The InterContinental Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, NV
By: Frank
Deals We Like broke the story a couple weeks ago that there was a loophole in the new IHG & MasterCard Promotion called “Priceless Surprises”. The contest officially began a few days ago, so I figured it was time we made a post about it here to inform our readers on the steps required to participate in the new sweepstakes! For less than $50 and a few hours of your time, you can earn a minimum of 47,000 IHG points! That’s nearly enough for any IHG hotel in the world! Now let’s explain how this is done…
What is the “Priceless Surprises” Promotion?
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has teamed up with MasterCard to provide a promotion eligible to members who book a hotel stay at any IHG property with a MasterCard between November 15, 2015 and February 15, 2016. The prizes range anywhere from trips all over the world, great prizes like gift cards and GoPros, or even a minimal prize of 500 IHG points. Here’s the kicker: every stay guarantees a winner! Worst case scenario, you will get 500 IHG points for every stay you make. The promotion is maxed out at 94 nights / entries (remember this number for later).
InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, Vietnam
What is the Promotion’s Loophole?
Now that you know what the “Priceless Surprises” promotion is, let’s explain the loophole and how to properly exploit it (and I use the word exploit very loosely here). If you are a government worker for the IRS you are saying, “Wait just one minute! It’s against U.S. law to run a promotion where a user is required to purchase something to be entered into a contest.” That is exactly why almost every contest you read is “No Purchase Necessary.” This promotion is no exception. Companies cannot require you to purchase anything to maintain promotion status. If they did, it would be an illegal lottery.
Participants are eligible to enter by filling out index cards with their name and mailing them in. Each index card you send is one entry, and just like the promotion itself, is maxed out at a total of 94 entries. So for 100 index cards (I got mine at Office Max for $1.69), 100 envelopes (again at Office Max for $2.79), 94 stamps ($46.06 at any USPS), and a few hours of your evening you can guarantee yourself a minimum of 47,000 (94 entries @ 500 minimal points each) points! That’s a free night at nearly any InterContinental in the world!
What’s the fine print? What do I need to do?
The rules are simple:
- You must be 21 years old before 11/15/2015
- You need a MasterCard Credit Card opened before 11/15/2015
- Register for the promotion by visiting this link.
- Only one hand-written entry per envelope
- You must write the following information on a 3″ x 5″ index card
- Full Name
- Address
- Day Time Phone
- Evening Phone
- Email Address
- IHG Number
- First 6 Digits of MasterCard Number
- Birth Date
- Although they do not specify a hand-written envelope, it does say that automating any part of the process will deem the entry invalid.
- All entries must be post marked by 2/15/2016 and sent to:
- IHG and MasterCard® Priceless Surprises® Promotion, c/o HelloWorld, Inc., P.O. Box 5996, Kalamazoo, MI 49003-5996.
Final Thoughts
Like every promotion, you want to know, “Is it really worth it?” This one is an unequivocal YES! We have already filled out our 94 cards and have done about 50 envelopes this evening. I would say we have about two and a half hours invested so far. So don’t plan on doing it all in one night while watching a movie; this takes a small commitment of about 3 to 4 hours!
Save extra cash by buying your stamps at Walgreens using Discover + Apple Pay for 22% back!
If we value IHG points at 0.8 CPP (Cents Per Point). 47,000 points would be worth about $376. Not bad for $50 and a few hours of work!
any confirmation from IHG yet? I see a lot of people sending in cards over the last 2 weeks with no response yet. Maybe they are overwhelmed haha
LikeLike
Nothing official yet from anyone, but the contest just began 9 days ago. I will certainly keep an eye on it and write a follow up article in a week or two.
LikeLike
I mailed all my cards in on Dec. 16 and haven’t heard a peep. Has anyone who mailed in their entries this month received any emails?
LikeLike
It would be difficult to imagine that they would be responding that quickly. People who sent the very first letters only recently heard back. I would expect at least a month for any response, likely longer.
LikeLike
Update: I received 3 emails with the links (mailed 94 entries all on Dec. 11). All 3 entries were NOT winners. I looked at other blogs where people received links today as well and one person had 46 links ALL resulting as non-winners….
Conclusion: you’re NOT guaranteed 500 points per entry…I had all 3 non-winners, but another person had 46 in a row that were non-winners……….
Looks like we may have been screwed….
LikeLike
This pretty much only started happening today. There was the occasional non winner here and there, but it’s much more widespread today. I’m still gathering reports before I update the post.
LikeLike
odds of winning are 1:1.18 which is probability of 54%. You need to devalue this as you’re likely to get much less. Also probabilities were likely calculated using a mean and distribution. Since this has gone somewhat “viral” and the number of winners is static, your odds are lowering with every person who sends another card in.
LikeLike
There were some conflicting information on this. The only thing we have to work off of is that DealsWeLike has a personal IHG insider rep who assured them that each stay/contest entry would grant a minimal of 500 IHG points.
LikeLike
Heard anything back yet? Do you plan on doing another post when you do, or should I check back here?
LikeLike
I have not. I have them all made and ready. Sending then out tomorrow. I sent 5 of them on
Thursday, but have not heard back yet. I will create a new post with an update!
LikeLike
I read the rules of the contest, and it appears that each entrant can win 1 prize in Group A (the trips, etc), and no more than 5 prizes from Group B (500 points prize is in this group). Am I misinterpreting the rules? I sent in about 50 entries so far, working on the rest!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The points are broken up as well. 500 does not fall into a group. It is confirmed that just about every single email will contain a winner.
LikeLike
Anybody get an email response yet? Its been two weeks since my first few entries. I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone who printed the envelopes as I’m now worried even just printing the envelope may voided my entries.
LikeLike
Yes! People are getting responses and most all emails are winners. 2 out of every 50 or so may not win.
LikeLike
Someone on Reddit reported that they printed envelope labels and got responses. I will be printing mine.
LikeLike
Do you actually need to write:
Full Name: John Doe
Address: 121 New St.
Etc.
Or can you just write
John Doe
121 New St.
Etc.
?
LikeLike
The only items I actually labeled were day phone, evening phone, IHG number, and MasterCard number using letters: D, E, IHG, MC.
LikeLike
I started writing the first few entries and just gave up, I figured it wasn’t worth hours of my time. But then I realized I could probably pay someone to do it for me, and found this guy on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SWEEPSTAKES-COMPLETE-handprinting-envies-/310150397124
For $20 (including shipping) he handwrote all entries and envelopes, and sent them all to me in one big envelope. I just had to close the envelopes, add a stamp and drop everything in a mailbox. I received them today, exactly 7 days after I placed the order. Very satisfied.
If you factor in eBay bucks (2%), CC rewards (2%) and portal cashback (at least 1%) and the price of the envelopes, you’re really only paying $10-$15 for the convenience. Definitely worth it in my opinion.
Also, another trick that was posted in the reddit thread: many eBay sellers have stamps below face value. It’s usually a pack of old, low denomination stamps that are still valid, so while you have to put 2-3 stamps on each envelope, you end up saving 20% or more on shipping.
LikeLike
Awesome! Great tips!
LikeLike
Mailed 37 entries 3 weeks ago. I have received 3 emails from IHG Priceless promotions over the last two days – each promoting the priceless surprises program, and giving me a link for booking rooms. Cannot locate any link to enter the sweepstake. I am wondering what is going on … how does the email for sweepstakes entry look like? Thank you.
LikeLike
The email subject line is “Travel to Earn Priceless Surprises”
LikeLike
“You qualify for a Priceless Surprise®!” Will be the email subject.
LikeLike
The emails come from IHGRewardsClub@eprizepromotions.com and let you know you qualify for an entry. There is a small link that asks you to choose your floor. I mailed in all my entire and received 44 emails two days ago. All at the exact same time 10:33am. So the emails are automated in some form.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] – It’s already been nearly two months since I originally wrote about how you can Earn a Minimum of 47,000 IHG Points for $50 through IHG’s Priceless Surprise Promotion! This contest is still going on through […]
LikeLike
Its strange, and still unclear how it works… First batch was 10 entries in November. Subsequently I have sent 3-4 batches of 5-15 entries each, for a total of ~40 entries over the past 2 months.
Nothing until early Jan when I received 2 emails with the “You qualify for a Priceless Surprise®!” subject. Then I received 8 more such emails (each email batch had the same time of arrival). I select the floors and won 500 points. These have now been credited to by account. Nothing after that. Twice though later (on different dates) I clicked on the old emails and it invited me to play and said that I have won 500 points. Nothing after though. receiving ~25% success rate is way way lower that what people report. Can anyone shed light on this? I have a few more entries ready, but am debating if I should send them…
LikeLike
It takes awhile to get the emails, and I’m sure as time goes on they are just getting further behind. Can’t speak whether it’s worth it or not but the risk:reward is so low, I would do it!
LikeLike
[…] contest. I won’t get into much detail here, because Frank already wrote and excellent post about the contest. He also updated us with his results here. In brief, you can earn a minimum […]
LikeLike