Yesterday I wrote a little bit about the IHG Priceless Surprises promotion, which has been going on for a few months now. I, like many of you, dutifully filled out 94 index cards and 94 envelopes and mailed them in, with the idea that we would win at LEAST 500 points per entry (or a minimum of 47,000 points total) – SEE ALSO: 100,000 hotel points for a few hours work
Well, technically it wasn’t ALL me – my minions also were put to work 🙂
Anyways, it’s been a little over a month, and I have so far received a grand total of nada, leading me to wonder: When should I be worried about my 94 envelopes?
Readers to the rescue
Monday’s post was pretty popular, with over 50 people commenting, and many readers chiming in with their experiences. Some had already gotten all their emails, others had not gotten any, and some people had gotten only SOME of their entries. Here were a few themes that I saw
- Originally it looked like all the emails were coming in on Wednesdays, but then some people commented that they received some
- If you haven’t sent in all your letters yet, some people suggested not sending in them all at once (like I did). The words “fiery USPS crash” were mentioned…. 🙂
Can you “not win”?!?
One of the beautys of this game is that everyone was guaranteed to win at least 500 points with EACH entry. So your 94 entries should be worth at least 47,000 points (and possibly more if you win any of the larger prizes). But a few readers posted some disturbing experiences
I just received 2 more emails last night. When I “choose my floor”, I get the message “Sorry, you didn’t win this time”. This is approximately 3 “Sorry you didn’t win” messages out of the 10 or so that I have received back.
and
I received 35 today and did not win anything on any of them. When you read the terms, it says you will win 500 per 15 plays on average. This is very disappointing since I thought we were supposed to win a minimum of 500 per entry
This was not in accordance with my understanding of how the Priceless Surprises promotion. Thankfully we apparently got the answer to that a little later in the day, when a commenter wrote in to say:
“Thank you for your participation in the IHG and MasterCard® Priceless Surprises® Promotion! It appears that you may have accidentally received a message that you did not win when you played the game today. Please be assured that you have won the following prize:
500 IHG Rewards Club Points
Our system indicates that you should have won this prize 2 times, for a total of 1,000 IHG Rewards Club points.
We apologize for any miscommunication with the promotion and thank you for your continued support of the Priceless Surprises promotion.”
So it looks like even if it told you that you didn’t win, you still did 🙂
How many emails?
It also looks like the emails come in with the exact same link. So while you might get 94 emails, each email is exactly the same, with the exact same link. There have been reports of people being able to play the game multiple times more than the number of emails that they actually received
The link is the same on each of an individual’s emails. I hope everybody is trying an “extra hit” of the link. As states before I played 35 times when I just got one email. I never did get the other emails.
How about you? Have you gotten your IHG Priceless Surprises emails? What have you won?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
My husband and I have both received 84 & 87 emails out of the 94 and they have all been for 500 points. They came in 2 bunches over the last 2 days. I just keep going through the link until it says you do not have any instant chances to use. FYI
I received first 3 email Tuesday. Played 3x on one email. The other 2 did not work then. Received 1500 total. Not sure why only three, I’ve sent no less than 5 at a time and have sent at least 15 since November, but possibly wasn’t signed up until Christmas, oops. So it looks like I’m in business just got to get these cards written and sent!
How long from the time you play the game and win 500 points until they post to the accounts? thx
I’ve seen people show them as posted any time from 1-2 weeks after
It’s taking about a week for me.
Cool good to hear abut the didn’t win emails.
I have only received 12 back of the 50 sent or so I sent in. All 500s except for a 1000, and 2000 wins. What was weird I received 2 emails yesterday morning and then 1 email yesterday night. Seems like they started more processing??
I’ve sent in 50 over a month ago and have received nothing… Very disappointing!
Chill out guys! This was not meant to be an exercise to see who could sprain their writing hand fastest. It was designed to promote use of the IHG Mastercard. I stayed in an IHG property last month and have still not received my award. Now that is something to really complain about.
I wrote the other day in response to Monday’s post. I had said that I could hit each email link several times to play multiple times. They are all eventually posting to my account as I’ve kept track on what dates I got a ‘prize’ email and how many times I hit a particular link. BUT I received 2 ‘game’ emails last nite and then one today. When I hit each of the links again after playing once I received a message saying, ‘We appreciate your enthusiasm. However, you do not have any instant win chances to use.’ So it appears that they may have caught up with the people that have been using the game links to play more than once. Are any other multiple linkers having this experience?
Received 66 of our 188 in the last 24 hours.
5 x 0
56 x 500
2 x 1000
2 x 2000
1 x 5000
I didn’t send any entries in, but I did have some qualifying stays that should earn me Priceless Surprises entries. Of my 3 qualifying stays, I have received one entry (1,000 pts). The rules say that it’ll take 5 days after checking out to receive the email with the game piece. It took 20. My other stays happened in early December and just before Christmas. It has been >6 weeks on the first stay, and more than a month on the second, and nothing! I’ve called and emailed support, who have been entirely unhelpful. I wonder if they’ve been so bogged down with the mailed-in entries that the actual hotel stays are receiving no attention at all? A bit disappointing for sure.
My wife and I both sent in 94 entries several months ago. She received 44 emails and I received not a single one. We sent them all in on the same day. The people from IHG appear to be of highly dubious competence. Do you have any suggestions about what to do so that the hours writing out cards and the money spent on stamps, envelopes, and cards is not a waste?
Thanks.
I sent my entries in bundles of tens. I now have 51,500 points. Three times I won 1000, and once I won 2000 points. That is adds up to 930 cards.
I know I sent some without my birth date, so 70 entries may have got tossed. Overall I am very pleased. Now all I have to do is decide were to go and book it.
Got all 94 of mine. Wife got 84 of hers. She forgot credit card numbers on some we think. But she got several thousand point winners to make up the difference.
We need more things like this for points.