Last month, I wrote about how in exchange for a few hours of time, you could get up to 100,000 hotel points. This was due to the IHG Priceless Surprises promotion. Originally the Priceless Surprises promotion was intended to reward people for every stay they did at any IHG hotel. However, enterprising folks soon figured out that you could ALSO enter the contest via mail. You could enter the contest 94 times by filling out 94 index cards and mailing them in 94 separate envelopes
We set up my minions around the dining room table and knocked out 188 envelopes (94 for me and 94 for Carolyn) in a few hours.
Haven’t gotten my emails – should I be worried?
The way that the Priceless Surprises promotion works is that once your mail-in entry is received, you get an email with a link to an online game, where you will win (at least) 500 points per entry.
Enough people have reported receiving the emails that I’m not worried that the entire promotion is a scam, but I am getting a little nervous that somehow I’ve messed things up. I’m no rookie at the mail-in rebate game – I once filled out 47 (FORTY SEVEN!) mail-in rebates on a single purchase, and I guess at this point I’m 95% sure I just need to wait, but just wondering when I should start being worried?
We sent in our envelopes in the middle of December, so at this point it’s been about a month. Is anyone else still waiting for their Priceless Surprises emails?
And if you haven’t played yet, you DO still have a month or so to enter (all entries have to be postmarked by February 15th). For details on how to do it – see this post.
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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 
I waited to send mine in and sent a test batch of 10 entries on 11/24 and just got the contest entries on 1/13.
Mine took well over a month. The odd thing is that my wife and I sent ours at the same time and she got the emails 2 weeks before me.
On flyertalk they say they have only mailed entries sent before December 7th. Don’t worry just be patient.
Good to hear!
Sent mine in starting on 12/14 and haven’t received anything yet either…
Dropped off 12/4 at the post office and the emails came in two batches- 1/6 and 1/13. Seems like they are extremely backed up and they can’t fulfill the “respond within 5 business day” spelled out in the T&C.
Mine have been hit or miss. Ones sent in Nov took over a month. The last batch I sent (I was nervous so sent in batches of 10) I received in about 2 weeks.
I did not hand write the envelope address either.
I also sent mine in on December 14 and was starting to worry because I haven’t received any emails
I sent mine in about six different batches and am keeping track of the time to get the emails. I’m finding it’s now running at least 6 weeks. I have only received a few from the ones I send on 12/5 and nothing yet for those sent after that.
Got emails on half of my dozen entries, roughly three weeks after each small batch, but the others are lagging and a mystery. If I get more emails this week I plan to go ahead and do a marathon entry stint for the rest of the mailings, but if no more response it’s not worth it.
As long as you’re sure you’re registered for the promotion and filled out all the cards/envelopes in the proper manner, I wouldn’t start worrying yet. I sent in a dozen or so before Thanksgiving and only just received a reply last Friday (1/15). So I just went ahead and sent in the rest and if I hear something again by St. Patrick’s Day I’ll just be pleasantly surprised. They really messed up on their “entries will be responded to within 5 business days”. 40 business days would have been more accurate in my case.
I sent mine around 12/13 and so far only got 2 emails.
Frank – Did you try to hit the link more than once. I only got one email after sending close to 40 entries. I was able to successfully do the link 35 times. Who know what sometimes happens to the emails.
I mailed “about” 40 entries on 11/27. On 1/6 I received just ONE email. I was, however, able to play the same link a total of 34 times. I then received the points on 1/15. So about 5 weeks to get the email and another week to get the points.
I’d say you’re due anytime now (within a week anyway).
I think you were able to play the link 40 times because you mailed your entries in bulk and all were processed around the same time. I mailed 5, then 5, then 15, then 20… in mid December.
I have received ONE email today and that one email linked to only one chance to play. I will continue to check that link as time passes or when I get sent another link – assuming they have not had a chance to get to all my entries yet.
I got 18 more emails today. I checked and the link was the same as on the previous emails. I used the prior link that I had set as a shortcut on my desktop and it let me do the 18 new plays.
You don’t happen to have an iCloud.com/me.com/mac.com email address by chance have you? I emailed their customer service and they said they sent me 70 entries so far but I’ve yet to receive any. I have a suspicion that Apple’s email filters are filtering them out before they get to the inbox. I’d love more data points.
Nope both my wife and I used Gmail addresses
I emails on 1/6 and 1/13, so Wednesdays looks like it.
