With those maths skills you would be right at home in Dubbo :D Half of $770 is????

$385, still better than Dubbo so I still dont get the point even if I need a calc :D. Would be interesting to see what is the cost from the cellar door which is a shorter drive than Dubbo?

Mexican geography also not a strong point?

Given my statement was that if you live in the central west of NSW you might be better off going to Dubbo - getting to either the IC Adelaide or the cellar door of Penfolds in SA would be much more expensive than the $50 price difference of the wine.

If you come at the Priority Privilege online sign-up screen from a Google search or off a link from an Australian IHG property page the price is indeed A$289 shown here. The same screen from a link off a Kiwi property is NZ$295; here.

Hence posts elsewhere in this thread that you're better off signing up online using that second method, especially at $1.30 : $1.00 ...

My geography is fine being an ex Orange (Lewis Ponds) and Adelaide resident, the point of the promo is to attract wine lovers who are in Adelaide to dine at the IC, I don't think they are expecting people to make a special trip, especially as BWS had it cheaper two weeks ago, requiring a very short drive for most, albeit a different years vintage.

I must admit I don't pay too much attention to the dining specials, most are not worth reading.

No I will not. While you may find this funny (for reasons I do not, and do not profess, to understand), could you outline misleading telemarketing calls from all of those chains about "similar programs" for all of those chains.

You can't?

My point stands, then.

Don't be so presumptive, try a little research, you don't have to go far, in fact you don't have to leave flyertalk :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/4402914-post16.html :mad:

As for finding it funny, what I find laughable is that someone would ignore the benefits of a program that could leave a lot of dollars in their pocket just because of the way they attempt to sell it, especially a platinum member, which in most cases you done at least three or four nights! It's your call on the program, for me it's saved so much money that it's a no brainer.

And yes, the telemarketers were the same back in 1998 when the program was the pacific privilege card and the hotels were under the Centra/Parkroyal/Travelodge chain before SPHC was sold to Bass/ICHG.

It has already established and written here that these savings are not the case for my travel patterns. And you are trying to tell others not to be so presumptive!

If I had fallen for the pressure sales and blatantly misleading and deceptive claims, I would have not had the opportunity to analyse this for myself.

And one link to a six year old post does not make evidence of calls about programs for "all of those chains", of which you listed ten.

No I am saying you should not be presumptive in your assertions there was no evidence that other hotels were not affected, if you care to look there are plenty, I have already given an example for two brands, try searching:

Life & Style for Swissotel, Hilton Premium Club for Hilton, Club Gourmet for Shang Ri La, Mandarin Oriental Dine In Style, Husa Voila rewards, Raffles Feed at Raffles, they even have their own branded program for less chain based hotels - Clubhotel!

If you are going to blame IHG for HMCs woeful telemarketing, then dont signup as a frequent guest for any of the above hotels, you will just run into the same team :D.

A fool and his money are soon parted as they say, an ignorant/lazy fool just gets parted with their money quicker, while those that do the research get to enjoy the value of their work.

I, too, have got my money's worth out of this program. I use it to my advantage and usually find availability when and where I want at a decent price with and without the vouchers.

The telemarketers drive me crazy and even though my renewal date isn't until the end of July I have already received 6 emails to urge me to renew my membership "before I miss out".

But... I will not hesitate to renew when I am ready and at the very last minute just to annoy them!:D

Ditto - although you must wait longer than me given you've moved out to July :cool:

The emails came thick and fast this year. I am not sure how many 'last chances' I got !

I had an interesting chat earlier this year from a consultant.

SliceIt & CtC have certainly changed ICH to my second tier preferred chain after Hilton (it was Accor).

However, the pressure sales endeavours indicated by ntddevsys is typical of the industry. (When I gave Accor Advantage Plus the flick, it elicited almost weekly contact from their sales reps for almost three months.:rolleyes:)

I find the early renewal offers pretty lame, "go into a draw to win 1000 priority club points." Given the ease with which they hand out points it's not that enticing.

Agreed - it certainly didn't tempt me to sign up two-three months early.

Yes, it's a joke, isn't it? :rolleyes: