I won’t rehash the rather expected decision for Chase to limit their unrestricted free nights by adding a rather substantial restriction – only hotels up to 40,000 IHG points per night will be eligible, except that also some that are 40,000 will additionally be ineligible for some reason.
The change was effective immediately and would affect anyone that applied after May 1st of last year. Amid public outcry, they walked this back – but not really.
See my exchange with them below:
I really hope @ChaseSupport will clarify if the IHG credit card free night terms are being retroactively applied in full to new cardmembers up until today, or since Jan 1 and until Thursday (per their previous tweet) or not at all (per clarification tweet stating 40k max).
— Dave @ MilesTalk ✈️ (@MilesTalk) April 3, 2018
1/2 If a customer opened an account between 1/1/18 & 4/5/18 then the recent change doesn’t apply to their account for the first year. Anniversary Free Nights issued after 05/01/18, will be redeemable at eligible IHG hotels with a redemption value up to & including
— Chase Support (@ChaseSupport) April 4, 2018
I asked them to clarify:
2/2 40k points. Any Anniversary Free Night issued before May 1, 2018, is still valid at any IHG hotel worldwide. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach us using the number on the back of your card. ^JG
— Chase Support (@ChaseSupport) April 4, 2018
So customers that opened an acct between May 1 and Dec 31, 2017 will not receive their promised free night good at any property but those that apply tomorrow or Thursday will get an unrestricted free night? ?
— Dave @ MilesTalk ✈️ (@MilesTalk) April 4, 2018
That would be correct. We can understand your concerns. This was a business decision that Chase and IHG made. We know this isn’t ideal, and we’ll share your feedback. ^JG
— Chase Support (@ChaseSupport) April 4, 2018
So, if you applied last year and have never received the unrestricted free night you were promised, you will never get one. If you applied January 1st through now, you’ll get one. But, for the craziest part, if you apply now through Thursday April 5th, you will apparently get one.
It’s worth noting, though, that when something is this contradictory from a Twitter rep, it may not actually be true. Perhaps they meant to say if you applied by April 5th, 2017! Or, well, really I’m not sure. Let’s see how this continues to unfold.
And let me be very clear – I think that if you apply between now and Thursday, despite the Twitter rep EXPLICITLY saying you would receive the unrestricted free night, you probably will not.
My money is on Chase changing their official policy again before this is all over. How in the world can you deny people that applied under previous terms and have never had the terms fulfilled, yet promise the unrestricted certificate to people that haven’t even applied yet?
How do you feel about this switcheroo? Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
New to all of this? My new “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available now.
