Replacing points booking with Chase free night

Old Feb 23, 2019, 7:32 am
  #1  
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Replacing points booking with Chase free night

Could I reserve a free night with points to secure the award availability while waiting to receive the Chase free night certificate, and then call IHG to request the change?

Or, cancel the points booking and immediately book it with the Chase certificate, hoping it will still be there?

What would be the best way to contact IHG? Call, email, social media? Thank you!
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Old Feb 23, 2019, 10:19 am
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With Hyatt (back in the Hyatt Gold Passport days; I don't know if it has changed with World of Hyatt), such a change was only possible if the room was available for the free night at the time of the change. In other words, it was effectively make a new reservation and cancel the old one. It would be nice to know if IHG handles this in a similar way.

If I had a night reserved with points, I would not cancel in the hope that the room would become available for the free night. Although there is the small chance that someone else could grab the room in the few seconds between a cancellation and a new reservation, I think it would be much more likely that the room would not become available for the free night until some batch process ran at a later hour. There is also the situation where more than one reservation would need to be cancelled before a room became available for the free night.

Good luck, and I hope someone with knowledge IHG's policy will educate us both.
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Old Feb 23, 2019, 8:21 pm
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Originally Posted by milemission
Could I reserve a free night with points to secure the award availability while waiting to receive the Chase free night certificate, and then call IHG to request the change?

Or, cancel the points booking and immediately book it with the Chase certificate, hoping it will still be there?

What would be the best way to contact IHG? Call, email, social media? Thank you!
When the cert comes in first just try and book the free night as a new reservation. If successful cancel the points reservation. Done.

If all points nights are gone you can call them to swap. They may need to reach out to the property directly. But better to have the service desk do it for on their dime.
TD
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Old Feb 24, 2019, 6:35 pm
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Originally Posted by milemission
Could I reserve a free night with points to secure the award availability while waiting to receive the Chase free night certificate, and then call IHG to request the change?

Or, cancel the points booking and immediately book it with the Chase certificate, hoping it will still be there?

What would be the best way to contact IHG? Call, email, social media? Thank you!
Basically, no you can't swap CC free nights and award/points nights are not the same. You are unable to "hog" an award night whilst waiting for CC night on your card to then later swap over.
(And this can't be done to eg book award night pre 1Q2019 IHG award night points increases, to use the new limited 40k certs when new points rate is above the 40k allowed on a cc freenight cert)

CC Free nights come out of a subset of free awards night pool. The fact that award nights are available does not mean you can book a CC night.

Your only option is to book a CC night (if available) once your cert is available abnd no more than 40k pts, and then cancel the points/award night you no longer need
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Old Jun 5, 2019, 10:25 pm
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I also am seeking a way to hold a room for use with my next IHG free night certificate that will not be issued for a few months. I had assumed that the credit card free nights came out of a different inventory than regular points awards (as described in the previous post), so booking a points award and trying to convert it to a credit card free night would not necessarily work.

My sister has a credit card free night that she can book now. Any thoughts on whether it would be a problem if I make a reservation with her free night certificate (I could add my name as an additional guest) and then call IHG to change the reservation to use my certificate once issued? It seems like this should not be a problem, but I was wondering if anyone has done this, and if so, do both people have to be on the call with IHG?
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Old Jun 6, 2019, 10:48 am
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Originally Posted by needtoescape
Any thoughts on whether it would be a problem if I make a reservation with her free night certificate (I could add my name as an additional guest) and then call IHG to change the reservation to use my certificate once issued?
I would not open that can of worms, but that's me. The closest I would come to this situation is to make the reservation using your sister's free night, then trying to make a reservation using your free night when it becomes available. If successful, then cancel your sister's night. I have no doubt that a competent agent could do what you are suggesting, but I have great doubts about finding the competent agent at the right time.

