Ajm1987

What will happen with the bookings deemed to be fraudulent? Are they being refunded like those for non-participating countries? (Doesn't affect me personally, just wondering whether they are going to try and use these as a source of profit...)

KARFA

I believe IB have already taken action against duplicate accounts. Beyond that for those who have received the avios and made bookings I am not sure what fraudulent activity is going on?

Ajm1987

Yeah I meant the duplicate accounts, what action did they take? Just refund the tickets and close the account?

KARFA

it appears closed the accounts - or at least limited access - and not awarding the avios. Some report of tickets also being refunded as well.

1flyer

I think IB+ redemption sweet spots like MAD-NYC on IB C will go very fast. Therefore, last night, I booked within ten minutes of receiving my 90k avios.

Two factors to consider:
1.) This deal was HUGE, and it stuck around for days. That's much longer than the typical hot deal. Nowadays, hot deals rarely last longer than 12-24 hours. My guess is that, at the very least, a number of people in the high five-digit range used this offer.
2.) Many if not most people maximizing on this offer have some sort of clue. You gotta be at least somewhat into our hobby to book ten super-cheap tickets (which you may not even fly off) just to earn avios. Therefore, many of those using these avios will go for reasonable redemptions. For example, I except this to have a huge impact of the availability on IB long-haul C inventory.

Jetstreamer

With the exception of one MAD-LHR flight in J, I'm just spending mine on hotels and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I know it is not the best value but I still get around 50% off hotel rooms vs the cash rate elsewhere.

I just need to stop thinking how they could be better spent on flights as I really don't need another trip!