Last week I wrote “Between 23,000 and 40,000 points for $46 and a cramped hand.” The idea discussed in that post was that you could enter the IHG and MasterCard® Priceless Surprises® Promotion by sending in hand written entries rather than staying in IHG properties. Since the odds of winning something are pretty good, it looked like one could send it the maximum 94 entries and most likely receive between 23,000 and 40,000 points.
More than 40,000 points (at least 47,000 points)
The 23,000 to 40,000 point estimate was based on the odds of winning described in the official promotion rules document. Since then, MileValue argued persuasively that every entry would win a prize of at least 500 points. Then, Deals We Like confirmed this interpretation with her PR contact. This means that the official rules document incorrectly labeled the chance of winning as “odds” rather than “probability”. This explanation seems right to me. When we interpret the numbers as probabilities rather than odds, the probabilities add up to very close to 100%. The small gap between the summed probabilities and 100% could be the assumed probability of winning one of the bigger prizes which weren’t assigned specific probabilities (these are “Group A Prizes” which range from $50 prepaid cards to all-expense paid trips to Paris or New York).
So, assuming the new interpretation is correct, the original Deals We Like post on this topic is also correct: If all 94 entries are guaranteed to win at least 500 IHG points, then we can safely assume that we would earn at least 47,000 IHG points altogether.
I’ll leave it to JEM and ‘Dem Flyers to estimate the likely total.
More than $46
In my first post on this topic, I said that it would cost $46 for 94 stamps. I forgot about the envelopes. Luckily envelopes are pretty cheap. For example, on Amazon.com I found these envelopes for $2.99 per 50. And, if you have Amazon Prime (or a total order of $35) you get free shipping.
How to
Instructions for sending in entries can be found in this Deals We Like post. Don’t forget the most important step: Register for this promotion!
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[…] her behalf), so we earned ~90,000 points without even having to stay in one of their hotels. Frequent Miler had a great explanation back when that promo was going […]
Today I received 7 more emails. basically 10 days since my last batch. I had given up. And with my 60 something elevator rides I never got anything but 500 points. Today with those 7 emails i got one 5000, one 2000, one 1000 and four 500. Now that was a surprise. Now a total of 41500 points.
Definitely worth the cramps in my hand. Still missing 16 emails since I sent 90 letters.
I was missing 21 and sent an email to IHG (they forwarded to HelloWorld) several days ago. Today, the remaining 21 emails arrived. I have no idea if this was because of my email or if they would have arrived regardless.
94 wins for me totaling 63,500 points!
94 wins for my wife totaling 57,500 points!
All 121,000 points have now posted into our two IHG accounts. As an added bonus: I only sent in 91 entries for myself, but IHG must have assumed I sent in 94 because they let me play the elevator game 94 times!
A great promo! IHG rocks!
I still haven’t gotten one email. I wrote the cards during Snowzilla so they went out last Tuesday/Wednesday. I saw one commenter waited a month for her emails but the contest ends soon. I’m going to use the FAQ link to send an inquiry about my entries.
One week is not long enough try at least three weeks.
out of my 90 letters I sent, I have received 67 “surprise” emails and 29 have posted so far for 15000 points. The rest better post… but I guess it takes awhile cause the last 2000 points were posted today. Still already worth it. The whole thing was kind of fun.
Well all is said and done. From 94 entries mailed in between January 2-5. 61 emails received however I was able to play the last email multiple times. All 51,500 points have posted to my IHG account from the 94 entries. Thank you
Awesome! I looked for the last email I received and I was able to play it 25 times!
I have gotten most or all of my 94 entries and they were all 500 pointers. My husband is a little behind me. He got 5 more early this morning. Two of them were 2000 points, two of them were 1000 points, and one was 500 points. Funny that out of 94 entries I wouldn’t get any wins in a higher category, yet he got 4 higher wins in a batch of 5 entries?!
