IHG Rewards Club points and Qantas Hotels... don't count on IHG points

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heygman

Junior Member
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Sep 25, 2011
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Qantas
Platinum
Hi people,

Just a heads-up JUST IN CASE it hasn't been mentioned before. It might have, but I have searched the forum to find out...

If you use Qantas Hotels to book your accommodation, they "might" use third party providers such as Expedia.com. I say might because I've only done it once and this is the result:

I took the family recently to the US/Canada and whilst booking the flights, I also booked one hotel via Qantas Hotels.

According to IHG, the most expensive stay on our journey (8 nights in Seattle), which of course was the one I booked via Qantas Hotels, is an IHG Rewards Club "non-qualifying stay" as it was booked via Expedia.com. Wait, No. I booked it via Qantas Hotels (Hooroo). I have a Qantas booking reference and Tax Invoice. Nothing said anything about Expedia.

"No sir - the booking was made through Expedia and in the IHG conditions, Expedia.com and other similar companies bookings are non-qualifying stays. It is in the conditions." It is. I read it whilst I was trying to work out why my $2500 stay was non-qualifying...


My beef here is twofold.

1) I had to make contact with IHG no less than 4 times in order to find out the reason why it was a "non-qualifying stay". Not once did I receive a response until I eventually placed a call to the call centre (which is, as usual, pretty hard to hear and understand); and

2) That nowhere in any of the Qantas Hotels conditions did it say that the booking was going to be made through a third party company. So why shouldn't I expect to receive my IHG points for my stay? There is no transparency here from Qantas Hotels - well not that I have managed to find.

When I asked IHG if I had presented the quote from Qantas Hotels to IHG for their Best Price Guarantee, would they have then honoured that price and STILL given me my rewards points, I got the standard response of "...any booking made via Expedia or any other booking company like that would not be eligible for points as they are heavily discounted rates..."

I saved $150 for the entire stay. Not sure that is what I would consider a "heavily discounted" rate - roughly 6% discount!

So the "Best Price Guarantee" is worth what, exactly? "Best Price you can get via the IHG website or IHG app" I think.

I think it's time to use up my IGH points and then focus on my Radisson membership, or become Hotel agnostic and leverage as much discount hotel shopping as I can muster.

It's a shame that after nearly 20 years as a member IHG Club membership (at one stage platinum), they don't appear to value that loyalty.
 
If you use Qantas Hotels to book your accommodation, they "might" use third party providers such as Expedia.com.


I think your beef is with Qantas not IHG. Qantas apparently used Expedia to book your hotel so why didn't you ask Qantas about benefits such as IHG points?

Also, wouldn't Qantas hotels be considered a third party booking agency for the purpose of IHG points? If so, then you would be in exactly the same position you are now.
 
It is worth noting that IHG isn’t unique in this regard. It isn’t unusual not to be awarded points on hotel stays that are not directly booked via the hotels website itself.
 
I think your beef is with Qantas not IHG. Qantas apparently used Expedia to book your hotel so why didn't you ask Qantas about benefits such as IHG points?

Also, wouldn't Qantas hotels be considered a third party booking agency for the purpose of IHG points? If so, then you would be in exactly the same position you are now.

You may be right - I don't necessarily disagree. Transparency of lack thereof may be sitting more with QF in this instance. Maybe a note to QF is in order. All it needs is a note or a condition included somewhere on their site telling you that they might use a third party discounted booking agency to secure your room and that any loyalty scheme that you may be enrolled could be ineligible for that stay. I've searched and seen nothing.

It was still a surprise when I noticed the "non-qualifying stay" status, and the total lack of response from IHG very disappointing.

In regards to your second point, when on the phone to IHG the call centre operator indicated that when you book through travel agents you can receive your points (I assume dependent of the tier/room rate purchased), but not when you book via Wotif/Expedia type of sites that have "heavily discounted" rates. I wouldn't have thought Qantas Travel/Qantas Hotels would have fallen into the latter category.

