Was your IHG milestone bonus just a big mistake?
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In March, we reported on how IHG Rewards had quietly rolled out its new ‘milestone bonuses’.
It appeared to be based on Hilton’s milestone bonuses scheme:
- Earn 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights in 2021, with no cap
- Earn an additional 20,000 bonus points for achieving 40 nights in 2021
Whilst IHG had only emailed a handful of people about their milestone bonus, it seemed that it had been rolled out to almost everyone.
If you went to your IHG Rewards account home page there was a button called ‘Messages’. When you clicked on it, you saw this:
…. and when you click through:
…. you see full details of the milestone bonus. No registration is required.
I thought the IHG milestone bonus was a decent deal. It was incremental to other promotions. For completing 40 nights, you would receive 60,000 bonus points which I value at (0.4p each) £240. This is an additional £6 rebate per night. It is obviously less valuable if you don’t manage 40 nights.
But this appears to be a big mistake ….
It seems that IHG Rewards has messed up badly.
If I look under ‘Messages’ now in my IHG Rewards account, I see this:
There is no mention of the milestone bonus.
According to the Loyalty Lobby blog, IHG said:
“We are aware of an issue some IHG Rewards members may have encountered regarding our Milestone Bonus offer. A message was made available in error to select IHG Rewards members who are not eligible to receive this offer.
We apologize for this error and are working quickly to resolve the issue with any members who mistakenly received this communication.”
Note that it is a few days since IHG made this statement, but of course nothing has been heard.
It is also isn’t clear how IHG will ‘resolve’ this. The majority of members will never know they had this offer under their ‘Messages’ tab, and as no registration was required IHG has no way of knowing who saw it and who didn’t.
The only upside, assuming that IHG does not restore eligibility for milestone bonuses, is that the current lockdown means that few people will have booked rooms on the basis of earning one.
IHG One Rewards update – March 2023:
Get bonus points: Click here for our article on IHG’s ‘2k Every 2 Nights’ promotion, which runs from 9th February 2023 to 14th April 2023. You can register here.
New to IHG One Rewards? Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.
Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.
You will receive an 80%-100% bonus when you buy IHG points by 21st March 2023.
Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.
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