IHG launches “The Big Win”, a potentially very generous Autumn promotion

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• Scott says:

  26 Aug26 August 11:59

  Makes this easier having more options. A quick TP / mattress run will sort a few things out although depending on whether reward nights count, it might be cheaper in the long run to just book and cancel reward nights rather than go out of my way for this.

• davefl says:

  26 Aug26 August 18:29

  My potential upside is 88,000 points but the Explore brands is a killer for me as it’s 4 for 24k points. That’s the only thing that will stop me from getting to the Win Big 44k points.

  Worked out a potential matress run taking into account a v. cheap Crown Plaza, at £68, a cost of £40 to switch out a forthcoming booking to change to a HI Express, and I have a HI covered, but I need a 4th.

  Anyone know of a cheap Staybridge, Candlewood or Indigo at less than £80 in the UK? That way it works out as £200 for 90,000+ points. I’m assuming you actually have to check in for the stay to count.

  • Ian says:

    26 Aug26 August 19:53

    I got the Indigo in Birmingham last week for £79 (non refundable, no breakfast). That said, that’s the only time I have seen it for sub £80.

  • Alan says:

    26 Aug26 August 20:35

    Hotel Indigo in Liverpool coming in under £70 if you book for a couple of months away.

    I wish the 2nd Sep would hurry up and come around so I can make my bookings!!

    • davefl says:

      26 Aug26 August 20:49

      Great, thanks guys. I could drive across to L/pool in 40 mins and check in, so that’s a plan.

      • Alan says:

        26 Aug26 August 21:28

        No probs – it looks a pretty nice place and has good reviews. Plats apparently get free minibar too 😉

  • Rob says:

    26 Aug26 August 21:07

    There are a couple of Staybridge Suites now, eg Newcastle

• Phil says:

  27 Aug27 August 15:24

  Try one and done – 1,000 Points
  Stay more & earn more – 15,800 Points from 17 nights stay
  Explore our brands – 39,000 Points for staying at 5 brands
  Book with us – 3,600 for two bookings
  Survey the win – 100 Points
  Live the city life – 10,8000 for 2nights in vaious euro city hotels
  Win in the weekend – No offer
  Win big – 70,000 Points by completing all offers.

  Grand total of 140,300 available.

  My stay pattern for the rest of the year means all of this is very unlikely though.

• pazza2000 says:

  27 Aug27 August 16:50

  My offer is fairly easy (any hotel / all within the UK) however with a lesser no. of potential points:

  Try one and done – 1,000 Points
  Stay more & earn more (6 nights) – 10,600 Points
  Explore our brands (2 brands) – 18,000 Points
  Book with us – 3,600 Points
  Survey the win – 100 Points
  Win in a weekend (2 Saturday’s) – 7,200 Points
  Win big – 41,000 Points

  Grand Total of: 81,500

• Clive J says:

  31 Aug31 August 08:28

  Got my offer,

  1,000 1 night
  7,700 8 nights
  14,000 3 brands
  7,200 2 cities
  5,600 3 Saturdays
  100 Survey
  36,000 BIG WIN

  So 71,600 up for grabs. I don’t travel on business, so the 8 nights will be a challenge, but I think I’m going to have a bit of fun and give this a go. I have a stay at the Brighton Hilton coming up so have tagged a night at the HI onto the back as a start. Will probably do a run to Birmingham and do the CP and Indigo (which looks nice). I’ll be using as many codes as I can get away with and see how much I can make before the end of the year. This is also probably my last year as a Plat Elite so may as well take advantage.

  • Rob says:

    31 Aug31 August 08:49

    Remember you can now effectively buy Plat Elite for £99 a year with the PC Black credit card

• Andrew says:

  31 Aug31 August 10:00

  I’m platinum (from the visa) but have a few stays in this year

  My deal is 66,000 total for a minimum of 15 nights. Set up an account for my wife who got 50,000 for a minimum of 4 nights… I’ve gone from thinking I’d switch my 2 stays a week from Hilton to thinking I’ll stay and just do some weekends under my wife’s account!

  • Andrew says:

    31 Aug31 August 10:05

    Worth pointing out though that the “3 brands” challenge will meet the fast track requirements, so only need another 7 nights to get to Plat.

• Ian says:

  3 Sep3 September 20:52

  I was all up and ready to book my third brand hotel to be able to claim the bonus points and then…….aaaaaarghhhh!!!!

  Reading the T’s and C’s I’ve just realised I’m probably not going to qualify and it’s pretty annoying.
  Stay more and earn 4000pts says stay four nights, I would have 12 nights booked at various IHG brand hotels (HI,HIX,Crowne Plaza and Candlewood) in October but only one HIX stay is 3 nights. All the others are 1 or 2 nights but the TC’s appear to say the four nights must be at the same hotel.
  The story is the same for my offer of win a weekend, I have two consecutive Saturday stays but
  In different locations.
  Do you all think this is correct ? Also, any ideas of maybe a work around? There’s no way I can stay an extra night at the 3 nighter as I am booked on a flight home.

  • Alan says:

    3 Sep3 September 21:22

    Hi Ian – can you post the T&Cs from your offer? My stay more offer is very clearly a total of 7 nights, there’s no minimum stay length per stay. If your offer is of the same format as mine then you’d be 3x over what was required with your 12 night.

    Similarly the Saturday stays sound absolutely fine – there’s no need for them to be in the same location.