It's a moot point (and a first world problem) but if we can save anybody else disappointment, or a nasty surprise then it's worth the 20 minutes typing...

Cheers

Heygman :)
 
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You may be right - I don't necessarily disagree. Transparency of lack thereof may be sitting more with QF in this instance. Maybe a note to QF is in order. All it needs is a note or a condition included somewhere on their site telling you that they might use a third party discounted booking agency to secure your room and that any loyalty scheme that you may be enrolled could be ineligible for that stay. I've searched and seen nothing.

They 'might' use a third party? Qantas Hotels are a third party. To be treated like any other online agent selling hotel rooms.
 
In regards to your second point, when on the phone to IHG the call centre operator indicated that when you book through travel agents you can receive your points (I assume dependent of the tier/room rate purchased), but not when you book via Wotif/Expedia type of sites that have "heavily discounted" rates. I wouldn't have thought Qantas Travel/Qantas Hotels would have fallen into the latter category.

It is also worth keeping in mind that when booking via a travel agent you may also not receive points, as it depends how they book the room.
 
I think your beef is with Qantas not IHG. Qantas apparently used Expedia to book your hotel so why didn't you ask Qantas about benefits such as IHG points?

It wouldn't matter how Qantas booked it, IHG will generally only award points for direct bookings with them, as with almost all other hotel loyalty programs. There's no way that Qantas could book one of the rates they get as an aggregator whilst still earning you points.
 
I wouldn't have thought Qantas Travel/Qantas Hotels would have fallen into the latter category.

They fall into the category of being a non-direct booking, not a highly discounted booking. This is a fairly good article that hits the main points regarding which combinations of loyalty bookings give the best returns:


The main point is, it's not an AND but an OR. You can either save money with discount aggregators, earn your preferred currency (eg QFF) with airline aggregators or go directly with the hotels and get benefits that are more specific to the hotel chain (such as better/free wifi, room upgrades, etc) but get stuck inside that program, with some allowing transfers out into airline or other program points, usually at poor transfer rates. If you do happen to snag both (which I have managed a few times), enjoy, but don't expect it.
 
It's not just IHG of course. It's pretty standard across most of the hotel chains. To get the hotel chain benefits and points you generally need to book directly on the hotel chain's website.

If you don't, sometimes the hotel will still give you benefits but no points. Sometimes you might get both. But often you'll get neither. It's down to luck and the individual hotel sometimes.
 
It's not just IHG of course. It's pretty standard across most of the hotel chains. To get the hotel chain benefits and points you generally need to book directly on the hotel chain's website.

There's a nuance to this that is probably a big source of confusion. Generally, the hotel must be either booked through the hotel chain's website or through a GDS, where payment is made to the hotel. So booking through a large corporate travel agent, such as Carlson Wagonlit travel, where you are billed by the hotel, and not the agent, typically results in the same outcome as booking through the hotel. I am not sure if this applies in every instance, but certainly I've had no issues with getting status recognised or points/stays awarded through this way on Accor, Marriott, Hilton and IHG.

Once upon a time, IIRC bookings via Qantas were like this (via GDS), but now they are no different to other third party or aggregator sites, such as expedia, booking.com etc.
 
Well here is what IHG states:

"Points will be awarded for Qualifying Stays booked through IHG’s central reservation offices, IHG web sites, authorized travel agents (excluding online travel agents such as Expedia.com and booking.com, and unauthorized agents on online vertical travel portals), or directly at the hotel."

So booking via an "online" travel agent seems out...
 
Once upon a time, IIRC bookings via Qantas were like this (via GDS), but now they are no different to other third party or aggregator sites, such as expedia, booking.com etc.

I think it has been like this since they moved to Hooroo (not sure if they are still with them). But they're essentially an aggregator
 
Had the same loss of points with Fraser, booked through Qantas. That time, though, the $30 discount with a QF Hotels voucher made up for the loss.

At the same time, in some places I've even received a "thanks for booking directly with us" when checking in (and have booked directly). So some of the properties do note it, too, and reward for it, respectively.
 
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