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Update from Nick 12/30/22: Re-posting this as a reminder to those who got in on the flash deal to get free IHG Diamond status. That short-term deal (which we didn’t get a chance to publish before it died) offered IHG Diamond status through 12/31/22 with the option to extend through 12/31/23 if you stayed 10 nights by the end of 2022. However, many readers reported that purchasing IHG Ambassador status extended their IHG Diamond status through 12/31/23.
Just a few minutes ago, I bought IHG points with a 100% bonus from Points.com and I redeemed 40,000 points for a year of IHG Ambassador. My IHG Diamond status immediately updated within the IHG app with an expiration date of 12/31/23. Since I have the old (no longer available) $49 IHG Rewards credit card that offers a 10% rebate on redemptions, I expect my net cost to be 36,000 points (or $180 worth of points if you’re buying 26,000 or more with the 100% bonus). If I’m able to stay at an Intercontinental property for two nights by the end of January, I’ll get 20,000 points back as seen in Stephen’s post below. Whether or not I complete that part, I decided it was worth it to take a swing at a full year with top-tier IHG status.
Remember that this IHG Ambassador promotion ends tomorrow (12/31/22) the 100% bonus on purchased points ends today (12/30/22) and those with that short-term IHG status only have through tomorrow (12/31/22) to get it extended. Stephen’s original post follows.
IHG One Rewards has launched another promotion to encourage you to join or renew an Ambassador membership for another year. It requires that you stay two nights by the end of January, but there should be a way to do that at a lower cost than you might expect.
The Deal
- Join or renew an Ambassador membership and stay two nights at participating properties to earn 20,000 bonus IHG One Rewards points.
- Direct link to offer.
- Direct link to terms & conditions.
Key Terms
- To participate in the “Renew Ambassador, stay two nights, earn 20k bonus points” offer (the “Offer”), an individual must be an existing InterContinental Ambassador member and must first renew their membership in the InterContinental Ambassador programme. Renewal of their membership must be completed before their current membership expires OR by 31 December 2022, whichever will occur sooner. Additional information regarding the duration and renewal of memberships is provided in the terms and conditions for the InterContinental Ambassador program, which can be obtained here. No registration is required for this Offer. Members who are invited to participate in this Offer may also participate in other IHG offers. This Offer is not applicable for Royal Ambassador members. This Offer is not valid for InterContinental Ambassador membership enrolments or renewals obtained on a complimentary basis or using the IHG Employee discount.
- If a member renews their InterContinental Ambassador membership by paying USD200, they will receive 15,000 IHG One Rewards points upon renewal. An additional 20,000 bonus points will be deposited into their account after they stay two qualifying nights, between their renewal date and 31 January 2023, at participating InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, or Regent Hotels & Resorts.
- Members who renew by redeeming 40,000 IHG One Rewards points will receive 20,000 bonus points after completing two qualifying nights, between their renewal date and 31 January 2023, at participating InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, or Regent Hotels & Resorts.
- To qualify for the additional 20,000 bonus points, each of the two nights must be part of one or more Qualifying Stays. A Qualifying Stay is defined as a minimum 1-night stay booked under a Qualifying Rate, with total spend exceeding $30 USD (or local equivalent) per night. Only one room per member per Qualifying Stay will be eligible. If more than one member checks into the same room, only one member is eligible to claim the night for purposes of the Offer. No retroactive credit will be awarded for stays prior to a member’s renewal of their membership or prior to this Offer. The “Ambassador Complimentary Weekend Night” rate is a Qualifying Rate, and the complimentary night may be counted towards the two nights needed to qualify for the additional 20,000 bonus points.
- This Offer can only be redeemed once per member and a maximum of 35,000 IHG One Rewards points can be achieved for renewals based on the payment of USD200 or a maximum of 20,000 bonus points for renewals based on redeeming 40,000 points. Please allow up to six (6) weeks for bonus points to be posted to the recipient’s IHG One Rewards account.
