There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is that – since the conversion rate for most airlines including British Airways is 3:1 – it feels more generous than the competition.  IHG One Rewards is 5:1 into Avios.  Hilton Honors is 10:1.  Points are not all created equal, however, so you shouldn’t read too much into these ratios.

Secondly, Marriott Bonvoy adds an extra 5,000 miles to your pot if you convert 60,000 points at once.  This means that you are getting 1.25 airline miles for every three Bonvoy points if you convert in chunks of 60,000.

Is the ‘Marriott is best’ view born out by the maths?  I thought I would run the numbers.

The question I asked myself was …..

How much do you need to spend with the major hotel schemes to earn 10,000 Avios?

I am assuming that the reader has whatever status in a particular comes with staying 20 nights via one-night stays per year in the relevant loyalty programme.  Given the amount of money you need to spend to earn 10,000 Avios this is a logical assumption.

I have ranked the results by lowest spend to highest spend needed to earn 10,000 Avios.  These numbers are all based on net spend, ie without VAT, and assume you have whatever status comes with doing 20 one-night stays per year.

Marriott Bonvoy – $2,727 but could be as low as $2,182

10,000 Avios requires 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.  You earn 10 points per $1 at most full service brands plus a 10% bonus for being Silver Elite (requires 10 nights) so 11 points per $1 in total. You need to spend $2,727 to earn 30,000 points.

However …. if you transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Avios in chunks of 60,000 points, you receive a bonus 5,000 Avios. This means, pro rata, you’d only need 24,000 Bonvoy points to earn 10,000 Avios. At 11 points per $1, this would require spend of $2,182.

Accor Live Limitless – $3,508  (€3,225), but could be as low as $2,653 (€2,439)

10,000 Iberia Plus Avios requires 10,000 Accor points (the conversion rate to BA is worse so you should credit stays to Iberia and move them across via ‘Combine My Avios’).  At most midscale brands, eg Novotel, you earn 3.1 points per €1 as a Silver member (requires 10 nights). Earning 10,000 points means that you need to spend €3,225.

However …. if you register for the Qatar Airways / Accor Live Limitless partnership, you earn an extra 1 Avios per €1 spent, deposited into your Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios account after every stay. You can easily move these across to your BA account. This improves the earning to the equivalent of 4.1 Avios per €1 and means that 10,000 Avios needs just €2,439 of spend.

IHG One Rewards – $3,571

10,000 Avios requires 50,000 IHG One Rewards points.  You earn 10 points per $1 plus a 40% bonus for being Gold Elite (requires 20 nights) for a total of 14 points per $1. Earning 50,000 points requires spending pre-taxes of $3,571.

Radisson Rewards – $3,703

10,000 Avios requires 100,000 Radisson Rewards points.  You earn 27 points per $1 for being Premium (requires just 3 stays or 5 nights). 100,000 points will require spending of $

World of Hyatt – $4,545

10,000 Avios requires 25,000 World of Hyatt points.  You earn 5.5 points per $1 for being Discoverist (requires 10 nights). This means that 25,000 points requires you to spend $4,545 pre-tax.

Hilton Honors – $5,555

10,000 Avios requires 100,000 Hilton Honors points.  You earn 18 points per $1 being Gold (requires 20 stays) which means that you need to spend $5,555 to earn 100,000 points.

This analysis does not consider the fact that some chains let you earn miles directly if you agree not to earn points.  Because these are generally fixed amounts such as 500 Avios per stay they may work out better for you if you do lots of cheap one-night stays.

Conclusion

Marriott Bonvoy remains the most rewarding programme for earning hotel points if your ultimate aim is to convert them into airline miles.

The only caveat – and it is a large one – is that Hilton Honors and IHG One Rewards are more aggressive than the other chains in terms of running bonus point promotions.  It is worth noting that, as of today, the only chains running promotions are Hilton and IHG (click for our list of all current promos). Earning promotional points will allow you to earn more Avios from a stay.

I would also encourage you to think twice before converting hotel points into Avios.  If you will never earn enough for a free night then it is obviously a good idea to transfer them, but in general you will maximise value by using hotel points for free hotel nights.

The one exception is Marriott Bonvoy where the conversion maths just about works. I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p and an Avios at 1p. 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points converts into 25,000 Avios, because it triggers the extra 5,000 Avios for converting in chunks of 60,000. Plugging in my valuations, you are swapping £300 of Marriott points for £250 of Avios. This is close enough to make it a fair deal.

PS.  Take a look at this article if you are interested in using your Avios points to book hotel rooms, instead of earning Avios from them. This should always be done via Nectar Hotels (0.67p per Avios) and never via the British Airways hotel booking portal (0.55p per Avios).

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

The closure plans for the Virgin Upper Class Wing have changed

Last week we covered the closure of the British Airways First Wing and the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing security channels, as part of the process of upgrading the security scanners at Heathrow.

Whilst the Terminal 5 First Wing closure is progressing as planned (the security lane will be closed until March / April), there has been a change to the Virgin Atlantic plan.

This is what is currently happening:

• Now until 21st February: the Upper Class Wing drop off, check in and Private Security channel are open but there is a temporary entrance into the Upper Class Wing from the terminal. The only people impacted are those who come into Terminal 3 via the main entrance (for example anyone arriving by public transport) and want to use the dedicated security line in the Wing.

• 22nd-28th February: there will be a full closure of the Upper Class Wing

• 29th February to 13th May: the Upper Class Wing will be open for drop off and check in but the private security channel will be closed – you will be redirected into the main terminal to clear security

You can check for the latest updates on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

ibis Styles Paignton hotel is now open

We don’t cover the seaside resort of Paignton in Devon much on HfP, unsurprisingly, but it does now have two brand new hotels.

A Mercure opened last year, and an ibis Styles opened yesterday – website here. These are both part of Accor Live Limitless.

The 121-room ibis Styles Paignton features “a design that draws inspiration from the surrounding seaside landscapes, as well as being home to all-day dining restaurant Deller’s Cafe and an ice-cream parlour.” It is the first ibis Styles in the UK to have a dry spa, with three treatment rooms.

You can find out more about the ibis Styles Paignton on its website here, and the website for the adjacent (same ownership) Mercure is here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

The 10-second summary:

Strong points – big global network except in the Americas, decent Platinum benefits including lounge access, elite members generally treated well, luxury options improved with Swissotel / Raffles / Fairmont / Mondrian / Delano acquisitions, Avios (via Qatar Airways) and Air France KLM partnerships lets you earn Accor points whilst flying, Accor Experiences offers interesting new redemptions, Suite Night Upgrades for elite members can now be booked online, soft landings if you do not retain status

Weak points – points have a fixed monetary value so no opportunity for arbitrage, Accor Experiences redemptions limited in UK, no credit card partner, no free breakfast for Platinum unless there is a lounge, no free breakfast for Diamond midweek

The longer version:

I have taken a far stronger interest in Accor Live Limitless in recent years. I earned Diamond after a pricey stay at Fairmont Royal Pavilion in Barbados (review here) in 2021 and I just earned it back for 2024 after a couple of Fairmont Windsor Park stays.

What I have found is working for me is:

• earning status points on two rooms per night (only Accor does this) which is great as we normally take a separate room for our children

• being able to earn Suite Night Upgrades and redeem them online, locking in the upgrade at the time of booking

• being able to use points for Accor Experiences redemptions – I don’t necessarily need more hotel nights, even if they are free!

• getting a soft landing if I don’t renew status – Accor is a chain where we seem to drop a large sum in one go every couple of years at a resort, and I can leverage that to get a year of Diamond and then a year Platinum (and even the year of Gold after that isn’t totally useless)

• getting a handful of Avios in my Qatar Airways Privilege Club account after each stay – ON TOP of my Accor points

This is why it works for ME though. There are many reasons it might not work for YOU:

We don’t find Accor Live Limitless exciting

I think that Accor gets a slightly tough time from Head for Points.  Why?  Because part of the skill of the miles and points game is arbitrage – redeeming points at places which offer an oversized return.  Because Accor has a ‘points equal cash’ structure (2,000 points = €40 off), you can’t beat the system.

Things are improving a little via Accor Experiences – using your points for tickets to cultural and sporting events – but the UK selection so far has been limited and is very London focussed. It is not yet on a par with what Hilton and Marriott offer.

It’s hard to get bonus points via promotions

Accor runs very few big global promotions making it harder to build up your points.  The promotions it does run often have very narrow booking windows and require 2-3 night minimum stays which makes them tricky to use. 

The website is an IT nightmare

The website is, by far, the buggiest of any major hotel group. It genuinely makes ba.com look like Amazon. It is slowly improving but bugs are still there – some points I earned at Bicester Village last Autumn disappeared into the ether. As I found last week, heaven help you if points arrive in 2024 for a stay you did in late 2023 ….

However, I know the scheme works well for many and is working for me

For the regular guest, though, Accor Live Limitless works well.  It is easier to earn Platinum, whether via nights or spend, than top tier in any competing programme (this is a fact – I’ve done the maths).  If you have a family and tend to book two rooms whilst travelling, you’re laughing – spend on both rooms will count for elite status.

