Originally Posted by
3544quebec
Still disagree. The shop/stealing analogy was your's and needs to be applied consistently to have any validity. The fact that the shopkeeper is virtual in IHG's case does not mean the shopkeeper is not there. The teenager taking the coffee is very different from the teenager being handed the coffee by those in control of the coffee. IHG has possession and control of the points and IHG gives them out - it is the virtual shopkeeper. The correct analogy is not a teenager actively taking a coffee, it is a teenager asking for a free coffee and the shopkeeper handing it to him.
.
It isn't because to get the coffee, it is necesary to have a code . If the code has not been given to the person by someone authorised to give him the code, then there is no reasonable expectation of being entitled to use it
The code was given and then seen that the user of the code was never entitled to use it
If a promotion is targetted at a specific group, even if the system accepts it, it doesn't somehow make the person entitled to use it
Like going to a train ticket machine, I could purchase a child ticket , I could then get through the barrier with it and get on the train; if a ticket inspector examines it, can one reasonably argue that it was the train company's fault for allowing people to buy them from the machine