No, last year was completely different, and corresponds to what you describe. At that time they were in fact very liberal. Perhaps the very reason why they took this unreasonable position this year.

This year is the opposite. We have a mystery account, LuxuryLoyalty, assuring everyone, even trying to influence the public debate by throwing out some IHG points, only to disappear a few days after.

Possibly an alias of the very same office handling the review requests. In principle not answering at all to personal review requests, or only copy pasting a generic reply, not addressing any specific account activity.

People with 10 00x usd spend, or 17n, are automatically approved, others with >15k spend, or 80n, get booted. The pattern is extremely arbitrary. A constant is that adjusted stays are not taken into account (cfr. stats in renewal mails), and also not considered by IHG after appeal. They can continue to beat on their “there are several factors” drum, it is just not true based on the facts gathered here by FT users.

I am very happy for anyone renewed, no matter on which conditions. But I hope that they don’t let the euphoria blind themselves for how InterContinental is dealing with a subset of their loyal customers which also do have all the right reference for years.

I hope that they survive the lottery next year...