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Updated 10 December: Still no announcement from IHG despite the rumors, but I’ve now also been given a hint that an extension is coming.
If you’re about to burn an IHG Rewards Club free night certificate that’s set to expire in a few weeks’ time it may be worth holding off for a few more days as help may be around the corner. Katie Genter has reported that despite IHG’s obvious reluctance to extend expiring certificates for a second time, the hotelier may be about to have a change of heart.
As is became more and more obvious that the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t a flash in the pan and that it wasn’t going to go away as quickly as it appeared in our lives, most of the large hotel loyalty programs took steps to extend their members’ benefits and accrued loyalty instruments (e.g. upgrades, lounge passes, and free night certificates) well into 2021. IHG, however, has been noticeably reluctant to offer extensions past the end of this year and a lot of people are currently sitting on free night certificates that will be worthless in under a month’s time.
Personally, I’m sitting on one of the few remaining free night certificates that will get the holder a free night at any IHG property in the world, and I’ve been expecting to be forced into using it on an unnecessary 1-night stay at the InterContinental London O2 (the InterContinental London Park Lane is closed until January) or the Kimpton Fitzroy London. Well, perhaps it won’t come down to that.
Katie Genter is sitting on three IHG Rewards Club free night certificates that are set to expire on 31 December and when she contacted IHG to see if there were any plans to extend the expiry date of these certificates, this was the response:
“We’ve continually monitored the impact of the global pandemic and have responded with program changes and increased flexibility to better serve our IHG Rewards members. Earlier this year, we announced several measures to extend Anniversary Night certificates set to expire and deposited in 2020. Later this month, we will share an update with cardmembers about anniversary certificates with a 2020 expiration date.”
Update: Since I originally wrote this post I’ve been in touch with IHG to see if I could get any further information from them. This is what I was told:
“I understand your concern around the 2020 expiration date of your Anniversary Night certificate. Later this month, we are planning to share an update with cardholders about anniversary certificates with a 2020 expiration date – know that the update will be shared before any 2020 certificates expire.”
IHG isn’t exactly committing itself to anything with either statement and you have to wonder just how far into December it plans to wait before making any announcement, but the door is definitely open to extensions being offered (or perhaps something else).
The cynic in me thinks that IHG may wait to see how many certificates it can get out of the system before making any move to extend the expiration dates of what few certificates remain, so a little bit of patience may pay off.
I’m sure IHG would love nothing more than to see its Rewards Club members burning a significant number of free night certificates on unnecessary stays (in the coming few weeks) at properties that are standing mostly empty and where cash rates are as low as they’ve ever been so, for my part, I plan to wait and see what happens in the lead-up to Christmas before I make any plans. The properties at which I’m most likely to use my certificate aren’t about to run out of award availability any time soon so there’s no rush for me to make a booking.
Bottom Line
IHG appears to have hinted that it may consider extending the expiration dates of free night certificates that are set to become worthless come 1 January 2021. If you’re holding such a certificate, now may be the time to exercise a bit of patience, although you should be aware that you’re running the risk of leaving yourself just a few days in which to use your certificate should it become obvious that an extension is not on its way.
Currently, successful new applicants for the 
@ Ziggy — This is good news! I had a call to Manila on my to do list. Was not looking forward to it, but this news makes me hopeful that I may not need to make that (likely infuriating) call after all!
Let’s hope we get confirmation of something positive soon – I really don’t want to “waste” my certificate on a stay I don’t need to make.
Not having yet read your post today, I happened to be calling IHG about this very thing today. The agent told me that IHG has been receiving a lot of complaints about the December 31, 2020 expirations, and we “have listened to our customers”. She said they have made a decision to extend all December 31, 2020 expirations to August 31, 2021. The agents were told there would be be an announcement on their website tomorrow, with individual emails to soon follow.
That’s excellent news! Thanks very much for letting us all know – I’ll be checking the IHG site every couple of hours tomorrow 🙂
We have 3 free anniversary nights about to expire the end of the month! We are so disappointed with the responses we have gotten back from headquarters of IHG! I hope by all the comments here are correct! I hate the thought of losing them! Oh well, after being a good member for more than 20 years, we hope they make a decision and have the courtesy of letting us know soon! Thanks, Lori
We called and cancelled our Dec reservations and asked Rep to add a note to the cancellation records that in we are not allowed to travel now
Extension would be great
One year would be ideal
[…] any free night certificates and upgrade certificates that were set to expire before 31 July 2021 (IHG could learn from this!), and members with these certificates sitting in their accounts should now see that they will now […]
Just got off the phone with Ihg they are updating member accounts to reflect changes in the reward certificates to extend the ones expiring 12/31/20. If I remember she said 2022 (kids talking at me and dog barking while on the phone made it hard to hear)