notahappycamper

I made 25 successful BRG claims so far this year, I followed each and every one of the rules set up by IHG. IHG sent me emails saying that they were refusing to honor these previously approved claims and they were refusing to accept any more claims. A short while after that they deactivated my IHG acct. When I've called twice to find out why, they said that this was an executive decision and 1) they don't know what it was based on and 2) there's nothing to do about it- and then I was hung up on.
I spoke to a friend about this and he told me the following. He is a programmer at a big online trading company, he said that he knows that their systems have alerts to flag people who are either generating little income for the company or costing them money. If somebody gets flagged one time, they set another parameter and if flagged again they unilaterally kicked off the site. I believe a similar thing happened to me here.
Question- is there any legal recourse? I realize it's their "ball" and they can do what they want- the t&c are set up so they can shut down/ cancel everybody's acct. tomorrow for no cause, but there must be some good faith that should be binding to them. I would be really pissed if I bought points and then they were all forfeited w/ no warning for no obvious cause of violation of t&c of the program. I lost over 100K points but 80K was from cc signup and the rest was from bonuses b/c BRG claims were processed as qualifying stays (I paid and then was reimbursed). I lost the remainder of my free nights, I bought plane tickets based on them. Suffice it to say I am notahappycamper.
And be forewarned- always remember to earn and burn with all loyalty programs they can and do cancel on you when you get "too expensive", got to write off debt somehow I guess.

craz

Id say you have as much of a chance as a person who had their CC closed on them and lost their pts, eg Amex MR pts , Diners pts where they stay with the program unlike say Chase UA CC where the pts get transfererd to UA after every statement

I know several folks who had their Amex accts closed and not 1 was able to get any of the pts in their acct. Same with airlines if they shut you down (caught selling your miles)

Dave Noble

If I had to guess ( which is all that can be done here ), I would go that IHG is viewing that someone doing nearly 1 BRG a week is abusing the systems

notahappycamper

Thanks for the quick reply. Bottom line it's a business and "if you ain't making us money we don't want you" is the philosophy- nothing do with what's the right thing to do.
I just want to cash in all my millions of points (especially factoring in devaluation) today, transferring doesn't help as the next program can shut me down for no cause. That being said I think there are diff. tiers- Marriott and SPG I think would at least have a conversation, IHG and Choice will just shut you down for no cause, no reason no nothing- not even a "don't let the door hit you on the way out". That level of concern would be way too generous of them.

notahappycamper

Reading through the BRG thread it's clear some people are doing 40-50 a year. I think it's completely not correct to make up some arbitrary number and not put it in the t&c and then say "oh yeah, that's an abuse". Kind of like punishing people for making pornography and saying "I don't know how to define what pornography is but I know it when I see it". The good old supremes.

craz

The 40-50 is that all they are doing or do they also have plenty of non BRG stays? How many non BRG stays did you have?

I dont think they have to spell out exactly what they consider abuse to be. No different then when a Charge card tells me theres no credit limit on my spending.Then bingo my purchase gets denied reason,I went over my limit.I told them well I caleld and asked and was told there was no limit, to which they said thats correct but we do have in place a certain amount anyway to which a person can go over by 10%. Go over that magical # a 2nd time and youre closed down

notahappycamper

Yes I know I don't give them the big bucks, only 1 paid stay all year.
I think the analogy of the charge card is apropos, which is why I never signed up for one. I don't deal well with unknowns that are made up by other people and I am at the mercy of their judgement. No appeals and no recourse, they can do whatever they want- judge, jury, and executioner.
I recently got denied by Chase b/c they said I had been applying for too many cc and they wanted to see more "history". When I asked what does that mean, I got a very vague response- it's not just time it's also how many transactions, how much credit I'm using (i.e. how much money are they making off of me)... So there's no set criteria they can articulate to me, I guess it just depends on the mood of the rep. you speak with- fight with my husband- no cc, daughter got engaged-you can get as many cc as you like.
Even an art should have some sort of science to it, something they can share- it's not like they're bottling Coke.

FlyingHigh20

While I agree with some, that 25 BRG's probably is bordering on abuse and taking advantage of a program on a level that it was not meant to be used....at the same time, IHG as a responsibility as an ethical business, to disclose why a decision was to close somebody's account, and properly reimburse them for all points earned, especially those as a result of a signup of a credit card. Despite what the terms/conditions may say as part of the loyalty program, most local laws prevent companies from being ambiguous in specific reasons such as this as they could involve closures due to racial/religious/gender biases and discrimination.