Once you are Platinum, which is not the top tier but is the sweet spot, you are getting 8.8% of your room bill back in Accor vouchers.  Spend a few days in a Sofitel running up a £750 bill, before VAT, and you will ‘earn’ £66 for yourself – albeit £66 you need to spend in another Accor hotel. A Diamond member would get 10% back.

The benefits – for ‘sweet spot’ Platinum members – are also pretty decent at the right properties. At a Sofitel (such as Heathrow Terminal 5 pictured below) you will get lounge access (ie free breakfast, snacks and drinks), an upgrade, late check-out, early check-in AND 8.8% of your room bill back in vouchers.  You can’t complain about that. The lack of free breakfast at hotels without a lounge is a negative, however. Even a Diamond only gets free breakfast at the weekend. (The Asia-Pacific breakfast rule is different – Platinum and Diamond members get free breakfast every day.)

The new ALL PLUS discount cards are a way of making elite status easier to earn – see here – by giving you free elite night credits. This doesn’t help people like me who earn status via spend, however.

There is little value in pushing for Diamond status if you are a regular Accor guest. The benefits above Platinum are few, with even the ‘free breakfast’ benefit restricted to weekends only.

Anecdotally, hotels seem to be good at delivering elite benefits.  You can’t ‘game’ elite status with Accor – it’s not given away free as a credit card perk – and the hotels know that status guests have earned it via ‘heads in beds’.

Suite Night Upgrades, which can now be booked online, are attractive. I used four at Fairmont St Andrews over New Year 2022/23, and ended up with my big suite being upgraded to a frankly huge one. I used another two at Fairmont Windsor Park in December 2023, paying £500 per night for a suite selling for £1,000.

Accor looks after you if you don’t requalify

Accor is unique in having soft landings. Whilst normal in the airline world, it is rare in the hotel sector. If you don’t requalify for your status, you will only drop down by one level.

On 1st January 2023 I fell from Diamond to Platinum, whilst other chains would have dropped me back to the bottom tier. This is one reason to go for Diamond – because, including the soft landing year as Platinum, you will have two years of lounge access and upgrades. I am now back at Diamond for 2024 and will happily accept Platinum status for 2025.

(Marriott Bonvoy did offer soft landings in 2023 and 2024 but it is not policy and you can’t rely on it for future years.)

What do we think of the network?

My experience of Accor properties in the last few years is not extensive. 90% of my spending was on three recent Fairmont stays at Barbados, St Andrews and Windsor Park and a couple of Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5 trips.

However, the UK network is surprisingly good with Novotel and Mercure hotels in most major business cities.  The Sofitel St James in Mayfair (above) is a UK flagship and a decent place to spend your vouchers if you wanted a break in London, and you’ve obviously got The Savoy and Raffles Old War Office for a real splurge.  Gleneagles (also above), a recent acquisition, will become the top UK hotel in Accor Live Limitless if it is ever integrated.

We have reviewed three new build UK Accor hotels in recent years and all were impressive. Novotel Blackfriars (review) has the new contemporary look being rolled out across the chain, and a swimming pool. The ibis Styles at Heathrow (review) is also showcasing a new, modern design – despite “only being an ibis” I think any HfP reader would be happy there. Rhys enjoyed his stay at the new Municipal Hotel in Liverpool (MGallery, review here).

Whilst not reviewed, I enjoyed my stays at Mercure St Paul’s in Sheffield in 2019 and again in 2022.  Gleneagles, of course, is outstanding (review) but very expensive, as is the new Gleneagles Townhouse in Edinburgh (review) – but neither are part of the programme.  When I was in Dubai in 2020, we did one night at the new Sofitel The Obelisk near the airport which was exceptionally good.

The last international Accor hotels we reviewed were AKI Hong Kong (MGallery, reviewed here), Fairmont Austin (review) and Fairmont Royal Pavilion Barbados (review).

Conclusion

If Accor Live Limitless was a ‘normal’ loyalty scheme then the addition of Raffles, Fairmont, Gleneagles, Mondrian, Swissotel etc to bulk up the luxury portfolio would have been hugely exciting.  Imagine being able to redeem a handful of points for a night at The Savoy in London.

In reality, the revenue-based redemption model meant that these acquisitions were welcomed with little more than a shrug, since the number of points required for a free room is huge.  You get the same value per point as you’d get at an Ibis, so there is no value blowing them at a luxury venue unless you happen to be there anyway.

The ability to earn Avios on every stay – on top of your Accor Live Limitless points – due to the Qatar Airways partnership is a decent perk. I don’t recommend converting Avios INTO Accor Live Limitless points due to the weak transfer rate.

All that said, it would be unfair to criticise the scheme too much, especially as it is currently working for me.  If you manage to earn ‘sweet spot’ Platinum status, stay in brands which have lounges (where you’d have free access), can take advantage of the Suite Night Upgrade vouchers and are happy to use your points for hotel room discounts or the Accor Experiences events in London, it can work out well.

The Accor Live Limitless website is here if you want to find out more.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Accor Live Limitless covers 5,300 hotels globally.  Folowing an acquisition spree over the last few years, the group now has 52 brands which is more than any other chain:

• the ‘legacy’ brands include Pullman, Sofitel, Mercure, Novotel and Ibis

• acquisitions in the last decade have added Fairmont, Swissotel, Movenpick, Banyan Tree, Gleneagles, Hoxton, Delano, Mondrian and Raffles amongst others (not all of which are part of the loyalty scheme)

• other brands, often with only a couple of sites, include Faena, Jo+Joe, SLS, Rixos, M Gallery, Peppers, 25 Hours, Mama Shelter, Tribe and Greet

The home page for the programme is here. The full list of Accor brands is here.

What is the geographic spread?

Accor has the largest number of non-US hotels of any chain.

The group is well represented throughout the UK at all price points, including The Savoy which is managed by Fairmont. Gleneagles in Scotland and the Hoxton chain joined the Accor fold in 2021 but are not available for earning or redeeming points.

Regular travellers are most likely to come into contact with them via the Sofitel at Heathrow Terminal 5 and at Gatwick.  There is also a low key but impressive Sofitel in St James in Central London pictured further down. Fairmont Windsor Park is a new and surprisingly impressive luxury hotel on the edge of Windsor Great Park.

The chain is poorly represented in North America. 

Historically Accor was not well represented in the luxury segment. This has improved sharply with acquisitions such as Banyan Tree, Delano, Swissotel, Raffles and Fairmont.

What are the elite levels in Accor Live Limitless?

Accor Live Limitless has four elite levels:

• Silver – requires 10 nights or 2,000 points (€800 of eligible spend). Benefits are ‘priority welcome’, late check-out if available and a welcome drink and a 25% point bonus.

• Gold – requires 30 nights or 7,000 points (€2,800 of eligible spend). Additional benefits include a room upgrade if available, late check-out or early check-in if available and a 50% point bonus.

• Platinum – requires 60 nights or 14,000 points (€5,600 of eligible spend). Additional benefits include executive lounge access if available, Suite Night Awards and a 75% point bonus. At Asia-Pacific hotels you would receive free breakfast.

• Diamond – requires 26,000 points (€10,400 of eligible spend). Additional benefits include complimentary breakfast on weekends (daily in Asia-Pacific), 10 Dining & Spa Rewards per year worth €10 each and the ability to gift Gold Status to a friend. You receive a 75% points bonus.

This HfP article compares the number of nights or spending required to earn top-tier hotel status. It is easier to earn Accor Platinum status, either by nights or by spend, than it is to earn comparable benefits from Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Diamond Elite or Marriott Platinum.

Accor allows you to earn points from two rooms per night – click the link for full details. Importantly, it is the ONLY major chain which allows you to earn credit towards elite status from multiple rooms. Other hotel schemes will give you points towards free nights for multiple rooms, but not points towards status. I currently have Accor Diamond status due to ‘two room’ bookings at Fairmont St Andrews and Fairmont Windsor Park in 2023.

Unlike other major chains, Accor does not give out status to American Express Platinum cardholders or via any other third party route.

You can get nights towards elite status by buying the two ALL PLUS discount cards. However, most people who stay at midscale and high-end brands earn Accor status via spend and not elite nights.

Suite upgrades – at the time of booking – were introduced when Accor Live Limitless replaced Le Club AccorHotels. These are now bookable online which has made them far more valuable. The number you receive each year as an elite member is driven by your spending.

Accor is the only major hotel chain to offer soft landings with elite status. If you do not retain your status you only drop by one level.

Full details of elite benefits can be found here.

Accor does not offer lifetime status.

How do you earn Accor Live Limitless points?

Accor does not have a typical ‘earning and burning’ structure. Spending is totally revenue based with no opportunity for arbitrage.

Non-status members earn 2.5 points for every €1 spent at the hotel at most brands. On the Accor website, this is often described as a 5% rebate.

Lower earning rates apply at Ibis, Ibis Styles, Mama Shelter, Mantra, Peppers, Breakfree, Art Series, Adagio, Jo&Joe and Greet. Some brands do not participate in Accor Live Limitless at all.

Here is the official earning chart (click to enlarge) which includes the elite bonus. In terms of earning status points, what counts is what a ‘Classic’ member receives as you can see from the bottom row.