Would your sister let you use her free night and then you let your sister use your free night? That would seem to be a lot cleaner, as long as the hotel(s) don't get upset about the primary guest not showing up.
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Old Jun 6, 2019, 11:50 am
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Originally Posted by serpens
Would your sister let you use her free night and then you let your sister use your free night? That would seem to be a lot cleaner, as long as the hotel(s) don't get upset about the primary guest not showing up.
Using my sister's free night is not a good option because 1) I am not comfortable about taking the risk that the hotel would enforce the terms requiring the cardholder to stay and 2) her certificate is an uncapped free night while mine is a 40K capped certificate.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 7:57 pm
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I have a similar question, just checking if anything has changed since the original post. I booked an award for 35k pts. I now have a 40k cert I'd like to use instead of the points. The hotel is normally 100k, so cancelling and rebooking is not an option. Has anyone done this?
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Old Dec 28, 2022, 3:34 am
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Originally Posted by italdesign
I have a similar question, just checking if anything has changed since the original post. I booked an award for 35k pts. I now have a 40k cert I'd like to use instead of the points. The hotel is normally 100k, so cancelling and rebooking is not an option. Has anyone done this?
I wouldn't risk it.
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Old Dec 28, 2022, 4:26 am
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Originally Posted by scubaccr
CC Free nights come out of a subset of free awards night pool. The fact that award nights are available does not mean you can book a CC night.
Is this correct?
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Old Dec 29, 2022, 7:19 pm
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Originally Posted by s0ssos
Is this correct?
Yes. FWIW, I had no idea that they came out of different inventory until very recently. Couldn't for the life of me figure out why a hotel with plenty of reward night availability couldn't be booked with either the Select or Premier CC night. I either used points for that particular stay or booked a different property with the CC night.
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Old Dec 29, 2022, 9:28 pm
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I will not say that you are wrong, but I had a different experience.

I had a Select Card 40K capped certificate to use so I was searching Boston hotels by selecting Rewards Points and on a certain date, the Kimpton Marlowe showed no rewards rooms available.

However, when I signed into my account and actually selected the 40K cert to use for a search for the same dates in Boston, the Marlowe showed that it was available to use the cert and I made the reservation, stat.

So, although I always begin my search for use of the certificate selecting Rewards Points, I would say that on very rare occasions, using the actual cert in the search instead of the Rewards Points function, will demonstrate that a cert can be used when points cannot be.
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Old Dec 30, 2022, 1:33 am
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Originally Posted by Tennen
Yes. FWIW, I had no idea that they came out of different inventory until very recently. Couldn't for the life of me figure out why a hotel with plenty of reward night availability couldn't be booked with either the Select or Premier CC night. I either used points for that particular stay or booked a different property with the CC night.
I think one can say it is different inventory, but a "subset" I don't see being correct, as the poster after you showed.
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Old Dec 30, 2022, 4:03 pm
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Originally Posted by s0ssos
I think one can say it is different inventory, but a "subset" I don't see being correct, as the poster after you showed.
Agreed. "Different" is probably more accurate. It seems as though that reward availability and CC night availability are the same/similar in most (or many?) cases, but unfortunately, we can't rely on one for being a predictor of the other.

Anyway, back on topic, IMHO, I would only swap points for CC night (or vice versa) if there's availability for the one I want to swap to, I can book & confirm the new reservation before canceling the existing one, and I end up ahead (using an expiring cert, fewer points, etc.). I definitely wouldn't meddle with an existing reservation if the points cost has increased, as in italdesign 's case. Too much could go wrong with manual intervention.

Edited to add: I just realized that the thread is 3 years old... I can't believe I only figured out that the inventory was different this year...
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Old Dec 31, 2022, 1:05 am
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Originally Posted by Tennen
Agreed. "Different" is probably more accurate. It seems as though that reward availability and CC night availability are the same/similar in most (or many?) cases, but unfortunately, we can't rely on one for being a predictor of the other.

Anyway, back on topic, IMHO, I would only swap points for CC night (or vice versa) if there's availability for the one I want to swap to, I can book & confirm the new reservation before canceling the existing one, and I end up ahead (using an expiring cert, fewer points, etc.). I definitely wouldn't meddle with an existing reservation if the points cost has increased, as in italdesign 's case. Too much could go wrong with manual intervention.

Edited to add: I just realized that the thread is 3 years old... I can't believe I only figured out that the inventory was different this year...
And supposedly there is a trick for nicer rooms with the free night certificate, that exceed the point value of the cert or are not available with points. I haven't seen any examples but saw one blog posting about that.

Now, with new benefits of IHG One, lots of more interest in booking with points (eg before booking with cash could include breakfast, but with points excluded, so diminished some of the value of booking with points. Now with diamond status you get breakfast regardless, so ...)
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