I had Intercontinental Ambassador status a few years ago but since becoming Hilton Diamond most of my business has gone to Hilton hotels. However, the newest member of the team, Claudio, reminded me about it as he has been a member for some time. Once I had done some research I decided to rejoin myself. I used it for the first time on a stay last week at the Intercontinental Dublin. So what persuaded me to pay $200 to get status and is it worth it for you?
In this post:
Intercontinental Ambassador status – is it worth it?
Intercontinental Ambassador is one of the few hotel loyalty schemes where you can actually buy status. However, it is not cheap at $200 a year , so what do you get for that?
The basics that everybody who joins will get are:
- Guaranteed room upgrade to a superior room one category higher than purchased each time you stay. This is assigned at check in
- Choice of sweet snack, savoury snack or fruit on arrival and mineral water (replenished daily). To get this you must indicate your preference in your profile prior to arrival
- Complimentary weekend night certificate valid at the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts property of your choice
- 4pm late checkout
- One complimentary pay TV film per stay
- In-room welcome gift
- Instant checkout
- Status in IHG program depending on your individual offer
Free weekend night
The main reason to get the Ambassador status has to be the free weekend night. If you don’t think you will use this then unless you know that the upgrade benefit would save you $200 on your year’s Intercontinental stays you probably won’t get your money’s worth. If you are likely to do a few stays in IC hotels over the year, however, and normally don’t book the base category then you could actually just get your money’s worth on the upgrade feature alone and then enjoy all the other benefits for free.
My reason for joining was the weekend night certificate. If you are going to stay at the majority of IC hotels over a weekend you will usually be spending around $200 a night plus. I was struggling to find reasonably priced hotels in New York for a couple of visits but when I looked into staying at the IC Times Square, using the certificate would save me $150 plus I would get all the other benefits too for nothing. Again, if you would normally book a higher room category than the base level you would also make a saving there too.
There are a few conditions to be aware of with the weekend night certificate. The first is that although your status is recognised instantly (I joined the day before my Dublin stay) to actually use the free weekend night you have to wait for your pack to arrive which takes 6-8 weeks. The free weekend night is valid on the second night of a minimum two-night paid weekend stay on the Ambassador Weekend Rate at any InterContinental Hotels & Resorts properties worldwide. To book your complimentary weekend night you need to go to InterContinental.com/ambweekend or contact the Ambassador Service Centre at [email protected]. You don’t need to be a member to check the rates so it is worth looking at the rates before you decide to join for the Hotel you are considering. Obviously this rate could change in 6-8 weeks, so I advise joining as far in advance of when you want to use the certificate as you can, but still enough time to get the value from the scheme.
When you book the stay, it will still show the full price for both nights and then the hotel will take it off once you have given them the certificate. The other thing to consider as Claudio mentioned in his Kiev article, is that you will end up having 2 bookings if you want to use points or get a better rate and are staying more than 2 nights. Most hotels are fine with this and will just join the bookings together but technically they could make you check out and in again. You also can’t transfer the certificate to someone else.
A weekend night varies according to the country with Friday, Saturday and Sunday counted everywhere as the weekend except in the Middle East, where hotels may define the weekend as Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
IHG Status
You will also get either Gold or Platinum IHG status with your membership. I was offered Gold status probably as I haven’t stayed in that many IHG properties this year apart from IC hotels. Gold is not worth a huge amount especially as most of my stays are likely to be IC hotels where I would get the most of the same benefits already. Gold benefits include:
• Extended check-out
• Elite members’ points don’t expire
• Priority check-in
• Bonus earnings on top of base points: 10%
The points expiry is useful so I don’t have to think about it, as are the extra points; but other than that I wouldn’t be influenced to buy Ambassador for this. You also get all the basic benefits such as free internet too.
Other IHG members such as reader S who wrote to me have been offered Platinum even though she had only done a couple of stays in the last few years but it did include Crowne Plaza. Platinum would get you:
• Bonus earnings on top of base points: 50%
• Elite Rollover Nights
• Complimentary room upgrades
• Guaranteed room availability
This is worth slightly more but still not worth the $200 alone. You can check your offer by logging into your IHG account and looking at the Ambassador page (link at the end)
My stay at Intercontinental Dublin
I used my status at the IC Dublin last week and received a very nice upgrade from an Executive room to a huge Executive Suite which was a double upgrade. I was offered a choice of drinks in the bar or extra points as my welcome gift. I didn’t get the fruit/snacks in my room as I had not got round to selecting my preference in my profile yet. I had two bottles of mineral water in the Suite and I could have had late check out until 4pm if I had wanted along with a free movie. I thought I got good value from the membership on this stay as the upgrade alone would have been worth a substantial amount. I will be writing a full review shortly of my stay.
Fees and ways to pay
The fee for new members for 12 months of membership is US $200. IHG Rewards Club members can also purchase membership for 40,000 points. There is currently a 100% bonus when you buy points. At $230 for 40,000 points this works out more expense if you bought them all but if you just needed to top up to get the 40,000 points for buying Ambassador status it could be worth a look.
After 12 months, you can renew your membership for an annual fee of US $150 which is an even better deal as you get a weekend certificate every year when you renew.
You can find out more details and join on the Intercontinental Ambassador page here.
Do you have Ambassador status? How do you get your money’s worth from it? Let me know in the comments below or on social media
24 comments
The gift can vary. My wife and I recently stayed at the IC Johannesburg for about a week, using combined reservations. Mine consisted of 1 free credit card night, 2 including the free weekend night and some points nights, so just the one revenue night. My wife’s was points nights.
My gift was an attractive pair of headphones, which my wife instantly took a shine to and looked forward to her gift later in the week. When it came, it was – a bar of nougat!