- Participating Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants and Regent Hotels & Resorts will accept redemption of the InterContinental Ambassador Complimentary Weekend Night through 31 December 2022, excluding Regent Hotels & Resorts in Greater China. The Complimentary Weekend Night is valid on the second night of a paid stay on the “Ambassador Complimentary Weekend Night Rate” and is subject to the standard rules and restrictions in the InterContinental Ambassador Full Terms and Conditions, as outlined here. Such rules and restrictions include but are not necessarily limited to the following: Rooms at the “Ambassador Complimentary Weekend Night” rate are subject to limited availability; advance reservations are required; the complimentary weekend nights may only be redeemed via the member’s IHG One Rewards account; identification and member number must be presented upon check-in; the member must have an un-redeemed and valid Complimentary Weekend Night available within their IHG One Rewards account; valid for room and tax only; weekend is defined to include Friday, Saturday and Sunday, except in the Middle East where properties may define the weekend as Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at participating Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants and Regent Hotels & Resorts where the Ambassador Complimentary Weekend Night is defined as Any Day; and when joining the Ambassador program in hotel, the weekend night cannot be redeemed for the current stay. All InterContinental Ambassador program benefits are subject to the InterContinental Ambassador Full Terms & Conditions, which can be found here.
Quick Thoughts
One of the useful features of the promotion is that the free weekend night certificate you receive as part of your Ambassador membership counts as one of the two eligible nights required to earn the 20,000 bonus points. That cert is valid for the second night of a two night stay, so paying cash for the first night and using the certificate for the second night will be sufficient to earn those bonus points.
That’s specifically listed as being eligible in the terms of the offer and I can confirm that it does indeed work because I took advantage of a similar promotion earlier this year. We booked a stay at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco and our first and second nights were booked using the free weekend night certificate I received when joining the Ambassador program just hours before making that reservation. Sure enough, 20,000 bonus points posted to my account after that stay.
20,000 IHG One Rewards points are worth at least $100, so paying $200 for an Ambassador membership can be worthwhile provided you can book a qualifying two night stay at an InterContinental, Kimpton or Regent property by the end of January and can get at least $100 of value out of the program in the next year.
Here are the benefits you can expect to receive with Ambassador status:
At Intercontinental Properties, an Ambassador receives:
- A guaranteed one category upgrade
- Complimentary internet and bottled water
- A $20 Food and beverage credit
- 4PM late check-out
- Complimentary weekend night certificate
- Platinum Elite status in IHG One Rewards
At Six Senses properties, an Ambassador receives:
- Complimentary breakfast for two each day
- Signature Amenity of either a complimentary 50 minute Six Senses Spa massage for two or local experience (once per stay)
- Complimentary one category room upgrade
- Extended check-out of 4PM subject to availability
- Early check-in of 10AM subject to availability
- Complimentary internet
- Wellness Platter on day of arrival
A past unofficial benefit of Ambassador membership was that it seemed to extend what was then IHG’s top elite tier status – Spire Elite. This wasn’t ever listed as something that should happen, but was a nice perk for those who otherwise wouldn’t have requalified for Spire. What I’m not sure about is if that will continue with IHG’s revamped IHG One Rewards program now that Spire Elite status has been replaced with Diamond status.
Update 9/6/22: I’d missed it in the terms initially, but if you’re renewing Ambassador membership and pay cash rather than redeem points for doing that, you also receive 15,000 bonus points. That’s worth at least $75, so that gives existing Ambassador members even more of an incentive to renew. I’d been on the fence as to whether to renew Ambassador membership myself, but the bonus 15,000 points should be enough to get me to renew.
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A little late to the Diamond renewal party! But happy to see that my Ambassador renewal today, on 1/1/2023, extends Diamond until 12/31/2024! My Ambassador status expired on 4/1/2023, so I didn’t think the renewal option for Diamond would be available to me. But, when I signed in today, the renewal reminder button was there.
Just purchased Ambassador at 11:50 PM on 12/31/2022 with 40K points, and now have Diamond status until 12/31/2024.
I had the diamond elite through the previous promotion, which set to expire on 12/31/2022.
I paid $200 for the ambassador promotion just before midnight (23:30 EST on 12/31/2022). Now it’s showing my diamond elite status is good until 12/31/2024!
Not sure if it’s a typo, glitch, or what.
same here!!
Thanks guys, those are very interesting data points. Perhaps renewals after a certain time are hard coded to offer extension through not just the year about to begin but the year after that also.
I just purchased using 40K points my expiration status has not changed.
Did you have diamond status previously?
Thinking of booking the Intercontinental Lisbon. Have Diamond status from the flash deal. What would ambassador status entitle me to at this hotel? Is it worth it? Have to join today!
