I have a 3 night long weekend stay in Boston next September, I am currently tinkering with paying the $200 fee for ambassador status to get the free weekend night certificate because I have it in mind that with each night currently at a best flex rate of $329 it's a no brainer and i would be saving $129 on my booking.

Can someone confirm my thinking is correct please?

Thanks

You need to book the two nights in question via this link: intercontinental.com/AMBweekend
The rate is typically the worst flexible (sorry best flexible) rate, no discounted rates. It could be that there are no free night rooms (even if there are still regular rooms for sale).
You also will not get points for the free night.

Otherwise your thinking is correct and you will have ambassador status for a year.

Don't forget to throw thoughts of some kind of Ambassador upgrade into the mix when making your decision. It does vary from property to property, but sometimes you can get a great upgrade even as a plain "vanilla" Ambassador! :D

I believe you have to be an Ambassador to see the rates. I am going through a similar thought process, and ran up into this issue to see the savings. I'll check the best flexible rate, thanks.

Still finding availability in the US very difficult in the main cities.

It's very frustrating, and every time I check any hotel in any city I want to go to I get this msg, which I assume means I CANNOT use my free voucher:

"No rooms exactly matching your preferences were found. The following room types are available."

I have never had an issue using mine. You are selecting at least 2 nights and over a weekend, correct?

I had exactly the same problem when searching for a four night stay spanning the weekend. When I changed my search criteria to a two day stay over the weekend encompassing both days on a weekend it worked fine.
Currently available in most Cities across the whole of Europe. (Sorry, didn't check US).

weird isn't it? I did the same and two night availability opened up in Warsaw and Madrid in mid-Feb. 4 nights wouldn't work anywhere, except when I checked last year for Tokyo in Feb (could see 4 night availability).

Are the free night certificates transferable?

Assuming Bogos, not CC certs or the intothenights free nights certs

Well IHG t+c's say not transferrable, but there is no serial numbers etc on supplied bogo certs so in practise yes,

Normally one can only obtain 2x BOGOs direct from IHG, yearly Ambassador renewal + one extra if later on earning RA level.

Individual hotels can't see how many bogos a year one uses, and although I guess IHG corporate can see, there are no reports from anyone that using 4/5 bogos in a year for yourself causes any issues.

but not both at same hotel at same weekend as I wanted to!!

Ok thanks, I have a certificate, I will not use so, if anyone is interested please let me know. (UK only)

Hi TheMajor,
pm sent regarding cert.
Regards, AMDB7

So before it was asked if you had to be ambassador to use the certificate and the answer focused on ID so I think they made the assumption that it would be used by different person.

I need to re-ask with more detail.

I am currently ambassador with a BOGO certificate that expires after my ambassador expires.

Has anyone had success booking BOGO while ambassador and then using that BOGO certificate for that booking that happens to when you are no longer ambassador (ambassador expires prior to your booking)?