Where are the headphones now? My wife has adopted them.:)
Sorry, I should have added that we are both Ambassador members.
There`s a 3-day 100% bonus for buying IHG points as well which makes this very good value!
Thanks Martin. I hadn’t seen that offer yet!
No – thank you! Another brilliant article and I shall be using my cheap points to sign up.
I updated it with your info thanks.
This isn’t available in Europe I think. I have a UK registered platinum account (status I will lose shortly) but don’t see ambassador status option anywhere in my account.
That’s strange. Have you tried going to the link at the bottom of my article then signing in from there as there is a link to do so.
Thanks Michele – yes the link works – probably me but I’ve never found the IHG rewards website the easiest/clearest to navigate especially on iPad!
Thanks Michele! Just joined and used some of my IHG points (I am already Spire with IHG). Great deal as normally a night in an intercontinental costs me 60,000 points when I redeem, by using 40,000 to join I have just gained a free night 🙂
Great to hear it works for you Monika. Have you got a stay in mind?
Not yet! I regularly stay away with work though so the upgrades will be nice then – my spire status isn’t always recognised at an intercontinental.
I might just have to plan a weekend away somewhere if the BA sale is any good next week – let me know of any cities that have an amazing intercontinental 🙂
I have spoken to TLFL’s resident IC expert Claudio and he recommends Amsterdam. It doesn’t have a lounge but they give you credit to use instead. You could also consider Bucharest or Warsaw which have great lounges and are good value. I enjoyed Warsaw and it was very cheap.
One other renewal option exists. You can pay $200, get all the same benefits plus 15K IHG points and a 10% rebate on all IC redemptions. It’s a marginal call and depends on how many IC reward nights you plan to take in the following 12 months.
On the Weekend Voucher, I have found in the past that if you want to use it before you receive it you can arrange for IC Customer services to advise the hotel directly and issue them the relevant details
Thanks for the extra details. Philip.
I held IC Ambassador status for the last 7/8 years. I was loyal to the IHG brand and put all my business to them, 100+ nights every year across their portfolio. Many of which were at IC properties.
Yet, in the last 60 days I have held Diamond with Hilton thanks to their current status match promo. I have had more perks, upgrades and recognition in the last 2 months with Hilton than all the years combined with IC Ambassador!
I will sorely miss my points redemptions at The Venetian in Las Vegas every year, but I can’t see myself going back to IHG. Sadly!
I joined Ambassador to make a booking with free night at IC Dublin as reviewed in your recent article.
We also had an existing booking at the excellent IC Porto. Having Ambassador status meant that we were upgraded from basic room to two level suite.We also received chocolate gift plus drinks vouchers and reduced price from 25 Euros to 15 which even included family members not staying in IC Porto . Great result Michelle. Many thanks
Wow that upgrade sounds great Colin. Glad you had a good result!
I am IHG Ambassador from 02/2018 and I have tested benefits by repeated stays at Intercontinental Kiev, Crown Plaza Brussels and Holiday Inn Brussels. Rather disappointment. Rarely all the benefits are provided. At Holiday Inn Brussels you only get voucher for welcome drink. Mineral water rarely and replenishment is a dream. No newspapers. Except Kiev hardly ever a welcome gift. Upgrade in 50 % of the cases. Summarizing – not very convincing, if ihg wants to have such programme then ensure that their hotels in Europe capitols follow rules.
Milan, the IHG Ambassador benefits are only valid at the Intercontinental brand hotels. At all of the other properties they only have to honor the benefits to your corresponding Reward Club status (Gold/Platinum/Spire). That said, I did have the Lumpini Park Corwne Plaza match the Ambassador benefits in Bangkok. Got a welcome gift, upgrade, and discounted lounge access. And they replenished the water, 2 bottles at a time, faster than I could drink it.
Hello everyone,
I just joined the IC ambassador program. Did you guys received the membership pack with luggage tag? Thanks.
No pretty sure I didn’t get luggage tags.
The guaranteed/complimentary room upgrade is why I signed up. I selected a room at IC Hong Kong for a week @ ~$300/night. The upgrade was worth over $100/night. Just two nights would’ve made for a break-even experience.
This used to be the most fantastic program. My husband and I also had a luxurious and unforgettable stay at the Dublin Intercontinental. We’ve had lovely stays around the US, Europe, and in Singapore. All of that has changed. First, since we were going to be traveling last year when my membership was due for renewal, I renewed my Ambassador membership as soon as I received the first notice, The membership was renewed by IHG immediately, 2 months early, instead of at expiration, and I lost 2 months of membership. My next free night certificate expired 10 months after the previous one. It took me 3 calls with 4 different representatives, all in India, before the last supervisor finally begrudgingly extended my membership “as a one-time courtesy” No one seemed to understand the concept that the renewal should not go into effect until the existing term expires. The reward night certiciate has still not been corrected.
Second, what used to be a free night certificate is now a “2nd night free following a paid 1st night” on a weekend stay. It is not nearly as flexible or valuable as it used to be. Also the free Reward night with the IHG credit card is now only redeemable at very low end hotels.
Finally, you will never talk to a representative in the US when contacting customer support or reservations. First you will spend a considerable amount of time with an automated system which wants to know an extraordinary amount of detail and steadfastly refuses to transfer you to a person. If you are eventually successful, you will finally be transferred to someone overseas who has no authority to resolve issues and does not necessarily see the same rooms and prices that you find online.
This used to be a fantastic program with great hotels and great Ambassador personal service. It’s a disaster now. As a last note, after a frustrating call today, i participated (or tried to) in a survey on my phone experience. The automated voice just kept repeating “experience. Please press 1 to start the survey.” Pressing 1 just initiated the same message over and over until I finally hung up. IHG does not want to know how poorly they are performing. Sadly, I am using up my points and leaving IHG altogether..
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