Originally Posted by
nanirina
I booked 2 nights at IC Tokyo Strings using Chase free night. one is on my acct and one is my bf's. The reservation was showing properly as "free" and "chase certifcicate" used before. Now it's showing as best flexible rate with a 30k jpy charge. I'm going to Tokyo next week and am a bit panicking. Is this supposed to happen? I've called the hotel and they don't know what I'm talking about. So frustrated!
No. Definitely is the hotel changes your booking from an award stay to a pay stay.
The hotel most likely does not know what the free night cert is all about - and when they do not see points deducted from account for the booking, they changed it to a revenue booking.
You need to call IHG Guest Relations ASAP to sort this out. Else you would be asked to pay for your stay when you arrive Tokyo IC.
search for my old 2012 thread on how HI Torino did not know how to bill the club for the free night and then decided to charge my card 5 months after check out. At least HI knew it was an award stay at the time we checked in (we did 1 free night and 1 point stay on our 2 nights stay). In your case the IC Tokyo does not seem to have a clue. IC Japan is operated somewhat differently in case you do not know any of the history. They did not participate in many promos in the past when they still bore the ANA (All Nippon Airlines) name. So it does not surprise me they have no clue.