The 1990s are calling. They want their technology back.
Loyalty Lobby points out that IHG One Rewards has quietly murdered email customer service. Members can’t shoot a message to IHGService@ihg.com anymore. Not for anyone. Even Diamond members got the axe. Even the snobby InterContinental Ambassador email. Poof.
Go talk to the bot. Or pick up the phone. Or fax them.
Yes. A fax.
You can still try. The auto-reply from the Ambassador desk was polite. Too polite.
We’re transitioning away from ongoing email support. Use our Digital Concierge. Connect with a live agent for personalized assistance.
It’s marketing speak for “we fired the people who read these things.”
It accomplishes two dirty tricks. One, it saves labor costs. Why pay a human to type? Two, it makes complaining painful. Friction reduces volume. If it takes three steps and an online fax portal to get help, nobody complains. Your satisfaction score goes up. Their wallet gets fuller. It’s a win-win for the corporation. A lose-lose for you.
They aren’t alone. Southwest and Delta have stopped caring on Twitter too. But this? This feels like 2024 trying to be 1987.
Other airlines tried this before. They always fail.
Qatar Airways cut phone support in 2018. Called it an enhancement. Called it “based on customer feedback.” The website was a disaster. They brought the phones back a year later.
Frontier Airlines did the same in 2022. No phone line at all for a while. Just a local Utah number that hid costs until the Department of Transportation forced their hand.
American Airlines launched AAdvantage Business with zero human contact. All digital. The tech broke. They admitted defeat. Brought humans back.
Why is IHG so convinced they can outsmart their customers?
They want you to use the AI. Or chat. Chat is worse than a root canal. It’s asynchronous torture. You have to babysit a window. Sit there while an outsourced agent consults a manual between every sentence. “Are you still there?” pops up. Yes. I am. Waiting. For nothing.
Email had structure. A built-in paper trail. Timestamps. Attachments. Searchable history. If your hotel stole your points, you sent the folio, the reservation number, and the receipt all at once. One package. Clear evidence. You could forward the whole thread to an executive. Or a regulator. Or your credit card company. You didn’t start from zero every time.
Now? You talk to a script.
Who has a fax machine? Not you. Maybe an office store. If you find a free online service. Unless you pay for inbound faxes, how does IHG reply back to you? With a printed sheet? On their desk?
It’s not a customer service channel. It’s a gatekeeping tactic.
The web form is the only rational choice now. The chat leads to a black hole of autoresponders that require escalation. The fax is a joke. The phone is a maze.
They eliminated the option that worked best for complex issues. Now we’re all stuck playing digital fetch with a robot that doesn’t care if we win.
