Apr 12, 2018, 8:50 pm
Last edit by: beachmouse
Another quarter, another Accelerate. Answers to some Frequently Asked Questions below:
For newcomers to IHG promotions, note that Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn (including Holiday Inn Resorts) are two different brand categories for these things. If your dashboard says 'stay at a Holiday Inn Express' as one of the tasks and you stay at a Holiday Inn, it will NOT credit for the Holiday Inn Express task. (and vice versa)
For a task that says 'Stay X number of times at a Holiday Inn Express' (or Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, etc.) each stay must be at a different property for it to fully credit rather than staying at the same property multiple times.
An award stay only counts toward a task that specifically requires an award stay and will not count toward other tasks and night requirements for the purposes of the promotion. (Award stays do count toward general elite qualification, but that's outside this promotion)
'Redeem points' award nights only count for the 'redeem points' task and no other tasks. (example- an award night does not count toward 'Stay X number of nights')
At IHG, points + cash stays are simply points stays where you bought some of the points at the time of the reservation. Once you finish the reservation, a points + cash stay shows as a points stay. Thus points + cash stays only count for tasks where they are specified, and not other tasks.
Doing a points + cash booking and then cancelling it does NOT trigger a 'buy points' task completion. A 'buy points' task is a points transaction that is processed through points.com
The 'pay with your IHG credit card' task has typically been very slow to post. If it does within about two weeks of completing a stay, that's relatively quick, and it will often be several weeks beyond that, depending on when your statement closing date is and how IHG's system sweep is timed.
Some offers require booking within the promotion period in addition to staying during the promotion period.
Registration & dashboard link:
https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/offers/q2accelerate2018
For newcomers to IHG promotions, note that Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn (including Holiday Inn Resorts) are two different brand categories for these things. If your dashboard says 'stay at a Holiday Inn Express' as one of the tasks and you stay at a Holiday Inn, it will NOT credit for the Holiday Inn Express task. (and vice versa)
For a task that says 'Stay X number of times at a Holiday Inn Express' (or Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, etc.) each stay must be at a different property for it to fully credit rather than staying at the same property multiple times.
An award stay only counts toward a task that specifically requires an award stay and will not count toward other tasks and night requirements for the purposes of the promotion. (Award stays do count toward general elite qualification, but that's outside this promotion)
'Redeem points' award nights only count for the 'redeem points' task and no other tasks. (example- an award night does not count toward 'Stay X number of nights')
At IHG, points + cash stays are simply points stays where you bought some of the points at the time of the reservation. Once you finish the reservation, a points + cash stay shows as a points stay. Thus points + cash stays only count for tasks where they are specified, and not other tasks.
Doing a points + cash booking and then cancelling it does NOT trigger a 'buy points' task completion. A 'buy points' task is a points transaction that is processed through points.com
The 'pay with your IHG credit card' task has typically been very slow to post. If it does within about two weeks of completing a stay, that's relatively quick, and it will often be several weeks beyond that, depending on when your statement closing date is and how IHG's system sweep is timed.
Some offers require booking within the promotion period in addition to staying during the promotion period.
Registration & dashboard link:
https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/offers/q2accelerate2018
Accelerate 1 May 2018 - 31 July 2018
Jul 9, 2018, 3:33 pm
#271
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: UA*S A3*G TK *G EY G AA G RJ Gold IHG Spire Amb HH DIamond Marriott Gold BW DIAMOND SELECT
Posts: 60
For the last couple of years, I have printed out my quarterly accelerate offers because they show"hidden" offers for a stay in the second and third months. I always have to call and have them manually added, they always admit that they can see them on their end even though they are not present on my dashboard. When I called IHG now, I got 3 supervisors and a manager stating that if you stay the first month the subsequent month offers drop off and are not valid. Any of my attempts to explain that this did not make sense since there would be no incentive for extra stays for those of us who complete our accelerate offers fell on deaf ears. Additionally, such an unwritten rule would be dishonest and probably illegal. Any suggestions?
Jul 9, 2018, 4:17 pm
#272
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sunny AZ
Programs: HH Diamond, Sixt Platinum, IHG Spire Ambassador, Marriott/SPG Gold .....
Posts: 3,213
For the last couple of years, I have printed out my quarterly accelerate offers because they show"hidden" offers for a stay in the second and third months. I always have to call and have them manually added, they always admit that they can see them on their end even though they are not present on my dashboard. When I called IHG now, I got 3 supervisors and a manager stating that if you stay the first month the subsequent month offers drop off and are not valid. Any of my attempts to explain that this did not make sense since there would be no incentive for extra stays for those of us who complete our accelerate offers fell on deaf ears. Additionally, such an unwritten rule would be dishonest and probably illegal. Any suggestions?
How can this be illegal? It is their T&C and they chose (or chose not to) give you an additional incentive. There is no law that they have to do that at all.
Jul 10, 2018, 5:06 am
#274
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 4,477
For the last couple of years, I have printed out my quarterly accelerate offers because they show"hidden" offers for a stay in the second and third months. I always have to call and have them manually added, they always admit that they can see them on their end even though they are not present on my dashboard. When I called IHG now, I got 3 supervisors and a manager stating that if you stay the first month the subsequent month offers drop off and are not valid. Any of my attempts to explain that this did not make sense since there would be no incentive for extra stays for those of us who complete our accelerate offers fell on deaf ears. Additionally, such an unwritten rule would be dishonest and probably illegal. Any suggestions?
The idea behind the subsequent first month bonus offer is to encourage people to join the promotion even at late. let us say, member X missed the promotion in May and only registered in June. Then member X would still get the first month bonus offer in June rather than May for most members. It was a fair design for all members regardless when they register to participate the bonus. Unfortunately your browser showed up all first month bonus offer which is not designed to.