    If you click on each of the offers in question and then click “View offer terms and conditions” and copy and paste them we can have a look and see, but on the face of it I think you’ll be absolutely fine 🙂

    • Ian says:

      3 Sep3 September 21:56

      Win the weekend for 8000pts are:-
      Must be an IHG® Rewards Club member and must register member number in advance to participate in this promotion. Number of bonus points or miles listed above will be awarded after required number of qualifying stays on Saturday nights have been consumed by the member between 1 September 2013 and 31 December 2013 (both dates inclusive) at InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, Even® or Hualuxe® hotels worldwide. A stay is defined as one night or consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of frequency of check-in/out. A Saturday stay is defined as any stay with an unlimited number of nights having a Saturday night included within the stay period. If a stay is longer than 7 days, then the number of Saturdays that qualify is equivalent to the number of Saturday nights during that stay period.
      Stay more and earn more for 4000pts are:-
      ust be an IHG® Rewards Club member and must register member number in advance to participate in this promotion. Number of bonus points or miles listed above will be awarded after required number of qualifying room nights have been consumed by the member between 1 September 2013 and 31 December 2013 (both dates inclusive) at InterContinental®, Crowne Plaza®, Hotel Indigo®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, Even® or Hualuxe® hotels worldwide. A stay is defined as one night or consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of frequency of check-in/out. A stay constitutes a ‘qualifying stay’ when paying qualifying rates, which include most business and leisure rates.
      My itinery is 2nts NYC,1 in PHL,1 IAD, 2 (inc a Sat) DCA, 1 Everett, 1 SEA, 1 SFO, 1 LAS, 3 LAX ( inc a Sat) so in fact 13 nts and 4 different brands.

      Hope this helps Alan 🙂

      Cheers Ian

      • Ian says:

        3 Sep3 September 22:00

        Sorry forgot to add the requirements:-

        Stay 2 Saturday nights and the other is stay a total of four nights

        Ian

        • Alan says:

          4 Sep4 September 00:09

          Hi Ian

          All looks good to me – you should clear the 4 nights/2 Sat nights requirements easily! We’ll get a feel soon as to how quickly progress posts on the Big Win website one folk start having stays, but if any concerns then IHG have some reps answering questions on their Facebook page.

          Cheers

          Alan

        • Ian says:

          4 Sep4 September 18:13

          Thanks for your help Alan although to be sure I decided to ring IHG Rewards direct.
          The first agent didn’t fill me with confidence so I rang back a few minutes later. The second young lady wasn’t sure but called the Rewards dept and clarified the situation.
          Anyone who has the offer of stay two Saturdays please note that it doesn’t matter which Saturdays you stay but both Saturdays MUST be in the same hotel. Similarly, all other stay x no of nights offers, have the same restriction that it must be in any one single hotel. Annoying for me as 3 is the most I can do, maybe mattress run coming up in the UK!

        • Alan says:

          4 Sep4 September 18:20

          Hi Ian

          Sorry but that sounds like they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. There’s nothing in the T&Cs that state the same hotel is required. I certainly won’t be making stays in that manner and will be complaining right to the top if they don’t pay out! Sadly it’s a common feature of many schemes that the call centre staff know less about it that we do!

          If you still want something in writing then I’d put a query to Carolyn on their Facebook group – she seems more switched on and has been answering queries both on there and FlyerTalk.

        • Ian says:

          4 Sep4 September 18:51

          Hi Alan

          Thanks for that, I don’t have Facebook but will try to contact Carolyn on FT. They were saying the T&Cs clearly state a stay is defined as one or consecutive nights at the same hotel, therefore 2 stays would have to be at the same one! I’m sure you can see why I’m confused.
          As it is, I get back in mid October so should have time to see if they post!

          Cheers

          Ian

        • Alan says:

          4 Sep4 September 18:54

          Yes, multiple consecutive nights at one property do indeed constitute a single stay, but (a) most of the challenges are for numbers of nights and (b) there’s nothing that says separate stays have to be at the same property. Basically they’re clueless and based on your previous posts re planned stay pattern I think you’ll be fine 😛

        • Ian says:

          4 Sep4 September 19:04

          Here’s hoping 🙂

        • Rob says:

          4 Sep4 September 19:12

          What Alan says. They are trying to say that if you stay Friday and Saturday at the same place on 2 different bookings, it only gets treated as 1 stay.

• Rich says:

  7 Sep7 September 09:35

  Wonder if anyone can help with a quick query- I stayed at Hotel Indigo last Sunday as my first “big win” night- the stay showed on my IHG account today but is detailed as non-qualifying.
  It was a 2 night stay- one night with points and one with cash, and the cash rate was £120 so not massively discounted as far as I can tell- no F&F rate or anything like that involved.

  Any thoughts as to whether this is correct, or whether it might be that the hotel has merged the two bookings and the points redemption has take “priority”?

  Thanks

  Rich

  • Clive J says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:32

    I suspect the two nights have been merged Rich. It happened to me a couple of years aging at the Hotel Indigo Liverpool. First, cheaper, night was paid for and second was a reward night. They merged the two bookings so I could stay in the same room but checked me out and billed me under the reward booking. Luckily I spotted it and sorted it out before i left but I imagine a call to IHG customer support will sort it out for you. My first ‘Big Win’ stay is next weekend.

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