Coronavirus: Extension of Annual Free Night from IHG Rewards Club Visa / Mastercard
 

Has anyone had any luck extending expiring certificates?

I have one expiring late March - I will not be able to use due to Corona-vius travel ban

Interested in knowing this as well.

My expiring this month.
Tried reaching out, no response still.

I have an uncapped Chase certificate expiring this month. I had to cancel the trip I'd been saving the certificate for, and don't have any more trips in the near future (both thanks to COVID-19).

I've spoken to reps at IHG and Chase (including a manager at Chase), and they're all staying firm in their stance that this is a "use it or lose it" benefit, and there is no way to extend the expiration date or to offer any other one-time courtesies.

They are counting on the breakage - that is the only reason why the bank and its partner offer free night cert instead of equivlant points, especially now the certs are all capped at 40K anyway... In the form of the points, there is very very rare chance to have breakage. In the form of the certs, the breakage rate is very high because people's travel plans could unexpectedly changed by many factors even without the current disruption, and then unable to make new plans, so either forfeit the cert or use it just for the sake of use it, at a very low value. If they are points, keeping the account alive is very easy.

I understand why they wouldn't make exceptions in normal scenarios, but in the face of a pandemic, it seems irresponsible to encourage people to travel more just to get value out of an expiring certificate.

As an example, Marriott recently announced that all free night certificates expiring in 2020 will now be automatically extended through Jan 2021 (see this blog post). I wish IHG would implement a similar policy.

Darn. I had to cancel my night too due to covid-19. Looks like we lose it.

Meanwhile Hilton just announced they will extend the timeframe allowed for their cc free nights. I truly hope IHG follows!

"For all unexpired Weekend Night Rewards as of March 11, 2020, and all new ones issued until August 30, 2020, we are extending the expiration date through the end of next summer (August 31, 2021). There is no need for you to do anything, as your certificate(s) are being automatically updated in our systems."

Ya. I hope IHG follows. I can’t seem to use my certificate either. I would like an extension on it.

I'm waiting to hear back from IHG on this.

Extending the Chase IHG Free Night
 

Marriott just followed Hilton’s lead by extending free night expiration deadlines.

I guess - and hope - IHG will follow suit before my Chase IHG free night expires this June.

if you contacted IHG or Chase, please keep us posted!

I just spoke to IHG and was told that it would be extended and for me to give it 10 days to show up. We'll see. I had to be transferred to a manager because the first girl could NOT understand what I was trying to accomplish.

We should all start emailing IHG Hilton and Marriotts decisions. And let ihg know we like extensions.

Just emailed IHG for a very expiring March 26. Actually had a reservation in Anaheim on the evening of the expiration date but Disneyland is closed so canceled the visit and reservation. Will see report back when I get a response.

I got a response back. They will email chase and ask on my behalf. Apparently the cert is issued by chase.


I received your email regarding on your request to extend your Free Night. No worries, we've already submitted your request to our partner, Chase. As we're only the receiving end of your free night, we can only check whether our partner will grant your extension request. Kindly allow 7 business days to receive a notification regarding your free night.

Maybe you'll have better luck than me, but when IHG gave me a similar answer, I called Chase (via the phone number on the back of the card) and they were also unable to extend.