The Priority Club partner activity bonus has been a bit vexing for some — it seems that plenty of members received fewer points than they should have from the offer.
Personally I should have received the full 10,000 points but received only 6,000. And the reason appears to have been that I transferred points via Points.com into Priority Club (1 Priority Club point…) and I also purchased 1000 points. Both of those were described as unique activities. But the purchase of points is managed by Points.com, and both transactions post as Points.com to the account, so the Priority Club system treated them as a single partner and not unique activities.
Folks have been pulling teeth to get their missing points, spending tons of time on hold, emailing to no avail.
My points are finally in. I never dealt with anyone on the phone, I don’t want to waste my time on hold and I hate talking to people anyway.
Instead, it took 3 emails over 3 days. Here’s the exchange that finally worked.
Dear Priority Club,
I am writing about missing points from a bonus offer for my Royal
Ambassador/Priority Club account # XXXXXXXXX.The 2009 MULTIPARTNER OFFER provided me with 6000 points on December 9.
This was offer code 3558.However, I had (4) unique partner transactions and should have received
10000 points.In other words, I am missing 4000 points.
I transferred points from another program to Priority Club via Points.com
26 Aug 2009 POINTS.COM 1 pts.I redeemed Membership Rewards points for Priority Club points
10 Sep 2009 MBRSP RWDS TRSFR-UNITED STATES 1200 pts.I made a purchase from the Priority Club Mall
13 Oct 2009 PC MALL- RESTAURANT.COM 20 pts.I purchased points at Priorityclub.com
28 Sep 2009 POINTS.COM 1000 pts.The problem appears to be that point purchase and points to points conversion — while verified by Priority Club to be eligible unique activities — both posted as “Points.com”
Please post the missing 4000 points to my account.
Sincerely,
That wasn’t persuasive, they just explained that Points.com is one partner, period.
Dear gleff,
Thank you for taking the time to contact Priority Club Rewards Service Center.
We regret to inform you that purchasing and transferring of points with Points.Com are considered one unique activity as both transactions were done with the same partner. We require only one activity per partner to qualify for the 2009 Multi Partner Promotion.
The Priority Club® members are our most valued customers and we appreciate your loyalty to our hotels. As a goodwill gesture, we have credited your account with 500 points as compensation for this unfortunate situation.
Your current point balance is XXXXXX. This adjustment should be available for immediate viewing in your online account which can be accessed at
http://www.priorityclub.com/account
We look forward to serving you again in the future and hope that you will continue to use IHG as your preferred lodging of choice.
Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Attached is the link to our service centers’ phone numbers page:
http://www.priorityclub.com/contactus
Sincerely,
So now I’m out only 3500 points after 500 points for my troubles, but I need to explain to them that buying points and transferring points were two different unique activities.
Ms. XXXX,
Respectfully I believe you are mistaken, and that I earned 10,000 points from that promotion but have received only 6000. Thus I am missing 4000 points.
While you say that “purchasing and transferring of points with Points.com are considered one unique activity as both were done with the same partner,” I did not transfer points with Points.com. I did it on the Priority Club web page. No where did it say that the activity would post as a points.com transaction.
Besides, the terms and conditions are very specific that these are two separate unique transactions: “A Priority Club Point purchase and a partner points to points conversion transaction are considered eligible unique activities.”
Further, the terms and conditions list these separately again under “Other eligible activities.”
I made a Priority Club Point Purchase, that was a unique transaction from a points to points conversion transaction. That is straight from the terms and conditions of the offer.
Please credit me with the missing 4000 points.
Regards,
They weren’t buying it. And they go on to explain how I’m mistaken.
Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for your reply to Priority Club® Rewards.
We would like to inform you that though points purchase and points transfer are eligible activities, please remember that only one activity per partner would count towards the Multipartner Unique Activity bonus. Since both transactions where from points.com, then you have utilize one partner only.
Further, even when you made the purchase through the Priority Club® Rewards website, this would direct you to the Points.com website to make the necessary transaction.
We hope this clarifies your inquiry.
Please accept our apologies for the confusion regarding this matter.
Should you need further assistance, please feel free to get in touch with us directly. Attached is the link to the Service Centers’ phone numbers page:
http://www.priorityclub.com/contactus
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be of service to you.
Sincerely,
Oh no they didn’t, trying to school me with my doing both transactions on the Points.com website.
So I replied:
Ms. XXXXXX,
Respectfully, the terms and conditions of the offer specifically said that transfers and purchases were separate unique activities. I proceeded on that basis. I purchased points only because the terms and conditions said this was a separate unique activity from transfers, in order to earn the full promised bonus.
