Admiral Ackbar

I called 877-232-7070, selected Loyalty and was transferred to the Moncton ex-FPC agents. She was surprised that my account was still messed up (no remaining 18 certs, 19 bonus certs misding, yadda yadda) since that was supposed to be sorted out by now. Problem was a duplicate Accor account so I was logging in to the wrong one. She merged the accounts, I logged out and reset my password, everything appeared.

Thank god that team is still around, only competent people in customer service at Accor are them

HanoiIG

Aaaargh! I just checked my account and the 15,367 points I got for a 9 day stay at the Fairmont, San Francisco were somehow taken back! Of course, I just found out on Saturday night so have to wait until the office opens at 11:30 this morning. I am (somewhat) confident that this is a reversible error but ...?!

I love Sofitel and have had more memorable stays and perks than I can recount in such a small space. That said, the rewards program is, and has always been, a problem. You have to sign up for points promotions, so if you already have a booking, you have to unbook it and rebook. Most promotions are only available through the website. You often don't receive the bonus points and, when you complain, they have never heard of the particular offer.

Also, Platinum status doesn't get you a whole lot, especially where there is no Club Accor in a property. Even crummy Hilton give you breakfast with the status.

I will report back once I find out what the hell happened in this fiasco.

Eagle_traveler

I stayed this week at the Fairmont Pacific Rim and the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

I used upgrade certificates so I can't comment about Le Club upgrades at check in.

During reservations, I mentioned that I would use an early check in, and I was reminded by both hotels that it is not guaranteed anymore and they would do their best. Same for check out.

Drink vouchers: house wine, beers or classic cocktails (rhum and coke, vodka soda etc). I find it a bit cheap from a luxury chain. The drink vouchers I get at St Regis for being only SPG gold get me any drink I want up to 15 or 20USD (if I am not mistaken).

Also, it is one per person. If you are staying alone, you only get one. When I was doing my check in, the agent asked me if I was staying alone, I replied yes. She only gave one voucher. So, I told her I will have a friend visiting me later, so he could use the 2nd voucher. She asked if he was staying with me in the room, which I replied No, so she refused to give a 2nd voucher. They are serious about this :\ So, if you want 2 vouchers, say you are 2 in the room

So basically, with Le Club:
- Drink vouchers: can't pick what you want, only one per person
- Platinum amenity: might be something good and generous, might be something small and not really good
- You might get an early check in
- You might get a late check out
- You might get an upgrade

So, I am not sure how Le Club expects loyalty with that program. To me, it seems that Accor doesn't know how to do things with luxury brands.

escape4

Depressing. This is the kind of behavior a hotel chain might drive for a brand like Ibis or Novotel. But you are right, I am not sure they know how to handle luxury brands. That said, I wonder how much of this is on the hotel's shoulders however. We can blame Accor all we want, but what prevents any individual property from going above and beyond the lower brand standards in order to preserve their reputation?

HanoiIG

The drink vouchers are randomly applied. In some hotels like in Dubai it was house beer or wine only, though the club floor gives you free during Happy Hour. In New York(at least for us) you can have any drink you want(at least normal ones, not Louis XII. It kind of depends upon the individual property.

HanoiIG

It géts worse! I'm planning a trip to boston so wrote to the Copley Plaza, which is a Fairmont, identifying myself as longtime Accor Platinum and trying to negotiate a rate or package at least equal to what Chase or AMEX offer. I did get a very prompt response but they said all they could offer is the basic rate on the website and if I want perks, then book through Chase or AMEX.

I am a huge fan of Sofitel and have stayed at about 30 all over the world. I wouldn't ever look elsewhere in New York, Philly, DC or a couple of other cities in Europe and Asia.

So far, I think Fairmont is a snooty brand and unwilling to deal with Le club Accor members. I wound up with a super deal from AMEX at the Ritz Carlton-much cheaper, plus breakfast, internet(what kind of hotel doesn't just give internet these days?)and a ton of hotel credit.

I was hoping that Fairmont and Raffles would make Le club Platinum more valuable, but so far, it doesn't seem to be the case.

HanoiIG

OK. I have a contact high up in Le Club and the prompt response assured me that an administrative glitch forced them to retake all points from a certain period but that it is being remedied and the points should be restored fairly soon. I wonder why they didn't make an announcement to that effect which would have made me more sanguine about the transaction.

Admiral Ackbar

And I am at this hotel right now in a signature suite (Freedom Trail suite) from a cert upgrade confirmed at time of booking on a discounted rate with my remaining FPC certificates. Difference in treatment is why most FPC Plat members (those that have been both Accor and FPC plat saw this coming a mile away) dreaded this merger. It won't be the same at all despite what the Accor propaganda says.

Accor Plat is fairly useless in comparison, except for the private sales which are interesting.

HanoiIG

I have never had status in another chain except for Hilton Diamond which I got for a couple of years as a match to Accor. I pretty much join every loyalty program but nearly all of our stays have been in Sofitels when it's not Mandarin Oriental, which incidentally just got a loyalty program of its own.

When there is a Club floor, Sofitel Platinum is great as you get free breakfast, nearly always transferrable to a restaurant, cocktails, which are sometimes unlimited like in the Legend Metropole Hanoi. Upgrades "when available" means nothing as they can always say there was nothing. I suppose you could check online to see if there were an open room, but I prefer not to be confrontational as it gets you nothing. I do have several properties at which I stay frequently and we have often been surprised by a suite, sometimes one of the best ones, like Presidential!

