Iberia Plus partner changes
 

FYI: Iberia Plus has been removed as a transfer partner for your Le Club Accorhotels points.

Transfers are still possible to Avios and BAEC.

At a much poorer rate. Sad, but I did not expect the great deal with Iberia to last long.

Anybody knows,if you are already enrolled in the automatic points conversation to iberia plus and have deposited your points to iberia you are still eligible to do this in the future.Or i must change my transfer partner,I have not received any communication from accor.But glad to have drposited 8k points just 3 weeks ago.

Very unfortunate, if indeed true and not just another 2013 website bug. I'd managed to get gold status from a bunch of central London stays, hoovering up those IB+ points at more than 7.5 points / euro... (plus apparently a Novotel bonus I was completely unaware of!)

The Iberia Plus website still lists Accor Hotels as a partner, although the IB website rivals Accor for being the worst in loyalty programme land...

I am enrolled for automatic conversion. When I go to the page to check, it shows an empty field for FF program.

Yeah... same... Hope it's just a website bug, but won't be booking any more Accor stays just in case...

Same here. I guess I should be glad that my late December Accor stays posted without any problem.

Some communication/clarification from Accor would be nice ...

IB is not longer a partner.

BA avios is and should be fine, albeit at a bad ratio.

When did this happen?? I transferred in the past week twice and had one more account left? :(

And Iberia still appears here:
http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/leclub...airlines.shtml

I believe from around 1 Jan.

Not listed on partner list where you actually choose the partner you want.

That its still on the info list, is just typical lousy Accor IT.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for pointing this issue out.

Unfortunately, as many of you have mentioned, Iberia is no longer a flying partner of the Le Club Accorhotels loyalty programme. I have as yet no explaination for this. I'll let you all know as soon as I have any further information.

On behalf of its customer service, I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.

Cheers,

Nathan

Wow, this is bad news! Makes me less inclined to book an Accor hotel. Choice usually has a property in the same markets Accor also serves.

Now that the dropping of Iberia has been confirmed, it does lead to two questions:

1 - What happens to points for those of us with auto-convert to Iberia setup? Do our points just build up in our account as if no auto-convert was setup? Or do they auto-convert into a black hole?

2 - Given that Accor knows who has Iberia auto-conversion set up on their accounts, how come no effort has been made to contact affected people to let us know?

Nick

Hi Gagravarr,

Your questions are very valid! Thank you for asking them!

Please rest assured that the Le Club Accorhotels loyalty programme has not yet gone into partnership with any black holes ;) The points will add up in your account as no valid automatic transfers have been set up.

I will be posting a more detailed comment on this topic shortly.

Best regards,

Nathan

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience.

The Le Club Accorhotels customer service has informed me about this issue. Due to the partnership's recent renewal between the Le Club Accorhotels and the Iberia Plus loyalty programmes, the transfers of points is momentarily unavailable.

This situation is just temporary and should be fixed very shortly. On behalf of the Le Club Accorhotels customer service, I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.

All the best,

Nathan

Let's hope for the restoration of the partnership. Numerous Brazilian consumers are eager for the partnership return. Especially with the matching between points and Multiplus LeClub.

This is good news. Hopefully it doesn't mean, however, that you are changing the points:miles ratio as it's that, rather than Iberia Plus per se, that leads me to book with Accor these days...

Iberia Plus currently not partner (Note: only a temporary issue)
 

Any estimated time of when transfer to IB Plus will be restored and what will be the conversion ratio?

Thanks!

I believe Iberia is negotiating a ratio of 1:3 so it would increase the transfers.... (#fingers-crossed!)

As of today I'm tending towards the black hole answer. Points taken from my Le Club account on 10 January (reported here) haven't reached my IB Plus account six days later.

Usually the IB Points converted from LeClub Points arrive thursdays. That was my experience until last month.

Hi julianin,

I've asked to be kept informed regarding this topic. Once I have further news, you'll be the first ones to know ;)

Best regards,

Nathan

Thanks. Maybe they'll arrive tomorrow. (My last two conversions reached IB on Tuesdays, however.)

I wouldn't risk with autoconvert if the partner is missing from the list and I cared about the points. I'd say 90% probability they go to the black hole and then you are at the mercy of customer service.

Is this based on experience or just caution/pessimism? I've searched, but haven't been able to find any reports of points vanishing in this way.

Well, if the FF program to which the points should be transferred is blank (as I've seen with my own eyes), I expect that the script will return an error, and the points returned, or the points to go nowhere, depending on the quality of the code. They will most probably not go to Iberia, as Iberia is not in the list.

I'm just saying, I would not risk it. I don't have experience with this case, but have experience with points vanishing in other (simpler) cases. Usually a call to CS sorts it out, but it depends.

hmm, source of your belief please?

More like a hope, or even a suggestion, since they are keeping up with this thread, hopefully they'll find this a great idea!
Would you disagree?
Don't you think a new rate o 1:3 would increase the transfers to Accor?
Come on Accor Concierge, you have to listen to the customers too!

IB+ is listed as a partner again! :)
But I haven't found the exchange ratio yet. Could someone post the new (hopefully good) ratio, please?

http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/leclub...airlines.shtml

Looks like it's still 2 points = 5 Avios.

Just logged in and it is showing 3000 to be transfered as 7500, so no changes, Thanks Accor!

^ Thanks for the confirmation!

just tried to log in to see whether the auto conversion blank field has been resolved, but got 'service temporarily unavailable' after logging in...

website revamp?

Sorry for my english, I'm from Brazil.

I got this message from accor. I'll try to translate because I got it in portuguese:

"The rate 3000 leclub X 7500 avios iberia plus is available until february. From march, the rate will change."

Will it be for better or worse? Could someone (maybe, Nathan) give us a hint? I don't know if I wait or not.

Thanks for passing that on. I hadn't seen it anywhere else before your post.

I think it's pretty clear that there's only one direction this can go. The IB conversion rate was generous even before BA and IB moved to Avios. After that move, and as the arbitrage opportunity became more widely known, a change was just a matter of time.

Care to inform the source for this info ? A rep over the phone maybe ?

Is there a document signed by Accor ?



Thanks,

it's in portuguese:

http://www.facebook.com/leclubaccorh...t=feed_comment

Paulo,

Thank you so much for sharing the source of your information.

Agreed it states, in Portuguese, that Feb/28th is the last day for the conversion at the current ratio. It is the first time I have seen a deadline clearly spelled out, signed by Accor.

I am glad Accor has been crystal clear about the evolution of their agreement with Iberia, sharing the info with their loyalty customers.

Highly appreciate your post and Welcome to FT.



Cheers,

Hi everyone,

As I can see most of you already know, the negotiations with Iberia Plus are over and a new agreement has been signed.

The conversion rate has indeed changed: from the 1st March 2013, 3000 Le Club by Accorhotels points = 3000 Avios.

As you can see this will not be implemented until the 1st March. This leaves you with over a month to take advantage of the old, more favourable conversion rate.

The website will be updated soon with the conditions clearly explained. I advise you to act quick and convert your points to Iberia air miles soon so as to make the very most of your Le Club by Accorhotels points.

All the best,

Nathan.

Thus removing one of the few good things about Le Club :(

Is there any news on the Le Club improvements that were mentioned back in June, but everything has been silent on since then? Or is Accor just hoping that we'll all stop complaining and just go and stay in another chain? (None of my Q1 trips have been booked in an Accor property because of Iberia vanishing from the list at the time I was booking, and as it stands I can't see a lot of reason for coming back in April...)

Nick