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IHG Into the Nights Clusterf#*k

I have two Holiday Inn stays booked for Saturday nights next month. Today I open up BoardingArea to see a post on One Mile at a Time about the IHG Into the Nights promotion changes. Lucky shows his offer changed from Book a Stay using IHG mobile app to book 5 stays using the app. Mommy Points also wrote about changes to her promotion from Book a Stay using the mobile app to booking 2 stays with mobile app.

I logged into see what happened with my offer. The changes to my targeted promotion offer blow. They are completely different tasks than I have been calculating for with my hotel reservations.

IHG Into the Nights Clusterf#*k

Here is my original IHG Rewards Club ‘Into the Nights’ offer when the promotion launched.

IHG-Into-the-Nights-tasks_thumb

Task 1: Download and sign in to the IHG app and book stay.

Task 2: Stay 3 nights at any IHG hotel worldwide.

Task 3: Book two stays on ihg.com or IHG App.

Task 4: Stay 2 Saturdays at any IHG hotel.

Task 5: Stay at 2 Holiday Inn hotels.

My IHG bookings are already complete to fulfill these five tasks and earn two free nights, although I have not completed any of the hotel stays. My reservations are for November stays.

I booked three nights at two Holiday Inn hotels including Saturday nights using the mobile app. My two hotel reservations for three nights fulfill all five tasks to earn two free hotel nights.

 

This morning I log into my account to find these IHG Rewards Club ‘Into the Nights’ tasks.

IHG IntotheNights tasks-2

These are completely different tasks than I received upon registration last month.

Task 1: Stay 7 nights at any IHG hotel worldwide.

Task 2: Take our survey for 100 points.

Task 3: Book 1 stay using the Bonus Points Package with breakfast rate.

Task 4: Download and book 10 stays via the IHG app.

Task 5: Apply for IHG Rewards Club credit card.

Task 6: Stay at two IHG hotels in two different countries outside USA.

IHG Into the Nights bonus-2

This is one of the greatest clusterf@#ks I have ever seen in hotel loyalty promotions.

This reminds me of a conversation I had last October with Don Berg, VP of IHG loyalty programs. When I asked why IHG allows members to enroll in dozens of targeted promotions and earn thousands of bonus points on hotel stays, his reply was IHG technology is not sophisticated enough to prevent IHG Rewards Club members from signing up for multiple promotions and earning the bonus points.

IHG ‘Into the Nights’ promotion reveals the inadequate technology infrastructure within IHG Rewards Club.

The Last Word

Honestly, I am not concerned about this IT glitch in the promotion terms. I’ll hold back on booking any more IHG stays until this issue is resolved, but I am confident IHG Rewards Club will get this promotion back on track.

You can follow the IHG Into the Nights clusterf@#k on in this FlyerTalk thread.

IHG Response today at 10:53 on FlyerTalk

Response from IHGCare: Into The Nights Promo

HelloWe apologize for the recent issue regarding the Into The Nights Promotion. We have identified the solution and are moving toward quick resolution.

We have been advised of the following:
· All affected IHG Rewards Club members who we know have made progress towards the offer, but then received a revised hurdle offer, will have their offer marked as “completed.”

· IHG Rewards Club will be sending a direct email communication to those members who have made progress toward their offer. We will be letting them know we will be honoring the original offer and marking their progress as complete.

· IHG will be honoring their original offer and IHG Rewards Club Members will see their offer as complete if they made progress toward it. If the members have yet to stay toward their offer, but have already registered, it will transition back to a hurdle of one stay to complete.

· IHG will not be changing any point values, so the members will receive the original amount of points that the offer showcased.

· IHG Rewards Club Members who have yet to register or to see their offers will receive the variable stay amounts. To those who may inquire why they have a variable amount, simply say that we are honoring the original offers that members saw when they received their offers. All members who are newly registering are receiving the correct variable amounts.

On a side note, I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to @IHGSteve, our new IHG Rewards Club community manager:http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/ihgsteve.html.

Thank You,
Kevin
IHGCare

 

Update 4:03pm from IHGSteve, the IHG spokesperson on FlyerTalk:

I’ve been informed that it will take about 48 hours and then will be automatically updated.

*****

Related Loyalty Traveler posts:

Sep 5, 2014: My IHG Rewards Club Into the Nights offer

*****

Ric Garrido of Monterey, California is writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler.

Loyalty Traveler shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. Check out current hotel loyalty program offers across all the major chains in Loyalty Traveler’s monthly hotel promotions guide.

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9 Comments

  • Confucius Jackson October 20, 2014

    Mine went from book a stay using the app for about 16k points (silly good) to book NINETEEN stays using the app (silly bad).

  • Michael October 20, 2014

    Another issue that is coming up is that the terms and conditions say nothing about applying for and being REJECTED for the credit card, if you apply and ARE rejected, they won’t give you the credit for the task at hand.

    How incompetent.

  • DaninMCI October 20, 2014

    Yup.
    As a loyal platinum IHG person this is enough to drive me away. Sad.

  • Kelly S October 20, 2014

    I thought I was lucky… I only had to stay ONCE to earn a free night. Stay was planned for next month. Saw your post and now my account states I have to stay TWICE!

    Not as bad as some people but any change is bad enough. I think they changed EVERYONE!

  • Pam October 20, 2014

    IHG just posted on the Flyertalk thread that they will honor all of the original offers for anyone who registered for that offer.

  • Ric Garrido October 20, 2014

    @Pam – thanks for the update.

    @Michael – the image in this post for my revised offer shows you get 2,000 points for applying. You do not have to be accepted. If accepted, you get 60,000 bonus points.

  • dale m October 22, 2014

    I posted about this happening (to me) at least two weeks ago. While I did a careful screen shot of the original offer (very reasonable), I’m not convinced they’re trustworthy enough to get back on board (after completing the first nites stay toward the original offer). Clusterf*ck indeed.

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