InterContinental Hotels: Priority Club & Inter-Continental Ambassador - Priorityclub is locking accounts after the TOOLBAR installation

As reported by Gary, it seems Priority Club is now locking accounts after people downloaded the Priority Club toolbar:

https://toolbar.priorityclub.com/en-gb
https://toolbar.priorityclub.com/en-us

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2012/08/13/priority-club-shopping-toolbar-a-glitch-i-decided-not-to-write-about/

Old news - they started doing lockouts Sunday morning.

The glitch allowed mature accounts, versus newly opened accounts, to mint 300 miles a pop for the toolbar installation, which was actually unnecessary. There was no preventative control to stop racking up points and points counts reputedly went into the 6 digits. Not sure if there was a detective control in place aside from them monitoring the blogs for reported anomalies, but there could have been a daily balance accumulation tripwire. Do believe they relied on corrective controls as is appears you could not move points into airline miles via Points.com or without some manual intervention. It appears that they learned from their last IT error and allowed the points to be "earned" but not redeemed. That said there were also some errors in how the points posted to the accumulators and I believe a few flaws in their corrective controls.

Sloppy IT work with inadequate quality review. Their cardinals will sort it out in a few weeks...

Good. ^

Did not work - even for initial 300 - on my mature account. Have a sizable balance anyway, and am Platinum Ambassador. Account is at least several years old.

Man - I was trying to get my 300 points, but my browser was incompatible.

So I tried a different browser. No dice.

I got 300 points times 2. Not trying to defraud. I hope that doesn't cause me a problem.

Man - I was trying to get my 300 points, but my browser was incompatible.

So I tried a different browser. No dice.

I got 300 points times 2. Not trying to defraud. I hope that doesn't cause me a problem.
There were actually about 10 different sites, i.e. replace the en-us with fr-fr (and others as per the language dropdown). I doubt they will close accounts who have done a few times, indeed the last such glitch I believe they allowed people to keep up to 5K points. And while accounts were temporarily closed most were reinstated. In fact I wasn't able to find anyone who had account permanently closed in previous thread but suspect they actually only did this to those who had abused to the extent of hundreds of thousands if not millions of points.

Here we go again...
Let me guess - thousands in quickly cashed out gift cards...

curious whether any of the people who's accounts were locked were able to get them reopened and how (by phoning, email, etc).

curious whether any of the people who's accounts were locked were able to get them reopened and how (by phoning, email, etc).

I only had 1400 pts and got the bonus 3 x and now i cant get in...it just says:

We are sorry, the Priority Club Rewards system is currently unavailable. You may still make reservations without your Priority Club Rewards member number. Just modify your reservation later to add your member number or present it upon check-in at the hotel.

Is this a lock-out or just a 'wait till they fix it' thing?

I only had 1400 pts and got the bonus 3 x and now i cant get in...it just says:

Is this a lock-out or just a 'wait till they fix it' thing?

I'd say you've had your account locked for abusing the offer, even if it was only 3 times. I have no problems logging into my account today.

I never download any toolbar from any website even when I trust that company. Toolbars allow websites to track all your browsing.

I'd say you've had your account locked for abusing the offer, even if it was only 3 times. I have no problems logging into my account today.

I can still get into mine, and I got the bonus twice.

I'm fine if they take away one bonus. Seems reasonable.

I can still get into mine, and I got the bonus twice.

I'm fine if they take away one bonus. Seems reasonable.

A friend did 4x and acct still open.

I only had 1400 pts and got the bonus 3 x and now i cant get in...it just says:

We are sorry, the Priority Club Rewards system is currently unavailable. You may still make reservations without your Priority Club Rewards member number. Just modify your reservation later to add your member number or present it upon check-in at the hotel.

Is this a lock-out or just a 'wait till they fix it' thing?

Any suggestions on how to approach this (to unlock the account) if this message is seen? I'm assuming since some people have been able to access their account, the system really isn't "unavailable".

Any suggestions on how to approach this (to unlock the account) if this message is seen? I'm assuming since some people have been able to access their account, the system really isn't "unavailable".

Basically 2 options; call or wait.

From what I'm reading on other forums and blogs, is the lock out is being applied to those who severely abused the bug to rack up hundreds of thousands of points through scripts or otherwise.