If you have the time, I would elevate this further, stating clearly to IHG that you are either requesting reimbursement or the re-in-statement of the points you earned, or a clear reason as to why your points were taken away. If not, make it very clear to them that you will be seeking counsel due to their inability to provide an adequate explanation that is within the bounds of the law. Half the time, these issues are created by ill informed middle management employees who are painfully unaware of their legal obligations. Since you gained the majority of your points through a credit card signup that IHG was reimbursed for by the credit card issuer, it's a fairly easy case to prove in court that they have an obligation to honor those points in the absence of providing a response for the cancellation of your account; otherwise it's a bait and switch.

scubaccr

I do not believe you are canned for 25x brg's and only one paid stay, although I would agree that in that case ihg do not need your business. Something about your brg night pattern you have not shared with us may be the reason, eg before last t+c changes brg'ing mon/wed/fri nights at same hotel in same week , or maybe taking advantage of nyc blogged hotel for multiple nights.

As far as i read things, although you paid for BRG nights upfront, and was then reimbursed, under ihg t+c's you are aware you are not entitled to those points.

ihg will have reviewed your account because of some unreasonable (to them) pattern of abuse of the intent of the brg program, which is intended as a price match/guarantee, not free night program, openly manipulated by some brg-ers booking only single night stays.

Having revieweed and noticed all the points from brg stays you should not have, ihg are entitled to take those points away. Your closure could be for many reasons, including that ihg cant reclaim the points as you spent them.

MrHalliday

There ya go !
Claim discrimination... that will get their attention !!

FlyingHigh20

I'm not advocating or suggesting that by any means; mentioning possible discrimination is just the supporting idea behind the fact that businesses have to be fully transparent, by law, on their reasons if they choose to refuse to do business with any individuals. Despite what the ToC's may say, local laws trump all that first and foremost. The IHG reps whom claimed they could not discuss this issue and it would not be discussed further clearly aren't versed in this law (then again, they maybe based outside the US, therefore unaware of such legal obligations).

Dave Noble

Local laws in countries where I live allow any company to choose not to do business with a person simply on the grounds that they do not want to

As long as the reason is not to do with things like race etc then there needs no reason other then "we choose not to do business with this person" - no need to justify anything

I doubt very much that would be able to point to a pattern of IHG closing accounts to people based on restricted reasons

25 BRGs with 1 paid stay during this calendar year would seem to be reasonable for IHG to view the person as someone they prefer not to do business with

How many stays of this nature in previous years?

uk1

notahappycamper

Whilst I don't quite agree with the description that you are abusing the system - you are merely using the system more than IHG want you to - you have made yourself a customer that IHG chooses to no longer do business with because you have created a situation where they realise that they cannot make money out of you or you are a nusiance to them. In another way, if IHG has set a level of profit it needs and expects to make for it's shareholders, then this means that other stakeholders ie customers and shareholders are effectively "subsidising" your stays. It makes it perfectly rational and legal to decide they no longer want your future business.

The majority of organisations in most countries are allowed to choose who they do or do not do business with as long as when they choose not to it doesn't breach any other specific law such as prejeudice laws based on sex, sexual orientation, race or religion - or as long as they do not supply life dependent utilities where no other supplier exists.

You haven't said which country you are based in and therefore which country the bookings were finalised in. So, there remains a potential and academic grey area in the cancelling of existing claims that were previously accepted, and it is arguable that if a contract has been made, that in some countries including the UK and Australia, for example - any contract term that allows IHG to cancel a reservation may be unenforceable. Australia and the UK have specific laws making unfair contract terms unenforeceable so it may be that cancelling an existing contract once it has clearly been confirmed, may be an unenforceable contract term. However ..... the problem with that one is that anyone here including myself can only express an opinion but you won't know for sure unless you pursue it to court and that is simply too much bother for any sensible person.

I suggest in future perhaps a bit of moderation would be better for you?

GUWonder

... that's not what the FTer was suggesting.

When a loyalty program operator closes an account without demonstrating a specific violation of the T&Cs of the program, there are various courses of action (or inaction) that could be taken by the person whose account was closed -- when it comes to fruitful the course of action/inaction will be, YMMV.

Some people have done large number of BRGs in a year with IHG and still have open accounts with IHG; so maybe IHG thinks something else is wrong beyond just the BRGs.

uk1

This does seem right.

IHG need not provide any justifaction for simply closing an account to future business. However if there is "open business" ie bookings or agreed BRG claims then it needs to justify and explain what breaches have taken place to justify nulling transactions.