I’ve got an iCloud.com account and have not received anything. I submitted in mid November. Is there some way to get them released from Apple? There is nothing in my Junk folder.
Same. I mailed them the week before Thanksgiving. Received zero emails so far.
I just got 40 replies from IHG last night. Looks like my iCloud account is working fine now.
Apparently they switched from sending out the emails on Fridays to sending them out on Wednesdays.
The ones I sent in the first week of December came last week so I think you should probably get yours this Wednesday or next.
Good luck!
I got my email on a Monday.
sent two batches starting mid december. Have had no response
I sent 94 entries in mid-December and haven’t heard back. Customer service reps don’t even seem to know about the promotion, but a manager assured me they would count. Fingers crossed.
I have also done stays starting early Dec and not received entries and only mailed about 30 cards and nothing
yikes. I just put my 1st batch in the mail this weekend. If they are that far behind then they are not likely to get mine back to me before the contest ends in February… Wonder what happens then??
I’ve sent a total of 188 entries for both my spouse and me in batches. So far I’ve received a total of 42 game plays for myself in three separate email batches (total of 33,500 points earned (B prizes: 2 5000, 2 2000, 1 1000)), and 0 game plays for my spouse. I made sure to register both of us in the game (and check on that registration by doing it again). At this point, it’s just about patience.
I registered the first day of the promotion and sent in the first batch of 20 just a few days after the promo started (on November 19th). On Friday November 20th while writing my second batch, I realized that I had forgotten my D.O.B. on the first batch of cards.
I correctly and clearly filled out 94 cards and 94 handwritten envelopes. The handwriting was very neat (engineering style). I confirmed that all the details including IHG #, Mastercard, e-mail, etc. was all correct. I sent them out in batches of 10-20 between November 23rd and December 11th, always mailing them from post offices – both in the Puget Sound area and South Florida.
Starting December 23rd and lasting 6 days, I received daily e-mails with the title ”
Travel to earn Priceless Surprises”. I suspect that my invalid entries (missing D.O.B.) triggered those e-mails.
I have not received any additional e-mails from the 94 that should have been received and valid nor do I see any completion on the Offer itself. I am a bit concerned since it has been more than a month since my last batch.
According to the contest rules, the write-in portion of the contest ends in mid-February. I assume that is to allow time to process the final entries. If we get to the end of February and nothing happens with most of my entries, I am going to do more than worry, I will scream bloody murder and demand redress. But in the meantime, I wait to see what these guys will do. It does bother me that they do not seem to have found out a way to speed things up. Hello World got paid to run this contest, its their responsibility process the entries. One thing I would love to know are the exchanges between IHG and Hello World. I bet we would witness some world-class finger pointing!
I sent mine in three separate batches of ~30.
So far I have received:
– 2 emails in late December
– 5 emails last week
I’m starting to feel pretty strongly that I got screwed. I almost wish they had just sent me nothing – at least then I could wonder if I did something wrong or screwed up some sort of technicality. As it is, I can’t help feeling like they’re just throwing me a bone to “prove” they can’t be held liable for ignoring my entries, but probably threw away 90% of what I mailed in…
did you try the link again and again? it could be that you got one email link for a batch of entries. some people got one email for a batch of entries and the link worked for the number of times they entered. I have had only one link emailed to me and only 1 entry. I sent my letters spaced out so as to avoid the one postal truck that gets into a crash and bursts into flames…with my entries! hahaha just risk diversification.
I thought about the same scenario with the fiery USPS crash, that’s why I sent in 3 batches 😉
Actually I did try each link multiple times – none of them let me play more than once 🙁
Sent first batch mid December and second batch on January 2. No emails received. I did write in all caps extremely neatly. I finished my dad’s entries last night but am questioning sending them this late. Will the contest end long before they get around to processing all the entries?!
Just got my first batch (7) overnight – actually it’s the 2nd batch I sent, but the first I received emails from. These were sent around mid Dec. Each “won” 500 points (no no big prizes so far) – hopefully this will change with the next batch. Going to work on filling out more cards today!
