Nick Art

That's the thing: I never use OTAs. I only use a "traditional" travel agent, (and not some cheap holiday package one), which I up to this point thought would be alright.

I hate to bring it up again: But that's where the fairmont program really shined. There were no such small print rules. If you stayed at the hotel you would be rewarded for your loayalty. No matter where you booked. No need to fight for points or nights...

I will surely let you guys know how things turn out. And obvisouly I won't pass on those 8000 status points and over 10k reward points x2 (we had two rooms and my family also hasn't received their points) without a fight.

CanadaDH

I'm not sure that's true. The FPC also had a clause in their terms that said you could only earn credit on a "qualifying rate", and talked about discounted rates like travel industry rates or some OTAs as not being qualifying rates. That's what the terms said. I suppose it's possible that they awarded credit on everything and never enforced the qualifying rate rule, but I can't say I have ever used an OTA for anything, so never had occasion to test it.

Jasper2009

Broadly speaking, "regular" travel agents can book the following types of rates:

(1) published rates: "best available rate", "advance purhase rate", AAA/CAA rate - generally any rate you could book directly via the hotel yourself
(2) consortia and similar rates such as Virtuoso, Travel Leaders Select, AMEX FHR etc.
(3) consolidator / bulk purchase rates
(4) OTA rates (some OTAs such as Expedia allow TAs to book their rates)

In addition, the two other major types of rates are:

(5) negotiated corporate rates (e.g. company X may have negotiated a $xxx/night rate at the Fairmont Montreal and a xx% discount at the Sofitel Montreal)
(6) restricted rates: employee rates, airline industry rates, travel industry rates, press and media rates etc.

------------

Rate types (1), (2) and (5) are considered "qualifying rates" for the purpose of earning stay/night credit and points accruel whereas all other rate types are generally considered non-qualifying.

At least for the last few years, Fairmont FPC had a similar policy, especially when it came to OTA rates, but may have been slightly more generous - or may have possibly just not been enforcing the T&C - when it came to select other rates.

perthite

Was doing a mid year checkup on mine today - better get my skates on if I even want to get to Gold! Been a bit of a quiet first 6 months...

matmatlr

Over 17580 status points so far !
Already booked enough trips until end of August (Cuba, NYC, Montreal, Sao Paulo..) to be over 26k points (diamond)
Will probably end up the year around 35 000 points (probably not enough to the 'invitation only status")

Let's hope that these new status will be interesting enough to keep travelling to Accor hotels only as I do so far

Goldorak

CanadaDH

I tend to agree. I would suspect such a status would be for those that Accor thought could be influential towards generating additional business. Say, the President of a consulting company with lots of travelling staff. More based on someone's position in their sphere of influence and not connected to how much they may personally stay at a hotel. Besides, somebody who has racked up tens of thousands of points has already shown they already give them business, and some additional invitation may do very little for them.

We don't even know yet what sort of benefits are offered for the new Diamond status let alone the invitation status. The associated benefits may not even be that much different from Diamond. I'm worried the benefits of Diamond won't be much more than Platinum, hence my resistance in making additional stays beyond my current 20k or so points so far.

I'm currently right at 20,087 points, according to the app. Now that I think about it, I have one more weekend trip booked for later this year, for 3 nights. That should get me about 6,500 more points, or maybe a bit more if we use the hotel restaurants, so It looks like I might hit Diamond by accident.

matmatlr

Don't think either that it will be related to points (like Club2000 with AF)
[Offtopic] Your comment about being an influential is interesting as being a CEO of a mid-sized consulting company, I am travelling around 40% of my time but having local staff in different countries, they're not travelling much.
However, we're doing a lot of advisory for our clients (multinational companies) on marketing & travel spends (that might include travel policy definition) which might generate huge volume for both airlines & hotels chains.
I am trying not to mix my personal status (Ulti with AF, Plat with Accor, President Circle with Hertz) with my clients needs but that could make sense [Offtopic]

Coming back to the topic, I really hope that Diamond will offer additional benefits as depending on hotels, Plat benefits are near zero
Wait & see

SullyofDoha

Jasper2009

The issue is that all these benefits, except for lounge access, are "subject to availability", subject to the hotel's interpretation and/or the agent's mood.

On a good day Accor offers very goodd value, especially in Asia where properzties are generally solid and hotels offer good service.

But there are far too many properties that offer no upgrade (despite plenty of availability), no early check-in, a 12.30p.m. late check-out ("but you can pay $100 if you want a 4p.m. check-out"), and a drink voucher valid for a glass of water or house wine ("the voucher is only valid for the undrinkable plonk, not the wines by the glass costing $2 more")

IMO Accor needs three things:

(1) a culture change where providing loyalty benefits is seen as beneficial / an investment, not something to avoid at all costs
(2) guaranteed and clearly defined benefits such as "upgrade to the entry-level suite category (or highest level room category if unavailable) based on availability at time of check-in", "guaranteed 2p.m./4p.m. late check-out" etc.
(3) establish enforcement machanisms for providing the published perks such as a dedicated Plat hotline with no wait time and competent agents who are empowered to intervene if necessary

matmatlr

Better to read the entire sentence if you wanna have the right understanding

Plat benefits are really enjoyable (especially early check-in and late check-out).
I am usually staying in Sofitel, Pullman while in Brazil, Canada, USA, China... and all these benefits are granted.
While in Europe, Eastern Europe in Novotel, Mercure, M Gallery, these benefits are not consistent and you very rarely feel welcome as a frequent customer.

LeClubVirgin

I've hit platinum already but on nights not status points, don't think i'll get anywhere close to diamond. One of the pitfalls on UK work travel, low/medium price ranges

Kobetraveller

Dav77

virtualaris

Haven't got any stay since May 2019; just checked out my balance and has just realized that there are two stays that haven't been credited yet; Sofitel Phnom Penh and Novotel London Canary Wharf.

STATUS DASHBOARD
Points Status: 3 802 / 14 000 or Nights: 27 / 60