I generally book my hotels directly, primarily because I am often using points to book my stays, and of course, the only way to use hotel points is by booking directly through the hotel. There are some times that I will book a hotel room through a 3rd party site, which is mostly where I don’t care about elite status or upgrades, or at a more basic hotel that offers services like complimentary breakfast to all guests.
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Booking a Holiday Inn Express in Manila Through Chase Travel
I recently returned from an epic birthday trip that included a 2 night stay in Manila in the Philippines. We were getting in from our flight from San Francisco late at night and so I wanted to book a hotel that was near the airport. Since hotels in the Philippijnes are pretty cheap, I thought this might be a good opportunity to use my $50 hotel credit from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
I was looking at a few different hotels but then I noticed that the Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport World Results was listed as “IHG One Rewards eligible”
I thought that would be interesting – I figured elite benefits wouldn’t be worth much, but earning points on my purchase might be useful. So I ended up booking my stay there
Looking my IHG reservation up
After booking my Chase Travel reservation, I had a confirmation number both for Chase Travel as well as an IHG confirmation number. But when I plugged in that number into IHG’s site, I got an error message
From online reviews, it seemed that when this happens, it meant that you were not going to get any IHG One Rewards
Calling Chase Travel To Fix The Problem
So I called up Chase Travel. I was on hold forever, and then finally spoke to an offshore agent. He was no help. He looked up my reservation and then basically told me sorry about your luck. He said that what being “IHG One Rewards Eligible” meant was that they would send your loyalty number to the hotel, but it was up to them whether they honored it or not.
That seemed out of step with the terms listed on Chase’s website which state the following:
The Bottom Line – Be Wary
So I don’t know that I would classify this as a “scam”, but I was pretty unimpressed with the interaction between Chase Travel and IHG here. Normally I do not expect any sort of elite benefits when booking through a 3rd party site like Chase Travel. That is why I was so surprised / excited when I saw that it would be a possibility. I thought it would be part of the partnership between Chase and IHG. But the stay didn’t seem to track, and Chase Travel support was zero help when I tried to call about it. If I had known it was going to be this much of a hassle, I would have booked a cheaper alternative.
Have you ever received IHG elite benefits when booking through Chase Travel? Let us know your experience in the comments below
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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
Anything I get through a hotel portal is gravy. Apparently both Marriott and Hyatt earn points through Amex FHR and THC. I’ve stayed twice at Hyatt and yes you get points, and your status is recognized along with FHR/THC but you don’t get elite night credit.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, just use your credit from your credit card and move on!
Did you try adding it at check in? I’ve encountered that error and then waited a few days and it fixed itself one time, and another time I just asked to confirm my number was there at check in. Both times the stay showed up.
If Chase did this intentionally it’s a scam; If they just screwed up it’s an unwillingness to abide by their own rules, which might be actionable if anybody wants to take it that far.
My experiences have been a mixed bag. Kimpton Frankfurt booked through Chase Edit worked without issue and it was a great stay. Hyatt House LAX booked through Chase was a complete flop…..GP number not in reservation, no benefits and also no points. My gut feeling is Edit hotels work and just regular bookings via Chase don’t. Have 4 upcoming reservations in Greece in 2 weeks with 2 booked via Chase and 2 booked via AX so I will see how those pan out.
This happened to me and I sent a request through the IHG website for the points and they gave them to me. You might try that.