It is an infamous IHG IT glitch, let it go. And to most of the people here, a working and updated browser would never show the subsequent monthly offer any way.
Jul 10, 2018, 7:12 am
#275
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: UA*S A3*G TK *G EY G AA G RJ Gold IHG Spire Amb HH DIamond Marriott Gold BW DIAMOND SELECT
Posts: 60
It was an IT glitch to show First Month bonus offer across the whole promotion period.
The idea behind the subsequent first month bonus offer is to encourage people to join the promotion even at late. let us say, member X missed the promotion in May and only registered in June. Then member X would still get the first month bonus offer in June rather than May for most members. It was a fair design for all members regardless when they register to participate the bonus. Unfortunately your browser showed up all first month bonus offer which is not designed to.
It is an infamous IHG IT glitch, let it go. And to most of the people here, a working and updated browser would never show the subsequent monthly offer any way.
The idea behind the subsequent first month bonus offer is to encourage people to join the promotion even at late. let us say, member X missed the promotion in May and only registered in June. Then member X would still get the first month bonus offer in June rather than May for most members. It was a fair design for all members regardless when they register to participate the bonus. Unfortunately your browser showed up all first month bonus offer which is not designed to.
It is an infamous IHG IT glitch, let it go. And to most of the people here, a working and updated browser would never show the subsequent monthly offer any way.
Jul 10, 2018, 7:27 am
#276
Join Date: Dec 2009
Programs: UA*S A3*G TK *G EY G AA G RJ Gold IHG Spire Amb HH DIamond Marriott Gold BW DIAMOND SELECT
Posts: 60
Examples of what? I have gotten 2nd and 3rd month bonuses every quarter for the last 2 years. I imagine it is illegal the same way an airline makes an public offer and then rescinds it. There are no written T& C that state the offers are conditional on not staying the first month. How can they have unwritten T& C only known to them? I agree it is not worth my trouble. It is just odd, especially the offer for the last week of July.
Jul 10, 2018, 8:07 am
#277
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 4,477
But IHG does review and audit all the time like all organisations. Some of the glitch gets caught on and some of the account activities get reviewed. You were lucky before does not mean IHG is obliged to pay you for ever as long as you have a faulty browser at your own end.
Jul 10, 2018, 8:14 am
#278
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 78
Examples of what? I have gotten 2nd and 3rd month bonuses every quarter for the last 2 years. I imagine it is illegal the same way an airline makes an public offer and then rescinds it. There are no written T& C that state the offers are conditional on not staying the first month. How can they have unwritten T& C only known to them? I agree it is not worth my trouble. It is just odd, especially the offer for the last week of July.
Besides, printing out the webpage isn't the same as viewing it in your browser, anyone who's tried printing a webpage knows that it messes up when printing, some elements disappear and some that were hidden may appear. Going by your logic, if you print out the source code of the page you would probably see some tasks that are flagged as hidden or disabled from the dashboard.
Most importantly, if you add up all your bonuses, the total sum indicated at the top would not include the 2 "hidden" tasks. What case do you have? None. They were just being nice to you the previous 2 years.
Jul 10, 2018, 8:36 am
#279
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sunny AZ
Programs: HH Diamond, Sixt Platinum, IHG Spire Ambassador, Marriott/SPG Gold .....
Posts: 3,213
Examples of what? I have gotten 2nd and 3rd month bonuses every quarter for the last 2 years. I imagine it is illegal the same way an airline makes an public offer and then rescinds it. There are no written T& C that state the offers are conditional on not staying the first month. How can they have unwritten T& C only known to them? I agree it is not worth my trouble. It is just odd, especially the offer for the last week of July.
Jul 10, 2018, 9:57 am
#280
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: RSW
Programs: Delta - Silver; UA - Silver; HHonors - Diamond; IHG - Spire Ambassador; Marriott Bonvoy - Titanium
Posts: 14,185
My recollection is that August has had a North American (US?) promo like the current 2/5K offer, with the global Accelerate picking up in September?
Jul 10, 2018, 4:37 pm
#281
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 78
Jul 11, 2018, 1:55 am
#282
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Somewhere in Europe
Posts: 3,362
IHG have form for meddling with dates of the summer promo.
Last year the summer accelerate didn’t start until the middle of a month and this year it finishes in July rather than August whilst a few years ago there was no promo at all outside of the US.
It wouldnt surprise me if they have decided to elimate the main vacation month from the promo thus eliminating a lot of “Easy wins” for some people.
Last year the summer accelerate didn’t start until the middle of a month and this year it finishes in July rather than August whilst a few years ago there was no promo at all outside of the US.
It wouldnt surprise me if they have decided to elimate the main vacation month from the promo thus eliminating a lot of “Easy wins” for some people.
Jul 11, 2018, 10:47 am
#283
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: RSW
Programs: Delta - Silver; UA - Silver; HHonors - Diamond; IHG - Spire Ambassador; Marriott Bonvoy - Titanium
Posts: 14,185
I wouldn't be surprised to see it start in mid-September, avoiding Labor Day weekend in the U. S.
Jul 11, 2018, 6:44 pm
#284
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire Ambassador, Radisson Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 3,622
I need three more nights to reach a 20,000 point milestone. If I book a three night advance purchase stay a cheap property in Bangkok, but I check out after the 2nd night, I'll qualify for the bonus, right?
Jul 11, 2018, 6:52 pm
#285
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: BKK
Posts: 6,741
What about leaving without checking out? Just pay the entire bill and leave after the second day, “mattress run” style.