Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. I am not a juggler, but I do a pretty good job juggling free night certificates and not letting them expire… until last week. My first clue that something was wrong was when I received this email from AwardWallet alerting me to the fact that one of my IHG Free Night Certificates was going to expire on July 27. At first, I thought it was a glitch with AwardWallet or IHG since I just booked a stay using my IHG Free Night Certificate back on June 29 for a Crowne Plaza hotel on July 17. After thinking it over, I decided to take a closer to see what was going on…
Here is my Crowne Plaza hotel reservation for July 17 that was booked on June 29 with an IHG Free Night Certificate (“Anniversary Night Flex”). You would think this is case closed, but I really like free night certificates, so I actually have 3 credit cards that provide IHG Free Night Certificates: $49 Chase IHG Select Credit Card (no longer available), Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, and Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card.
I signed into my IHG account and went to my Free Nights page. Sure enough, there was an IHG Free Night Certificate from my Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card that expired on July 27. You can also see the other IHG Free Night Certificates that I have used in the past 12 months too.
I then went to my Account Activity page to see I could pull up the July 17 reservation and see which IHG Free Night Certificate I used, but unfortunately, you cannot see that information online.
I decided to call IHG and ask them for help. I asked the rep to check which IHG Free Night Certificate that I used for my July 17 reservation and the rep said that I used my IHG Free Night Certificate from my Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card that posted to my IHG account on June 17. Dang! I asked if there was any way to change which IHG Free Night Certificate was used on the previous reservation, but the rep said that since the reservation was in the past, there was nothing they could do. But, the rep was proactive and said they could offer me 25,000 IHG Points as a goodwill gesture in exchange for the expiring IHG Free Night Certificate. I happily agreed to that offer and the rep removed the expiring IHG Free Night Certificate from my account and deposited 25,000 IHG Points into my account. As you can see, there is nothing listed in my Rewards Wallet now.
I then went back to my Account Activity page where I saw the 25,000 IHG Points as a goodwill gesture. I thanked the rep for their help. I wouldn’t normally be interested in trading a 40,000 IHG Free Night Certificate for 25,000 IHG Points, but when you have no uses for the IHG Free Night Certificate before it expires, that trade seemed like a great option.
A few days later, I received my new IHG Free Night Certificate from my Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card that expired on July 26, 2024 (remember, 2024 is a leap year).
I always almost always keep great records of my various free night certificates, but every now and then, mistakes get made. It is a humbling experience, but I hope my story helps someone else. If you have any question about IHG Free Night Certificates or Chase IHG credit cards, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
P.S. If you are interested, there is a new referral offer on the Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card that offers 4 IHG Free Night Certificates (up to 40,000 points each). Unfortunately, I don’t think these can be topped up with IHG Points, but there are many locations that have free nights for 40,000 points and below.
IHG is a scam. I lost 40k points I was saving bc they sent me an expiration date notice to the wrong email address. They wouldn’t honor my points or help me in anyway.
I was saving them for a honeymoon.
I would even stay at a suite and pay extra for the 1k points a night.
They didn’t care.
Hi Amber, I’m so sorry about your IHG FNC. Did you contact IHG on Twitter or Facebook to explain what happened? Do you have any idea how the expiration email went to the wrong email address?
What number did you call to request the extension of your free night certificate and what department did you ask for when you got the automated prompt? I have a cert expiring that I won’t be able to use in time and will gladly take the 25,000 pts if offered.
Hi Jan, I don’t remember what phone number I called, I think it was the general IHG customer service number. I have IHG Platinum status from the IHG credit cards, so maybe I was routes to an elite member department, I’m not sure. Good luck on your call, let me know how it goes.
I called this morning and was told they could not extend, but since the cert doesn’t expire until 2021, if I called back on Jan 1st they could offer 25,000 pts. This of course remains to be seen.
I see, put a calendar reminder to call back on January 1 and see if IHG can give you 25,000 IHG points.