This is what you earn per €10, oddly, so divide by €10 to get points per €1 spent.

There are a few other partners where you can earn points.  Relevant ones for a UK resident are Europcar, Club Eurostar (you can convert points both in and out) and ClubOpinions market research surveys. There is also an online shopping portal called Accor Collections.

Most importantly:

• Accor Live Limitless has a partnership with the Qatar Airways loyalty scheme, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, which allows you to earn Avios PLUS hotel points on every stay. You will also earn Accor hotel points PLUS Avios when you fly with Qatar Airways and credit your flight to Qatar Airways Privilege Club. You can register for this partnership here.

• Accor Live Limitless has a partnership with the Air France / KLM loyalty scheme Flying Blue. The linked article explains how it works.  You can earn airline miles PLUS hotel points when you stay at an Accor property, and earn Accor hotel points PLUS airline miles when you fly with Air France or KLM. You can register for this partnership here.

You can only register for one of these airline partnerships and you cannot change your selection for 12 months. For the majority of our readers, you would want to register for the Qatar Airways partnership. You can transfer the Avios from Qatar Airways Privilege Club to British Airways Executive Club via this process.

This HfP article looks at the full list of ‘two way’ airline partnerships run by Accor Live Limitless. Accor is the ONLY major hotel chain which lets you convert airline miles into their points.

In general, it is far harder to earn Accor points without staying in their hotels than it is with IHG, Hyatt, Hilton or Marriott.

What are Accor Live Limitless points worth?

We have an article dedicated to working out what Accor Live Limitless points are worth which you can find here.

Unsurprisingly, given the revenue based nature of redemptions, our mid-point valuation is 2 Eurocents. You can only beat this by redeeming for event tickets.

How do you spend Accor Live Limitless points?

For every 2,000 points you collect, you can redeem for €40 of Accor credit. The primary use of this is to redeem in Accor hotels.

At the core brands, you are effectively receiving cashback (in Accor credit) on your pre-tax spend of 5% as base member, rising up to 10% for Diamond members.

If you don’t want to spend your credit in an Accor hotel, there are a small number of other options such as Europcar.  Sports tickets (for example French Open Tennis, or events at the Accor Arena in Paris) are occasionally made available for points. In London, you can redeem points for tickets (VIP and standard) to the BST summer concerts in Hyde Park.

Accor has partnerships with British Airways and another with Iberia which allow you to transfer your Accor points into Avios.  Weirdly, BA and Iberia have different exchange rates.  Swapping your points to Avios with BA gives you a 2 to 1 rate whilst doing so with Iberia gets you a far better 1 to 1 transfer rate.  Of course, what you should do is convert to Iberia and then move your Avios from Iberia Plus to British Airways Executive Club using the ‘Combine My Avios’ function.

Think carefully before you do this, however.  Because you could use your points for an Accor voucher instead, you are effectively paying 2 Eurocents per Avios (2,000 Accor points = €40 or 2,000 Iberia Plus Avios). This is very expensive and you would be better off using the points for a hotel stay if possible.

Does Accor Live Limitless run bonus point offers?

The group does not run the sort of regular, back to back, global promotions that we have come to expect from Marriott, Hilton and IHG.  You cannot book an Accor property and automatically expect to be able to take advantage of an offer.

A typical Accor promotion will involve earning double points by booking numerous 2+ night stays during a fixed period, with stays needing to be booked well in advance to qualify. They are not hugely flexible.

See our ‘Hotel Offers‘ page for any current global offers.

Do Accor Live Limitless points expire?

Your points will expire exactly 12 months from your last activity.

If you do not have a stay planned, you could eat or drink at an Accor hotel, buy something via the Accor Collections online shopping portal (it can take 2-3 months for points to credit) or transfer in some points from Eurostar, Qatar Airways Privilege Club or Flying Blue.

You can learn more about how to stop Accor Live Limitless points expiring in this article.

Can you upgrade Accor hotels using points?

No – except to the extent that you negotiate a better room for cash at check-in (or book a better room in the first place) and then use your Accor credit to pay for it.

The Suite Night Upgrades you receive as a Platinum or Diamond member allow you to lock in a suite at the time of booking. Here is my experience of using them. You generally need to book a Deluxe Room to use the upgrade, which is more expensive than the cheapest standard room.

Are ‘cash and points’ redemptions available?

Yes, to the extent that you can part-pay your room with Accor credit whilst paying cash for the balance.

Can you transfer Accor Live Limitless points to airline miles?

Accor points can be transferred to a number of airlines.

Uniquely among major hotel programmes, Accor has different exchange rates for different airlines. British Airways is 2:1 whilst Iberia is 1:1 so you should ALWAYS move your Accor points to Iberia Plus. You can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them to your British Airways account.

Because you could use your points for an Accor voucher instead, you are effectively paying 2 Eurocents per Avios (2,000 Accor points = €40 or 2,000 Iberia Plus Avios). This is very expensive and you would be better off using the points for a hotel stay if possible.

Can I earn Avios directly without collecting points?

Yes, see ba.com here. You can earn Avios by showing your British Airways Executive Club card at check-in. The amount will depend on which brand you are staying with – it is 1.25 Avios per €1 with the upper end brands.

You will not earn any Accor Live Limitless points. However, you must still be a member of Accor Live Limitless in order to do this.

Frankly, there is no longer any value in doing this. Instead, take Accor Live Limitless points and sign up for the Qatar Airways ‘double dip’ partnership. You will earn your hotel points plus 1 Avios per €1 spent into your Qatar Airways Privilege Club account.

What are the Accor Live Limitless UK credit card partnerships?

Can you get elite status with a UK credit card?  No – but you can buy an ALL PLUS hotel discount card which comes with nights towards elite status. You can also get Gold status for free if you hold 50 Accor shares – this is a one off benefit for a year and not permanent.

Is there an Accor credit card in the UK?  No

Is Accor an American Express Membership Rewards partner?  No. In theory you could transfer to Avios at 1:1, move them to Qatar Airways Privilege Club at 1:1 and then transfer to Accor at 4:1 but this is a massive loss of value.  The same applies to routing American Express points to Club Eurostar or Flying Blue.

Purchasing and transferring Accor points

You cannot purchase Accor points.  This is not surprising, given that in most cases they can only be redeemed for a fixed cash value of 2 Eurocents each.

My opinion

Part Two of this article – click here – gives my personal opinion of Accor Live Limitless.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

You can register here.

As usual with Accor offers, existing bookings made before registration won’t count so you will need to cancel and rebook any upcoming stays to earn the bonus. You should obviously check the cancellation terms and the current selling price before you do this.

Here are the rules:

• you need to register in advance via this page of the Accor site (stays booked before registration do not count)

• you must book between whenever you register and 4th February

• you must stay between 15th January and 14th March

• there is a two night minimum stay requirement

• you can earn the bonus up to two times

The offer is valid at hotels in Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, French Guyana, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Reunion, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

What are double Accor Live Limitless points worth?

Our article on what we think Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

1 point is worth 2 Eurocents off your next booking, although you need to redeem in chunks of 2,000 points.

The standard earn rate at most brands is 2.5 points per €1. Double base points means 5 points per €1. This means 10 Eurocents of free stays for every €1 you spend, pre-tax, which is a decent return. Anyone with elite status will earn even more.

You can also transfer your Accor Live Limitless points to Avios although you lose value compared to using them for a discount on a future stay. Ensure you transfer into Iberia Plus, where the rate to Avios is 1:1, rather than British Airways Executive Club or Qatar Privilege Club, where the rate is 2:1. You can move your Avios from Iberia Plus into your BA account via ‘Combine My Avios’ – instructions here.

You can find out more, and register, here.

PS. As I found recently, if you have an issue with an Accor promotion you need to be able to quote the promo reference number and name. This one is ‘020093 – Winter Break Reward Points 2x offer’. I will try to include this information in future articles on Accor offers.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

I should warn you that it is a surprisingly thin selection this month. All parts of the market (bonus points offers, promotions for buying points and American Express cashback offers) are at historically low levels.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

For clarity, Accor, Marriott, Hyatt and Radisson are not running any global promotions at the moment.

Current offers for buying hotel points

There are no ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment. I think this is the first time this has ever happened in all the time we’ve been running this feature.

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get 3,000 bonus Avios when you spend £300 at selected European Hyatt hotels (only available to British Airways American Express cardholders, expires 15th March)

• Get 7% cashback at Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels (10 hotels – nine in London / Heathrow and one in Manchester, expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square (expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £400 spend at The May Fair Hotel (expires 10th April, part of Radisson Rewards, website here)

Where should you credit your stays for January 2024?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Points Plus’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 1st May.

You will earn 2,000 bonus points on all stays, plus an additional 500 boints if you select a Digital Key in the Hilton app.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is, slightly oddly, running a promotion for one month only.

You will earn double base IHG One Rewards points for every stay during January. There is no minimum stay requirement.

Only cash stays count. Reward and ‘points and cash’ nights do not count – you won’t get double base points on your food and drink spending on a reward night.

You need to register here. Our full article on the deal is here.

