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)
Nov 3, 2014, 7:48 pm
#721
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Join Date: Oct 2014
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and most every hotel site has boxes to be checked when making a res for govt rates, seniors,AAA, corp code (rate). I guess if a person is carded at check-in all they have to say is well when I booked your site had a box to check or fill in, if it was only for those who had proper ID you never should have had those boxes available to the general public.
Nov 3, 2014, 11:59 pm
#722
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 123
There are laws against murder, written down
There are laws against theft, written down.
There wasn't anything in the terms & conditions against using promo codes, as previously stated they had a drop down box stating you got it from a forum, therefore where is the fraud in this.
They now have it in the t&c's, so you take the risk if you use it. It's not fraud, it's against their t&c's.
If people have got their codes from this site they wouls now see IHG practices have changed, so anyone using them must do so at their own risk.
There are laws against theft, written down.
There wasn't anything in the terms & conditions against using promo codes, as previously stated they had a drop down box stating you got it from a forum, therefore where is the fraud in this.
They now have it in the t&c's, so you take the risk if you use it. It's not fraud, it's against their t&c's.
If people have got their codes from this site they wouls now see IHG practices have changed, so anyone using them must do so at their own risk.
Nov 4, 2014, 3:31 am
#723
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Nov 4, 2014, 3:42 am
#724
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but njupintheair is right....no need to beat this to death....they allowed it earlier & they don't now....in an ideal world everyone would read all the t&c before signing up for everything but it doesn't work that way....it is not unreasonable to think that something that was allowed up till recently would no longer be allowed now without any intimation of the change by ihg....but then again, ihg doesn't really work reasonably so i guess that's that....
Nov 4, 2014, 4:27 am
#725
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Posts: 44,552
Some promotions are public promotions , others are targetted ; for a public promotion , it doesn't matter where it came from
Nov 4, 2014, 5:02 am
#726
Join Date: Aug 2005
Programs: UA*G(1K), PC Diamond Amb, Marriott Titanium, Accor Platinum
Posts: 4,667
Then they started terminating accounts.
Then they changed their T&Cs.
HTB.
Nov 4, 2014, 5:06 am
#727
Join Date: Aug 2005
Programs: UA*G(1K), PC Diamond Amb, Marriott Titanium, Accor Platinum
Posts: 4,667
and most every hotel site has boxes to be checked when making a res for govt rates, seniors,AAA, corp code (rate). I guess if a person is carded at check-in all they have to say is well when I booked your site had a box to check or fill in, if it was only for those who had proper ID you never should have had those boxes available to the general public.
HTB.
Nov 6, 2014, 2:02 am
#728
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another colleague from my office opened up a new account & signed up for all the codes last week....his stay posted a couple of days ago & he got about 20k points for a one night stay....so closure of account so far....its strange how they would cancel some accounts & not others....
Nov 6, 2014, 8:00 am
#729
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 4,477
another colleague from my office opened up a new account & signed up for all the codes last week....his stay posted a couple of days ago & he got about 20k points for a one night stay....so closure of account so far....its strange how they would cancel some accounts & not others....
Nov 6, 2014, 11:22 am
#730
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Nov 9, 2014, 3:26 pm
#731
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 5,651
They should give a specific advance warning with a specific reason.
Nov 10, 2014, 10:19 am
#733
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Going forward, and as of now, they have done so. Apparently some folks don't like what they're hearing and are in a bit of denial.
Trust me, I don't like that they're closing accounts. I think it's unfair - I don't think the punishment fits the crime. But cheating the system, is breaking he rules. The rules aren't being bent, they're being broken. So, it's just a loophole that can't be exploited going forward.
Trust me, I don't like that they're closing accounts. I think it's unfair - I don't think the punishment fits the crime. But cheating the system, is breaking he rules. The rules aren't being bent, they're being broken. So, it's just a loophole that can't be exploited going forward.
Last edited by fireworksboy; Nov 10, 2014 at 10:29 am
Nov 11, 2014, 8:20 am
#734
In memoriam
Join Date: Jan 2009
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Posts: 1,457
To be clear here...
In 2013 (and earlier) when registering a code you had to answer the drop down box indicating "where you learned about the promo". Amongst the available answers were IHG website, IHG mailing, Hotel, friends and specifically "Intenet forum". Every time I registered codes utilised from FT I answered the source correctly, as Internet forum. As far as I'm concerned this behaviour was acceptable to IHG.
Now it's not.
I accept that.
I'm now burning my considerable points stash and don't see IHG as a competitive program any longer, it's point was points, without the ability to use codes other than those specifically offered the scheme loses its edge. But it's IHGs scheme, and IHGs game. And IHG are entitled pick up the roulette table and walk off with it. They are not entitled to my chips however and were they to try to seize my leigitamately earned points I would certainly fight the decision and feel confident I'm in the right.
This issue isn't about what IHG have done, closed the accounts of those in contravention of their rules, but the order in which they're doing it. If I do now what I was doing last year I'd be in contravention of the rules and "may" find my account seized... Fair enough. But as I'm not, and when I was registering for multiple codes it was accepted behaviour, any closure of my account this year on the basis of code-stacking last would be wrong as it wasnt in contravention of the rules, and indeed the fact that IHG decided to change the T&Cs wording appears to bear this out... If it was already against the rules in 2013, why was it necessary to change the T&Cs to make it against the rules in 2014?
In 2013 (and earlier) when registering a code you had to answer the drop down box indicating "where you learned about the promo". Amongst the available answers were IHG website, IHG mailing, Hotel, friends and specifically "Intenet forum". Every time I registered codes utilised from FT I answered the source correctly, as Internet forum. As far as I'm concerned this behaviour was acceptable to IHG.
Now it's not.
I accept that.
I'm now burning my considerable points stash and don't see IHG as a competitive program any longer, it's point was points, without the ability to use codes other than those specifically offered the scheme loses its edge. But it's IHGs scheme, and IHGs game. And IHG are entitled pick up the roulette table and walk off with it. They are not entitled to my chips however and were they to try to seize my leigitamately earned points I would certainly fight the decision and feel confident I'm in the right.
This issue isn't about what IHG have done, closed the accounts of those in contravention of their rules, but the order in which they're doing it. If I do now what I was doing last year I'd be in contravention of the rules and "may" find my account seized... Fair enough. But as I'm not, and when I was registering for multiple codes it was accepted behaviour, any closure of my account this year on the basis of code-stacking last would be wrong as it wasnt in contravention of the rules, and indeed the fact that IHG decided to change the T&Cs wording appears to bear this out... If it was already against the rules in 2013, why was it necessary to change the T&Cs to make it against the rules in 2014?
Nov 11, 2014, 11:33 am
#735
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