READER EMAIL: Urgent - IHG locked accounts!

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a message about being unable to log into their IHG Rewards account with 2.5M points this weekend. The system claims that the account does not exist.

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.

You can access IHG Reward here.

Here’s the email from the reader:

I’ve been shocked an hour ago when I tried to book my next day with IHG and I found my account that used to be with almost 2 and 1/2 million points is with zero points!!

A message says that my account is locked and asked me to contact the IHG ! It never happened to me before!

Well I remember something similar happened to you five years ago when you bunch points through a third-party

https://loyaltylobby.com/2016/11/10/how-to-get-your-ihg-rewards-club-account-locked-easier-than-you-think

and because I’ve done the same last week in London when I branched points for my stay in one of Smith’s hotel I thought it could be the same issue, but it wasn’t!

Because when I decided to call the IHG United States free tools number, The agent there was a reservation agent I gave him my IHG membership number and the surprise was when he said that this membership number doesn’t show anything on his system.. just like my membership doesn’t exist!

I explain to him what I was facing and he said: well this is rewards club issues and he started transfering me to them, after a long hold they agent from the rewards club (in Philippine) answered I explained everything to her and she said: “yes it’s not only you we are facing this globally and many clients are calling now, the system is not allowing her to see any information and we are working on it” !

She confirmed that my points and stays will be saved and it will show it on my account as soon as this problem is solved, and she advised to contact again after 24 hours!

Actually John I’m not sure if it’s really a global issue or it is just the same as what happened to you five years ago!

I hope it will be solved automatically soon without a need to call again i really want to book my next stay!

I only wanted to share this with you, wondering if others are facing the same issues?

A reader has a valid concern here. When you cannot log in to your IHG Rewards account and message that the account number, email address, or PIN is incorrect, it often means that your account has been locked, terminated, or under audit.

IHG may lock your account for various reasons, but in essence, they believe that you have somehow broken the rules that govern the IHG Rewards program. There is always a cop-out clause that they can close anyone’s account for any reason, and there is nothing that the member can do about it.

I don’t, however, believe that this is the issue here.

IHG is doing extensive IT work this weekend, and the system may not allow members to log into their account all the time, and the points and other information may not be correct or up to date. So I would wait until Monday or Tuesday and only then get worried if there are account log-in issues.

Previous articles about IHG account suspensions:

Conclusion

It would have been great if IHG had had a notice up on its website that many of the usual functions of the IHG Rewards are not available throughout the weekend. It certainly would have lessened the workload at IHG’s call center in Manila.

It is not unusual for loyalty program accounts to be inaccessible for a few hours early on Sundays for maintenance. This happens quite often.