Coming soon: Join or renew InterContinental Ambassador for 20K bonus points
(Now live)
I’ve been holding off renewing my Intercontinental Ambassador membership in the hope of another renewal offer. The offer is indeed coming back finally, however…
Refer to the following image for details:
Basically, join or renew your Ambassador membership between September 2nd and December 31st to activate the offer. Once enrolled, stay two nights at any InterContinental, Regent or Kimpton hotels by January 31st 2023 to receive 20K bonus points. The offer is not live yet, but I expect the t&c to reflect it very soon.
The two nights must be paid, but redeeming the Ambassador BOGOF voucher also counts. If you are unfamiliar with InterContinental Ambassador you can read my review here – in my opinion it’s a great program and you can earn the annual fee back from one BOGOF stay already. 20K bonus points is another reason to join.
You can renew your membership online 92 days before it expires by paying $200 or 40,000 points, and the former option comes with a bonus of 15,000 points. You can also pay to renew it when staying at an InterContinental hotel, but not all of them know how to do it.
The problem is, my membership expires on September 1st! Of course I can wait one more day to re-join and take advantage of the offer, but I don’t want to risk not renewing my Diamond status, which is worth much more than 20K points.
A friend has called IHG’s customer service who confirms the authenticity of this promotion. What they’ve also said is re-joining on the same month (in my case September) is also considered renewal, but I’m not sure if I want to take the punt.
Live: IHG 4x bonus flash sale
We wrote about IHG’s new targeted offer for 30k points last week. There is another offer that has gone live which you may double dip.
The offer is only publicised on China’s Wechat platform but you can read some details from the poster above.
- All IHG members in Greater China (Mainland / Hong Kong / Macau / Taiwan) can participate
- Stays at any IHG hotels globally are eligible
- Book between August 29 and 31 (Beijing Time)
- Stay in September
- Earn quadruple points on all stays
- Bonus is capped at 100k
Note that only stays booked on those three days count. It’s basically an extension of the expiring Q2 offer, although there’s no longer a milestone requirement to accrue the full quadruple points.
You can register to the offer here. Upon successful registration you should be able to find it in your account’s Offers section:
In theory, your IHG’s account address needs to be in Greater China to be eligible, however people with overseas address appear to be able to enrol too. My speculation is, although it’s a regional campaign, IHG didn’t bother to enforce the address check technicality.
Anyway, temporarily “moving” your IHG account to China is simple, and as hotel stays globally can trigger this offer it’s barely a hurdle.
I’ve managed to snap both the 4X Flash Sale and 10K Points for Every 5 Nights offers. It could work very well for September stays, especially if you are hoping to mattress run 40 nights for the annual lounge pass.
Related:
Afternoon tea at the Ting restaurant, Shangri-La the Shard
I accrued a lot of cheap Shangri-La points when The Economist had a great deal, but sadly didn’t have much chance to burn them. I spent some of them on a buffet in Beijing a few years back, but am still left with a stash of 2,500 points. Before the devaluation kicked in, I converted all into vouchers for Shangri-La the Shard, London.
A friend is visiting, which reminds me of redeeming those vouchers. Being in the Shard, the Shangri-La possesses an advantage that no other five-star hotels in London can ever compete.
It has four restaurants: Bar 31 and Sky Lounge are more like bars, whereas Ting and Gong are proper restaurants. I’ve got a few friends who’ve had an afternoon tea at the Ting, and I will follow them for the experience although I don’t like afternoon teas that much.
Coming out of the London Bridge station you can’t possibly miss the Shard.
The building has three entrances and the middle one is for the hotel.
The receptionist checks our reservation and then show us the lift, which leads straight to the 35th floor.
The hotel reception.
Our reservation is checked again when entering the Ting restaurant.
The restaurant is not as busy as I thought on a Sunday, as there are still a few window seats available.
There’s a theme for the Queen’s Jubilee.
Live music from a band:
Pick your tea from an iPad, otherwise the set is the same for everyone.
Savouries are served first. I don’t quite remember what they are except for the duck cake, but they are all pretty good.
Followed by the scones and cakes. I don’t have sweet teeth so won’t comment 😛
This Shard-like chocolate dessert is obviously their signature dish, and was created for the sake of Instagram. The chocolate exterior is fine, but the raspberry filling is way too sour for my taste. It’s probably more an art work than food.
Great view from the table.
And from the bathroom too.
The afternoon tea is priced at £65 pp, or £75 with a glass of Prosecco, and service charge is 12.5% on top. The Shangri-La voucher is in USD and they converted it at the rate of 0.8, which isn’t terrible.
Remember to book your table with OpenTable or SquareMeal to earn some IHG / Virgin points or cashback. I got 100 Virgin points from the reservation.
My friends had a very bad experience when they visited before in terms of service, but it’s quite a positive one for us. It’s a very expensive afternoon tea, but spending your Shangri-La points here isn’t a bad idea considering how limited their footprint is outside Asia.
My review of Crowne Plaza Liverpool City Centre
It’s been years since I visited Liverpool, and I reckon it’s about time I come back. I was leaning towards the Doubletree hotel at the beginning, but then it turned out that although the hotel has a great pool and spa, all guests have to pay £25 per person per visit which is too steep.
Therefore I’ve chosen the Crowne Plaza instead, which has a riverbank location, a club lounge and a swimming pool. According to recent reports, Diamond members are being granted club lounge access and free breakfast, which also weighed in my decision process.
The hotel sits on the Princes Dock, which is about 15-20 minutes walk from the Lime Street station. It’s ideal for a stroll by the river, or visit to the museums (for example the Tate).
