soitgoes

Yeah, I'm very worried about an impending massive devaluation in the form of point increases for redemptions.

mahajanvikas

No, I did not "earn" these by staying nights, simply purchasing (via booking P+C reward nights and then cancelling).

mahajanvikas

Exactly my thoughts.

As mentioned above, purchased points count towards status, so if I have purchased points for part of the stay, surely that part should count towards status.
Another FT member started with just 9000 points and purchased 55,000 points via this method and it showed his status change to GOLD instantly! And the total points shown is 64000. However Earnings for 2009 show as 49,000 and status stuck at Gold.

So it looks to me that these purchases DO COUNT towards status but there is also a limit of 40,000 points per year counting towards status! Hence the above result for the other FTer.

fwfdan

I do not see this post you reference... am I missing something?

My experience -

Before booking a stay for three nights
Points earned in 2009 - 36,734

After booking the stay (did not cancel)
Points earned in 2009 - 36,734

Room was booked a few days ago.... the 30k do not seem to count towards status. No points, other than the 30,000, were purchased in 2009 (or for that matter, ever).


FWFDAN

markdg

Gosh - I think I might need to play this evening!

tkyoshi

When did you do your "purchase", they seem to have plugged the loophole the night of Jun 16.

I have had the same experience as fwfdan and others who tried it after Jun 16 onwards.

jimthehorsegod

I wasn't directing my comment at you, or anyone else in particular, and neither do I blame anyone taking advantage of the way the system is set up - if I needed points then I'd consider it myself.

What I mean is that *plainly* the intention was that your $30 or $60 or whatever is intended to subsidise a hotel stay - to bridge the gap between some points. It is equally plain that the system was not designed for people to book and then cancel, with no intention of using the stay and solely as a means of purchasing points cheaply (whether or not it functions that way)

If you don't like the word 'cheating' then I'll go with 'gaming' the system. I'm not having a go at anyone doing it, but I would feel at least a little anxiety about jetting off on a thousand mile flight to a reward night if I'd manipulated the program to earn it!

mahajanvikas

Could be that it is plugged now as I have not tried it any further. I "purchased" the points on the night of 11th-12th June.

MrHalliday

I think "gaming" is a preferable description.

Much of FT is about gaming the system...
Airlines have no "intention" of publishing mistake fares.

As any deal develops, there are often posts that decry the "gaming", what I will call the "morality hijack".
It can quickly send a useful thread into a massive tailspin.

I have no fear of jetting far away to use these points.
No rules were broken; no accounts should be in jeopardy.

In fact, should IHG have a problem with any of this,
I would be most pleased to reverse all
my point purchases and take the cash back.
Especially those I purchased at 1.1 cpm.

This "game" is not so obviously in my favor.
In the end I may have gamed myself,
and paid good bux for not-so-valuable points.

satori

MrHalliday is a consumer who tested the parameters of the hotel loyalty program. By no means is it cheating.

IHG can change the rules at anytime.

Gaming the system - sure. That is the beauty of FlyerTalk in that we have a forum to share ideas for gaming the system of travel to get a better value.

The capitalist structure of corporate hotel chains is a game of skimming enough cream off the profit margin to keep investors happy.

The consumer structure using social media is such that travelers try and skim a little more value out of our hotel expenditures.

Getting the best value out of your consumer purchases can be called gaming or cheating by some and smart shopping by others.

jason8612

does the trick still work?

soitgoes

Not for status points, but for earned points, I believe so.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

As I posted in a thread on the SPG forum, it may even be PROFITABLE for PCR/IHG even if people just buy points at .6cpp. The low occupancy (95% full or less) reimbursement rates are $20-$100 (plus tax). The amount PCR collects from Cash & Points sales is $30 (5K PointBreaks) to $240 (40K IC after 1000/2% nights on award stays). With most hotels experiencing low occupancy, PCR may do quite nicely with this scheme. Hotels, however, would be less pleased I think (no limit cheap points may cannibalize revenue stays at a much higher rate than under the previous system). This would seem to hurt PCR only by cannibalizing existing point purchases at about twice the rate.

Though I don't begrudge anyone for gaming the system, I really see this as a dangerous thing for point inflation and hope the loophole is closed. Given the above, unless hotels complain, it may not be closed for now.

KathyWdrf

I have now dipped my toe in and have this somewhat unique experience (from yesterday) to report:

I decided to be cautious and start out by booking online just ONE night at a 15,000-point property, selecting the option to withdraw 5,000 points from my account and purchase 10,000 points for $60.

When I confirmed the transaction, something went wrong with the website (it seemed to hang) and I was unable to complete the reservation. Then, upon trying to re-login to the system (repeatedly), it wouldn't let me. I finally phoned customer service and learned that they were in the middle of updating/upgrading the website in some way, and the inability to log in or complete reservations was a known problem. In fact, the CSR himself didn't have the ability to make reservations either. He recommended waiting a couple of hours before trying to login again. So I waited a couple hours.

When I finally tried again, no problem logging in. But here are the results of my attempt at making a points and cash reservation: NO reservation. NO points deducted from my account. BUT I have an additional 10,000 points in my account, and there is a line item on my Account Activity page as follows:

19 Jun 2009 POINTS AND CASH 1 NIGHT- $60 10000 pts. 10000 pts.

So, the end result is what I wanted anyway! I didn't have to cancel any reservation. The website glitch took care of that.

Oh, and NO elite status credit for the 10,000 points. But I expected that, based on the more recent posts on this thread.

I found this both frustrating -- i.e., if the website is undergoing updates and isn't really usable, why the heck isn't there some notice of that prominently posted? -- and amusing -- the glitch turned out in my favor.

(Yeah, I realize all the hotel chains have website problems of one sort or another. This is the first time I've benefited from such.)

sdsearch

Meanwhile, if you're not in it for cancelling , let's try to find the most ridiculous redemption. Can there be one which costs more than reserving the hotel outright?

In the Anaheim, CA area, I've come up with properties that cost under $70 "Best Available" rate search, and yet offer you 15k or 10k+$30 or 5k+$60. So if you weren't going to cancel, that would seem to be paying 5k points to save only $10, which seems like a rather lousy deal!

(You have to do separate searches to find "Best Available" vs "Reward Night", so if you're not familiar with an area you might not be aware of how lousy the deal is for non-cancellers.)

Of course, that points out that a $70 property is not necessarily the best use of 15k points to begin with, but it's still nowhere near as bad a return on points value to use 15k points for $70 as 5k points for $10!

Brendan

Sd, worse yet, some hotels rent rooms @ $80--100 but for some weird reason want 25K ppn ! So $60 + 15K would be the supreme idiocy! Plus the non-earning of points and stay/night credit!