No one says that hotel chains cannot change their terms & conditions over time. IHG clearly always stated so in its regulations. They could even end their IHG programme anytime (which I hope will never happen). Around one year back when introducing the pire level they changed their "never expiry" policy into "points expire when their is no activity during a 12 months period" policy. Fair enough as they gave everyone a full year before doiing so. IHG has been nice enough to warn its inactive customers about the expiry date looming so customers can act and download a song cheap book to stay in the game ... Nothing to complain about !