My phone started buzzing like crazy last night as I was finally drifting off to sleep. Instead of throwing it against the wall, I vibrantly popped up when I saw that I had dozens of emails tiled, “You qualify for a Priceless Surprise!”.
Like most of us, I participated in the IHG Rewards “Priceless Surprises“Â promotion via the mail-in method by mailing 94 hand-written 3×5 cards and envelopes for a chance to win a minimum of 500 points per entry.
It took a lot of time and work, but I made it a point to get them done in batches whenever I had a free moment.
After I finished all 94 of my postcards, I decided to put my husband to work during our flight to Las Vegas – it was time to enter with his IHG account…
Middle seat + put to work. Lucky guy, right? ;)
I’ll admit that I got a bit of a gamblers rush each time I played, and I was on a pretty nice streak (5,000, 2,000, 1,000, 5,000, 5,000). I thought I was riding a wave when a picture of the Eiffel Tower appeared on my screen for a whole FIVE SECONDS. I legitametly jumped for joy and I may or may have screamed. For a hot second I thought I won the trip to Paris!
Until this message appeared…
I didn’t win this time?!? Where are my fireworks?! WTH! Here I am thinking that every entry generates a minimum of 500 points (I later confirmed that it’s true, and that people have been receiving 500 pity points even with this screen).
But still, talk about some false hope…
Have you seen this screen while playing the Priceless Surprises game? If so, did it lead you on for a few seconds like it did for me?
How did everyone do with the Priceless Surprises anyway?
Yes, I saw that same screen! It popped up right after I opened the elevator and got 2k points. Immediately went to that screen and I thought I won too! Alas, I did not. I thought maybe the 2k points wouldn’t register but when I checked my activity later in my IHG account it was there.
My wife got 77 emails to date. And EVERY ONE of them gets the Paris screen. So far no points have posted. She has emailed both IHG and Hello World no satisfaction so far. Don’t just assume you’ll get those points, until you do.
I on the other hand have never hit the Paris screen.
I had 82 entries and received all 82 emails and had 3x 1000, 1x 2000, 1x 5000 and the rest were all 500 points winner. I did not receive any ‘not a winner’ message and all the points posted relatively quickly.
Haven’t seen anyone post on any of the blogs that they won a trip, free nights or anything like that.
I’ve gotten 69 of my surprises so far. Up to 45K points. Largest win was 5K. Haven’t seen anyone in the forums say they’ve won any big items, though I’ve heard rumors of one or two big winners.
When that picture of Paris popped on my screen (after seeing the same fireworks over and over), I nearly jumped out of my seat! That being said, my spouse and I did not win the trip. We, however, received all 188 of 188 entries and have been credited a total of 111,000 IHG points and a $50 debit card (a b-level prize). Not a bad haul.
I’ve gotten that screen once and thought finally a big prize but it was a great big 0. Oddly enough out of my 94 cards I only ended up getting 85 plays but overall netted the average amount of points ~45k
Hi Angelia
Just a short not to say I really enjoy your posts.
I did not get to first base with this one.
I have a Mastercard and I am a member of IHG but not a resident of USA.
It was right there in the T&C’s
Cheers Chris Kirwin
Eligibility: The Promotion is open only to MasterCard® individual and small business cardholders whose account was opened by a MasterCard customer financial institution before November 15, 2015 and is still active, who are legal permanent residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who are at least twenty one (21) years old and the age of majority at the time of entry, and who register for the Promotion and are enrolled in the IHG® Rewards Club program.
Lol…I thought the same thing when I got the Paris screen. It took an email to get all of our plays, but my husband and I both got all 94 eventually and points have posted – 57k for him and 51k for me. Two free nights in NYC Times Square this summer. :D Totally worth my time!
I managed to win one of the Arnold Palmer trips! Needless to say, I’m over the moon excited that my hand cramps/postage costs got me such a cool trip! Less than one month til we leave!
Congrats. I won a trip some years back and was super excited. Until I got a 1099 with a super inflated value. The taxes cost me more than the trip was actually worth.
I got 78 emails off the 94 submitted. 74 out of 78 came out fine. But 4 of them gave the same message as others. For the wifey, I have received only 28 entries none of which gave that error. Points haven’t posted to the accounts yet though…hopefully soon.
Yup, same split second reaction to seeing Paris. I got a few duds like that – it seems to happen if I open mutiple game plays in different browser tabs, say 5 at a time. By the time I’ve got to the 5th tab to play, some time has passed and I get a Paris dud. HOWEVER, for each dud, I’ve still been able to play the link ‘again’ and win something.
I’ve never got more plays/prizes than I have emails. I’ve just been able to replay ALL my duds. I always click the link one extra time too just to make sure I get the enthusiasm message, which I do. But I don’t get the enthusiasm until all my duds have been replayed!
If you get an email, don’t leave the elevator for page sitting unattended for too long or you’ll probably get a Paris dud. If you get a dud, replay the email link and try again. You may still get more than the default 500. I haven’t missed an awarded prize yet. :)
I got two Paris no wins and eight “enthusiam” messages when I should have still had plays available. But I received 500 points for each of the all ten duds.
I think I received at least 500 points for each entry, but I can’t confirm this as I received a bunch of “continue” messages I did not understand nor could I work around them.
My wife sent in all 94 entries exactly as did I. She registered properly and only received 10 email responses all worth 500 points. This happened early last week and she has received no further emails.
Out of all of my entries, I have never gotten a Paris screen. All of mine were “fireworks”.
About 84 entries of mine posted with approximately 50k points in total. For my wife about 75 entries have posted totaling to 44k points. We didn’t big that many big entrie :( but did win a few 1k, 2k and 5k though :) super happy…