You can book your IHG stays here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

What I want to explore is ‘What is the smallest or most optimum small reward, and how can you ‘top-off’ an account?’.  Please join in the discussion with your ideas in the Comments section, and I will add in any additional ideas.

Today I will look at hotel loyalty schemes.  Part 2 – coming in a day or so – will focus on some airline and shopping schemes.  Click on the links to read relevant Head for Points articles on the topic mentioned.

In all cases below except Accor, there is a formal ‘buy points’ option you can use to get to the level you need for a redemption.  This page (click) has links to the ‘buy points’ pages of the major airline and hotel schemes.  However, I try to find more creative ideas that don’t involve spending money.

How to use up Accor Live Limitless points

Our article on what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the Accor Live Limitless expiry rules here
• SPEND – You require 2,000 points before you can redeem Accor points for credit towards a future booking.  2,000 points get you a €40 saving.  Transfers to airline miles require a minimum of 2,000 points but for Avios you need 3,000 points (Iberia, at 1:1) or 4,000 points (BA, at 2:1).
• SPEND – Accor’s ‘Experiences’ rewards have some low cost redemptions although there is nothing available in the UK at the moment
• TOP-UP – You can earn points from the ClubOpinions market research scheme
• TOP-UP – Various airlines allow you to transfer your miles INTO Accor Live Limitless, including Finnair and Qatar Airways
• TOP-UP – You can earn Accor points when flying on Air France KLM as well as transferring Flying Blue frequent flyer miles into Accor
• TOP-UP – You can transfer Club Eurostar points into Accor Live Limitless
• TOP-UP – You can credit a Europcar car rental to Accor
• TOP-UP – You can earn Accor points by crediting Bicester Village shopping
• TOP-UP – You can book a taxi or rideshare via the Accor app and earn points
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no Accor UK credit card

How to use up Hilton Honors points

Our article on what Hilton Honors points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the expiry rules of Hilton Honors points in this article
• SPEND – Remember that ‘Points & Money’ bookings can be booked from as few as 5,000 points, so you can use up a small number of points to save money on your next stay. You get just over 0.2p per point.
• SPEND – Transfers to airline miles are available from 10,000 Hilton points
• SPEND – You can transfer points to another person for free, using the points pooling option
• SPEND – You can donate points to charity
• TOP-UP – Remember you can top-up from American Express Membership Rewards (1:2).  The 20,000 Amex points sign-up bonus offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (30,000 points to 9th January) would get you 40,000 Hilton Honors points.
• TOP-UP – You can top-up from Virgin Flying Club (2:3) transfers
• TOP-UP – You can credit a car rental
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account by turning Marriott Bonvoy points into Hilton by transferring via Virgin Flying Club, although there is a big loss of value on the way.  For example, 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points gets you 25,000 Virgin Points which gets you 37,500 Hilton points.
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account by turning Tesco Clubcard points into Hilton Honors points by transferring via Virgin Flying Club
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no current Hilton Honors UK credit card which is open to new applications

How to use up IHG One Rewards points

Our article on what IHG One Rewards points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the expiry rules for IHG One Rewards points in this article
• SPEND – ‘Cash and Points’ means that you need fewer miles than you think to book an award – you can buy additional points during the booking process
• SPEND – Airline mile redemptions are available from 10,000 points
• SPEND – Plenty of UK High Street retailer gift cards are on offer from £5 per 4,500 points
• SPEND –  The IHG Digital Rewards catalogue has downloadable magazines, newspapers, books, games and movies from 600 points
• SPEND – You can pay $5 per 1,000 to transfer orphan IHG One Rewards points to a third party – this is not a bad deal compared to the cost of buying points outright. Diamond members can transfer IHG points for free in a recent rule change.
• TOP-UP – You can top-up with Virgin Flying Club points (10,000 miles minimum, 1:1 rate)
• TOP-UP – You can top-up with Finnair miles (20,000 minimum, 2:1 rate)
• TOP-UP – You earn points by booking restaurants via the IHG / OpenTable portal
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no current IHG One Rewards UK credit card

How to use up Marriott Bonvoy points

Our article on what Marriott Bonvoy points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the expiry rules for Marriott Bonvoy in this article
• SPEND – Marriott Moments lets you redeem points tickets to cultural and sporting events
• SPEND – You can transfer up to 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for FREE to another person each year – this can now be done online
• SPEND – You can donate 2,500+ points to charity
• SPEND – You can transfer Marriott points to Hilton Honors or IHG One Rewards by routing via Virgin Flying Club, albeit with a loss of value
• SPEND – PointSaver awards and ‘cash and points’ awards mean that you may need fewer than you think for a redemption – although there are very few of these on offer
• SPEND – You can get Marriott to book a cash flight ticket for you via their flight booking service
• SPEND – You can redeem points for a cash credit when staying at a Marriott hotel
• TOP-UP – You can convert Amex Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy at 2:3.  The 20,000 Amex points sign-up bonus offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (30,000 points to 9th January) would get you 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
• TOP-UP – You could get the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card which comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and earns 2 points per £1 spent (you also get 15 elite nights each year towards Bonvoy status)
• TOP-UP – You can credit a Hertz car rental to Marriott
• TOP-UP – United Airlines Silver card holders can transfer their United Airlines MileagePlus miles to Marriott at 1:1. If you are a Bonvoy Titanium member you can get an automatic status match to United’s Silver status.
• TOP-UP – Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members can transfer their miles to Marriott at 2:1

How to use up Radisson Rewards points

Our article on what Radisson Rewards points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the Radisson Rewards expiry rules in this article
• SPEND – Airline transfers are available from just 2,000 points (200 miles)
• SPEND – following the 2022 changes, you can redeem points for a cash discount off your next stay (roughly 0.15p per point)
• SPEND – Radisson Rewards has a number of charity partners on their website who accept donations of points.  The minimum donation is 3,000 points.
• SPEND – You can transfer your Radisson Rewards points for free to another person
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account with American Express Membership Rewards points at 1:3, with no minimum transfer.  The 20,000 Amex points sign-up bonus offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (30,000 points to 9th January) would get you 60,000 Radisson Rewards points.
• TOP-UP – You can credit car rentals from SIXT to Radisson Rewards
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no Radisson Rewards UK credit card

How to use up World of Hyatt points

Our article on what World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

My preferred small Hyatt reward is the 6,000 points per night suite upgrade.  You can also upgrade to Club rooms using points for a small premium.

Hyatt has ‘cash and points’ awards at half of the usual points price so you may have enough for a reward after all.  You can also buy Hyatt points.  Airline transfers are from 5,000 points.

You can use 1,000 points for a $10 dining or spa credit at a Hyatt hotel – you do not need to be a guest to do this.  This is surprisingly good value at the higher levels, eg $1,000 of credit for 65,000 Hyatt points. Another option is to use 6,000 points for a one-day Avis car hire redemption.

You can use points for the new FIND ‘experiences’ redemptions although the UK selection is weak.

Accounts can be topped up by crediting an Avis car rental to Hyatt.

You can merge your Hyatt points with those of your partner but both accounts need to have had a cash stay in the previous 12 months.

Hyatt is not an American Express Membership Rewards partner.

The World of Hyatt expiry rules are summarised here.

In Part 2 of this article, which will appear in a day or so, I will look at how to use small amounts of points in some airline and shopping programmes.

As you can see via the link, the standard earning rate is 3 Accor Live Limitless points per £1 spent. As 1 Accor point = 2 Eurocents off your next hotel stay (albeit redeemed in chunks of 2,000 points) you’re getting roughly 5% back. This is more generous than taking Avios but only makes sense if you are already an active Accor member.

Until 25th February 2024, it’s even better. If you spend £300+ (in your entire shopping trip, not necessarily in one transaction) you will receive double points. This means 6 Accor Live Limitless points per £1, so roughly 10% back.

However …. I should warn you that, on my last visit to Bicester Village two months ago, I asked the Guest Concierge Centre to credit my Accor Live Limitless account and nothing ever appeared. This is despite the concierge typing in my account details as I stood next to her. My Accor account number contains a letter and this has stopped me getting partner points in the past, so I don’t know if this is a widespread issue or not.

You may even be able to double dip with Avios now that Avios earning at Bicester Village is card linked – this article explains more.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

On the prowl for somewhere different for my recent stay in Hong Kong (my review of Cathay Pacific business class is here) I came across the AKI Hotel. This relatively discreet boutique hotel is part of Accor’s MGallery collection brand and features 20 Japanese-style tatami rooms.

Tatami rooms are a difficult concept to explain quickly, so I recommend you take a look at this website article which explains what to expect. ‘Tatami’ is the name of the thick, woven straw mats that were typically found in such rooms.

Having never stayed in one I thought “why not?”. It also gave me the opportunity to experience Accor’s new ALL PLUS Voyageur subscription programme, of which we were offered a trial.

The hotel website is here.

Our article from yesterday on how the ALL PLUS Voyageur subscription card works is here.

The hotel provided one night for free for review purposes. We paid for an additional two nights at the discounted rate for ALL PLUS Voyageur subscription cardholders.

Where is the AKI Hong Kong hotel?

The AKI’s location is excellent. Situated in the Wan Chai district on Hong Kong island, you are a tram-ride away from the buzzing dining and night-life hotspots around Soho. There are also plenty of trendy restaurants in Wan Chai itself as well as Lockhart Road Cooked Food Market, should you want something more local.

