Reader Question: Booking Intercontinental Ambassador Free Weekend Night Reservation While Not Yet Being An Active AMB Member
Today we have a Reader Question about Intercontinental Hotels and their Ambassador Program, which comes with a Free Weekend Night certificate.
Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.
The annual Free Weekend Night used to come as a physical certificate in the membership package but it has now changed to be deposited electronically into a members account.
One of our readers contacted us and asked about the possibility of reserving a free weekend night while not yet having Ambassador status.
Here the explanation by the reader:
I’d like to stay at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Downtown in December and take advantage of a couple different offers:
- Ambassador Signup Offer
- Free Weekend Night
- Amex Offer $60 Off $300 charge
I want to use the Amex offer by purchasing the Ambassador membership at the property and use the free weekend night in one go. The thing is, I don’t want to sign up for ambassador right now as it’s two months away from my stay date and I feel that’s wasting time and value.
Do you think this is possible?
There are multiple things here the reader tries to stack:
For one, the Intercontinental Ambassador Signup campaign that is active through December:
Then he wants to use the Free Weekend Night Certificate for his Friday to Sunday stay:
IHG InterContinental Ambassador Free Weekend Night Certificate Now Also Valid At Kimpton
And then of course, the offer American Express currently has for some accounts (check yours online):
The T&C for this offer are rather specific though:
Offer valid only at participating InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton® Hotels, and Hotel Indigo® properties in the US and US territories. Reservations must be made directly through IHG online at IHG.com, by calling 1-877-424-2449, or via the IHG® App. Excludes The Palazzo Las Vegas, The Venetian Las Vegas, Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, Regent® Hotels & Resorts, HUALUXE® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza®, EVEN® Hotels, voco™ hotels, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Holiday Inn Resort®, Holiday Inn Club Vacations®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, avid® hotels, Atwell Suites™, IHG® Army Hotels and Mr & Mrs Smith hotels. Excludes international locations outside the US. Not valid for purchases at restaurants, gift cards, kimptonstyle.com, or for IHG Rewards Club points purchases. Offer only valid on room rate and room charges. Offer not valid for lodging stays that are paid for before the promotion start date or after the promotion end date. Offer is non-transferable. Valid only on purchases made in US dollars. Limit of 1 statement credit per Card Member. You may not receive the statement credit if we receive inaccurate information or are otherwise unable to identify your purchase as qualifying for the offer. For example, you may not receive the statement credit if (a) the merchant uses a third-party to sell their products or services; or (b) the merchant uses a third-party to process or submit your transaction to us (e.g., using mobile or wireless card readers); or (c) you choose to make a purchase using a third-party payment account or make a purchase using a mobile or digital wallet. Purchases may fall outside of the offer period in some cases due to a delay in merchants submitting transactions to us or if the purchase date differs from the date you made the transaction (for example, the purchase date for online orders may be the shipping date). Statement credit will appear on your billing statement within 90 days after 12/31/2022, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase.
There are a couple of problems with the readers plan to combine all these offers. The conditions for the purchase under the Amex offer being probably the most difficult one as, officially only room rate and room charges are eligible for the $60 credit.
It’s possible to purchase the Ambassador membership at Intercontinental properties and in the past, hotel employees even got a bonus for selling memberships which often times also lead to nice upgrades when you bought with the front desk clerk. However, I’m not exactly sure how the payment for the Ambassador would be processed for these enrolments if they are charged by the hotel or go through the central system.
In any case, enrolments are always instant, and all items such as the weekend e-certificate are then available immediately.
You can make advance reservations for the weekend night on this IHG website and then the property will pull the certificate later.
This website was used exclusively in the past when the certificates were on paper and there was no way to attach an e-certificate to a specific reservation. By now all previously issued paper certs are out of circulation (expired) so I’m surprised the website is still live.
Conclusion
The reader can certainly try to combine all these things, but there is no way to know if it will work or not at least as far as the Amex offer is concerned.
Trying to get a triple whopper here as far as all these offers go might be pushing the envelope, but the worst that can happen is that he won’t get his $60 from Amex.