Late checkout.
15 euros toward your bar tab.
One level room upgrade (assuming you are booking a paid stay).
IHG website says free breakfast at InterContinental. Am i missing something? and Ambassador say free restaurant and bar credit up to $20. How do I interpret that?
Diamond Elite Members’ Welcome Amenity choice also includes Free Breakfast at full-service and select-service brands (REGENT, InterContinental, Hualuxe, Hotel Indigo, voco, Crowne Plaza, Even, Holiday Inn, and Kimpton)
Yep, you’ll get breakfast at the InterContinental, but that’s due to Diamond status rather than Ambassador status.
Ambassador status will get you the items mentioned by Biggie F as well as a couple of other minor things (2 bottles of water and something else.)
I renewed my ambassador status this past september. Had never been diamond. Then I did take advantage of that 90-day diamond promotion, but will lose it as of tonight. But just to understand, if I once again reup by paying for another Ambassador status, while still at diamond, will that extend the current diamond status? Or does one have to stay the 10 nights in order to be diamond first? Thanks.
Ann from what I am understanding it will should renew Diamond but I don’t think this is written in stone. Just have to trust the data points that’s it’s working for others.
Data point: I just did it and my Diamond Elite status got extended to the end of 2023.
Mine didn’t any reason why that could be. I paid with 40K points.
Check again now. My extension wasn’t instant. Took about 30 minutes to change.
Yes it did now.
I bought Ambassador in Aug, just before the free Diamond status opportunity came out, which I did take advantage of. I got my two nights for the 20K points, but was not able to get the other 8 nights to maintain Diamond through next year, so currently I’ll lose Diamond tonight. I’m not sure it’s worth it, but any thoughts on what might happen if I renew my Ambassador today? I don’t think I’d get the 20K points again, but I’m curious if I’d get Diamond renewed? Heck, can I even renew Ambassador this early?
I too am wondering how often you can renew and what that does to the end date
Signed up earlier just for the extension. Now thinking about finding a low cost IC for the fun of it before the end of January… Hmm…
Nick,
Why did you buy points to grab Ambassador, rather than pay $200? Because you already had points and just needed a topoff?
Reminder to all that if you are renewing Ambassador, it makes sense to pay instead, since you’ll get 15,000 points (or $75 in points at this sale rate) rebated back.
Because I’ll get 10% of the points back due to my old IHG card for a net cost of $180 worth of points. I saved twenty bucks by using points purchased for half a cent each.
Gotcha. (And you did refer to this in your update–my mistake).
Certainly makes sense if you’re signing up (not renewing) *and* have the Select card (and don’t need the points elsewhere).
Thanks for clarifying.
Could you even look at it like this – you’re basically ‘pre-buying’ a free night somewhere (anywhere) for 36K points since even if you don’t participate by staying 2 nights in Jan, you still have the free night cert to cash in on during the year?
What is a qualifying rate? does anyone know if government rate would qualify?
Is anyone who renewed showing an extension from 12/31/23 until 12/21/24 of their Diamond status?
A big reason I renew is for this extension, and if I need to wait until Jan 1 2023 to gain the benefit of that extension, I’d likely forgo this promotion.
I renewed, and sure enough now have a 12/31/24 expiry date 🙂
Can points or certificate stays be used for the qualifying nights to get the 20k points? Thanks!
Unfortunately not – it has to be paid stays. There is an exception though; Ambassador status gives a free weekend night certificate each year which requires that you pay for the first night of that weekend stay, with the certificate being used against the cost of the second night. Booking that two night stay works for this promotion even though the second night is, in effect, free. Regular free night certificates from the IHG credit cards and award stays don’t count though.
Thanks for the detailed article on the T&Cs. My husband got the guaranteed late checkout of 4pm at Double Bay Intercontinental so that was worth it. Still waiting for the 20k points to credit. Does anyone know how long this is taking?
I have about 15 nights upcoming in Europe at Holiday Inns, Indigos, and Kimpton. Is there any added benefit of Ambassador if I already have Platinum Elite? I mean, aside from the 20k points and free night cert? Seems like this is really only beneficial at Intercontinental.
Yep, Ambassador status is pretty much useful only at IHG’s InterContinental and Six Senses brands.