There have been data points reported on several blogs over the past few days of IHG extending free night certificate by six months for some customers. We have received similar reports from readers in comments here on the blog and in our Facebook group, but I’ve intentionally held off on publishing the tip in the hopes that IHG would instead come out with a uniform policy. They haven’t yet. If you are holding a certificate that expires soon, you should probably take them up on the 6-month extension. If your certificate expires a few months from now, I’d wait it out.
Call for a 6-month extension
Several people have reported success in calling IHG customer service to create a case ID # for their free night certificate to be extended. This isn’t instant; you’ll have to call IHG customer service and then wait it out for a few days to a week.
Since IHG’s response time isn’t exactly legendary, I would recommend taking this option up at least a week or two before your certificate expires.
I recommend waiting if you can
However, if your certificate doesn’t expire until late April or May, I’d wait this one out. IHG is only offering to extend certificates by 6 months right now. Personally, I think that’s really poor. If you have a certificate expiring this week, getting that extended until the end of September isn’t very generous given that you almost certainly can’t use the certificate in April and many (most?) international flights are canceled through at least May. You’re probably looking at a 4-month window of time in which to use the certificate at most. That is weak sauce in my opinion. Sure, some will say that you had a good 8 months in which to use it last year — but if you had a reservation to use it in February, March, or April all along and had to cancel your trip, the fact that you could have used it sooner isn’t very relevant since you can’t go back.
I have to imagine that IHG will do better than this — hopefully they are just working on a technology solution to extend all existing certificates that expire in the next few months at the least (extending all unexpired certificates, as Hilton has done, would be even better). My fear in extending early would be that they come out with that sort of policy next week for certificates expiring by the end of April or May. If you’ve already extended yours to September, you might risk missing out on that better solution.
Of course, if your certificate is expiring in a week or two, your best bet is probably to call now and at least get yourself a few months to use it as it’s possible that IHG will continue to drag its feet and/or offer no uniform resolution without requesting it.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
New data point…Mine is expiring in less than two weeks. I tried Chat and got to the real chat queue (from the virtual chat). But twice I started, was told my place in line (2nd or 3rd) and then was kicked off after 15 minutes or so. The chat had a phone number in it, so I called. I was warned of long hold times, but got an agent in less than a minute. She was pretty understanding and three minutes later I could already verify the 6 month extension. As others have said, if yours doesn’t expire for a while, wait, because the new 6 month period starts from the day that you’ve called to get it changed. And to clarify, mine was an “Anniversary Night”
877-462-9273
[…] found this first post from Frequent Miler about how IHG is extending the life of free night certificates, but only if you call in. I have a certificate that has expired and I emailed IHG before the date […]
I was just told that if you extend an uncapped certificate that the extended one will be capped.
For chat: go to bottom and click “need help?” it will take you to a virtual chat assistance. You’ll have a to weave your way until you get offer for live person. I got my two free nights extended 6 months (one was due to expire in a few days; the other next month). I chatted to get my husband’s reinstated and extended and that was approved (had just expired 3/24). As I have a lung disease, I’ll probably have to call again and ask for extension, but I did mention that in original chat in case the convo is saved.
I tried calling IHG Rewards Club and was told I had to make my request via email so clearly the rep has no idea what to do. Thanks to everyone for your data points so I can try again.
weak sauce! What kind?
Well my Cert expired yesterday and I had a ticket in 10 days ago for this. I called the Ambassador line and was told they can not extend an expired certificate so they offered me a new 40K capped that expires 10/21. I said no since i wouldnt be able to book the hotel i had to cancel. The agent then offered me 70K points so i took that. My wife’s uncapped cert expires on 4/2 and he was able to extend that to 10/20 then said if the outbreak goes longer then we can call back in for another extension.
The agent also said the system would not allow him to deposit an uncapped cert into my account.
I would definitely take 70K pts over the cert. Pts have no expiration and can be used with much better flexibility without wastage than an uncapped cert. Good for you to get this outcome.
Any word on Hyatt extending annual free night certs?
Called yesterday and was told all certs will be extended automatically to 12/31/2020. BTW my cert is going to expire on 4/26/19.
4/26/20 typo
Thanks….mine is Sept…so a few extra months…ok! Can combine for a 3 nighter! Since I’ll get 2 more in Sept. Where to go???
My uncapped FNA was expiring March 30th, so I called. Only a 2 minute wait, and an instant 6 month extension. Hope that we will be traveling by then.
I called, and extended my unrestricted free night certificate by 6 months. Was reflected immediately.
IHG Customer Service rep extended my Free Night Certificate 6-months via online chat. It was instant.
where do you find online chat? I only see online virtual assistant, which is worthless.
Anyone get a recently expired FNA reinstated and extended?
Mine uncapped expired on 03/12. Called 8882119874, on hold for about 5 min and was reinstated to October. Now it has already shown on my account.