Jun 24, 2014, 2:19 am
Last edit by: soitgoes
IHG Account Termination Fact Summary
1) IHG has been terminating accounts due to abuse since approximately 2010 (#244).
2) IHG account terminations happen suddenly and without warning. If your account is terminated, you will not be able to login. You will have to call customer service, who will either reinstate your account and warn you, or refer your case to another office, in which case your account is probably permamently closed.
3) No one except for IHG knows exactly what the trigger for account cancellation is. The reason given is usually excessive use of promo codes. In the past, it was thought that most of the people who got their accounts canceled was due to either selling points or excessive point break bookings, but it appears that mere registration of promo codes now can sometimes trigger a cancellation.
Who has gotten their account terminated?
(If you, or someone you know has got their account terminated, please list your username here, and reference the post you made on this thread).
bgmike (#1)
lcpteck (#5)
DavidAL - father - (#85)
Dolphinyong - friend - (#155)
Bakkie (#180)
Tim O'Brien (#187) reinstated
chongcao - good summary, esp. of events from flyertea forum (#244)
soitgoes (#262) deactivated temporarily; reactivated after phone call
travelismylife - brother inlaw - (#329)
Also, LoyaltyLobby has a number of data points in the comment thread.
FlyerTea (a Chinese site) also has a number of data points.
What do we know about terminations
1) The usual reason IHG gives is non-targeted promo code usage. We don't know which promo codes IHG considers invalid, although IHG told Bakke (#180), that he used a code that was supposed to be for platinum members when he was not.
2) Status does not matter. Gold members, Platinum members, even RAs have all had their account terminated.
3) Credit card does not matter. Some people terminated did not have the IHG Chase card, some did, for more than 3 years (#329).
4) Stay history does not matter. Some people had their accounts terminated before any stay, some had their accounts terminated after one stay that accrued many points, and some had a history of lot of paid stays.
5) Termination usually doesn't cause a loss of booked nights. Apparently, even though your points are gone, any nights reserved stay booked in the system.
6) Some account terminations are caused by calling customer service on incorrectly credited nights. A number of people who had their accounts terminated called in on a stay that posted as non-qualifying, only to have their account cancelled shortly thereafter.
IHG Terms and Conditions downloadable PDF, including:
1) IHG has been terminating accounts due to abuse since approximately 2010 (#244).
2) IHG account terminations happen suddenly and without warning. If your account is terminated, you will not be able to login. You will have to call customer service, who will either reinstate your account and warn you, or refer your case to another office, in which case your account is probably permamently closed.
3) No one except for IHG knows exactly what the trigger for account cancellation is. The reason given is usually excessive use of promo codes. In the past, it was thought that most of the people who got their accounts canceled was due to either selling points or excessive point break bookings, but it appears that mere registration of promo codes now can sometimes trigger a cancellation.
Who has gotten their account terminated?
(If you, or someone you know has got their account terminated, please list your username here, and reference the post you made on this thread).
bgmike (#1)
lcpteck (#5)
DavidAL - father - (#85)
Dolphinyong - friend - (#155)
Bakkie (#180)
Tim O'Brien (#187) reinstated
chongcao - good summary, esp. of events from flyertea forum (#244)
soitgoes (#262) deactivated temporarily; reactivated after phone call
travelismylife - brother inlaw - (#329)
Also, LoyaltyLobby has a number of data points in the comment thread.
FlyerTea (a Chinese site) also has a number of data points.
What do we know about terminations
1) The usual reason IHG gives is non-targeted promo code usage. We don't know which promo codes IHG considers invalid, although IHG told Bakke (#180), that he used a code that was supposed to be for platinum members when he was not.
2) Status does not matter. Gold members, Platinum members, even RAs have all had their account terminated.
3) Credit card does not matter. Some people terminated did not have the IHG Chase card, some did, for more than 3 years (#329).
4) Stay history does not matter. Some people had their accounts terminated before any stay, some had their accounts terminated after one stay that accrued many points, and some had a history of lot of paid stays.
