Last week, we received an email from a reader who had an issue with the IHG Rewards and Ambassador program that resulted in his account close to 628K points frozen (read more here).
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Here’s what happened earlier:
Reader Email: “Held to ransom by IHG Rewards” (627,919 POINTS!)
Here’s the positive outcome:
I emailed their head office and copied in the whole of the European Communications team.
This was their response:
Thank you for your emails. IHG has received your contacts to multiple offices, and it has been decided that I will be your point of contact regarding this matter.
I am truly sorry this remains to be a source of frustration for you. IHG recognizes you were upset regarding IHG’s decision to not extend your Ambassador Status beyond the end of June 2021, and that you felt you needed to dispute your Ambassador fee, which resulted in your account be temporarily suspended. That being said, after careful consideration as IHG understands travel has been limited in the U.K., and you have been unable to take advantage of the benefits of the program, the decision has been made to reopen your account so you are able to utilize the IHG points and Ambassador status. Your Ambassador Status will also be extended until the end of December 2021. Please know this decision is final; no further goodwill extensions are being provided, as we fully expect travel to return in 2021.
Thank you again Mr.REMOVED. We look forward to your upcoming stays with us in the near future.
Thankfully all is working,however my ambassador weekend nights certs expire before the UK hotels reopen and no answer on extension for them sadly.
Thanks for your help, it’s shocking their lack of service.
The reader wanted to add the following comments:
– the 2x IC hotels have been closed most of 2020 and all 2021 in UK even outside the lockdown period.
– the UK after lockdown had tiers so travel from the highest was not permitted
– Nov 2020 was date of challenge not renewal this is an error in IHG’s reply.
– So unable to use as indicted by I’m assuming mainly non UK comments
– And on a personal note working as a paramedic during a pandemic makes anything non work difficult.
And the reason so many points, was looking at an amazing trip in 2020 on points.
Will be interesting to see if they extend the Ambassador weekend nights as the UK hotels are not open before they expire.
Conclusion
I am glad that the reader was able to get the attention of someone at the IHG’s team in the UK that could resolve the issue amicably and do the right thing.
IHG’s main contact center is based in Manila, and they work within the corporate guidelines with little leeway. I believe that this is sometimes behind the customer service lapses documented here. Manila works with the scripts set by the US and the UK.
![Airfare of the Day [Business Class] FINNAIR New York to Berlin from $1,866](https://cdn1.loyaltylobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/xberlin-wall-g23959b7ff_1280-120x86.jpg.pagespeed.ic.TWViuvOZvR.jpg)
Overly generous from IHG.
Besides, being “paramedic” does not stop you from travelling. It’s not a pre-requisite that you must visit only your “home” IC’s.
I travelled to Germany twice during last summer, and could have visited several others if I had so desired, and I still have an unused weekend voucher.
Some people are very entitled, though.
I’m sorry but it absolutely does stop you travelling! Not sure where you’re based but the UK lockdown specifically banned foreign travel plus the 14 day mandatory quarantine in some parts (eg Scotland) makes travel effectively pointless.
No, it didn’t. You could travel to several places, from the UK, Germany included and not have to quarantine on your return.
Scotland has had quarantine for any foreign travel for a while now. It was also explicitly advised against for some time and those in the West of Scotland have been under tier 4 for longer. Regardless of legal restrictions from a public health perspective travel was inadvisable and for those of us working in healthcare (I see like the OP) we’ve been a bit busy and not had time to spare, esp with the risk of a 14 day quarantine. I don’t think he made the right move with chargeback but he was right about the difficulty in using the benefit – I’ve not left Scotland since March last year and the same applies to all my work colleagues!
I must have missed the part where he said he was Scottish.
It’s unclear, I was just pointing out that restrictions did indeed apply for some parts of the UK.
The major 2nd wave breakouts in Europe/UK and the US came about from such promiscuous non-essential travel which people in most other countries did not participate in and as such had no opportunity to make use of this or any of our other elite benefits.
Question now is whether IHG will extend that extra free night many of us were offered with our Ambassador renewal and that expires at the end of April.
He gambled
He won
Good for him
Next
Time to move on! Wish United had some reasonable execs!
IMPORTANT QUESTION:
Will this reader offer you or LoyaltyLobby team some IHG points to thank you for raising this issue publicly and helping move the case in his favour?
We are happy to help our readers when we can.
Amazing that these people think that this is gambler’s luck and/or IHG generosity. Also amazing is that they believe it’s ok travelling during a pandemic that is sending their relatives/friends to an overbooked hospital! This gentleman would never ever get anything from IHG if not for your help in making public their pettiness. Well done John.
My ambassador will expire 30 june 2021(extended 6 months) i am frankly not bothered and will not extend it until i check in at an Intercontinental hotel even if travel resumes,my week end certificate expire too end of june i just wish i could use it by then.
I strongly advise the reader to book with their points now for future dates and spend all the points that (s)he can. The rest, transfer out of IHG to wherever he can. Even consider a bad transfer rate to do this.
IHG has helped out on the membership extension although they should have helped out sooner on a goodwill basis. One takes one’s chances when joining a program or signing up for some benefit, that circumstances will let that benefit be used. All the risk should not be IHG’s.
There are a lot of people who joined Ambassador especially on the promotion just over 1 year ago, that also didn’t get to stay or use their free night. Many others have lost the same too and got no extension. But I honestly think IHG has done enough having given you 2 free status extensions totalling 1 year now. The rest is just bad luck. You are not the only one nor the only profession to lose out on things due Covid. Now you’ve had the petty blocking of your account stop and got your full year extension, if you can’t book stays in 2021 there will be a lot more wrong in the world than this. So any moaning about the stay certificates others also lost would be undignified whining now.
It would have been nice to see a more proactive and standardized statement of generosity to loyalty members from IHG a bit earlier. I ‘d personally burn and get out of IHG now. They have not been as organised as they could have been in arranging controlled exceptions for loyalty members during Covid so I personally would expect to lose whatever I would invest to IHG for the future. Si I personally would quickly burn, transfer out and take my loyalty elsewhere now. The risk is just too high to leave points with them.
Very generous by IHG. In these times probably the smartest thing to do.
It good as the issue has been solved.
For my case (Hilton points CANNOT transfer)
Over 1 year, I have contact ALL Hilton departments, those I believe can solve the issue, but none of them can help,(just pass to other departments, said under investigating, then no any reply/ follow up).
My account still have over 360 k points, which cannot transfer as my order.