Further, while you mention that purchasing points “takes you to the points.com website,” the website at points.com is made to appear graphically the same as the rest of the priority club website — precisely to make it appear as though you haven’t left the Priority Club website. It’s not reasonable to expect, as your email implies, that someone would realize they’re working with points.com when the website is designed to obscure that fact.
Regardless, transfers and purchases are separate activities!
Separately, as reported at Flyertalk.com, other members have been told — consistent with the terms and conditions of the offer — that these are indeed separate unique activities and have had their missing 4000 posted manually.
I again request that the 4000 missing points be added to my account.
Sincerely,
And now I have the missing points.
Dear gleff,
Thank you for your reply.
Your comments have been recorded and we have shared them with the management staff of the Priority Club® Rewards Service Center, which will in turn pass them on to our corporate executives that make decisions pertaining to future enhancements of our program.
The Priority Club® members are our most valued customers and we appreciate your loyalty to our hotels as well as your honest feedback. As a goodwill gesture, we have credited your account with additional 3,500 points as compensation for this unfortunate situation.
We hope that we will be able to take future measures to incorporate your suggestions into our program. We look forward to serving you again in the future and hope that you will continue to use IHG as your preferred lodging of choice.
Should you have further queries or concerns, feel free to contact us. Attached is the link to the service centers’ phone numbers page: http://www.priorityclub.com/contactus
Sincerely,
XXXXX
Goodwill gesture always means YOU WIN; and, they get out of a sticky situation gracefully.
Ridiculous. Ours took two phone calls, made by my partner.
Instead of “goodwill gesture” they could just say, “Upon further review, we decided that your interpretation was correct.” It’s more honest.
I think many corporations are now trying to not honor their cash promotions over the holidays. I had the same problem with AMEX and Paypal/bing. AMEX was just resolved.
At least he got his in 3 emails, I got mine after 7 emails and 4 calls, the last call went over 1 hour just to correct mine and my wife account
Did they really write “where” instead of “were”? “Since both transactions where from points.com, then you have utilize one partner only.”
They should give you extra points for typos in their form letters.
I also did mine only via e-mail. It took six e-mails from me and six from them.
-Online discrepancy report (1)
-Email from them: these are the terms
-Email from me: okay, confirms I am due points (2)
-Email from them: we will investigate
-Email from me: still waiting (3)
-Email from them: be patient
-Email from me: still no response (4)
-Email from them: you only have three unique activities
-Email from me: no, I have 4–read your terms (5)
-Email from them: reiterates I have 3; ignores the terms I quoted
-Email from me: uhh…did you read what I sent you–read it again (6)
-Email from them: we have deposited 4K points “as a gesture of our commitment to serve you better”
I received my missing 4000 points without even contacting them at all – guess I got lucky on this one!
Here we’re up to four mails in each direction and still no resolution in sight. I initially (9 December) received 3,000 points despite having completed four unique activities.
PC’s most recent reply suggests that they think they’ve rewarded me for three activities and that I’m ‘only’ waiting for points for the fourth. Those points have been promised… for an unspecified date: “Unfortunately, there is no specific date yet the points will be posted. Our apologies for the inconvenience. ”
Time for a fifth mail…
Sometimes these things have a way of working out. I was all over this in December when my 6000 miles posted. I contacted customer service, told them I should get 10000 miles. She was appearing to be very confused, as I was guiding her through the 4 transactions, etc. She kept me on the phone for 15 minutes, and finally gave me 10000 points for goodwill. Then, last week, my other 4000 points posted. 20000 points in all!
Wow… they responded to me with almost the same reply as yours Gary… Glad I can use cut and paste from your responses… Thanks! We’ll see if I get my points…
One more day and two more mails later, 3000 points have been credited as a “goodwill adjustment”. So my seventh mail is ‘only’ chasing the final 4000 points…
I suppose it’s some small consolation that the delayed points count give a boost to this year’s status requalification.
I had 4 different txns (points.com, pcr dining, pc mall, flowerusa.com) and all were made early Sept. Last purchase (points) hit pc account on 19NOV. I rec’d 3000 multipartneroffer points 9DEC. Didn’t have time to deal with the missing 7000 points over the holidays so left it alone until the new year. Then, by some miracle and no intervention by me, the remaining 7000 points post on 8JAN.
Six days later, another 3,000 points have appeared. This time they appear to have posted automatically, suggesting that the system has recognised three unique activities. Gets me close enough to the 10,000 to call it a day.