The lobby features a glass ceiling, which presents it like a greenhouse when it’s sunny.
Check-in is quick. I’m asked to choose a welcome amenity between points, drinks voucher or breakfast. Besides that there’s no greeting, no breakfast hours, no introduction to the hotel facility and no smile. It appears to me that the staff aren’t happy working here and not friendly to the guests.
Contrary to what I read online, although Diamond members can choose breakfast as a welcome amenity, club lounge access is not offered unless you have the annual lounge pass. The manager explains that they were all confused by the new rules at the beginning and offered club lounge access to Diamond members by mistake. Oh well, this is the first time I’m refused lounge access at a Crowne Plaza hotel, so the new IHG policy is not all good.
I’m upgraded to a King Premium Club room with River View, but since I’ve no lounge access the main difference it has over a standard room is just the river view.
The room is okay, just about an average four-star hotel you anticipate in this country.
River Mersey from the window.
Somehow the bathrobe is missing from my room – I thought it’s not provided (which is common in the UK) but then see other guests wear them. After request it’s brought to my room.
The wellness centre is located on the ground floor. I was worried that it may only have a swimming pool, but gladly the jacuzzi, sauna and steam room are not missing.
I’m not sure how amazing the Doubletree’s spa is, but I’m quite happy with what I have here already. Like many hotels the pool becomes quite busy in the evening, so it’s best to come here during the day.
There’s a gym with river view on the first floor.
Breakfast is served in the restaurant in the form of a buffet.
The quality is decent. I quite enjoy the salami, hash brown and pork sausage.
Club lounge is right by the lobby. Surprisingly, I’ve gone past it numerous times during my three-night stay, and I’ve never seen a single person in the lounge at any time.
The stay posted as non-qualifying. It’s not the first time it happened to me but previously it was all because I booked a special rate (partner discount or Ambassador BOGOF), whereas this time I booked a normal Advance rate. I only need to submit a claim to get it rectified, but it’s very annoying and I’m not sure if the hotel is trying to save money by not posting the points or what.
I think it’s a solid Crowne Plaza given its location and facilities, but the service still leave much to be desired.
Double Avios with Qatar Airways and Iberia
If you are flying with Qatar Airways or Iberia in the next three months, there’s a double Avios reciprocal offer between Qatar Airways and Iberia which may apply.
You can view the Qatar Airways offer here.
- Book between August 15 and November 30
- Fly between September 1 and November 30
- The flight must be operated by Iberia, and IB or QR coded
- Eligible flights credited to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club receive double Avios
The same offer from Iberia doesn’t have a landing page, but I’ve received email communication on this. If you fly on Qatar Airways and it’s QR or IB coded, you receive double Avios if credited to Iberia Plus.
It’s a weird offer as you must credit your flight to the other program to benefit. Anyway it’s worth keeping in mind, although beware that the two programs may have different accrual ratios, and the tier points are not shared between them.
Act NOW: IHG hotels for 16,000 points globally
IHG’s IT system has been playing up quite a lot recently. There was a global “Flash Sale” where you could get InterContinental and Regent Hotels for 40,000 points or under, and it even happened twice. It appears that a new Sale is going on, and this time it’s even better.
In a nutshell, many many hotels are available at 16,000 points globally on August 5, 2023.
This is regardless of the hotel brand, and available across many cities including London, Paris and New York. Not all hotels are on offer though, for example Amsterdam and most Berlin hotels are excluded (barring InterContinental Berlin).
I myself have provisionally booked the InterContinental Madrid / Lyon, and Kimpton Barcelona.
The date is very far out, so I’d suggest to lock in a few hotels for now and decide later. Unfortunately it’s only valid on that one date only, so you won’t be able to try out more hotels – unless of course, that the error fare appears again later…
£10 off your “first” Amazon App purchase
Amazon has re-launched the offer to promote use of its app. You get a £10 voucher for making a purchase through the Amazon App.
You could check your eligibility here, and in theory you should only qualify if you have never signed into the app before. However their IT is a bit mystery though – I’ve had the app for ages although I don’t log in very often, and I’m still eligible.
If you are eligible, download the Amazon app and sign in to make a purchase of £25 or more, and per usual it has to be items sold by Amazon. Use promo code APP10UK when you checkout.
The promotion ends on September 5 and is limited to the first 5,000 redemptions only.
Other Amazon offers:
- £10 off your first Amazon App purchase
- £20 off your first Amazon Fresh and Morrisons order
- Get £10 Amazon voucher for using its Photos app
- £4 off your next Amazon pickup order
- £5 Amazon bonus when topping up £60
- £5 Free Voucher for Streaming Amazon Music
- £5 Free Voucher for Streaming Amazon Podcast
- Earn £5 voucher for using Amazon Pay
- Free £5 Amazon voucher to claim
- £5 voucher for watching Amazon Prime Video
- £5 reward for creating an Amazon wish list
- £15 free money to spend at Amazon Fresh stores
- Amazon Warehouse £5 free voucher
New IHG offer: 30K points for 15 nights
I’ve just received an email from IHG for a targeted promotion, and you should try signing up too.
The registration link is here.
- Stay between September 1 and September 30
- Only paid nights count
- Stay every 5 nights to earn 10,000 bonus points, up to three times
If you can achieve those targets, it adds 2,000 bonus points per qualifying night which isn’t bad. In theory it’s a targeted offer, but many of my friends have received the email too so it appears to be widely available.
The current quadruple points offer runs until the end of August. Given the timeframe of this new offer, there won’t be another IHG Q3 promotion until October at least.