Various guest loyalty programs have different approaches when it comes to award stays and their eligibility for bonus points and various other promotions.
They didn’t use to qualify for stays/nights to earn or retain elite status (in the early 2000s), and many programs still exclude them from global promotions.
You can access IHG One Rewards here.
READ MORE: IHG One Rewards Rate & Bonus Points Offers
I recently had a stay at the brand new Regent hotel in Phu Quoc and was surprised that the Diamond elite bonus points (100%) didn’t post for the eligible F&B spend, and I thought that this could not be right.
And I dropped a note to the Ambassador Service Center and received the following reply:
I sincerely apologize for the confusion,
I’ve reviewed your reservation at the Regent Phu Quoc from 10-13 May 2022, and I see that this was under a Reward Night, and you’ve purchased Food & Beverage during your stay. Please know that you can earn points from your F&B purchases related to your hotel room bill, however, earning your tier-level bonus as a Diamond Elite member will only apply to stays made under a qualifying rate.
For more information, kindly visit: General Terms, clause 44 https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/member-tc
Nonetheless, I am happy to provide an exception to you for being a Diamond Ambassador. I have posted 4,585 points to your account. Additionally, I have deposited 2,000 points to your account on behalf of IHG. After all the adjustments, your current points balance is at 395,976.
Once again, thank you for always staying with us. We value you as our loyal Diamond Elite Ambassador member, and I look forward to your next stay with IHG, so you can keep your points adding up.
In the meantime, please let me know if there’s anything I missed, I’d be more than happy to assist.
General Terms Clause 44:
The T&Cs refer to Qualifying Rate and Qualifying Stays.
The Ambassador Service Center’s reply argues that this specific stay’s F&B spend would not be eligible for a 100% bonus because the stay would not be under a qualifying rate.
The T&Cs state, however, state that the elite bonus applies to Qualifying Stays. Award nights are certainly qualifying because why would they otherwise count towards status?
They did, however, post the bonus points.
Two stays show as “overlapping” because another stay (for one night) later ended up posting again with completely incorrect dates.
Conclusion
This hardly makes any sense.
Why would IHG consider award stays a non-qualifying for earning elite bonus points for F&B and other eligible spending?
It has been a while (several years) since my most recent IHG award stay, and I often don’t use hotel F&B outlets, so I may have missed this program “feature.”
