Have you been scammed by Accor promotions?
May 9, 2019, 1:44 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: Accor Plus platinium, Marriott silver, GHA platinium, Hhonors Gold, Krisflyer Silver
Posts: 130
Have you been scammed by Accor promotions?
I have a bad case to report which is the Accorplus team not honoring the promotional points offer for boost 2019.
I booked my stays but pay part of it with reward points. In the terms and conditions of the emailer that i attached below, it does not state that reward points cannot be used for this promotion. It purely mentioned that vouchers cannot be used. The customer service rep sent me another set of terms which states that reward points cannot be used and will not honor the promotional points.
Is this not a case of false advertising? Any one have faced similar issues? Will sending a complaint to my local consumer protection agency help?
I booked my stays but pay part of it with reward points. In the terms and conditions of the emailer that i attached below, it does not state that reward points cannot be used for this promotion. It purely mentioned that vouchers cannot be used. The customer service rep sent me another set of terms which states that reward points cannot be used and will not honor the promotional points.
Is this not a case of false advertising? Any one have faced similar issues? Will sending a complaint to my local consumer protection agency help?
May 9, 2019, 2:12 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
Posts: 18,364
First, nobody has been "scammed" by this as there is no scam here. A scam implies a deliberate dishonest intention to mislead. There is no evidence of such an intention here. At most, what there might be is clumsy wording inherited from the era where rewards were issued in the form of vouchers. I think that most LCAH members would understand that the phrase "any stay paid in full or in part with one our more LCAH vouchers" refers primarily to stays paid using reward points.
Now, it is possible that somebody who is less familiar with LCAH might conceivably be misled although I would have thought that the above sentence would at the very least raise some doubts in the mind of the individual concerned and prompt him or her to seek clarification from LCAH to find out for sure what the story is with stays paid with reward points, especially as the exclusion of reward nights/nights paid with points from those kinds of promotions tends to be SOP in the majority of hotel frequent stayer programmes.
Whether complaining to your local advertising standards or consumer complaints agency will help, who knows? That surely depends on what its expectations are and what remedies it has to offer. This is, however, very far from being the strongest case of misleading advertising that I have ever come across even if there is some degree of carelessness in the phrasing of the promotion.
Now, it is possible that somebody who is less familiar with LCAH might conceivably be misled although I would have thought that the above sentence would at the very least raise some doubts in the mind of the individual concerned and prompt him or her to seek clarification from LCAH to find out for sure what the story is with stays paid with reward points, especially as the exclusion of reward nights/nights paid with points from those kinds of promotions tends to be SOP in the majority of hotel frequent stayer programmes.
Whether complaining to your local advertising standards or consumer complaints agency will help, who knows? That surely depends on what its expectations are and what remedies it has to offer. This is, however, very far from being the strongest case of misleading advertising that I have ever come across even if there is some degree of carelessness in the phrasing of the promotion.
May 9, 2019, 2:45 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: Accor Plus platinium, Marriott silver, GHA platinium, Hhonors Gold, Krisflyer Silver
Posts: 130
First, nobody has been "scammed" by this as there is no scam here. A scam implies a deliberate dishonest intention to mislead. There is no evidence of such an intention here. At most, what there might be is clumsy wording inherited from the era where rewards were issued in the form of vouchers. I think that most LCAH members would understand that the phrase "any stay paid in full or in part with one our more LCAH vouchers" refers primarily to stays paid using reward points.
Now, it is possible that somebody who is less familiar with LCAH might conceivably be misled although I would have thought that the above sentence would at the very least raise some doubts in the mind of the individual concerned and prompt him or her to seek clarification from LCAH to find out for sure what the story is with stays paid with reward points, especially as the exclusion of reward nights/nights paid with points from those kinds of promotions tends to be SOP in the majority of hotel frequent stayer programmes.
Whether complaining to your local advertising standards or consumer complaints agency will help, who knows? That surely depends on what its expectations are and what remedies it has to offer. This is, however, very far from being the strongest case of misleading advertising that I have ever come across even if there is some degree of carelessness in the phrasing of the promotion.
Now, it is possible that somebody who is less familiar with LCAH might conceivably be misled although I would have thought that the above sentence would at the very least raise some doubts in the mind of the individual concerned and prompt him or her to seek clarification from LCAH to find out for sure what the story is with stays paid with reward points, especially as the exclusion of reward nights/nights paid with points from those kinds of promotions tends to be SOP in the majority of hotel frequent stayer programmes.
Whether complaining to your local advertising standards or consumer complaints agency will help, who knows? That surely depends on what its expectations are and what remedies it has to offer. This is, however, very far from being the strongest case of misleading advertising that I have ever come across even if there is some degree of carelessness in the phrasing of the promotion.
Being careless in the phrasing and being the standard SOP is quite a weak argument in my opinion. Should a consumer having look at the terms and conditions of said promotion and then have to do further research on what other programs is doing? Will it not also be a case when I think that Accor made some changes to the terms and conditions to differentiate themselves from the rest of the hotel membership programs?
May 9, 2019, 2:46 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: Accor Plus platinium, Marriott silver, GHA platinium, Hhonors Gold, Krisflyer Silver
Posts: 130
May 9, 2019, 2:51 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
Posts: 18,364
Yes, not so long ago all points were issued in the form of physical vouchers that you had to redeem at the hotel. Voucher dematerialisation was considered a huge progress as we were finally able to redeem vouchers against online prepaid rates.
May 9, 2019, 2:56 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: Accor Plus platinium, Marriott silver, GHA platinium, Hhonors Gold, Krisflyer Silver
Posts: 130
Then that will be a legacy issue and not something contemporary. Should all new consumers be familiar with what a company does in the past?
