A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question about 180,000 IHG One Rewards points that had just expired due to inactivity and if anything could be done.
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READ MORE: IHG One Rewards Rate & Bonus Points Offers
Reader’s Message:
I was once a prolific traveller for work, but like so many…had a year where I just didn’t do it much.
I logged on to book some travel today, but found that I have zero points. All expired per customer service. I don’t know how I missed the notice if one was even sent, but I did. I last stayed at IGH 2/2024…and so they expired my points 2/28/2025.
I have made 2 calls to customer service and have gotten the same answer both times “we don’t make exceptions, your points are gone”. It’s about 160,000 points which probably isn’t much for a traveler like you, but as a semi-retiree, it was nice to be able to still travel.
Any advice or story of where anyone was able to get points back?
IHG used to advertise that its points, then Priority Club, would never expire, but this all changed 10 years ago when they suddenly started expiring them after 12 months of inactivity:
IHG Rewards Club Terms & Conditions Update April 17, 2015
The relevant part of IHG One Rewards FAQs:
Do IHG One Rewards Points expire?
IHG One Rewards points never expire for Elite Members. For Club members, points will expire after 12 months if there’s no account activity. To maintain your points balance, earn or redeem points once a year through any of our IHG Hotels & Resorts properties or IHG One Rewards program partners.
The relevant part of the Terms & Conditions:
Point Expiry: Club-level membership Points (see Member Benefits, including levels of membership, here) will expire if your membership account point balance becomes inactive, meaning there was no “earn” or “redeem” transactions, for any period of twelve (12) months or longer, which means your Points will be removed from your account and will no longer be available for redemption. To maintain your account points balance and avoid points expiry, you must have at least one “earn” or “redeem” transaction posted to your account every twelve (12) months. Use of the one night per year provided to IHG One Rewards credit card holders does not constitute an “earn” or “redeem” activity to prevent Point expiration. Elite Members’ Points do not expire as long as Elite level membership is maintained.
Now, the reader’s 180,000 IHG One Rewards points have expired (worth $900), and they are not sure if they ever received an email reminder from IHG.
I would try one more time and email IHG One Rewards at ihgonerewards@ihg.com to see what they could offer. I would emphasize that there had been a drop in travel and that you don’t recall ever receiving a notice that the points were about to expire.
Customer service does have leeway to resolve issues like this, and it is not like these points would have expired months ago, but rather a few days.
Conclusion
These programs count on “breakage,” which means that some points and miles are never used and either expire or are devalued to the point that they have no value.
Time goes fast, and expiring points in just 12 months is very aggressive, especially when IHG points never used to expire until suddenly they did.
I would try contacting customer service by email to see what they can do. I have mostly found IHG’s customer service to be quite good.
Have readers had their IHG points expire, and have you had luck having them reinstated? Please comment below.
