Shangri-La blocking Golden Circle accounts from last years promotion

I have had a few emails over the last couple of days from people who have had their Shangri-La Golden Circle accounts locked.  The accounts for myself and my wife were locked on Friday as well.

(This is the second time our accounts have been locked in the last 6 weeks.  Last time they could be unlocked by using the ‘Activate Account’ function on the website.  This is not possible now.)

This all appears to date back to the generous promotion that Shangri-La ran last Autumn.  You could easily earn 1,000 Golden Circle points which are redeemable for a $100 food and beverage voucher.  With the new Shangri-La hotel in The Shard due to open, this was a great opportunity for a couple of get themselves $200 of credit towards a free meal (restaurant pictured below).

I can only assume that Shangri-La has been having some issues with fraud due to people opening multiple accounts in different names to take part in this promotion.

It appears that any Golden Circle account which has no other activity on it apart from points from this promotion has been locked.

The only way to unlock it appears to be to send a copy of your passport or driving licence to the Golden Circle office at golden.circle@shangri-la.com.

I have just sent over passport copies for myself and my wife, so I will see how long it takes to get them unlocked.

I must say that, if Shangri-La is concerned about fraud, they have left it pretty late to act.  Anyone with a number of fraudulent accounts who also had half a brain would have emptied them at the earliest opportunity.

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