CanadaDH

The standard certificates awarded as part of the FPC program, not the Chase Visa, all expire on Feb 28, which is why I think that is the most logical time for the program transition.

I would be surprised if they didn't honour any existing certificates to their stated end date. They could still implement a new program at March 1 and keep the legacy system up until outstanding certificates have been redeemed or expired.

nock

I would have trusted Fairmont to do the right thing. Not sure about Accor...

nmenaker

And this is exactly why I think we won’t see a whole cloth termination for 2018 there must be 10’s of thousands of members and guests who have been investing time and money to attain some communicated and documented status that clearly states that it would be for the FOLLOWING YEAR. To terminate that agreement essentially retroactively I think would be met with great consternation and complaint, and justifiably.

Spent_All_My_Miles

I could see the FPC program having a redeem-only year.

For instance, if Accor has decided to kill FPC - and since they have killed the credit card, maybe they have -- 2017 could be the final year to earn status. Elite coupons would post on March 1, 2018 as normal, and they could be redeemed through February 28, 2019, but stays during 2018 would either earn credit towards Accor elite status, or nothing at all.

Given that it is now July 2017, I would think that it is getting too late to make 2018 the redeem-only year. Hopefully, 2018 will be a normal earn and redeem year, and 2019 will be the redeem only year.

Of course, if Accor has any sense, they would leave FPC as is and move their Sofitel and other luxury hotels into it.

Altaflyer

People have been working to status for next year so not honouring that, while perhaps within terms and conditions would surely piss a lot of people off - not what you want to achieve with loyalty.

CanadaDH

I agree, it would be a fairly stupid strategy to have loyal members work towards a goal, qualify, and then give them nothing in the new year.

However, I could see them still ending the FPC, and simply offering Accor Platinum status to anybody who qualified for Fairmont Platinum. Thereby honouring the qualification metric, but changing the benefits given. It's still going to leave a sour taste, considering the Accor benefits are much worse than those of the FPC program.

I guess it depends on how much Accor is listening to the Fairmont team. Part of me wants to believe that they hired Chris Cahill because they genuinely wanted to understand how to run a luxury hotel chain with loyal members. They have said as much in the past, but those were just words. We shall see in time if they want to learn, or just want to assimilate the chain into the group and run it into the ground the Accor way.

gilbertaue

Some info from the dark side..

LCAH is quite overdue to announce some program improvements and have been putting that off for some time. When I last queried it (last month) I was told that it has been decided to put that off for awhile.

Could very much be in conjunction with some program changes together with FPC.

ZenWorld

Until I read improvement with Le Club Accor (maybe if Fairmont&Swissotel loyalty team takes the lead in the overhaul and future running of the combined loyalty program, things might move a bit better), I have continued to vote with my wallet, which is away from Accor, Fairmont, Swissotel.

At the moment, no real benefits at Fairmont & Swissotel for Accor Plats, dysfunctional CS for Le Club Accor, I have not found a reason to stay with them, when I have Hilton, Marriott and SPG top status and their huge range of properties to choose from.

Fairmont properties in general would have made my decision much harder, but there is no equivalent Platinum treatment for Le Club Accor Plat members in Fairmont.

And at this point, I am not concerned even if I will become Classic next year.
(And maybe Le Club Accor should be concerned, given I was once Fairmont Plat and Swissotel Eleva plus Accor Plat - but I doubt so.)

dmodemd

Not seeing any rumors on the plans for next year...

I think they could transition to Accors next year:

- Allow certs to post next March as normal based on status.
- Use certs at Fairmont properties until they expire.
- Earnings in points in 2018.
- Benefits at Fairmonts based on Accors benefits by level.

Not that I am entirely wishing for this to happen but I would like to be able to redeem in Europe at Accors hotels and get lounge access.

I imagine they may have issues with their systems being able to earn / redeem Accors points. Would they have to transition to a unified reservation system?

It may be easier to just let Fairmont keep the current system and do the status match thing. Maybe allow free night certs to be used at Accors properties or convert to points?

Yul_voyager

The only decent thing they can do is to dump completely their Accor program and build something good enough to keep Fairmont benefit close to what they are now...

YOWCDNFF

Just received a survey today from Accor. There is some focus on Fairmont, and the main purpose is to rank a few luxury brands a cross several scales. I would not be surprised to see everything on the table right now. Part of the challenge that I see with the Fairmont brand, especially within Canada is the noticeable difference between some mid-tier city center properties and the more luxurious resort style properties. I could see Accor wanting to reposition Fairmont to more of a leisure luxury brand and rebrand the more business oriented hotels to something else within the Accor group

Arthurrs

Got the same survey as well, I think they'll find my answers a bit confusing! LOL I have to wonder if they know what they're looking for with these surveys, because I certainly don't!!

Here's hoping not much changes with the President's club. It's my first time at the Platinum level after several years or premier.

gpapadop

I got the survey too. I was VERY clear that the Presidents Club must stay. I think I also said: "I will never stay in an Accor hotel if the Fairmont Presidents Club is terminated" :-)

CanadaDH

I received the same survey last week. They mostly asked to rank perceptions of several different hotel brands on a series of scales. They were comparisons between Fairmont, Raffles, Swissotel, Sofitel, Banyan Tree, Four Seasons, Ritz Carleton, JD Marriott, Intercontinental, LUX and maybe four or five others that I can't recall at the moment.

Also some questions where they asked for descriptions and opinions, not just the typical multiple-choice or ranking questions common in these surveys.

Some of the questions were a little odd, but I was very honest in my feedback.

That's very interesting observation and idea. Many of the questions did dig into that. Clearly, the preferences of business travelers are very different from leisure travelers, and aligning the brands according to the type of traveler is very interesting.

I'm not sure how easy it is to position an individual hotel into such a category. I could clearly see something like the Queen Elizabeth having a heavy business traveler clientele, and perhaps something like Tremblant or Jasper Park Lodge being heavily leisure focused. There are probably a lot of properties that are an even mix. A hotel leaning to more one segment will still want to receive business from the other camp. I guess you can't be everything to everybody.

Yul_voyager

I don't see many Fairmont being converted into another brand. For many of them the Fairmont brand is a significant part of their identity.
Sure, the Waterfront in Vancouver could be moved to the Sofitel brand, but not many could...