It's not clear on the threshold that PC are applying, but doing it 2/3 times you should be fine.

Deleted.

Well, anyone who did use scripts knew it was gonna be busted...

Well, anyone who did use scripts knew it was gonna be busted...

They probably used temp accounts and instantly cashed out...

They probably used temp accounts and instantly cashed out...
My wife got locked out for 10X

My wife got locked out for 10X

Have you been able to get her account unlocked? What was your process?

Have you been able to get her account unlocked? What was your process?

No luck so far, they won't tell me why account was locked in their reply!

No luck so far, they won't tell me why account was locked in their reply!

Well, you seem to know the reason as you cited it above.

My wife got locked out for 10X

You know why it got locked. lol...
Second, everyone that got locked by doing this rightfully deserve it. ^

The travel loyalty programs will put up with quite a bit of gaming the system but best not to get greedy...

You know why it got locked. lol...
Second, everyone that got locked by doing this rightfully deserve it. ^

Save your nonsense for judgment day. People doing this less than 5x being locked dont deserve loosing 6 digit balances and top statuses. No balance in that. No rationale either if loosing an otherwise good and long time customer.

Just came across this thread and got an overwhelming sense of Deja Vu.As I recall most of our locked accounts were eventually unlocked .....

One would have thought PC would have learned from last time:rolleyes:

Did they lock RA accounts too?

Did they lock RA accounts too?

Several plat accts at least. But of course thats not necessarily the best customers. Not that referred RAs are either...

Save your nonsense for judgment day. People doing this less than 5x being locked dont deserve loosing 6 digit balances and top statuses. No balance in that. No rationale either if loosing an otherwise good and long time customer.

It seem that you have made your own "judgment" that 4 fraudulent times should be permissible, but 5 or more is not. What nerve, who appointed you the arbiter of justice. :rolleyes:

It seem that you have made your own "judgment" that 4 fraudulent times should be permissible, but 5 or more is not. What nerve, who appointed you the arbiter of justice. :rolleyes:

You didnt seem to get the point at all. Whether its 2x, 5x, or maybe 10 or 50x, is none of my business. Im just saying that with a low number of repeats, do YOU feel its fair with such a reaction!?

I certainly dont, but Im not the judge. But as this is FT, miles and points oriented and friendly towards others with the same intererest, such an aggressive stand would be more than a bit harsh, no?

If not Im more than happy to leave FT, and with everyone else with the same idea, you can play around with all your hipocrisy and morals here. Maybe leave FT for OMNI?:td:

You didnt seem to get the point at all. Whether its 2x, 5x, or maybe 10 or 50x, is none of my business. Im just saying that with a low number of repeats, do YOU feel its fair with such a reaction!?

I certainly dont, but Im not the judge. But as this is FT, miles and points oriented and friendly towards others with the same intererest, such an aggressive stand would be more than a bit harsh, no?

If not Im more than happy to leave FT, and with everyone else with the same idea, you can play around with all your hipocrisy and morals here. Maybe leave FT for OMNI?:td:

I agree with your first 2 sentences in part, but IMHO and only MHO, I think a low number is justified because it is so over the top to do such a thing.

Yes, we are points oriented, but within the rules of the program, not blatantly ripping off the program. I agree with you of a low number of points but less than 5, IMHO 3, because you have to allow for those who were unsure that their registration "took" or not, but above that number, it certainly is suspicious.

I don't view myself as one of those who go outside the rules of the program, or tear it up, to achieve these points. But, that's just me and my beliefs and a result, I have a right to hold an opinion on those who did this and PC's reaction to same.

Could not access my account.
Really new account, withot any attempts to install toolbar at all.
At the same time I can access account of my wife from the same machine.

Emailed PC Cust. Service, will wait...

Emailed PC Cust. Service, will wait...

Did you get an answer?

There were a couple posts out there in the blogsospheres that said that the toolbar was valid per browser, so people who did it 3-4x could have just been downloading a toolbar for Firefox/Chrome/IE/Safari/Opera, etc and trying to get 300 points for each.

Pretty dumb on PC's part not to lock the ability to do it more than once. Especially after the survey incident a couple years back.