5) Termination usually doesn't cause a loss of booked nights. Apparently, even though your points are gone, any nights reserved stay booked in the system.
6) Some account terminations are caused by calling customer service on incorrectly credited nights. A number of people who had their accounts terminated called in on a stay that posted as non-qualifying, only to have their account cancelled shortly thereafter.
IHG Terms and Conditions downloadable PDF, including:
4. Membership Cancellation. SCH reserves the right to cancel any IHG®Rewards Club membership and revoke any and all unredeemed IHG® Rewards Club points collected by any member for reasons that include, but are not limited to: 1) violation of these Terms and Conditions; 2) misrepresentation of any information or any misuse of this Program; 3) violation of any national, state or local law or regulation in connection with the use of membership privileges; 4) failure to pay for hotel charges; 5) a check to a participating hotel brand that is returned for insufficient funds or is invalid for any reason; 6) commission of fraud or abuse involving any portion of this Program; 7) more than one active account per member; or 8) physical, verbal, or written abuse of hotel or IHG personnel; or 9) action, in any other way, to the detriment of the Program or any of its alliances; all as may be determined by SCH in its sole discretion.
IHG Account Terminated (after registering for several promotion codes)
Jun 3, 2014, 4:58 pm
#46
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: FLL / BKK
Posts: 703
The days of free for all IHG points are gone. I'm glad I got as much out of it as I did. I haven't had a promo code work for me in the last 9 months. They have clamped down. I have to admit on some stays I found the amount of points awarded to be astonishing. I'm sitting on a ton of points and will tread lightly until they are gone.
Jun 3, 2014, 5:03 pm
#47
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Somewhere in Europe
Posts: 3,362
From previous threads about this type of thing the singular stay or only a handful does appear to be a trend.
Others have said it in the past, perhaps they are correct - the only money IHG appear to be making from you is the points your CC issuer has effectively bought to credit your account and one single stay.
Others have said it in the past, perhaps they are correct - the only money IHG appear to be making from you is the points your CC issuer has effectively bought to credit your account and one single stay.
Jun 3, 2014, 5:35 pm
#48
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
1) People aren't trying random combinations, they're trying promotion codes posted on a website where others said it worked for them. Whats more, you actually have to pay money (i.e. stay at the hotel and pay for a night) for you to derive ANY benefit. Where does your analogy capture that?
2) There is not a intent to deceive, steal or defraud here. I think that people are quite honestly using codes that they thought they were entitled to, since flyertalk and some blogs basically post the codes as if everyone is entitled to them. So it turns out that IHG says they were not entitled to it. Well, I think most companies would have just said whoops, we adjusted your account, our prevented that "accidental" registration from happening in the first place.
3) You do realize that given your e-mail or member number, anyone could register for a promo code in your name... without your 'PIN'...
Jun 3, 2014, 5:40 pm
#49
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
From previous threads about this type of thing the singular stay or only a handful does appear to be a trend.
Others have said it in the past, perhaps they are correct - the only money IHG appear to be making from you is the points your CC issuer has effectively bought to credit your account and one single stay.
Others have said it in the past, perhaps they are correct - the only money IHG appear to be making from you is the points your CC issuer has effectively bought to credit your account and one single stay.
I think that IHG is just using 'fraud' as an excuse to close down unprofitable accounts. Most likely they are running a revenue analysis of some sort and discovering unprofitable accounts and closing them, then using fraud as a catch-all excuse for the closures.
I don't think many RAs or any AMBs were affected by this, even though many of them probably register for all the promos posted on FT. Probably because they have a good # of paid stays that keeps the rev in the green.
Jun 3, 2014, 6:02 pm
#50
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,908
This is an unusual point of view in this day and age. Every time I shop online I search for discount codes on the web and promptly use them 10% off here 20% there etc. That's how internet marketing gets me to buy a product from a particular store.
