[Anonymous]

[GarethForster1]

Having been a Platinum member of Priority club for a number of years I now consider the prograamme worthless. Aswell as having made a number of changes to devalue the programme they have today reduced the new “Points List”. They state that 30% of the hotels in the IHG portfolio have decreased and 50% increased, though looking at the list its a dramatic point increase for all the decent properties. London hotels have increased by 10,000 points and in some cases 15,000. I have decided Priority club is no longer worth it, Im taking my loyalty back to Hilton Honours

[Shearer]

That does mean you have to stay at Hilton though!

[janrotterdam]

I gave up on Priority Club some years back, now concentrating on the far more generous schemes with Starwood (Lifetime Platinium), Marriott (Gold) and Swissotel (Eleva) and then Hilton (I like the double dip, but unfortunate where I travel most there are not many Hiltons)

[ianwils]

I’ve spent the last 12 years earning (key word) over 3 million Priority Club points, and am not remotely impressed by the changes. A quick look at the properties I occasionally burn my points at show just about all of them have increased redemption rates. Well done IHG – I’ve just made my reservations for the coming week….with Marriott. Ta-ra.

[Henkel.Trocken]

I treat hotel loyalty the same way as I treat the airlines, I am loyal to no one apart from those who offer me excellent service for a fair price.

Years back when I did play the game a bit, I always thought Priority Club was the worst of the lot and as all schemes have been devalued, Prioirty Club does seem to have kept at the head of the game.

Why not find hotels you like and stay in them? There’s great variety out there and it makes travel a bit of fun to have some changes.

[JonathanHallSmith]

I was quite shocked to discover that I could get the same room at IH in Budapest 78 Euros per night cheaper if I booked online for the same conditions. I have asked for comment in return I was asked for a screenshot which I duly sent, however I have heard nothing. Even with the first night free (The Guarantee) it would still be more expensive than booking with a discount site for the 4 night stay. A colleague of mine is a hotelier who uses Booking.com, he says because he is quiet and out of town he pays 15% and hotels in city centres pay more. So it really is daft they will not meet the discounters. Needless to say I booked a different hotel.

[canucklad]

I’ll add into the mix of criticism, I can’t remember the last time my Platinum status was actually recognised.

The last time I checked into a Holiday Inn property, no acknowledgement of my loyalty, my room must have been the broom cupboard in a past life. I didn’t even get the now apologetic apple !
Could it be that IAG are deliberately sabotaging their own loyalty programme? Maybe a certain Torquay hotelier has been hired as a consultant!

And like Henkel I’m not going to blindly reciprocate loyalty ,so IAG’s loss is for the moment the “Sandmans” gain.

I will add that the exception to the norm was my stay at the Intercontinental in Madrid and the the Crowne Plaza in Amsterdam….especially the latter !

[Raffles99]

All UK IHG properties now offer elites a gift at check in, either a few hundred points or a drink and snack in the bar.

I have had a decent lucky streak this month. The very nice new HI at Stratford Westfield upgraded me to top floor and an Olympic Stadium view, and gives Plats the high speed internet option for free. And I got my free beer in the bar.

Crowne Plaza The City upgraded me to the club floor with lounge access. This was on a £45 rate – if I had hit the booze seriously in the lounge I could easily have drunk my way through £45. I also got 600 points as an amenity (didn’t need the bar voucher!).

The number of Plats is now MASSIVELY reduced after they changed the qualification rules, so we may see a general improvement in treatment.

[Stowage222]

For loyalty recognition you’ll travel far to beat Hilton.

[JohnSlutzkin10]

Whilst the ability to double dip with Hilton is a great advantage, unfortunately because the IHG group is larger than the Hilton group there are cities where an IHG hotel is either the only choice, or the most convenient because of location or price.

[Awayagain]

I am glad I am not the only one who is disappointed with the changes at IHG. I have been Platinum for a number of years and very loyal to the group – but with all the changes i noticed back in November that I was a couple of nights short of the new higher room night targets. My status however indicated I would be Platinum for 2014 – so i thought all was well.
Checking in to an IHG property the second time in January, i was demoted to Gold (are there any benefits to being Gold?)
About to embark on 12 night business to trip to the USA, I relooked at all my IHG bookings and found i could stay at Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott etc all cheaper and often more conveniently situated too.
It was highly likely i could have hit the 40 nights and 4 brands this year – to get back to Platinum, but already the costs savings I’ve made have far outweighed the benefits to being loyal to IHG.

[Raffles99]

Why waste your time doing stays to get Platinum? Just pay £99 fee for the PC Black credit card and you get Plat automatically, plus 20,000 to 40,000 points – depending on which link you use – as a sign up bonus.

[JonathanHallSmith]

what is the Hilton “double dip”?

[Raffles99]

The ability to earn both Hilton points and airline miles for the same stay.

Options are either: 10 HH points + 5 HH bonus points per $1 or 10 HH points and some airline miles.

Best to take Iberia Plus Avios (1.5 per $1 spent) instead of BA Avios (1 per $1 spent) and then consolidate them via ‘Combine My Avios’ o n ba.com.

[Author]

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