The Wan Chai MTR (metro) station is about five minutes away and will whisk you around the island on the Island Line. You can make easy interchanges to many of the other lines at Admiralty or Central just a couple of stop away.

The Exhibition Centre is a walk away whilst Central, a hub for banks, is also very close. It’s a 40 minute taxi to the airport, or you can take the Airport Express train to Central and change there.

The only downside from being on Hong Kong Island, in my opinion, is that you cannot see the famous skyline itself because you are in it. If that is a must-have for you then you will want to stay along the water in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) where you can find a Rosewood and the new Regent (ex InterContinental) hotels.

Inside the AKI Hong Kong hotel

The AKI Hong Kong is a modern building with 25 floors. It is relatively discreet at ground level, with a small car port and a mini lobby with lifts that whisk you up to the main lobby on the third floor.

Check-in is on the third floor reception, where you’ll also find a lobby lounge and co-working space:

and

Reception was always well staffed – at one point I saw five people, which I think was overkill. I was checked in immediately and offered a token for my free welcome drink thanks to my ALL Silver status, one of the benefits of the ALL PLUS Voyageur subscription card.

As you can see, the Japanese influence extends to the whole hotel, and not just the tatami rooms, with light wood walls and clean lines.

Tatami rooms at the AKI Hong Kong hotel

20 of the 173 guest rooms in the hotel are Japanese tatami rooms and occupy corner units on (I assume) most of the floors.

I was given one on the 19th floor. Very conveniently, your keycard automatically knows which floor to go to so you don’t even have to press anything in the lifts.

Rooms feature the same light-wood finish you find throughout the hotel. None of the rooms are particularly big, with entry-level rooms starting at a compact 16sqm and graduating to the 26sqm studio. The tatami rooms fall somewhere in the middle at 20sqm.

On first entry you are greeted by a small corridor with luggage rack and wardrobe on the left:

The room then opens out, with 270-degree views across the city thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

In the centre of the room is the bathroom, with a central island featuring two wash basins and mirrors hanging from the ceiling:

It’s a semi-open plan design with sliding doors on both sides that can turn it into its own little room, although it’ll never be completely shut off with a fourth wall effectively missing.

The shower and toilet are in separate frosted glass cubicles. The toilet is a classic Japanese TOTO toilet:

Toiletries are by Malin+Goetz in big pump bottles.

You’ll also find the mini bar here in a recess opposite the island, with Nespresso coffee machine and a kettle in the drawers below:

Half the room is raised up on padded tatami flooring. This creates a walkway around the back of the bathroom mirrors to the bed. As is traditional, this sits directly on the tatami floor:

You have room controls on both sides of the bed, including for the electric blinds (there are two options – blackout and privacy). There is also a tablet, which replicates some of the functions and also acts as a phone should you need to contact reception or housekeeping. To be perfectly honest, the light controls could have been a bit more intuitive.

Opposite the bed is the TV and a sort of side-table come desk thing:

And that, fundamentally, is it. Clearly, the tatami concept isn’t going to appeal to everyone, although I enjoyed trying something new. I did ask myself whether the layout was the best use of space, as I struggled to put my suitcase anywhere. There is also no real desk, although there is a good co-working space on the third floor.

I came to the conclusion that the tatami walkway along the window behind the bathroom is a waste of space: most of the time, I had both sliding doors fully open and therefore used the bathroom to get to and from my bed. I would have moved the island to the window and opened up the centre of the room and perhaps added a larger built-in luggage rack to boot.

Don’t expect too much when it comes to other amenities at the hotel, although there is a small gym on the 25th floor:

Restaurants and bars at AKI Hong Kong

Dining and drinking options are fairly limited in the hotel, with the TANGRAM restaurant on the second floor and Uncle Ming’s whisky bar on the 25th floor. That makes sense – there are plenty of restaurants and bars in the local area and there is no need to try and compete with them.

Breakfast is served in TANGRAM. There is a small buffet which is complemented by an a la carte menu. The buffet features the basics, including a selection of pastries, breads and other baked goods:

There are a handful of cereals, yoghurts, fruit, smoked salmon and cold cuts:

Hot options are fairly limited, given the a la carte menu, but include boiled eggs, baked beans, potatoes and tomatoes:

Meanwhile, the a la carte menu features items such as eggs benedict, breakfast salad, a healthy yoghurt bowl, signature cold noodles, pancakes, full English breakfast and roasted glazed chicken breast.

I tried the eggs benedict and cold noodles, both of which were delicious:

In the evening I also popped up to Uncle Ming’s, the hotel’s whisky bar on the top floor. There are, apparently, over 80 whiskies on offer and I enjoyed a delicious whisky cocktail. It is a lovely cosy bar with views across Wan Chai.

Conclusion

AKI Hong Kong is a serene hotel in the middle of Wan Chai. The tatami rooms and Japanese design of the public areas are a lovely place to come back to after a busy day exploring Hong Kong’s busy streets, and offer an interesting alternative to your standard hotel room.

Room rates generally start at around £200 per night. You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.

You can see the savings I got by holding an ALL PLUS Voyageur card in our article here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Accor recently revitalised its two subscription cards – the ALL PLUS ibis card and the ALL PLUS Voyageur card.

Targeted at repeat Accor customers and valid across 21 brands, we wanted to take a closer look at ALL PLUS Voyageur to see how HfP readers could gain value from the card.

Tomorrow we will be reviewing a hotel in Hong Kong I booked using the ALL PLUS Voyageur card.

What is the ALL PLUS Voyageur card?

The ALL PLUS Voyageur card is a subscription card that offers various additional benefits to regular Accor customers in exchange for an annual fee of €199.

The card benefits are:

• 20% discount across 11 luxury and premium brands and 15% off at ten midscale and economy brands (discount valid on all public rates, not just Best Flexible Rate)
• discount valid against up to two rooms per stay
• guaranteed room availability up to two days before arrival
• 20 free status nights in Accor Live Limitless

The majority of Accor brands take part, although not all. Here’s a list of brands that are involved with the Voyageur card:

• Luxury: Sofitel, SO/, Sofitel LEGEND
• Premium: Grand Mercure, MGallery, 21C Museum Hotels, Mondrian, Mövenpick, Pullman, The Sebel, Adagio Premium
• Midscale: Handwritten Collection, Adagio Original, Mercure, Novotel, Tribe
• Economy: ibis budget, ibis, ibis Styles, greet, Adagio Access

The 20 free status nights given with the card get you instant Silver status in Accor Live Limitless (key benefits are a welcome drink and the possibility of late check out) and means you only need to do another 10 nights to get Gold status.

How does the card work in practice?

To help us really understand the value of the card, we were given a Voyageur membership by Accor to try out. I needed to book a night at the AKI Hong Kong – MGallery during my visit to Hong Kong last month so I documented the process of using the card during the booking process.

You need to insert your membership card number when searching for hotels on the Accor homepage. Click ‘special rates’ in the search options and pop it in where it says ‘Membership and loyalty programme’.

Here is the price without the Voyageur cardnumber:

…and here it is with it applied:

I was shown four pricing options:

• 20% Saver Rate (ALL PLUS Voyageur) – £369
• 20% Saver Rate (ALL PLUS Voyageur) + breakfast – £403
• ALL Membership Rate – £425
• Flexible Rate + breakfast – £515

You can clearly see the Voyageur card saving. I picked the option with breakfast and completed the rest of the booking as normal.

You can read my review of AKI Hong Kong tomorrow.

Conclusion

If you are the sort of person who does regular Accor stays at participating brands you could get real value from the ALL PLUS Voyageur card.

The card also offers a good way of leapfrogging your way to Gold status in ALL – Accor Live Limitless – which comes with a room upgrade and the possibility of both early check-in and late check-out – with just an extra 10 night stays.

You can find out more and apply for the ALL PLUS Voyageur card on the Accor website here.

Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here to buy.

IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here to buy.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

The current ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment are:

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get £100 cashback on £250 of Hyatt spend, expires 10th December

• Get £100 cashback on £250 (Bonvoy Amex cards) or £300 (other Amex cards) of Marriott spend, expires 31st December

• Get 9,000 Membership Rewards points or £50 cashback on £200 of Hilton spend, expires 22nd December

• Get £70 back of £300 of IHG spend, expires 31st December

• Get £150 cashback on £750 of Four Seasons spend, expires 31st December

• Get £75 cashback on £300 of Melia spend, expires 31st December

• Get 5,000 Avios (on BA Amex cards) on £300 of Celtic Manor Hotels spend, expires 31st December

Note that each offer is restricted to a list of participating hotels.

Where should you credit your stays for December 2023?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Multiply Your Points’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 31st December.

You will earn double base points on all stays, and triple base points in selected key cities.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is offering ‘2K Points For Every 2 Nights’.

You will earn 2,000 bonus IHG One Rewards points for every two nights you stay between 12th October and 31st December.

Only cash stays count. Reward and ‘points and cash’ nights do not count. Your nights do not need to be consecutive.

We value an IHG point at 0.4p so you are getting a bonus worth £4 per night.