May 9, 2019, 3:28 am
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
Posts: 18,364
Whatever. You have information and context so you can make up your mind. I have zero interest in engaging in a pointless polemical discussion.
May 9, 2019, 3:42 am
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: Accor Plus platinium, Marriott silver, GHA platinium, Hhonors Gold, Krisflyer Silver
Posts: 130
I am not trying to pick a fight with you but what you are saying does not seem to be a good and valid argument for LCAH shortcomings.
If I was LCAH, I think I will own up to my mistake and provide what ever is due as per the terms agreed.
May 9, 2019, 6:18 am
#10
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: BNE
Programs: QF Gold, VA Gold, IHG Spire, Accor Plat, Marriot Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,281
No scam here, and others were quick to note the terms and conditions as per normal exclude bonuses when paying with points ie https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30740678-post238.html . FlyerTalk is a useful source of information, as well as being a place some like to rant.
May 9, 2019, 11:27 am
#11
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: Bonvoy :Ambassador , ALL :Diamond, Skywards :Silver, Krisflyer :Silver
Posts: 2,808
May 9, 2019, 10:16 pm
#13
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Amsterdam
Programs: A3, BA, OZ,
Posts: 1,099
I feel like both positions here are reasonable. As someone who has been with Accor for nearly 10 years, I see voucher and automatically assume that means using points. However, if I just joined today, I would not understand it in that way. Additionally I just checked the security email from the last time I redeemed points at a hotel which was a couple of weeks ago, and there was no mention of voucher in the email.
And in the bill, it said points redemption, not voucher. So even if they still refer to them as vouchers internally, outwardly, for non-terms and conditions issues, it seems they have shifted away from that term. So if I had recently joined, I would assume that the LCAH vouchers mentioned in the terms are some unrelated entity. So while I have read and understood the terms and conditions, I think that they were indeed unclear and would agree that, for the OP, he should be entitled to receive the points from the promotion. However, in reality, I am not sure how likely this would be and how far they are willing to go in order to achieve this. And while this is not legal advice and I am not a lawyer, as far as the law is concerned, my understanding is that based on the contra proferentem rule, if the terms that were published when OP chose to participate in the promotion only mentioned LCAH vouchers and not points, in theory, the OP should be entitled to the points both legally and morally. However, as it is not a huge amount of worth in the grand scheme of things, I would question how much effort it is worth to pursue such a thing, but that is for the OP to decide.
Dear AlwaysFlyStar,
You chose to deduct 12,000 Rewards points from your bill during your stay at the ****. Please find below the code to present to the hotel in order to deduct these points from your bill:
****
Once the code has been entered by the hotel, the Rewards points points will be immediately debited from your account. Please note you will not be able to cancel or amend the transaction. The transaction can be viewed by logging into your online account and going to the "My points history" section. We wish you a nice stay. Your Le Club AccorHotels team
You chose to deduct 12,000 Rewards points from your bill during your stay at the ****. Please find below the code to present to the hotel in order to deduct these points from your bill:
****
Once the code has been entered by the hotel, the Rewards points points will be immediately debited from your account. Please note you will not be able to cancel or amend the transaction. The transaction can be viewed by logging into your online account and going to the "My points history" section. We wish you a nice stay. Your Le Club AccorHotels team
May 10, 2019, 2:34 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: Accor Plus platinium, Marriott silver, GHA platinium, Hhonors Gold, Krisflyer Silver
Posts: 130
I feel like both positions here are reasonable. As someone who has been with Accor for nearly 10 years, I see voucher and automatically assume that means using points. However, if I just joined today, I would not understand it in that way. Additionally I just checked the security email from the last time I redeemed points at a hotel which was a couple of weeks ago, and there was no mention of voucher in the email.
And in the bill, it said points redemption, not voucher. So even if they still refer to them as vouchers internally, outwardly, for non-terms and conditions issues, it seems they have shifted away from that term. So if I had recently joined, I would assume that the LCAH vouchers mentioned in the terms are some unrelated entity. So while I have read and understood the terms and conditions, I think that they were indeed unclear and would agree that, for the OP, he should be entitled to receive the points from the promotion. However, in reality, I am not sure how likely this would be and how far they are willing to go in order to achieve this. And while this is not legal advice and I am not a lawyer, as far as the law is concerned, my understanding is that based on the contra proferentem rule, if the terms that were published when OP chose to participate in the promotion only mentioned LCAH vouchers and not points, in theory, the OP should be entitled to the points both legally and morally. However, as it is not a huge amount of worth in the grand scheme of things, I would question how much effort it is worth to pursue such a thing, but that is for the OP to decide.
And in the bill, it said points redemption, not voucher. So even if they still refer to them as vouchers internally, outwardly, for non-terms and conditions issues, it seems they have shifted away from that term. So if I had recently joined, I would assume that the LCAH vouchers mentioned in the terms are some unrelated entity. So while I have read and understood the terms and conditions, I think that they were indeed unclear and would agree that, for the OP, he should be entitled to receive the points from the promotion. However, in reality, I am not sure how likely this would be and how far they are willing to go in order to achieve this. And while this is not legal advice and I am not a lawyer, as far as the law is concerned, my understanding is that based on the contra proferentem rule, if the terms that were published when OP chose to participate in the promotion only mentioned LCAH vouchers and not points, in theory, the OP should be entitled to the points both legally and morally. However, as it is not a huge amount of worth in the grand scheme of things, I would question how much effort it is worth to pursue such a thing, but that is for the OP to decide.
May 10, 2019, 4:07 am
#15
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Italy
Programs: Accor Gold, Marriott Titanium, IHG Diamond , Amex Platinum
Posts: 1,484
maybe this sounds like even Accor don’t understand a lot on their T&Cs... 😃