brownoarsman

In the past, Kimpton gave one a little boost in status if one spent money at the restaurants even without staying there. I believe it was called 'spread the love' or something like that. As I'm trying to requalify for Inner Circle, I called in to 1800-Kimpton, and was promptly redirected to an IHG rep. He didn't know any details about this program or whether it was still active - and with the now opaque route to Inner Circle in place, there doesn't appear to be any way to tell.

He did confirm (and provided me with) the dedicated Inner Circle Restaurant Reservation phone number, but could not tell me whether the money I was spending at Kimpton restaurants on my IHG card (which was not in my Kimpton profile before) was being tracked as part of Inner Circle qualification. Does anybody else know?

On a side-note, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kimpton restaurants coded at 7x on my IHG card: the 2x for restaurants stacked on top of the 5x for IHG hotels. I was feeling good about this until the IHG rep mentioned that F&B at non-Kimpton IHG hotels earned base and bonus points even if you weren't a guest at the hotel, but that Kimpton wasn't eligible for this (though he thought they soon may be). I had no idea non-guest F&B earned base/bonus points at IHG hotels, and searching flyertalk seems to reveal that this is only at some ANA hotels? Weird. Any one else know how this works, besides charging it to your room if you're a staying guest?

dw

I can no longer find a reference to it in the program migration section of the Kimpton site, but I recall in the weeks leading up to integration, reading that the program was ending. I suppose it makes sense as we now don’t get points or elite qualifying credit for F&B spend even when staying at a Kimpton property. Hopefully that at least will change in the future.

brownoarsman

Thanks for checking there! I read back through the Kimpton transition emails I received, but couldn't find any reference to this particular program. Also checked with the Twitter team but got the same opaque 'continue being loyal to Kimpton' message with no details. I'm guessing it's toast, but hope at some point, as you mention, there will be some integration with IHG for F&B.

brownoarsman

Upon request for further clarification, I heard back from Kimpton's twitter team that dining karma is no longer part of the program. Good to know, if unfortunate. Here's hoping Kimpton restaurants join whatever IHG F&B program there is. I generally pay more at Kimpton restaurants than I do for their room rates!