Sorry to hear of your issue.
I think the bottom line of this is that you are more unlikely to get this resolved than find a person in IHG who will help you.
My suggestion is that you contact the IHG lurker on this page (their ID appears in green) and ask them to help.
Please report back if there is any news.
yes, it's unfortunate, in terms of a loyalty program, they have no idea, all other loyalty programs, when they change the T&C's, send out an email to their members, and in IHG's case, changing their marketing methods, publishing their codes as a marketing tool via their own channels, on their own sites, to changing their strategy 180 degrees overnight, and not telling their customers, until they just cancelled their accounts, is a loyalty marketing tragedy, you're absolutely correct UK1, i heard on the grapevine, from the informed, there is a class action on the way^