End of an Era: InterContinental Cuts Royal Ambassador Minibar Perk [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • InterContinental Hotels drops Royal Ambassador minibar benefit and provides (20) $25 food and beverage rewards for the year total instead.

    Some will prefer this! But it’s not the same as $50 per night (up to $200 per stay) as a minibar credit especially because of how unique and how taboo minibar consumption is.

    Of course the benefit used to be unlimited, which many members hit hard when first achieving the status because it’s such a thrill for totally irrational reasons.

  • Lufthansa transatlantic business class awards discounted to 55,000 miles each way

  • Citi Offers no longer stack with SimplyMiles

  • DC’s first homicide of 2024 masked man walks into Embassy Suites hotel room, shoots 18 year old guest. But they took off their mask while still being filmed by surveillance cameras.

    The new year wasn’t even two hours old when D.C. paramedics were sent to the Embassy Suites Hotel on Military Road NW for the report of a shooting on the seventh floor. They were told on arrival that the victim was in cardiac arrest.

  • Signature at MGM Grand shooter flooded their hotel room with dog locked in the bathroom

  • Miami airport will get a new Westin attached to the terminal. And since it’ll be brand new it probably won’t be awful when it opens. There are no good actual Miami airport properties, even leaving airport grounds, so just about anything will be an improvement.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. @ Gary — The minibar change is pretty lame, but admittedly the minibar beneift was already pretty useless unless you enjoying paying $50 for two cocktails and 2 scoops of peanuts. IC could have at least given a $25-$50 F&B credit per stay or something closer in value.

    Everything I want from a hotel other than being in Miami and run by Marriott.

  2. My company’s corporate rate used to include free minibar at Pan Pacific Yokohama. Never really did partake, except to try the various elixirs and energy drinks. I knew one pilot (corp tech pllot, not commercial) who fill his chart case with the minibar upon departing.

  4. I was a Royal Ambassador about 10 years ago. When staying at the Willard with some friends, we emptied the minibar. At checkout, our room charges were over $1000. I reminded them I was RA, and they said “oh yeah” and instantly cut the cost to zero.

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