I stayed over 100 nights at IHG hotels and they got the majority of my business but with 30 nights in Italy where there is no Intercont and another 25 nights in Zurich.......... I somehow missed the new magic number of nights, stays, $$$$ spent or whatever it is now?

so I will move on to another faceless corporate hotel brand, hopefully their IT + Marketing people are not as clueless - Hilton Diamond is working for me fairly well thus far and I cancelled over 65 IHG bookings

problem solved ;-)

est-gratuite

I suspect OP will not be the only one.
After more than 10 years as a member and one of their biggest fans, I myself have stopped using IHG hotels except those cases where there is no loyalty program alternative, or where a specific IHG brand hotel is really good or should not be missed. But those kind of cases are getting more and more rare.

For me, the whole program started going downhill across the board when they renamed it from priority club to IHG rewards. Nothing but more bad news every year since then.

somedudefromFLa

Agreed with the comment about priority club... things used to be great, and the point breaks were a really good deal during 2010-17 but now everything just seems MEH.

I too have jumped ship, Marriott for me where I at least get guaranteed 4pm portfolio wide and currently working on getting that lifetime. Honestly the late checkout to me was best perk of ambassador but it was never guaranteed to any other IHG properties, if they extended to maybe kimpton & indigo I might look back? But for now no thanks other than s few individual IHG hotels that I like so probably will stay there from time to time perhaps checking off a few tasks on IHG quarterly bonuses

Marriott15

Off topic but was there ever a time that IHG offered free breakfast for reaching a certain level either with Priority club or current program?

IAN-UK

Not that I remember. But in true IHG fashion, a few hotels went that extra mile.

But heck, it's only recently that Royal Ambassadors, top of the IHG pecking order, could be confident of lounge access: before that there'd be a bit of arm twisting and horse trading at the reception of some IC's to get admitted to the Club lounge.




I was a little shocked last week to be given a junior suite and club access at a Crowne Plaza on a standard room rate ..... as a matter of course .

I better not mention the hotel: those tall poppies get cut down.

FFlash

FlyerTalker78341

OP was tl;dr. But congratz on the lofty thread title!

est-gratuite

In the 20 years that this forum has existed, I don't remember IHG (ex priority club) ever having a rep or lurker on here, so my guess is NO.

stewkfc

After 5yrs as a RA...I got the boot with over 100 nts in IHG hotels in 2018. Life after IHG will be at Hyatt and Marriott now.

craigthemif

It really should be "dump Intercon".

Anybody who cared about elite status benefits dumped IHG a long time ago. The writing was on the wall when Spire was introduced with no new benefits other than bonus points. A few stragglers remained loyal to RA.

Luckily it's easier to find "greener grass" when leaving IHG than say those who dumped Hyatt because of the increased difficulty of reaching top tier.

Chinatrvl

If Marriott hotels weren't so dull, inconsistent and mostly with second-rate management - the life outside IHG wouldn't be so painful

Yet another "IHG is so bad thread" - quality of this forum had been better once...

FlyingKansan

As a 100% leisure traveler, IHG, specifically the Ambassador program, has worked out great for me these past 2 years. The guaranteed one category upgrade was the single most valuable aspect to me as lounge access and free breakfast have no value to me. Guaranteed late checkout was also a very nice perk. But with these new changes giving the hotels the ability to buy out these guarantees with a measly amount of points, I'm sure IHG is at risk of losing high spending leisure travelers as well. Time will tell if these hotels will take advantage of this new rule, but if they do, I really can't see many of "us" sticking around as well.

submonte

I cannot agree to the general criticism here about IHG and the program (Spire and Ambassador, I am not RA) although I must admit there were times when I was disappointed about it.

The coverage / business options in my home region (German-speaking) and Europe in general is good, better and new midscale and upscale properties (HI especially) available, I get multiple category upgrades incl. best rooms and best suites. Similar experience as Spire Ambassador at European ICs (e.g. Vienna, Sofia), decent luxury, concierges and service good. Points unlimited - I book breakfast rates, bonus points rates, follow their accelerator promotions, reaching 1 M points soon. Breakfast is not comp. but I accept it meanwhile. If CPs grant Lounge access I actually do not know as I avoided them in the past years after negative experiences, but would try out again a CP the next time to see how they treat me as Spire. I know them as not granting me lounge access or treating me adequately.

Holidays I spend at some European ICs on paid and/or reward stays, sometimes Indigo. Kimpton and Regent could be future options for both leisure and business stays. About the treatment on reward stays I am always unsafe before holiday stays but finally I usually get somehow upgraded and treated well.

My recommendation would be again (I expressed that in the "RA revenue..." thread here many times) to reorganize the luxury part of IHG. In parts of Europe nearly no luxury hotels and resorts available (Italy, Greece). Spain and Portugal is better, France good, however Marriott is far ahead in many regions. Additional luxury branded hotels like IC, Regent and Kimpton would be very acceptable. My mantra-like recommendation here to upgrade Crowne Plaza to an "Intercontinental light" (Crowne Plaza by Intercontinental) seem to fall on deaf ears. That could be an option to quickly increase luxury coverage. I stay frequently at new Holiday Inns like Schindeleggi and others that upgrade me to their best suites like Hamburg Elbbrücken because I feel treated better than by the CPs I know, so the latter should be upscaled, and the Spire treatment improved, otherwise I stay at any for me good or new Holiday Inn I find when there is no IC in the near and IHG may sell off their CP brand if they do not understand brand strategy and customer expectations and don´t know what to do with it.

My second recommendation would be to reorganize the RA program and include more upscale and luxury brands into that program, to better feed that program, and open it easier for travellers who need to stay at other brands to reach the RA target. If not possible, IHG should forget about that program diversification and create one program for all categories like Marriott and Hilton have, and what covers all type of travellers and elites and brands and everyone gets what he deserves.

#1son

this was just my rant

of course IHG was working well for me for 10+ years

I just did not like the way they handled RA renewal

the funniest thing is IHG sent me an email to inform me I did not re-qualify for RA, then 3 days later my RA membership was renewed until December 2019 ;-)

I will of course stay at a few ICs I like this year but I will not be troubled to re-qualify for 2020

BrightlyBob