Originally Posted by
Yul_voyager
Well, looks like the major concern of everyone is the loss of suite upgrade certificates.
Points could more or less replace the free night and the dining certificate, upgrades based on availability could more or less make for the loss of room upgrade certificates, however suite upgrade certificates were really the most valuated benefit and nothing is offered in exchange.
So Fairmont/Accor if you are listening...
Bingo!
Confirmed suite upgrade on booking is the one big feature I value most. Upgrades on availability at check-in is just a lottery, and subject to the hotels doing whatever they want to say none are available, even when there are rooms available. I'll take a limited number of confirmed upgrades over unlimited upgrades on availability any day. I'm not looking to get upgraded every time. I'm happy to pay for them most times, as I do today on all of my stays when I don't have an upgrade cert to redeem. So let me occasionally confirm that upgrade at booking time, as a benefit, and I'll pay the rest of the time. But I'm not showing up to a hotel and 'hoping' to get the room I want.
And what sort of upgrade do you get, on availability, with Le Club? Is it just the next category up? With FPC suite certificates, you're typically jumping several categories. You can book the Fairmont room, and skip over various versions of Deluxe and Signature room, sometimes skip past Jr. Suite, and go right to 1 Bed Suites, depending on the property. So it's not just a lotto in terms of whether or not you even get an upgrade, but it's a lotto in terms of what sort of upgrade you will get. Sorry, I'm not playing that game. If I was on some business trip, maybe I wouldn't care so much, and be content to book anything and be happy with whatever I get, but I'm not a business traveller.
I probably would get reasonable use out of point redemptions in place of free nights. The value of my points earned might work out similar, depending on where I would have deployed the free night. Some properties offer more value than others. It was fun trying to strategically plan where to deploy an upgrade and where to deploy a free night to get the most value. Now, with points, Accor might as well just say, "here is your ongoing 8% Platinum member discount code", since that's pretty much all it is. How boring and uncreative! Similar value on paper, perhaps, but not necessarily similar in the customer behaviour and thinking that it motivates.
And dmodemd is correct, that the loss of dining/spa certificates are just a straight loss of value.