I sent in 40 around December 14 and then the remaining 54 on December 26. I hand wrote everything inside and outside. I have a yahoo mail account. From the first batch I received 21 ‘play’ emails on a Friday about a month after I sent the first batch in. In one day I played all of the link and then hit some of the links again twice to see if they were still live after the first play- which they were. Since then I’ve gotten random ‘play’ emails- sometimes one a week, sometimes 2 a week on Wednesday, Mondays & Fridays- for a grand total of 27 emails and 40 point posts to my IHG account (posting the point prize seems to take anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks). Patience is my friend.
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.
I received my first batch of emails today – mailed on the 12th or 14th of December.
BY LAW in ALL states the sweepstakes organization (in this case, HelloWorld) MUST comply with all terms, conditions, rules, and laws. HelloWorld/ ePrize is the dominant sweepstakes marketing firm in the USA and it has years’ of experience in sweepstakes administration. There is absolutely no excuse for poor administration on the part of HelloWorld.
If this particular promotion is badly handled by HelloWorld and is not in compliance with the Terms and Conditions of the promotion a complaint should be directed to your state Attorney Generals’ office. State fines can run into the tenss of thousands of dollars. It would be far cheaper for HelloWorld to hire additional staff to fulfill this promotion than to risk being fined by multiple states’ Attorney Generals.
Of 94 envelopes mailed prior to December 15 I have received only 1 reply to date.
Well so much for Wednesdays – I just got a bunch of emails last night!
Subbing
I received 15 emails at 12:30 AM (Eastern) today, so that’s it for the theory all emails were now going out on Wednesdays.
I sent my second batch, of about 40, about four weeks ago. All were 500s, which was expected since I maxed out the B list prizes in the first 35 entries. Hope for the other 25 soon.
I used to handle sweepstakes before I sold my business and retired (not necessarily for airlines) and I recommend that you NOT mail all your entries at the same time because of how mail can be sorted at the destination. It’s better to spread it out in case something goes wrong with a tray of mail. Examples: problem at post office, misplaced at the receiving company, entered into system out of order compared to date received, etc.
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
So here’s one for the community: 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.
I thought EVERY entry won at least the minimum 500 points?!? Anybody else receive dud entries? I’m starting to get concerned I’m getting burned by IHG but would like to hear if this is a glitch of some sort before I contact IHG.
Received 21 emails this morning for entries mailed 12/15. Not one winner. No 500. NOTHING .
I received the following Follow-up email this afternoon. Hopefully you get the same:
“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.”
All 35 I received today said that exact thing
I received the following email today that made me feel better (though I’m still concerned about where my other 80+ entries are…). Hopefully you will get similar and at least get your 500/entry:
“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.”
What’s the email address they come from? I want to setup a filter to guarantee they don’t go into spam when they finally come through.
IHGRewardsClub@eprizepromotions.com
Well sent in my 94 submission before thanks giving and all 94 just hit my e-mail all at once!!
Confession: I stupidly forgot to register for this promotion before mailing in all 94 of my entries back at the beginning of December. I only realized this today, and (having now registered) am wondering if I need to mail in another 94 entries or if the entries will somehow magically work now that I’m registered. Has anyone else made the same mistake? Any tips?
Just to follow up on my earlier comment, I contacted IHG about my failure to register and asked if they could still credit my entries (that I’d mailed in 2 months ago). They told me no, but a few days later, I received most of my emails. So, even if you forget to register before mailing your entries, there is still hope!
I’d like to reiterate that there are multiple play chances linked to one e-mail. I’ve mailed about 65 over the last two weeks and received one e-mail (gmail) with the small, nearly illegible number 15 next to the e-mail heading. It only took about a week so I am expecting more during the next week or two. I also have stayed 3 times since I registered, so perhaps that helps? I will send the additional 29 and my wife and I will also do all 94 for her acct before 2/15. My 15 had 1x1k, 2x2k, 1x5k and the rest were all 500. Feeling pretty good about it so far.
Received all 94 email play invites for myself. Able to play only 87 times before getting the “enthusiasm” message. Guess my other 7 entries are null and void.
My dad has only received 18 emails of his 94 sent beginning of January.
I mailed all 94 entries and received 24 email responses on January 29, 2016 but nothing further since then. Does anyone have an email address to contact about the other 70 entries or any information on who to contact? I tried the one on the email to me but that came back as undeliverable. Thanks.
Try questions@helloworldfulfillment.com
I had a similar issue. I sent an email to IHGService@IHG.com, and they forwarded to Helloworld. They were prompt in responding and sent the remaining game play emails to me within a week.
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This promo has ended