starflyergold

Accor Plus to continue with ALL:
https://www.ausbt.com.au/accor-promi...tm_source=hero

Kobetraveller

Read through some of the comments on that website after one of the articles relating to ALL . . . one person wrote that he/she achieved just under 68,000 Status Points last year and will probably do the same this year. He/she wonders if an invitation to Black Status will be offered. Using the Accor Points Calculator that seems to suggest non-tax spend in hotels of about USD $31,000. Unfortunately no mention of brands or locations or number of nights. Quite an achievement. Anyone here get close to that ???

I hope what the Accor person says in the article turns out to be true. Marriott people were saying basically the same positive things before Bonvoy.

Goldorak

kaizen7

Accor only stays ... no
Combined stays .... definitely reach that

kaizen7

Really need further details about ALL

At this stage ... it all still guessworks.
I doubt people want to shift thousands of dollars spends for rumours and guessworks

After all these recent acquisitions, Accor did have decent footprint to compete with other major chains.
(Maybe not in North America though)

Previously Accor have limited number of ultra luxury and aspirational properties.

But after acquire Raffleses and Fairmonts and Banyan Trees, I guess Accor catching up.

Kobetraveller

nickw_au

It would be useful for them to confirm this is staying. I quite like it and have earned a few extra points from it. A couple of the bigger point awarding badges are close so it'd be a shame for it to vanish shortly!

R2

There's a lot of money in this world. Take your family to Seychelles or Maldives for Christmas holidays and before you know it, you've racked up half that amount...

I noticed there's a new Raffles opening in Maldives. Off-peak room rates start at USD1074, peak season rates well north of USD2000 per night.

kaizen7

I believe they do try to attract high spending members now since they have more luxury brand hotels in their portfolio.

As for Bonbons Ambassador, I'm currently very happy with my ambassador and the service. However, I believe Bonvoy does need to improve their offering for that tier.
The incremental benefit over previous tier does not justify the extra effort needed.

I believe ALL should consider this as well when planning and deciding on Diamond level benefits.
Currently, LCAH Plt is similar to B amb tier. requires double the spending of gold with limited extra benefit.
(Higher tier definitely have better priority on getting upgrade, however me as gold and a friend as platinum apparently have similar track records on upgrades at Accor Asia properties. And for myself as Bonbons Ambassador, Personally I didnt see any increase in suite upgrade I receive so far.)

And now with Diamond Tier ... with even more spends requirements, I believe ALL needs to offer more tangible benefit to that tier instead of "if available" ones.

I'm guessing ALL will give an ambassador type service for Diamond members. That would be interesting to see if that happen

CanadaDH

I know I won't be hitting Diamond this year. I'm currently at just over 18,000 status points, and that's exactly where I will finish the year, as I have no additional stays planned for Accor in 2019.

It does appear that I will accidentally reach it next year, as my existing bookings for 2020 at my regular Fairmonts, Lake Louise and Tremblant, will do it (2 stays at each). My pre-tax spending on room and meals there should net me just over 37,000 status points, depending on the EUR/CAD exchange rate (I assumed a conversion rate of 1 EUR = 1.50 CAD). So, I guess I'll get to find out next year if Diamond has anything useful. But, without knowing what the benefits are, I'm certainly not about to book any additional stays to try to reach it.

nrouxel

To differentiate gold and platinium (which is the same in Europe), it could be :
- gold : upgrade if available
- platinium : one level upgrade garanted
- diamod : upgrade to suite

but it does not match with the "night suite upgrade" announcement

kaizen7

Even if its only guaranteed one level upgrade for Diamonds not limited to junior suite excluding specialty suite, it will be much better than Bonbons offering.

Dav77

escape4

A few comments:

I agree that we need more details before shifting money to Accor. I am somewhat lukewarm about doing it at the moment. However, even if I wanted to, I am not even sure Accor's progress towards luxury is sufficient so far. I stay at several Fairmonts but there are not a lot of them. I recently thought of a few high-priced destinations where perhaps I could book with Accor if I care to reach Diamond, for example in some islands in Greece but Accor is surprisingly absent except for one IBIS Styles in Crete. I know Accor is not big in North America, but I thought Europe was a stronghold? I am not overly impressed by what I see in several destinations I look at. Not only Greece seems like a hole, but when I looked at Ireland all I can find is one IBIS, that's it. Not that Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt have boatloads of properties there, but there are some. Norway? Nothing at all from Accor. A couple of SLH properties are joining Hyatt in that country. Then I am looking at the south of Switzerland or north of Italy, another possibly high-priced destination. I found a couple of IBIS on the Italian side (Como), and the best I could find on the Switzerland side is a Novotel in Lugano. Marriott has a couple of Design hotels there and Hyatt now has one very nice SLH. Iceland - another high price destination in Europe, and nothing from Accor. Meanwhile, Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt (SLH) all have a presence. Even if I wanted to move business to Accor, it won't happen in Greece, Ireland, Norway, Lugano/Como, or Iceland. North America is even worse. Carribean? One Fairmont in Barbados, and one Pullman in Cuba. Just 2 hotels!? Marriott, Hilton, and now Hyatt (via SLH) have lots of nice resorts there. I could move some business to Accor in Asia, but that happens to be where competitors are strong too (at least where I travel) so it's not a slam dunk for Accor there either. In big cities in Europe Accor is there, as a matter of fact I am considering Fairmont Barcelona but you also have a bunch of good competitors from Marriott such as Ritz Carlton, Cotton House (Autograph), EDITION, W, etc. etc. I might pick Fairmont in the end, but maybe not, it's one of many.

Look this is just a sample and I am sure thousands of different travelers have destinations were Accor works for them. But for luxury or special properties it is still lacking in major ways as far as I am concerned. Even when I try scratching the surface in Europe I am not impressed. Asia there are some nice ones, but competitors do too so I am not sure I will be tempted to book Accor without knowing what is going on with Diamond when I still get suites with regularity over there with Marriott.

Speaking of suites, @kaizen7 I am surprised about your comments about upgrades. I get suite upgrades more than 90% of the time when there is availability as Marriott Ambassador and in fact it is one of the hurdles that Accor needs to overcome when I choose where to book because I am less confident I will get a material upgrade there, whereas with Marriott/Starwood it's still quite good. How many stays do you have with Marriott in the last few months and how often have you NOT received a suite when they were available at time of check-in?

kaizen7

I have stayed about 7 times after ambassador ( extra 4 stays after reach ambassador tier but not yet assigned any ambassador)
From all those stays after ambassador, 2 not upgraded due to the room booked are the standard suite category, 1 due to some visiting dignitaries fully book the hotel, 1 suite upgrade, and the remaining 3 is upgrade to higher room category.
(the 4 stays prior to ambassador being assigned : 1 no upgrade as the hotel was an all villa resort, 2 upgrades to higher room category and 1 no upgrade as the hotel being stingy )

And about Accor luxury hotels, I agree completely that their offering still below what Marriott offers especially in certain areas.
Take Japan for example, most we can get there is Ibises and Mercures ..... while Marriott have some St Regises RCs and Luxury Collections around. And some of them are really amazing property like Suiran and The Prince Gallery (both from The Luxury Collections hotel)
In Singapore, Accor have slight advantage here as the Ritz Carlton Sg is not participating Bonvoy property. so Marriott only have St Regis Sg as their luxury hotel while Accor have Raffles and Fairmont.

Another advantage that make me choose Marriott so far are their aspirational properties around the world.
Al Maha Dubai, The Ritz Carlton Ras Al Khaimah Al Hamra and Al Wadi, and Suiran Kyoto cant find Accor equivalent for these properties in their respective area