Mr. Chan

IHG is extremely poor this year. Due to Coronavirus, Greater China and Hong Kong IHG members were given extension for their Elite status till 2021. After Spire Elite extension has been applied, it downgraded my complementary year of Spire Ambassador (from RA downgrade) to just Spire Elite. IHG said for RA upgrade you need to have at least ambassador status. So they downgraded my ambassador to just elite then said I am not ambassador on the day they did the upgrade for the RA challenge from last year. Is the system really that dumb?

they said the upgrade is done just once and by the system and they have no supervisor to talk to about this.

i need to take a breather before I can process all this 🤯

Pseudo Nim

On the subject of recognition - I just got my Hyatt status extended until 2022 because of the COVID-19 situation. Would be nice to hear something similar from IHG, though I understand they don't even know what "extension" means because the status is granted by a bunch of manatees picking out balls out of a tank (with our names on them) to begin with.

Mr. Chan

they extended elite status till 2021. However, they said Royal Ambassador is only by year to year so there is no extension for my RA. And till today, they have not awarded the RA Invite they promised upon completion of spending $5K for Q4 2019. The so called upgraded before Feb 15th 2020 Is a lie

Pseudo Nim

Yeah I read your posts above. Absolute insanity, sorry to hear. Did you email the higher ups? The normal contact centre / the [email protected] is more useless than an air conditioner in winter.

skaya

What does the crystal ball say about spend threshold for RA this year!?

Must be lower than up to now if they use the top 1%.

Lewis42

I’ve already cancelled a lot of IC stays due to the virus... which is a worry for renewal....

Pseudo Nim

So they have announced some status relief.

"With potentially more constrained travel plans and a shorter time period during which Ambassadors can earn Spire Elite tier status, we are reducing the Elite membership criteria required (nights or points) this year by 25% or more. See details here."

https://www.ihg.com/content/gb/en/cu...ravel-advisory

I swear, IHG is so cheap I can hear the sound of two dimes rubbing against each other in their pocket. No mention of Ambassador or, of course, Royal Ambassador.

UKtravelbear

Hold your horses.

The email I just received says Ambassador will be extended by 3 months

(bolding as per the email)

Gentleman Adventurer

Pseudo Nim, I just received a mailer seemingly sent to Ambassadors with the content below. Is this the same thing you are referring to?

stimpy

Wonderful. I'll finish March with over 50 nights and they are going to give out free status to everyone else.

This is Flyertalk. We complain about everything.

Pseudo Nim

Hahahaha. I’m sorry. In my excitement at the slightly lowered Spire requirements, I missed the three month extension for Ambassadors!!! I wonder if that includes RAs as well? I like how we just get ignored.

hclee01

For the AMB members residing in Greater China region, the AMB membership is extended by 6 months.

https://www.ihg.com.cn/content/cn/zh...tend-_-HPH-_-A

洲际®大使会籍和周末住宿礼券延长6个月在2019年1月1日至6月30日期间加入洲际大使计划的大中华区 会员（详细规则见洲际大使计划首个常见问题)，其12个月有效期的洲际大使会籍将在到期日起延长6个月；如 果该会员账户中的周末住宿礼券尚未使用，则会员将获得一张新的周末住宿礼券，其有效期与延长后的会籍有效期 一致，原周末住宿礼券相应作废。

*以上特别调整仅针对大中华区会员，将于2020年2月29日前完成调整，未提及部分，适用洲际 大使计划的条款与附则。

vsevolod4

Yeah, wondering/worried about the RA requalification, and I've just had most of my March and April stays canceled. Received the same email from the CEO ... good move. But the IT has not been updated yet ... still says:Ambassador Status expires: 12/31/2020 You are Spire Royal Ambassador. The most rewarding travel benefits begin here, and they're all yours.Presumably this will get updated. The big question is whether the requalification will still happen end of December and be evaluated at reduced levels ... or whether it will happen at the end of March if the RA was extended for 3 months.

Mr. Chan

I just notified IHG I cancelled all my March Intercontinental stays because they have not rewarded the RA status after completing $5000 spending in Q4 of 2019. If they still do not upgrade the RA status by This month, I will be cancelling all my April Intercontinental stays as well.

The bar for RA qualification is 10-15k in the past. I spent 28k IC spend in 2019 and completed the $5k challenge and they still have not rewarded me yet. This is really the stupidest loyalty program I have seen. I was on hold for an hour with Guest Relations and Rewards Club and they said I have to be more patient even when the latest RA upgrade date was suppose to be Feb 15th. I was told it could take up to 3 weeks and I am actually waiting on the 4th week for an update already.

if the requirement was lowered by 25% for elite status I think RA criteria will be lowered by 25% too. However, I know this has not affected RA’s I know of as there are many that live in the Intercontinental 11 months a year. When not traveling, they are just staying at an IC in a different city during this period.

336

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Some here still believe the fixed dollar amount thresholds, despite the facts showing otherwise for the past 2 years.