No... IHGs lack of action is all very odd.

They are genuinely enhancing the program, bringing the extra pointearning opportunities to low and medium saying members and bringing forth a new level to encourage the big stayers.

As already announced its a big points giveaway by IHG. Lowering the number of nights for Plat will see a big rise in their numbers receiving the principal benefit of the level, 4 extra points per $ over Gold. For the big stayers/spenders IHG wil now be minting another 5 points per $. Where has this come from? Well, I suspect from us, having closed a few accounts and made it very clear that promo-stacking codes vacuumed up from the web is no longer an acceptable practice I suspect IHG has been saving a mint in points. Anyone here in 2008/9/10/11/12 remembers the $50 HIX stay that minted a 30,000 point cascade from those stacked 4-digit promo codes. I mean, who does that now? Anyone? It's now only a trick only for the foolhardy, or those with an immediate redemption planned. Although we were relatively few, we hoovered up a lot of points in the past and now IHG can start to redistribute them more equitably, and, significantly, in a way that encourages profitable behaviour.

For us here, this is bad news, the creation of this new level and easing of qualification criteria for the lower levels represents IHG spending the points we no longer receive. On the other hand we had a good run, and those days went over a year ago.

So for the vast majority of regular IHG stayers, this is good news. Most occasional stayers can make Gold and the Plat 40 night requirement is very achievable to those with regular, but not heavy travel. The 100% bonus for Diamond (that's what I'm calling it in the guess the name sweepstake) is industry-leading.

So why, oh why, as IHG prepares to gear up for this elite giveaway is it so darn quiet? Where's the emails reminding members of the forthcoming new levels? The bigger points? Where's the fanfare on the site. An announcement in April followed by a change of status on your "my account" page on 1st July just seems to me like a very significant marketing opportunity missed. They'll not get this opportunity again and they're allowing it to sail right past them. It's not as if this is an unexpected event for IHG, they've designed the ship, built the ship and launched the ship so this complete zero-build-up silence is quite the anticlimax.