You need to register here. Our full article on the deal is here.

You can book your IHG stays here.

Marriott Bonvoy (Sheraton, Moxy, St Regis, Ritz Carlton, Renaissance etc)

From 12th September to 6th December, you can take part in the ‘Go Your Way’ promotion.

You must read more about the offer here. Registration is now closed, unfortunately.

There are two parts to the bonus:

• You will receive 1,500 bonus Bonvoy points for every stay

• You will receive 3,000 additional bonus Bonvoy points for every 3rd brand you stay at during the promotional period

Existing bookings are OK but reward nights do not count.

We value a Marriott Bonvoy point at 0.5p so the standard bonus is worth £7.50 per stay. This clearly benefits those doing cheap one night stays at a Moxy more than those spending a week at a St Regis.

Our full article is here. The home page for bookings is here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

You can also get a 20% bonus when you buy Accor gift cards.

Combine these two offers and you’ve got a good deal.

Earn triple Accor Live Limitless points

Take a look here for details of this offer, as well as the registration link.

Remember that Accor brands include ibis, Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, MGallery, Raffles, Fairmont, Swissotel, Pullman etc.

As usual with Accor offers, it is a bit of a faff:

• you need to register in advance of booking via this page of the Accor site (stays booked before registration do not count)
• you must book your stay by Monday 27th November
• you must book for at least two nights
• you must stay between 12th December 2023 and 28th February 2024
• you will earn triple base points on up to two stays during the promo period

The offer is valid at Accor hotels in Europe and North Africa only.

What are triple Accor points worth?

Our article on what we think Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

1 point is worth 2 Eurocents off your next booking, although you need to redeem in chunks of 2,000 points.

The standard earn rate at most brands is 2.5 points per €1. Triple base points means 7.5 points per €1. This means 15 Eurocents of free stays for every €1 you spend, pre-tax, which is a decent return. Anyone with elite status will earn even more.

You can also transfer your Accor points to Avios although you lose value compared to using them for a discount on a future stay.

You can find out more, and register for triple points, here.

If you want to learn more about Accor Live Limitless, our full review of the scheme is here.

And …. get a 20% bonus when you buy an Accor gift card

Accor is also running a special Black Friday promotion on its UK gift cards.

Via this page of the Accor website, you can purchase gift cards from £50 to £250 and get an extra 20% loaded on top.

The offer runs until Monday.

The gift cards are only valid at participating hotels in Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom and Switzerland. That said, the value will be reduced outside the UK because the hotel is likely to use a poor exchange rate when you redeem.

Note that the gift cards cannot be used on the Accor website, which means that you won’t be able to benefit from any cheaper pre-paid rates. If you tend to book flexible rates, however, it is a genuine saving.

You can use the gift card towards food, drink and other room charges on a pre-paid stay, of course.

You can stack this offer with the triple points deal above.

Let’s assume that, as an Accor Platinum member, I book a £300 ‘pay on departure’ UK stay. I can pay for this with a £250 gift card, giving me an immediate saving of £50.

As a Platinum member I would get 7.5 base points per €1 via ‘triple points’ plus an extra 1.875 on top as a status bonus. This is a total of 9.375 points per €1, or 18.75 Eurocents per €1.

18.75% of (£300 – 20% VAT) £250 which is another £46.88, albeit received in Accor points to use on a future stay. I’ve got a £96.88 discount on my £300 stay by combining the two deals.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Following Eurostar’s merger with Thalys and the launch of the new-look Club Eurostar loyalty programme, ALL – Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar have relaunched their partnership.

To promote this, ALL – Accor Live Limitless members can earn triple Club Eurostar points when they register before 19th November (this Sunday).

The deadlines for booking and travelling are later – you only need to register now.

You can also earn bonus Accor Live Limitless points for hotel stays in key Eurostar cities.

Earn triple Club Eurostar points

For a limited time, Accor Live Limitess members can earn triple Club Eurostar points when they book a train journey with Eurostar.

Normally, you’d earn 1.2 Club Eurostar points for every £1 you spend on tickets. With this offer, ALL members would earn an additional 2.4 Club Eurostar points per £1, so 3.6 Club Eurostar points per £1 in total.

Here’s how to benefit from the offer:

• Register for the offer between 5th November and 19th November 2023 inclusive via this link. You must be an ALL member to qualify, but you can sign-up for free here if you’re not already a member.

• Book your Eurostar journey between 5th November and 5th December 2023

• Travel between 1st January and 29th February 2024

The link to the registration page is here.

You’ll need to be an ALL – Accor Live Limitless member to qualify, so if you are not a member yet, you can enrol in the ALL programme here. It’s free to sign up.

How do you earn Club Eurostar points with Accor Live Limitless?

Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar have a two-way transfer partnership.

You can move Accor Live Limitless points to Club Eurostar, and Club Eurostar points to Accor Live Limitless.

Full details are on the Accor website here.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar?

Accor Live Limitless is a revenue based loyalty scheme, with 1 Accor point worth 2 Eurocents off a hotel room.  There is no redemption chart – the number of points needed for a free night is based on the cash cost of the room you want.

The transfer rates from Accor Live Limitless to and from Club Eurostar are not symmetrical:

• Following the recent Club Eurostar changes (which you can read about here) 500 Club Eurostar points now gets you 1,000 Accor Live Limitless points, worth a flat €20 off a hotel room

• Going the other way, 2,000 Accor points (€40 of hotel credit) gets you 300 Club Eurostar points.

If used for seat upgrades the latter could be interesting. You’d be giving up €80 of hotel stay (4,000 Accor Live Limitless points) for a one way upgrade from Standard to Standard Premier (600 Club Eurostar points).

It’s important to note that point transfers do NOT count towards status in either scheme.

Earn bonus Accor Live Limitless hotel points for stays in core Eurostar cities

In addition to the Eurostar offer, Accor is keen to promote how many of their hotels around Europe are accessible by train.

ALL members can earn an additional 1,500 bonus Accor Live Limitless points (worth €30 of Accor hotel credit) at selected European hotels, all conveniently reachable by train.

To get the full 1,500 bonus points, you’ll need to do two stays. Your first stay in a participating hotel after registration will earn 500 bonus points and the second will earn 1,000 bonus points. The minimum stay requirement is one night.

The offer is available on bookings made before 18th December 2023. Stays need to be completed by 31st December 2023.

Cities with participating hotels include London, Lille, Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Antwerp. The full list of hotels can be found on the offer page here.

Conclusion

The triple points offer from Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar is a good opportunity to pick up some additional Club Eurostar points in January and February for a potential redemption trip later in the year.

It’s straightforward to register for the offer, but you must remember to register by 19th November and book your travel by 5th December. The registration link is here.

Additionally, the Accor Europe By Train offer is a good opportunity to boost your Accor Live Limitless points balance in the lead up to New Year. You can find out more about this offer here.

You can see the full article on the Which? website here.

There is, of course, no surprise over the winner of the UK’s worst hotel chain. It may be 18 months since the last set of awards but nothing ever changes here ….

Yes, yet again Britannia Hotels has won (or lost).

Based, admittedly, on a relatively small sample size, Britannia was rated one star out of five for bathrooms, bedrooms and wi-fi, and two stars for categories such as cleanliness, customer service and value for money. This is a poorer showing than February 2022 when it only scored one star in one category.

(What I don’t quite understand is how Which? finds anyone to vote for Britannia. Surely all of their readership must have been put off by now, given that Britannia has won this title multiple times?!)

Travelodge came second from bottom, which is not surprising. Whilst it is pushing ahead with selected refurbishments – and recent openings look quite smart – much of the estate is in a bad way.

More surprising is who came third from bottom – Accor’s Mercure brand. Mercure was actually 2nd from bottom in February 2022 so this counts as an improvement. This is probably because my view is coloured by the Sheffield property (below, website here) which is arguably the best large hotel in the city centre. Perhaps it should be rebranded before it is dragged down by its siblings?

Who was voted the UK’s best hotel chain?

The UK’s best large hotel chain

The ‘large chain’ winner was Hotel Indigo, part of IHG One Rewards.

This is not hugely surprising. I have often said that a Hotel Indigo is usually the best branded hotel in a regional city, and new openings such as Bath which I reviewed here are impressive.

Second and third spots were taken by Premier Inn Hub (the city centre variant with smaller rooms) and Premier Inn respectively.

I am a big fan of Premier Inn – ‘consistent’ is the best way to describe them – and happy to use them if I’m in a town with no high end options. Premier Inn actually won the overall title in 2022.

Crowne Plaza, which came 4th in February 2022, dropped to 14th! I predicted this in 2022, as the best London hotels were leaving (Kensington, The City) and some dubious additions had been made (eg Sheffield).

From fourth onwards we have Wetherspoon Hotels, Ibis Styles, Sofitel, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton, Holiday Inn Express and Marriott.

(Sofitel should arguably not have been on the ‘large chain’ list given that it only has three UK hotels. One of these is a smart property in St James whilst the other two are at Heathrow and at Gatwick.)

The UK’s best small or medium hotel chain

In the ‘small and medium chains’ category, the winner was Brend. This is a name I didn’t know, but it is a group of resort hotels in Devon and Cornwall, including the Saunton Sands Hotel.

