Originally Posted by
iahphx
Yeah, I really can't believe IHG came up with this bird-brained scheme. Actually, they probably didn't -- if you look at the terms and conditions it's relatively simple -- it's just that they're applying it in a crazy way to keep the number of free rooms down to something managable.
I do wonder what would happen if they made me switch to a non-refundable rez and then I couldn't travel. I would hope reason would prevail and we'd just mutually agree to cancel the free night, but who knows? And what if you're being nice to them and had booked multiple nights (although I don't think many flyertalkers would be doing that -- you might as well keep the lower refundable rate from the competitor for the additional nights).
Are you kidding yourself? If they have any common sense, they would know that it is impossible to control the number of free night if they truly honor what the program's Ts and Cs say - or from the surface what a reasonable person would understand it.
The way they twist the interpretation / implementation of the Ts and Cs, proves this is a scam, plain and simple.
By now pretty much most of us posting here know IHG customer service dept is useless. Good luck if you need their help to get you out of a no show on a non-refundable, even it is a free night to begin with.