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The IHG Priceless Surprises contest has been a great one – originally intended as a promotion to reward actual hotel stays, some enterprising folks found a loophole in the terms and conditions.  You could enter the contest 94 times via MAIL, with each entry guaranteeing you at least 500 IHG hotel points.

(SEE ALSO: 100,000 hotel points for a few hours work)

Since IHG hotel nights can go as low as 5,000 points / night on Point Breaks, this promotion could be worth up to 10 free nights!

Entering the Priceless Surprises promotion

With 8 people in our family, we were able to bang out the 188 index cards and envelopes (for my account and my wife’s) in a few hours time

minions-writing-envelopes

We sent our envelopes in 2 batches in mid-December, and then it was time to wait…. and wait… and wait.

Last week I started to wonder when should I be worried about my 94 envelopes?  Others also wrote in to share their experiences – it seemed like many others were in the same predicament of not having received any emails.

Thankfully no sooner did I write that post that I started getting the emails!  I got 28 emails late Tuesday night, and another 62 emails Thursday afternoon.  By that count, it still leaves me 4 short, but we’ll see what the next few days brings us!

Playing the IHG Priceless Surprises game

So of course I started playing!  The kids have enjoyed picking various “floors”.  Most of my entries have given me 500 points.  I’ve won 1000 points once, and 2000 points one time as well

ihg-priceless-surprises-2000

Most of the pictures have been that firework image, but, interestingly, one time I got a new image, of the Eiffel Tower.  I thought the new image was going to be something exciting (could I be one of the million point winners!??!?!), but instead it was something bad different

ihg-priceless-surprises-didnt-win

Others have reported receiving similar messages of not winning, though thankfully it appears to be a glitch.  I have not received the email saying “Psych! Actually you did win” but I figured I’d give them a few days and also I’ll wait until I do all my plays

My IHG Priceless Surprises results…. so far?

As others have mentioned, there doesn’t always appear to be a correlation between how many emails you get, and how many times you can play the game.  The link in every email is exactly the same (and I assume tied to your account).  Carolyn has actually only gotten 2 emails, but has successfully played the game at least 3 times.

So far I have played 42 of my entries, with 39 wins of 500, 1 for 1000, 1 for 2000 points and the one did not win – a total of 22,500 points so far.  Why have I not played 90 times since I’ve gotten 90 emails?  Well, my strategy, which is probably worthless, is that I read in the terms and conditions that all the big “grand” prizes were determined by selecting random times, and whoever plays the game first after that pre-selected time wins the prize.  My strategy is that I’m more likely to win by spreading my 94 plays out over a few days / hours than playing all 94 at once.

Again, I have no clue if this improves my odds in anyway, or if it just makes me feel better đŸ™‚

If you haven’t entered the IHG Priceless Surprises promotion, you still have time – entries must be postmarked by February 15th.  See all the details on my original post.


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