Second was Coaching Inn and third was Inn Collection Group. It’s worth noting that all three of these scored higher than the winner of the ‘best large chain’ title.

Hotel du Vin, website here, dropped to fourth after winning in February 2022.

Warner Leisure – not really aimed at the HfP demographic, but arguably closer to the typical Which? subscriber – came fifth. I was a little surprised to see Q Hotels and De Vere following on, ahead of Malmaison.

You can read the full article on the Which? website here.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here to buy.

IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here to buy.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

The current ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment are:

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get £100 cashback on £400 of spend at 10 selected luxury London hotels, expires 30th November (look for the ‘Amex Stays’ offer)

• Get £100 cashback on £250 of Hyatt spend, expires 10th December

• Get £100 cashback on £250 (Bonvoy Amex cards) or £300 (other Amex cards) of Marriott spend, expires 31st December

• Get 9,000 Membership Rewards points or £50 cashback on £200 of Hilton spend, expires 22nd December

• Get £70 back of £300 of IHG spend, expires 31st December

• Get £150 cashback on £750 of Four Seasons spend, expires 31st December

• Get £75 cashback on £300 of Melia spend, expires 31st December

• Get 5,000 Avios (on BA Amex cards) on £300 of Celtic Manor Hotels spend, expires 31st December

• Get £100 cashback on £500 of Peninsula Hotels spend, expires 24th November (six locations globally, London excluded)

Note that each offer is restricted to a list of participating hotels.

Where should you credit your stays for November 2023?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Multiply Your Points’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 31st December.

You will earn double base points on all stays, and triple base points in selected key cities.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is offering ‘2K Points For Every 2 Nights’.

You will earn 2,000 bonus IHG One Rewards points for every two nights you stay between 12th October and 31st December.

Only cash stays count. Reward and ‘points and cash’ nights do not count. Your nights do not need to be consecutive.

We value an IHG point at 0.4p so you are getting a bonus worth £4 per night.

You need to register here. Our full article on the deal is here.

You can book your IHG stays here.

Marriott Bonvoy (Sheraton, Moxy, St Regis, Ritz Carlton, Renaissance etc)

From 12th September to 6th December, you can take part in the ‘Go Your Way’ promotion.

You must register in advance of your stay via this link. Registration closes early on 22nd November.

There are two parts to the bonus:

• You will receive 1,500 bonus Bonvoy points for every stay

• You will receive 3,000 additional bonus Bonvoy points for every 3rd brand you stay at during the promotional period

Existing bookings are OK but reward nights do not count.

We value a Marriott Bonvoy point at 0.5p so the standard bonus is worth £7.50 per stay. This clearly benefits those doing cheap one night stays at a Moxy more than those spending a week at a St Regis.

Our full article is here. The home page for bookings is here.

World of Hyatt (Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Andaz, Alila, Unbound Collection etc)

World of Hyatt is offering a similar promotion to the IHG one, but with the added benefit that reward nights DO count.

You will receive 3,000 bonus World of Hyatt points for every three nights you stay between 6th October and 30th November. Nights do not need to be consecutive.

You can register here. Registration closes early on 10th November.

Our full article is here. The Hyatt booking page is here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

Our comprehensive review of the Accor Live Limitless scheme is here.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Accor Live Limitless, the loyalty scheme for Ibis, Pullman, Mercure, Sofitel, Novotel, Raffles, Fairmont etc, has launched a bonus points promotion for hotels in key European cities.

The offer is in conjunction with Eurostar and Thalys and so covers their key cities – London, Lille, Paris, Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Cologne, Aachen, Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Dortmund, Liege and Antwerp.

The full list of participating hotels is on the registration page.

Here’s how it works:

• register via this page of the Accor website before booking

• you receive 500 bonus Accor points, worth €10, after your first stay in a participating hotel

• you receive 1,000 bonus Accor points, worth €20, after your second stay in a participating hotel

• there is NO minimum stay requirement (rare for Accor offers)

• stays must be booked by 18th December

• stays must be completed by 31st December

This is a generous deal if you do the occasional cheap one-night Ibis stay in a participating location. It’s clearly less of a draw if you’re spending five nights in a pricey Sofitel, although clearly the points are better than nothing.

You can find out more and register on the Accor site here.

Catch Rhys on the Simple Flying podcast

Finally, Rhys was on the Simply Flying podcast again this week. The main topic was the new €10m Star Alliance lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle which we reviewed here, but the talk drifts off into lots of different areas.

Links to the your favourite podcast provider can be found on the Simple Flying site here. You want episode 193.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

The discount is fixed at 25%. Members of Accor Live Limitless will receive the additional ‘member discount’ of up to 10% if they log in to book.

Importantly, all sale rates are flexible and no pre-payment is required so you have nothing to lose by locking in a booking now.

The small print is:

• book by 16th November
• stay between 17th November and 3rd March for Sofitel and MGallery hotels
• stay between 15th December and 3rd March for all other hotels
• stay a minimum of two nights

If you not a member of the Accor Live Limitless programme, you cannot book until 30th October. Frankly, given the extra 10% discount for members, it makes no sense not to sign up for a free account anyway in order to book now.

You can find out more, and book, on the sale website here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

This series, which we are updating this week, looks at the major hotel loyalty programmes and shows you how to keep valuable points intact.

If you need to refer to this article in the future, there is a link to it on our ‘Top Hotel Offers’ page in the Accor Live Limitless section. This also includes details of current Accor promotions.

Here is the full list of articles in this series:

• When do your Hilton Honors points expire?
• When do your IHG One Rewards points expire?
• When do your Marriott Bonvoy points expire?
• When do your Radisson Rewards points expire?
• When do your World of Hyatt points expire?

About Accor Live Limitless

Accor Live Limitless is the hotel loyalty scheme for the Adagio, Fairmont, Ibis, M Gallery, Mercure, Novotel, Raffles, Sofitel, Swissotel and Pullman brands, amongst others.

Our comprehensive two-part HfP guide to Accor Live Limitless is here.

When do Accor Live Limitless points expire?

According to the Accor Live Limitless T&C here, your points will expire if you do not have any earning ‘activity’ on your account within a 365 day period.

We will look at the definition of ‘activity’ below. What is important to know is that – following a rule change in January 2022 – you do not necessarily need a hotel stay.

Accor came under a lot of criticism during the pandemic for its refusal to fully extend points expiry, even when members could not physically make a hotel stay because all hotels were closed. Better late than never (and it was too late for many members) the rules have now been changed.

Any earning ‘activity’ extends the life of your points for an additional 365 days, based on the day that the activity is credited to your Accor Live Limitless account.

For clarity, redeeming points does not count as ‘activity’. This is different to the policy of many other hotel programmes.

How do you check your last Accor Live Limitless transaction date?

Visit the Accor website here and log in.

Go to ‘My account” under the ‘My account & Rewards’ section and click ‘Learn more about my Reward points’ to see their expiry date.

Toggle to the earned tab to see the date of your last activity.

What counts as earning ‘activity’?

The obvious one, of course, is booking a hotel stay for cash and having it credit to your Accor Live Limitless account.

You can also book a meeting or event via the ALL Meeting Planner scheme – see here. You would one point for every €2 spent.

It is actually more flexible than that.

Accor lets you earn points when you eat or drink in a participating hotel even if you are not a guest.

Full details are on the Accor website here. Popping into your nearest participating property for a drink, snack or meal is all you need to do to keep your points active for another year.

There are also ways to earn points without going near a hotel:

• do an online shop via the Collections e-store portal

• buy something from the Limitless Experiences e-store – you can use part cash and part points, and you will earn points back on the cash element

• earn points via an Accor Live Limitless partner (see below)

Who are Accor Live Limitless partners?

Here are some of the options for earning Accor points via a partner:

• transferring points from the eRewards market research scheme (but this is ‘invite only’ membership)

• by transferring some Finnair Plus frequent flyer miles into Accor at a 7:1 ratio, minimum 3,500

• by transferring some Qatar Airways Avios into Accor at a 4.5 : 1 ratio, minimum 4,500

• by transferring some Flying Blue miles into Accor at a 4 : 1 ratio, minimum 4,000

• by transferring some Club Eurostar points into Accor at a 1 : 2 ratio, minimum 500

• by crediting a Europcar car rental to Accor

• by crediting a Hertz car rental to Accor (USA rentals excluded)

• by buying a Priority Pass airport lounge card

• by joining the free ClubOpinions market research panel (has a sign-up bonus)

• by shopping at Bicester Village (Accor is the most generous travel rewards partner at Bicester)

Accor also has ‘double dip’ arrangements with, in Europe and the Middle East, Flying Blue (Air France / KLM) and Qatar Airways.

If you link one of these airlines (you can’t link both) to your Accor Live Limitless account, you will earn Accor points whenever you take a cash flight with Air France / KLM or Qatar Airways.

I won’t be doing a stay or any of the things above.  What I can do with the points I have before they expire?

Given that you can earn some points, quickly and for free, by joining Club Opinions and completing one market research survey, I’m sure you can keep your points alive without going near an Accor hotel. However ….