The sales are, as you say, "interesting" but very often I may have to unbook and rebook after signing up. In nearly all cases, if I already have a booking, my rate is better than what the offer affords, though in a few cases I have been able to take advantage of the Private Sales.

Admiral Ackbar

I have posted a few times here that hotel staff have told me that a regular visitor gets treated best regardless of loyalty status.

CanadaDH

Checked in to the Banff Springs today. Service levels since the Accor transition so far appear to be unchanged. Actually, everything seems to be unchanged. Signage. Literature. You wouldn't know they were part of Accor.

Greeted promptly by name upon arrival in the driveway. Was given our room keys upon stepping out of our car at the hotel entrance. Luggage retrieved and taken straight to the room, while the valet took care of car most efficiently. I had requested 2 specific suites by number, located across the hall from each other in the front of the cross section of the hotel, which I consider to be my favourites in the hotel, and they didn't disappoint. We received 4 drink vouchers on arrival (3 of us are drinkers, but I'm not), and we used them in the Rundle Lounge. I don't even recall mentioning my name when we drove up. They welcomed us back, handed us our keys, and that was that! No paperwork or formalities.

So far, so good. Nothing's changed yet.

SOWK

Two polar experiences since the merger

Fairmont Pacific Rim - 0/10

We live in Vancouver, and have probably stayed here at least 20 times over the last 3 years. Check-in normally begins at the curb after a pre-arrival email, though that was missing on this stay. Front desk agent asked for ID and credit card number, which was a first. After that he said we were in a Fairmont Room on a low floor with a city view. When asked about upgrade subject to availability he said no rooms were available. Of course I knew this wasn't accurate, and pushed him a bit, and magically a harbour view room opened up.

When asked about any other benefits of being Platinum he said there were none. I pressed him a little more, since I knew exactly what to expect, but he said all of my perks from FPC were gone though I did still get access to Fairmont Fit. I asked him about a welcome drink and he looked confused, and said it wasn't applicable to my stay since I was staying on one of my old Fairmont free-night certificates. I asked to speak to the duty manager, who, believe it or not, actually reaffirmed that I wouldn't be eligible for any benefits since it was a free-night stay. I politely asked her to please show me in the terms where it said free-night stays weren't eligible for Platinum benefits, and she disappeared behind the counter for 15 minutes and returned with a generic Le Club AccorHotels booklet with nothing to confirm her statement.

I emailed my contact at the hotel that afternoon and got a phone call from her (she was off duty that day) that afternoon profusely apologizing for the lack of clarity from the front desk. She confirmed they were misinformed, and that I should have been eligible for the welcome drinks, an upgrade, and the Platinum Welcome amenity (which the front desk agent also said I wouldn't be getting). She was legitimately embarrassed and admitted the transition hadn't gone well.

Fairmont Mayakoba 10/10

Later that month we stayed at The Fairmont Mayakoba, again using free-night certificates, for a two night stay. We were welcomed at the door by the Le Club Accor loyalty person and given her business card should we have any questions during our stay. We were given 4 vouchers for welcome drinks (there were 4 adults on the reservation) which could be used for anything. We used a suite-upgrade on our free stay and were upgraded to a Casita Suite at the time of booking, though the front desk further upgraded us to a Beach Area Casita Suite with private plunge pool. Only issue - somehow they didn't realize one king bed wouldn't be enough for 4 adults, but at the time of check-in didn't have any suites with the proper configuration. Their response? A second beachfront Casita Suite complimentary and a comped dinner, including wine, on our last night. Absolutely incredible.

Furthermore, both Brad and I had a bunch of dining certificates we wanted to use during the stay, but knew it could be a bit tougher since they were in $25 increments and certificates couldn't be transferred. I emailed the rep who welcomed us and asked if there was a way for us to just charge everything to the room and apply all of the certificated from our separate accounts at the end of the stay, to which she responded 'of course'. Easy as that.

I'm staying at The Fairmont Vancouver Airport tomorrow - my favourite Fairmont in the world - and am anxious to see how they perform. It's a property that always get's it right, in my opinion, though they've already slipped a bit by sending an email yesterday asking for personal information so they could set-up a Le Club AccorHotels account on my behalf prior to my arrival.... I replied asking if my information didn't transfer and received a very apologetic response from their loyalty manager admitting it was a canned email that couldn't differentiate those who had an account or not, but they were working on a fix.

CanuckFlyHigh

out of curiosity, what are your favorite suites? I think mine are the X09/X11 combo that make a wonderful and huge one bedroom suite.

dmodemd

What did they do to make it up to you? Anything more than giving you your benefits (reluctantly)?

What's with all the welcome drinks? Is this standard now?

Arthurrs

It seems to be an Accor perk, I got four certs when I checked into the Fairmont Kea Lani last week for the four of us in the room. Even though we were supposed to use them by the following day after check in, I had no problem redeeming them on the 3rd day of our stay. Was good for drinks up to $18 each at the Luana lounge, and I obviously tried whatever drinks I could find up to that value!! I guess it's a nice gesture, maybe not as valuable if alcohol is not your "thing."