Reply To: IHG offer not redeemed due to T&Cs

[John]

Please name the hotel so people know not to attempt the same thing.

Paying online at a third-party website is unlikely to work for these offers, but customer-not-present transactions should work.

At the majority of hotels, including Hilton and IHG, they just charge the card on file and I never get the physical card out or even see the card reader. Amex can’t tell the difference when they do that 3 months before the stay, or when I’m physically standing there, or only after I’ve walked out of the hotel.

The only times I have used the physical card machine in recent years is because I wanted to split payments. Or in Australia where I’ve found that some hotels do not apply their card surcharge when you use the card machine (plus there can be offers for physically tapping or swiping cards).