Questions and Answers

I obtained the new IHG Platinum Elite card for purposes of getting a 4th night free as well as 20% off points purchase. Per your April 5th blog, I purchased 100,000 points with 80,000 free through the IHG website. I paid $1000 but expected a 20% discount or rebate using my new IHG card. It did not occur and I sent them an inquiry. They stated it is not valid and here is their reason:

[I]Upon checking, it looks like the promotion is “Purchase points and get up to 80% more.” This promotion is exclusive. This means that only members who received the invite can enjoy the bonus. Since you’re one of the members who received the invitation to the promotion, you earned 80% more on your points purchase.[/I]

[I]You saved $800 USD because of the 80,000 bonus points.[/I]

[I]I hope this addressed your concern, but if you have additional questions, please let us know — we’d be happy to follow up.

I would have used a different credit card had I known. I am also not aware that purchasing points on a special is “exclusive”[/I]

Should I escalate? Or, is this a lost cause? Also, I based this approach on the April 5th blog. You may want to provide an update.

Thanks

John

John – no point in escalating. In a blog post earlier this month, Lucky confirmed that the 20% off is not stackable with other promotions for purchased points.

[URL]https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2018/05/01/more-on-the-benefits-of-the-new-ihg-premier-card/[/URL]

From that post:

[SIZE=5][B][I]Can the IHG 20% discount on purchased points be stacked with a sale?[/I][/B][/SIZE]
[I]This is one benefit that disappointed me. The [URL=’https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/go/ihg-club-premier-80k/’]IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card[/URL] offers a 20% discount when you purchase points. In the terms there was nothing indicating that this couldn’t be stacked with a bonus on purchased points, which IHG frequently offers. However, unfortunately it seems that the two can’t be stacked.

The discount is automatically supposed to be applied at the time you purchase points, and that isn’t happening in conjunction with a sale. IHG customer service is confirming that these can’t be combined.

That’s a shame, as it renders this benefit almost useless. There’s no reason to get 20% off when you can otherwise buy points with a big bonus. For example, at the moment IHG Rewards Club is [URL=’https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/go/ihg-points/’]offering an 80% bonus when you buy points[/URL], which is an opportunity to acquire points for just 0.56 cents each.[/I]