In a similar fashion I see nothing wrong with finding promotional codes for hotel stays that can get me to book there. If a provider wanted to stop unauthorized use they would have issued one time use codes or tie them to targeted accounts however ich does not pursue that.
Jun 3, 2014, 6:23 pm
#51
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,597
Jun 3, 2014, 6:31 pm
#52
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
You can't steal a promo, it's not a tangible thing to be stolen.
Perhaps a better example might be going to disneyland and purchasing a child's ticket as an adult, then getting booted from the park for lying, but that isn't even quite right - that has a element of lying which is not present in the original - let's refine it further with the theme park example:
It's more like somebody gave me a secret password (maybe a friend, maybe a deal website) to give to the disneyland ticket agent, and in addition to my ticket and one free voucher for a future day at the park, I get a voucher for another day at the park. Then, after my stay at the park, disneyland management coming up to me and taking back both vouchers from me (by force?) claiming that I wasn't supposed to have the password. Oh and then, they also go and rip up all the other vouchers that I have collected from them (maybe using different passwords, or no passwords at all), and also they tear up the VIP pass they gave me for being loyal to disneyland.
That good enough for those who wanted an analogy????
Last edited by no2chem; Jun 3, 2014 at 6:45 pm
Jun 3, 2014, 6:41 pm
#53
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,597
I cannot see how anyone can argue that there is eligability in using codes that they have not be advertised by IHG nor directly sent to them
As far as the theme park , it is equivalent of the vouchers being removed and also being barred from future visits. There is nothing wrong with a bark banning someone
Jun 3, 2014, 6:50 pm
#54
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
The person paid for a hotel stay in order to stay at the hotel. Points are an incidental earning.
I cannot see how anyone can argue that there is eligability in using codes that they have not be advertised by IHG nor directly sent to them
As far as the theme park , it is equivalent of the vouchers being removed and also being barred from future visits. There is nothing wrong with a bark banning someone
I cannot see how anyone can argue that there is eligability in using codes that they have not be advertised by IHG nor directly sent to them
As far as the theme park , it is equivalent of the vouchers being removed and also being barred from future visits. There is nothing wrong with a bark banning someone
The problem is that IHG not only determined ineligibility, they decided to close his account, remove his status and effectively ban him from using IHG (you're not welcome here!). And that they could arbitrarily do that to any of us, any they seem to be arbitrarily and actively enforcing this.
While the park has every right to do that too, and I of course concde there is nothing wrong with the park banning someone, I guarantee you that a park would at most just say the voucher in question is void. The question is not about what IHG can do, it's about what they should have done.
Besides, I don't read every e-mail I get from IHG. Sometimes those get redirected to my spam folder. So when someone posts a promo code on FT, I assume that maybe that got lost in spam, and if I'm ineligible, IHG will tell me that when I register for the promo! Not close my account and remove all my points without any explanation!!!
Jun 3, 2014, 6:56 pm
#55
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 7,710
You only are told to enter your email and a 4-to-6 character code. Up to now, almost all promotion codes have been 4 character codes, so some people registered for a bunch simply by trying a whole bunch of random 4-character codes (without having seen any email that might have said "only available to the person to whom this email was sent"). Where does it say this is not allowed???
1) People aren't trying random combinations, they're trying promotion codes posted on a website where others said it worked for them. Whats more, you actually have to pay money (i.e. stay at the hotel and pay for a night) for you to derive ANY benefit. Where does your analogy capture that?
2) There is not a intent to deceive, steal or defraud here. I think that people are quite honestly using codes that they thought they were entitled to, since flyertalk and some blogs basically post the codes as if everyone is entitled to them. So it turns out that IHG says they were not entitled to it. Well, I think most companies would have just said whoops, we adjusted your account, our prevented that "accidental" registration from happening in the first place.
3) You do realize that given your e-mail or member number, anyone could register for a promo code in your name... without your 'PIN'...
