[HOTEL] Beware of IHG Rewards Club Account Closures

There has been a lot of IHG Rewards Club members who have their accounts being closed because of violation of its program terms and conditions.

Basically, the reason that the accounts have been closed is that people sign up for too many promotions that may not have been targeted to you personally. With IHG Rewards, you can register 4 digit codes to help you earn bonus points for your stays. These promotions are one of my favourite ways to earn bonus points. The issue is that depending on where you live or whether you were targeted, not all 4 digit codes can apply to your account.

Flyertalk has a thread that lists out all the current codes. So if you gave all the codes a try, you might be registered to some, but not others. Anyway, IHG Rewards seems to be clamping down on members for trying to enter too many codes.

I am uncertain why they need to be so strict, essentially because the terms and conditions of the rewards program does not mention anything about signing up for too many promotions that we do not qualify for. Below is the wording in the terms and conditions on when a membership can be cancelled:

  • Membership Cancellation. SCH reserves the right to cancel any IHG® Rewards Club membership and revoke any and all unredeemed IHG® Rewards Club points collected by any member for reasons that include, but are not limited to: 1) violation of these Terms and Conditions; 2) misrepresentation of any information or any misuse of this Program; 3) violation of any national, state or local law or regulation in connection with the use of membership privileges; 4) failure to pay for hotel charges; 5) a check to a participating hotel brand that is returned for insufficient funds or is invalid for any reason; 6) commission of fraud or abuse involving any portion of this Program; 7) more than one active account per member; or 8) physical, verbal, or written abuse of hotel or IHG personnel; or 9) action, in any other way, to the detriment of the Program or any of its alliances; all as may be determined by SCH in its sole discretion.

This has been such a sad post for me to write since IHG Rewards has been one of my favourite hotel loyalty programs and the bonus points promotions are one of the reasons why I keep staying at their hotels. Now I feel like I need to be cautious with which bonus promotion to sign up for to avoid my account being shut down.

Conclusion: This is a risky move by IHG Rewards, they could potentially lose a lot of customers that way. I guess they think the move will probably pay off because they are dishing out too many points to make it worth it? Wouldn’t it just be simpler to have less promotions rather than shutting accounts down?

I would now be more cautious about which promotions to sign up for. Apparently we need to sign up for promotions that were targeted to us by email. If that is the case, then IHG Rewards should make it clearer that customers can only sign up for targeted promotions, rather than giving confusion and then shutting down accounts.

This just adds fuel to the fire that people do not want to bother with loyalty programs, because of all the trouble it can give us. The biggest lesson to learn from this is not to hoard your points. Whenever you get a chance to use them, use them, because you never know when you will either be hit with a devaluation or lose all your points.

Fellow blogger LoyaltyLobby has also written about this issue.

5 Comments

    1. I’ve also burned my IHG points to switch to SPG. Glad we share the same thought process!

      1. Yes, and it’s a great way to have some “status” with Delta when you hit Platinum. My favorite is the ability to transfer different airline for a 1.25 rate!

  1. Background: My husband and I signed up last year. I never used mine until just this year when I started traveling for work. Yes, I used some of the codes bc at the time I was unaware there was a problem with this. I stayed an entire month. I checked for points and could not access my account so I called in and received this: “your account is under review, we will respond in 72 hours.” I called ~4 times in ~5 months and never got a response until this… in November.

    [IHG]
    The matter regarding your closed IHG Rewards Club account has been forwarded to the Executive Offices of IHG.

    It has come to our attention that some of your account promotion enrollment activities are in violation of the terms and conditions of IHG Rewards Club. Such violations are considered fraudulent by IHG Rewards Club and IHG. As such we have closed your IHG Rewards Club account, including forfeiture of all points accrued. You can review the terms and conditions of IHG Rewards Club http://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub.

    Should you wish to discuss this further, you may call me directly at 1-801-887-7469. I am available from Monday through Friday during the hours of 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM Mountain Standard Time. In the event that I am away from my desk when you call, please leave a valid phone number and the best time when I may reach you. Please be advised that due to the nature of your issue, any communications with IHG regarding this matter will be immediately forwarded to me for handling, and I will only be able to provide you with a response.

    Please contact me directly if you wish to discuss this matter further.

    Best regards,

    Michael Lawyer | Executive Liaison
    IHG | P.O. Box 30321, Salt Lake City, UT 84130, USA
    Tel: 801-887-7469 | Fax: 801-975-1846 | gr.corporateliaison@ihg.com

    [ME]
    Mr. Lawyer,

    I’m sorry but after six months of waiting to receive an answer on this situation this is hardly an explanation. I made many phone calls to IHG to find out why I could not access my account and each and every call resulted in “you will hear from us in 72 hours” … ha ha more like 4,000+hours.

    Can you explain account promotion enrollment activities which are in violation? I am unaware of any such fraudulent violations that have occurred on my account. However, I do know that I stayed a month in an IHG hotel during the month of June for which I was never credited for and thereafter access to my Rewards account was suspended.

    Also can you provide on which dates the terms and conditions have changed over the past year and what changes were made?

    Email is the best mode of communication as I am currently out of the country … and I doubt you will be able to return my international call.

    [IHG]
    Thank you again for your contact. Please forgive the informality of this email.

    As per the email given to you previously on November 6th, our decision to close your IHG Rewards Club account remains. While it is generally not in our interest to close a members’ account, our decision to terminate your account due to enrollment into promotions which you were not eligible remains. Any future correspondence from my office will only remind you of our decision previously made. Unfortunately, no further consideration will be given.

    Any future contacts to IHG or IHG Rewards Club regarding this issue will go unanswered. Though I understand this is not the outcome you desired, we are no longer able to assist you further with this matter.

    Sincerely,

    Michael Lawyer | Executive Liaison
    IHG | P.O. Box 30321, Salt Lake City, UT 84130, USA
    Tel: 801-887-7469 | Fax: 801-975-1846 | gr.corporateliaison@ihg.com

    Needless to say I’m not longer staying with IHG and I plan to tell all my colleagues of my experience.

    1. Hi Tiffany, thank you for sharing your experience with you. This is a perfect reminder that we should not try to register for promotions that we were not targeted for. So unless we receive an email from IHG about the promotion, we’re better off not trying to force the issue in signing up for it to reduce the risk of having our accounts shut down.

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