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Through February 15, IHG is running a promotion that offers a prize for every stay beyond your first. Since the prize is randomly drawn, though, IHG had to offer a free way to enter to avoid violating lottery laws.
All you have to do is send a hand-written note to IHG’s prize fulfillment company, and you get an entry. You can get 94 entries this way. See “GET 47,000+ IHG POINTS FOR $56 FROM HOME” for more information.
The promotion has been running since November 15 of last year, so MileValue readers have provided a lot of data on how the contest is going for them. You can check out all their comments here.
The interesting data points to me are that points are now posting, almost everyone reports that all prize entries have gotten at least 500 points, and envelopes do not need to be hand-written.
- The first Priceless Surprise game plays were received on December 4th. The first points posted on December 29th.
- Almost everyone has reported that all their entries won 500+ points. One commenter reported that only 46 of his 50 entries won a prize. Let’s conservatively say that 92% of your entries get 500+ points. That means you can expect 41,000+ points. I am sure the true expected value is over 50,000 points with all the other prizes available.
- The index cards cards clearly need to be handwritten with (1) your full name, (2) complete mailing address, (3) day and (4) evening phone numbers, (5) valid email address, (6) IHG member number, (7) the first six digits of your MasterCard, and (8) date of birth. But many people wondered whether the envelope needed to be hand written. The answer is no. You can use pre-printed address labels.
I haven’t filled in my index cards yet. Have you? With what results?
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I think people should also be aware that many have received NO points or acknowledgement of receipt of ANY entries after over a month. Caveat Emptor.
I’m doing fine with it. I sent all 94 entries within the first 10 days or so. I’ve received about 70 emails so far, and all that I’ve checked have had prizes. Most are 500 points, but some are for larger quantities and a couple of $50 MasterCard gift cards.
Fantastic!
I have sent in 94 and received 91 entries. Four of them were for 1k points, one of them for 2k points, and the rest were 500 points for a grand total of 49,000 points. Not bad at all.
Fantastic. I wonder if you will receive the other three or if they were tossed on some technicality (or for illegibility.)
Scott, I just got 3 emails for the final 3 entries. Each of them was 500 points so my grand total for this contest is 50,500 points. Just enough for 1 night in Bora Bora. I need more IHG points so I can stay a whole week again.
Sent in 47 the Friday before the contest opened and received all 47 emails. 42 were 500 points, 4 for 1k and 1 for 5k. 30k points isnt too bad for half my entries. Mailing out the 2nd half this week.
Thanks for the info.
I did 5 test ones last month.. got the emails, and then no prizes for a couple of weeks, but about a week ago the prizes hit my account (500-1000 miles each). Then I actually did a stay (shock!) and a week later got the email for that one..
Time to do the rest..
Awesome!
Thanks for the follow-up post! I haven’t done any yet because I was waiting to see if it worked for other people first. I’m going to go buy my envelopes and notecards now. I can’t believe people are getting $50 Mastercard gift cards, too. Fingers crossed for that.
Have sent in 50 entries so far. 20 about two weeks before Christmas and another 30 about a week before Christmas. Have not received the first email from them. I have another 30 ready to send out but I need to get some emails first before I use the stamps on them. Only 14 more to fill out.
Sent in all 94. Sent in three separate batches all in December. I have not heard a peep. Got nothing so far but hoping for some emails on Friday as that seems to be when emails go out?
If nothing else I have a stay Friday night so I’ll get my first one regardless.
Only if it is your second stay (or more) during the period.
Sent 70 cards. Got 48 emails so far. Last 24 went out this week. Of 48, 4 were 0 pts, balance couple of 2k, couple of 1k, rest 500 pts. Total points so far = 27,000
Great to hear.
Send in my 94 hand-written entries on Dec 13. Still waiting for a response. It seems the processor is backed up pretty severely at this point. I’m waiting patiently.
Is it too late to enroll now and start sending them in?
No
I sent in all 94 entries beginning the 1 st week of Decemmber. I still have not received any emails for my entries. I’m beginning to think I wasted the money and my time!
Sent mine in 11 different mailings starting 11/28 and finishing tonight with the last five (I sent 100 total just in case a few get tossed). I received 10 emails so far on 12/26 which I assume were from the first 10 I sent on 11/28. Now I am starting on my next ones going in on my wife’s account.
Sent all 94 of mine in sometime back and got 19 emails last night. 1 at 5000, 3 at 2000, 1 at 1000 and the balance at 500. I had almost given up on this. My wife was quickly licking stamps this morning to get hers in the mail.
Just an update. I sent all 94 entries after the first 10 days, and received all my emails this morning. The first 11 entries all won 500 points. The next 10 after that received NOTHING. I decided to stop clicking the links, in case the prizes are released in batches of something. Seems pretty odd based on the other responses, but based on my experience so far, I wouldn’t bother sending in any entries if you haven’t already.
Just got back two more after 6 weeks. Both were for nothing–just said sorry, not a winner this time! First four a couple of weeks ago were all for 500 pts. Anybody else getting stiffed? Not too interested in sending in the remaining half of my entries if 0 is the new normal since they got slammed with so many mail-in entries.
I sent a total of 85 in (all cards filled out by hand, all envelopes filled out by hand) over the course of 2 weeks starting Thanksgiving weekend. I sent in 85 as I anticipated some IHG stays during the promotional period and didn’t want to go over the number of allowable entries. I didn’t hear anything back until last night, when I received 12 emails (all sent at 7:01pm PT on a Monday). This morning I went through the process of playing 12 times and each one said sorry you did not win. I even cleared out cookies and tried a different browser for different plays just to see if that was the issue. Just a cautionary tale for those of you who have not yet sent in your entries. Might not be worth it. I also realize that my experience is not what others have experienced, which is why I wanted to share. Also, I had three IHG stays during the promotion period. For the first one, I received 1000 points. For the second and third stays, I received the email to play about a week after checkout. I won 500 points for each of those plays. We’ll see if I get any other emails for the remaining 73 entries.
I sent in all 94 entries around Christmas. I received 23 emails back this week. 1 = 2000 points, 2 = 1000 points and the balance are 500. I did have one try tell me I wasn’t a winner as others have said. I also had one that opened up with a picture of the Eiffel Tower vs the fireworks but gave no text or information. Anxiously awaiting more emails.
OK, I started putting my and my wife’s entries in the mail about a week ago and I got ten emails today. Eight were for 500, one was for 2,000 and one was for 5,000! Nice! So 11k points so far. Fun!
I have received a play for each entry (94) one 2000, four 1000, and the rest for 500.
Im still missing 15 entries that I sent in and have not received a game play email :/
🙁
So far I have received only 40 of mine back for a total of 29,000 points, but my wife has received all of hers back for a total of 52,500. I sent all mine in small batches between the end of December and the beginning of January. My wifes all went in two batches towards the end of January, and have all been processed. Mine and my wifes were done exactly the same way.
I mailed out all 94 on Feb. 8th and haven’t received even one response yet. Anyone else in the same boat?