[…] by filling out and mailing in 3X5 cards to enter the “IHG Priceless Surprises” contest: More than 40,000 IHG points for more than $46 and a cramped hand. Since then, many people have sent in cards. Not surprisingly, it has taken a while to get […]
OK….. I have opened my last 22 emails and all of them were 500. Not one different. BUT the last 5 or so links said Sorry… “However, you do not have any instant win chances to use…etc”
Looks like I opened too many today which is weird.
Since the link is always the same I bet they have some kind of counter somewhere and I ran out of chances. Maybe I could have reloaded the link 50 times instead of opening each email and clicking the link.
Lets see if I get all those points.
Still 30 Entries missing.
I received 33 more elevator emails yesterday. Got a very nice haul: Two 5000 points, two 2000 points, twenty-seven 500 points, and two no-winners.
I had 3 500 pt winners but they have not shown up in my account. Is there another step to redeem them after the elevator?
I had 1 that said I did not win anything and then the next day I got an email that said I did win and there was problem on their end, but I still have nothing added to my account.
I think this is not instant. Somewhere (maybe even here) somebody said they posted much later on his/her account. It took about a month after extra points posted on the account after a Hotel stay.
I Finally received some emails today from IHG Priceless Surprises. I sent 10 cards for my husband and 10 for me on Dec 17, just received emails; 7 for each of us, Jan 19th. I mailed more in batches of about 20 a week. Only getter 500 pt prizes so far on the 2 each we have opened, but that’s enough to justify the cost of stamps, cards, and envelopes!
Sorry, getting not getter. That darn spell check gets me all the time!
I got 56 emails today and my husband got 31. All were 500 point winners except for 4 on my husband’s account that said he didn’t win. (I did go back a few hours later and re-tried and got some more 500 pointers.) I’m not sure if he won points on every play as I lost track. So…about 87 plays between the two of us and not a single one above 500. I had received 13 previous emails in December that were all 500 point winners as well. I was surprised that we didn’t get anything higher, given that many people in December reported multiple wins in the “B” category, even when they only had 10 emails or so. Did anyone who got a batch of emails today win more than 500 points??
I won some 1000, 2000, and 5000 points
I have just tried and clicked the link on the 4 emails I have already clicked earlier with no winnings. On all 4 I got the same 500 points….. so I cant tell if they fixed that or if I only won 500 points each or just once…. no clue.
Anybody else got different results?
After seeing your post, I clicked on 2 of the 3 emails my partner received this morning. The first 2 resulted in 500 points each, but the third gave me the “We love your enthusiasm” message “However, you do not have any instant win chances to use. Complete a qualified stay before February 15 to earn another chance to win.” Maybe, they haven’t worked out all the bugs yet? I’ll try again tomorrow.
I tried again and this time one of the emails resulted in 500 points. The rest said “We love your enthusiasm! However, you do not have any instant win chances to use.”
The exact same thing happened to me. One 500 point winner, and the rest of the emails said no instant win chances to use. 🙁
Good news! I just got the following email from IHG:
Dear XXXX,
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 9 times, for a total of 4,500 IHG Rewards Club points.
We apologize for any miscommunication with the promotion and thank you for your continued support of the Priceless Surprises promotion.
Congratulations!
Prize Fulfillment Services
Good news: it looks like they’re trying to fix the bug. The website now says:
Please check back soon
This promotion is undergoing a short maintenance period.
On the elevator emails there is an FAQ link. The questions and answers there are worthless … but at the bottom of the FAQ link there is an electronic complaint form. So I sent a complaint (it was easy), and got an email back that said they would respond as soon as possible. Maybe if others complained it might focus them on this particular issue.
Thanks… I just did the same thing. Lets see if we get a reaction.
I don’t see a FAQ link in my emails. Can you post the URL here?
Here it is:
http://ihg.promo.eprize.com/pricelesssurprises//faq.html
I just submitted a “Contact Us” form to the HelloWorld company that runs this promotion. I’ll try to find out for everyone what’s going on and how to deal with this apparent bug.