Eagle_traveler

Yup, this is sad news
Le Club is worthless, they will lose another Plat member.

JCFans

I already have Fairmont reservations next year that I'm thinking of cancelling now (refundable reservations) and might as well put my nights into SPG. At least SPG Plats guarantees you an upgrade and gives you 10 nights of suite certs.

Arthurrs

Just checked the mail, got my Fairmont Platinum kit today for qualifying early. It was a good chuckle to read "Further, as we continue to integrate with AccorHotels, we expect more exciting news to share with you in the coming year."

Translation: "As we get swallowed up by a big hotel conglomerate that doesn't understand our loyalty program even if we bought them a clue, we expect to devalue your loyalty with no more soup, er, certificates for you."

Yep! Exciting news this is!!!

CanuckFlyHigh

I am hearing there has been mass exodus from Fairmont head office over the past quarter. I don't think Fairmont's good Canadian corporate culture fit very well with French run Accor. On the bright side, a lot of very good Canadian hotel talent will land at other excellent brands.

PsiFighter37

Well I guess my first year as a Platinum will be my last! I will still stay at the property if it makes sense / if I have a corporate rate, but no need to go out of my way. I really liked FPC...

tris06

If your suite upgrade is worth 1200 euros then likely You would Have spend nearly 5000 euros or more for the hotel stay already.

Plus Maybe you should remember that we do get upgrades In Accor I Had Maybe 12 stays this year. And was upgraded 11 times. The 12th time was In London and booked the 2nd highest category and to be honest this suite was better than the more exspensive one As we didnt want an outside terrace.

So the average value of each upgrade I had was about 100 Euros per night and I stayed 28 nights this year 25 of those were upgraded stays. The only issue is half the time I needed to mention or reason with them that they either did not offer an upgrade or the upgrade was not much different to my booked room. Also remember lounge access value which you might think is full of platinium members but actually I found they rarely had more than 5 or 6 people total in the lounge at Any one time.

Then I had no problem going to the hotel at 8am or 9am having an additional breakfast In the lounge usually a room became available by 9 or 10am. So early check In works. Late check out works better In Asia. But usually You can stay till 3 or 4pm In the room/suite.

We are mentioning In the Accor forums that some additional member perks may come through In 2018 As they sort it all out. My recomendation is when staying at an Accor hotel , write a review on trip advisor which Accor HQ has said this is more effective than complaining on flyertalk as hotels care about being rated on there.

CanuckFlyHigh

Nope. I book the cheapest room - call it $200 Euros for 5 nights. $1000 Euro room. I get a confirmed, guaranteed suite, that often runs for $500+ Euros/night. Over 5 nights, that is $1500 Euro in room price difference.

kevino

You get 10 SPG Suite Night Awards (SNA's) only after hitting 50 nights in the year. I have used zero of my SNA's this year.

curl

Suite certa can be very valuable.. over $2000 value on our last stay. And no, I didn’t spend $5000 euros. I’m just sad that such a great thing, that drove us to book Fairmont for every family vacation the last six years, is gone.

will5404

They are making a cynical bet that you will return anyway, despite losing the perks. Let's face it the top tier properties don't need a loyalty program, Banff Springs/Chateau Lake Louise/Jasper Park Lodge have no shortage of people willing to pay full price.

Fairmont also has many weaker hotels though (Fairmont Chicago, Royal York was pretty blah the one time I stayed etc). These properties likely benefited more from the network effect of FPC, whereas for other hotels it probably dragged down their revenue where they really could of sold the suites for closer to full price.

I'm a fan of classic hotels, so for some of them I'll definitely continue to stay despite the changes. For others, there are already much better options in their respective cities and I'll be more likely to not bother staying at a Fairmont.

Spent_All_My_Miles

It sounds like that the stays that one makes in the first half of 2018 will not do anything towards earning elite status/coupons. That seems 100% wrong.
I literally booked three stays, last week, for January 2018, using (non-refundable) GDGR rates, as part of my annual trek to requalify status.

Wondering what I should do.

tris06

Anyway the point is made that I probably get as much value from room upgrades as many fairmont members get in their program its just not that certain that i will get an upgrade. But some hotels will confirm an upgrade some time before checking in.


As Accor member i think if people leave on mass it will actually benefit myself so yeah and as others have said only those good hotels that is where you had the most value probably would prefer to just sell the rooms than give them away.

Its funny how one member claims... oh i spend 5600 Euro in 1 stay and hence trying to say that everyone and their dog will be platinum member and on the other hand another person is saying they only spend 200 Euro's per night.

Give you another example from Accor and how to work the system.

Booked a luxury room for 320 Euro's per night at the Sofitel Legend Amsterdam some years back. It was on the cusp of Easter week and hence the hotel was nearly full and the level above our purchased rate was sold out during our stay (junior suite). I had a talk upon checking in and for an extra 200 Euro's per night I was able to upgrade to the Opera suite. Which sells for 900-1200 Euro's after tax (depending on specials) per night. So i was upgraded per night a value of 400-600 Euro's per night as well. It does make things a little more complicated but any business orientated person can spend 5 mins talking with staff about this and getting a good deal out of it.

CanuckFlyHigh

Thank you for providing a perfect example as to why the Accor upgrade benefit is dismal compared to the Fairmont guarantees suite upgrade certificates (upon booking).

pharmawalk

I knew as soon as i saw this thread that it would be a downgrade. Watch the loyal dissipate Fairmont....people aren't stupid (in general).

Arthurrs

The problem is that the exodus of loyal Fairmont Presidents club members will probably happen after the remaining certificates have been used up. I know I'll be using mine. But afterwards, I really don't see much incentive to stay or re qualify for Platinum with Accor's mediocre program.