IHG can't actively police tens of millions of accounts, so when they find a clear case of fraud they take action. It's easier to spot fraud on accounts with less activity, my account shows around 90 events in the recent activity section for 2014. Even I don't want to straighten it out, though I know hotels and Chase owe me a couple thousand points for welcome bonuses and not giving the 5x for IHG hotel charges. I can't imagine many IHG employees wanting to carefully audit active accounts and take responsibility for shutting down a frequent guest who will likely argue and appeal the decision.
The joys of the internet and certain street corners.
Jun 3, 2014, 7:10 pm
#56
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
(4)(2) misrepresentation of any information or any misuse of this Program;
Anyway, again IHG can choose to ban anyone for whatever reason. It's fully within their rights, as long as it doesn't violate the law (think discrimination). So if they wanted to ban anyone who wasn't yielding a revenue of at least $100/year, sure they can. The problem is that it seems that they do it arbitrarily, and as I said before:
I don't read every e-mail I get from IHG. Sometimes those get redirected to my spam folder. So when someone posts a promo code on FT, I assume that maybe that got lost in spam, and if I'm ineligible, IHG will tell me that when I register for the promo! Not close my account and remove all my points without any explanation!!!
Jun 3, 2014, 7:28 pm
#57
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 7,710
19. Program Violations. Program violations, suspected fraud or abuse in relation to point or mileage credit or reward usage is subject to appropriate administrative and/or legal action by appropriate governmental authorities and by SCH, including, without limitation, freezing your account the forfeiture of all point transfers, rewards, vouchers, or merchandise issued pursuant to point redemptions and any accrued points or miles in your account, as well as cancellation of the account and your future participation in the Program.
Jun 3, 2014, 7:37 pm
#58
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
That doesn't say:
That just says they can shut down accounts due to suspected fraud (or for any reason, really). I'm not contending that they can't shut down accounts for any reason.
Using promo codes that they didn't explicitly e-mail to you just isn't there, and as I explained earlier, I think that it would be unreasonable to consider this fraud. Obviously, IHG can do whatever they want. Reading flyertalk could be fraudulent, in their view.
The problem, again, is that it is all arbitrary without any due process.
you can't use promo codes that you weren't targeted for
Using promo codes that they didn't explicitly e-mail to you just isn't there, and as I explained earlier, I think that it would be unreasonable to consider this fraud. Obviously, IHG can do whatever they want. Reading flyertalk could be fraudulent, in their view.
The problem, again, is that it is all arbitrary without any due process.
Jun 3, 2014, 7:46 pm
#59
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 7,710
That just says they can shut down accounts due to suspected fraud (or for any reason, really). I'm not contending that they can't shut down accounts for any reason.
Using promo codes that they didn't explicitly e-mail to you just isn't there, and as I explained earlier, I think that it would be unreasonable to consider this fraud. Obviously, IHG can do whatever they want. Reading flyertalk could be fraudulent, in their view.
The problem, again, is that it is all arbitrary without any due process.
Using promo codes that they didn't explicitly e-mail to you just isn't there, and as I explained earlier, I think that it would be unreasonable to consider this fraud. Obviously, IHG can do whatever they want. Reading flyertalk could be fraudulent, in their view.
The problem, again, is that it is all arbitrary without any due process.
Jun 3, 2014, 8:12 pm
#60
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,597
For reasons stated above, I don't think that using promo codes from blogs or flyertalk really qualifies. I think it's a hard argument to say that every person who has entered in promo codes that weren't emailed to them were misrepresenting themselves. What happens if I get a promo code in the mail and I share it with my friend? IS he misrepresnting himself? I think a reasonable person would have to answer NO. The e-mail they sent to me didn't say "THIS IS YOUR PERSONAL PROMO CODE DONT SHARE WITH ANYONE", and the registration page doesn't say "ONLY ENTER PROMO CODES THAT HAVE BEEN SENT TO YOU" here.
There is no guarantee that the above mentioned codes are still working and you get the points; so do not blame your fellow flyertalkers and do not even think about calling Priority Club!
If all was ok and above board, why not contact IHG if things dont post?