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IHG Rewards Club has launched a couple of new promotions aimed at people staying at InterContinental properties. The first might tilt the math in favor of paying for Ambassador status, while the second will reward you with 3,000 or 6,000 bonus points for each InterContinental stay before the end of November.
The Deals & Key Terms
- Enroll in IHG Rewards Club’s Ambassador status and earn 10,000 bonus points.
- Ambassador Enrollment and stay bonus points may require up to 6 weeks to be deposited into your account.
- Only valid for Ambassador program members enrolled during the Promotion Period.
- Must sign up and pay for Ambassador membership between September 11, 2019 and November 30, 2019 to qualify for the 10,000 bonus points. These points are not Elite qualifying and will not count towards status in IHG Rewards Club.
- Earn 3,000 bonus points per stay at InterContinental properties or 6,000 bonus points per stay as a new Ambassador member.
- The Promotion stay period is between September 26, 2019 and November 30, 2019 (both dates inclusive) with the registration period beginning on September 11, 2019. Three Thousand (3,000) bonus points will be awarded on every InterContinental Hotels & Resorts stay during the Promotion Period following Promotion registration.
- Maximum bonus points awarded are 15,000 bonus points during this Promotion Period for each registered member (on top of base points earned).
- As a newly enrolled InterContinental Ambassador member you are eligible to receive the additional 3,000 bonus points per stay. (3,000 bonus points per stay upon Promotion Offer registration + an additional 3,000 bonus points per stay after joining the Ambassador program = 6,000 bonus points per stay at InterContinental Hotels & Resorts for newly enrolled Ambassador members.)
- Maximum bonus points awarded for stays under the Ambassador Enrollment bonus is 15,000 (on top of 15,000 stay bonus points for Promotion offer) for the entire Offer period.
- A Qualifying Stay is defined as 1 or more consecutive nights at an InterContinental Hotels & Resorts property. A stay constitutes a Qualifying Stay when paying qualifying rates, which include most business and leisure rates at InterContinental Hotels & Resorts worldwide.
- Three Thousand (3,000) bonus points are not issued for stays booked through an Online Travel Agency or for Non-Qualifying Room Rates and Non-Qualifying Stays. Non-Qualifying Room Rates and Non-Qualifying Stays are subject to standard IHG Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions and include the following: net wholesale individual and group rate, certain package rates, employee discount rate, friends and family rate, crew rate, special discounted contract rates, seasonal worker/crew rate, 50% travel club discount rate, travel industry discount rate, distressed passenger rate, IHG Rewards Club Reward Nights/Airline Hotel Reward rate, most rates booked through most third party web sites, complimentary hotel stays and any other rates not defined as a Qualifying Room Rate.
- Only one room per member per stay will be awarded the applicable points.
- No retroactive points will be awarded for stays prior to registration.
- At the end of the promotion the member can choose to have the bonus points converted into miles by calling the service center as per the IHG Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions.
- Direct link to registration and enrollment.
Quick Thoughts
In case you’re not familiar with IHG’s Ambassador status, it’s a status that runs alongside the IHG Rewards Club program and is only valid at InterContinental properties. That said, if you take out Ambassador status, they also give you Platinum status in IHG Rewards Club so that you’ll also have status at all their other brands.
Something important to be aware of is that Ambassador status isn’t something that’s earned – it’s paid for. The cost is $200 or 40,000 points (you need to be logged in to see that latter option), so it’s certainly not worth paying that if all you’re after is 10,000 bonus points. Ambassador status does come with several benefits though, such as:
- Guaranteed room upgrade.
- 4pm late check out.
- Up to $20 restaurant & bar credit.
- Complimentary mineral water & internet.
- Complimentary weekend night (you have to pay for the first night).
Whether those benefits – and 10,000 bonus points with this promotion – are worth the $200/40,000 point fee will depend on how much you value those benefits and how frequently you stay at InterContinentals. That said, the complimentary weekend night certificate alone could easily be worth more than $200/40,000 points.
Even if you don’t stay at InterContinentals frequently, it might still be worth buying the status anyway. Greg analyzed the status a few months ago and subsequently shared his experience at the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin, so check out the posts below to read more about his thoughts.
- New InterContinental Ambassador: status you can buy
- My InterContinental Ambassador experience in Austin
The other part of the promotion is either 3,000 or 6,000 bonus points for each InterContinental stay before the end of November, awarded on up to five stays. As mentioned in the deals and key terms section above, you’ll earn 3,000 bonus points per stay after registering for the promotion or 6,000 bonus points per stay if you also buy Ambassador status.
Overall, the double promotion is a decent deal if you’ll be staying at any InterContinental properties worldwide over the next 2.5 months. As with all promotions such as these though, do the math for your own situation to ensure you’re getting more value than you’re paying.
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I’ve re-signed for 4 years and I find it a good deal if only for the room upgrades. There are foreign IC hotels that give club access when they see Ambassador on the account (not saying which ones but one was in Narcos season 1). Free liquor and food for 3 hours AND they let my local friends join me.
I stayed at the Mark Hopkins for 2 nights midweek and booked one night as the Chase anniversary night , then another night using points. The basic room was selling for $420 including tax,
I had to ask but got the $20 credit for each night because it’s “per stay” and I had booked 2 reservations…at least that argument worked.
Nice upgrade.
I would think these hotels are not too happy with IHG selling points and paying them next to nothing for the room night so I tend to eat at least one meal at the hotel.
Now the free cc night is limited to 40,000 points. I haven’t asked but I wish they would just give the 40,000 points to me and let me add 30 to stay at an Intercontinental.
how could I get the promotion?
There’s a link at the end of ‘The Deals & Key Terms’ section above.
“At the end of the promotion the member can choose to have the bonus points converted into miles by calling the service center as per the IHG Rewards Club Membership Terms and Conditions.”. What does that mean? I was unaware of any IHG points transfers to mileage programs?
Yep, you can transfer to these airline partners, although that’s poor value: https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/content/us/en/redeem-rewards/miles
Can I enroll with 40k points then get 10k points back? So effectively 30k points to become ambassador?
It looks like that might be possible. It was only showing me the $200 enrollment option initially, but logging in to my account displayed the 40k point option – I’ll update the post to include that.
So other Ambassador benefit aside, Effectively 30k for a free night at an Intercontinental that would usually cost much more (70k), no?
Sort of. The certificate is for the second night of a weekend and I think the first night of the weekend has to be paid for with cash rather than points, so there is some kind of outlay there. However, weekend rates at some InterContinentals will be cheaper than midweek stays, so it might not be too bad.
.. and, alternatively, you could pay with a new IHG card with the 25 points/$ IHG bonus, and would end up with 15,000 IHG points.
…or would it be 18,000(40 x 200 + 10,000)?
It should be 15,000 as the extra 15x is for paid stays at a property as it includes the 50% Platinum bonus.
Yes you can I checked and they confirmed