In general, you need to earn 2,000 Accor Live Limitless points to get any value from them. This will allow you to redeem for a €40 Accor hotel discount voucher.

Transfers to airline partners generally require a minimum of 4,000 points. Club Eurostar has a 2,000 point minimum. If you want to transfer to Avios, convert to Iberia Plus (where the rate is 1:1) rather than British Airways Executive Club (where the rate is 2:1). Iberia also has a lower minimum transfer level of 3,000 points.

There are two options to convert points to charity but, again, a minimum of 2,000 points is required.

There are some car, leisure and rail redemption options but nothing suitable for a UK resident.

You could get a discount on an item at the Limitless Experiences e-store but it isn’t exactly a huge selection.

The bottom line is that, if you have more than 2,000 points, you should convert them into Accor Live Limitless hotel vouchers or airline miles before they expire if you don’t have time to do some qualifying activity and have it credit in time. For everyone else, you need to grab a coffee or a beer in the bar of your nearest Accor hotel and hope the points credit.

How to be notified of upcoming miles and points expiry dates

If you want to track the expiry dates of all of your miles and points, I recommend signing up to AwardWallet for free. It keeps all of your points balances, including non-travel loyalty schemes, in one place and updates them automatically.

If you pay for the premium version ($30 per year) it also tracks your all expiry dates and emails you when points are about to expire.  On the free plan, you can track the expiry date for three loyalty schemes of your choice.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here to buy.

IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here to buy.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

The current ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment are:

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get £100 cashback on £400 of spend at 10 selected luxury London hotels, expires 30th November (look for the ‘Amex Stays’ offer)

• Get £100 cashback on £250 of Hyatt spend, expires 10th December

• Get £100 cashback on £250 (Bonvoy Amex cards) or £300 (other Amex cards) of Marriott spend, expires 31st December

• Get 9,000 Membership Rewards points or £50 cashback on £200 of Hilton spend, expires 22nd December

• Get 5,000 Avios (on BA Amex cards) on £300 of Celtic Manor Hotels spend, expires 31st December

• Get £100 cashback on £500 of Peninsula Hotels spend, expires 24th November (six locations globally, London excluded)

• Get £200 cashback on £1,000 of Relais & Chateaux spend, expires 20th October

Where should you credit your stays for October 2023?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Accor Live Limitless (Ibis, Novotel, Pullman, Sofitel, Raffles, Mercure etc)

Accor is running a generous autumn promotion, but it comes with lot of caveats, including a cap on what you can earn.

You will earn 6,000 Accor Live Limitless points (worth 6,000 Avios or a variable pile of other airline miles, or €120 of hotel stays) if you complete three x 2 night stays at Accor properties between 10th October and 20th December.

You must book your stays between now and 17th October.  Existing bookings do NOT count. These need to be cancelled and rebooked.  Only bookings made after you have registered (link here) are eligible.

You MUST register for this promotion via the offer website here. 

The bonus is dropped into your Accor account in the form of 6,000 Accor Live Limitless points:

• Your first 2-night stay comes with 500 bonus points
• Your second 2-night stay comes with 2,500 bonus points
• Your third 2-night stay comes with 3,000 bonus points

You can find full details of the offer, and the link to register, on the Accor website here.

Remember that bookings must be made by 17th October even though you do not need to stay until 20th December.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Multiply Your Points’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 31st December.

You will earn double base points on all stays, and triple base points in selected key cities.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is offering ‘2K Points For Every 2 Nights’.

You will earn 2,000 bonus IHG One Rewards points for every two nights you stay between 12th October and 31st December.

Only cash stays count. Reward and ‘points and cash’ nights do not count. Your nights do not need to be consecutive.

We value an IHG point at 0.4p so you are getting a bonus worth £4 per night.

You need to register here. Our full article on the deal is here.

You can book your IHG stays here.

Marriott Bonvoy (Sheraton, Moxy, St Regis, Ritz Carlton, Renaissance etc)

From 12th September to 6th December, you can take part in the ‘Go Your Way’ promotion.

You must register in advance of your stay via this link. Registration closes early on 22nd November.

There are two parts to the bonus:

• You will receive 1,500 bonus Bonvoy points for every stay

• You will receive 3,000 additional bonus Bonvoy points for every 3rd brand you stay at during the promotional period

Existing bookings are OK but reward nights do not count.

We value a Marriott Bonvoy point at 0.5p so the standard bonus is worth £7.50 per stay. This clearly benefits those doing cheap one night stays at a Moxy more than those spending a week at a St Regis.

Our full article is here. The home page for bookings is here.

World of Hyatt (Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Andaz, Alila, Unbound Collection etc)

World of Hyatt is offering a similar promotion to the IHG one, but with the added benefit that reward nights DO count.

You will receive 3,000 bonus World of Hyatt points for every three nights you stay between 6th October and 30th November. Nights do not need to be consecutive.

You can register here. Registration closes early on 10th November.

Our full article is here. The Hyatt booking page is here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

Our comprehensive review of the Accor Live Limitless scheme is here.

Keep up to date with new hotel offers by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

Accor Hotels, which owns Novotel / Ibis / Mercure / M Gallery / Sofitel / Pullman / Raffles / Swissotel / Fairmont etc, has brought back its generous promotion to earn 6,000 bonus Accor points.

You will earn 6,000 Accor Live Limitless points (worth 6,000 Avios or a variable pile of other airline miles, or €120 of hotel stays) if you complete three x two night stays at Accor properties between 10th October and 20th December.

That is clearly a decent deal, although the two night restriction per stay could be tricky. What is also frustrating is that the booking window closes early on 17th October.

If you can make it work around your work or leisure plans, however, you are looking at a good result – especially for stays at cheaper Accor brands.

You must book your stays between now and 17th October and you must register first.

You need to book via the Accor website or a corporate travel agent. Stays booked via hotel wholesalers such as Expedia, Hotels.com, booking.com etc will not count.

Existing bookings do NOT count. These need to be cancelled and rebooked.  Only bookings made after you have registered (link here) are eligible.

How to register

You MUST register for this promotion via the offer website here. 

What is the bonus?

The bonus is dropped into your Accor account in the form of 6,000 Accor Live Limitless points:

• Your first 2-night stay comes with 500 bonus points

• Your second 2-night stay comes with 2,500 bonus points

• Your third 2-night stay comes with 3,000 bonus points

Whilst the Accor website for this promotion focuses on taking points, you can convert your 6,000 bonus points (plus base points) into airline miles. For the main programmes we write about, the conversion rates are:

• Flying Blue 2:1
• British Airways Executive Club Avios: 2:1
• Iberia Avios: 1:1 (so don’t convert to BA!)
• Emirates Skywards: 2:1
• Etihad Guest: 2:1
• Miles & More: 2:1

The secret with converting to Avios is to send them to an Iberia Plus account to get the higher 1:1 conversion rate.  You can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them to British Airways Executive Club. 

You can’t transfer out of Iberia Plus accounts until they are 90 days old, so if you open one specifically for this offer then you might have a slight delay before you can move the Avios across.

Our two-part HfP guide to Accor Live Limitless starts here if you want to learn more.

Should you take Avios or Accor Live Limitless points?

Our main article on what we think Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Whilst 6,000 Avios is certainly attractive, you need to remember that by converting to Avios in the Iberia programme, you are effectively ‘paying’ 2 Eurocents per Avios compared to taking €120 in Accor hotel vouchers.  The hotel vouchers are therefore a better deal unless you have no plans to use them.

In all of the other airline schemes you are paying 4 Eurocents per mile which is very poor.  If you are not primarily an Avios collector I would seriously suggest taking the €120 of vouchers instead.

There is also a third factor.

Accor has recently stepped up its series of UK ‘Experiences’ events. These packages tend to offer great value and you may want to hold onto your points to see what comes along in 2024. I covered my experience of being in Accor’s VIP suite at BST Hyde Park this summer here and Accor has agreed to sponsor BST again next year.

Register now

You can find full details of the offer, and the link to register, on the Accor website here.

Remember that bookings must be made by 17th October and you need to complete your stays between 10th October and 20th December.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Because you can now transfer your Avios from BA Executive Club to Qatar Privilege Club (at 1:1, instantly, for free, in either direction, as many times as you want), a lot of new earning and spending opportunities are available.

We summarised the new airline, hotel and car hire partners you can now collect Avios with in this article.

Today I want to look at the impact on Accor Live Limitess, the Novotel / Sofitel / Ibis / Mercure / Raffles / Pullman / Fairmont etc hotel loyalty programme.

For the first time, you can now convert Avios INTO hotel loyalty points.

Accor Live Limitless is unique amongst hotel programmes in having partnerships with a lot of airlines (but not British Airways or Virgin Atlantic) to convert airlines miles into Accor Live Limitless points. This HfP article looks at which airlines let you convert your miles into Accor points.

Qatar Privilege Club is one of these airline programmes. You can see the details here.

How do you convert Avios into Accor Live Limitless points?

If you haven’t already linked your British Airways Executive Club account to a Qatar Privilege Club account, you need to follow our step by step guide here.

Once your accounts are linked, you move the required number of Avios from British Airways to Qatar Airways and then send them to Accor Live Limitless via this page of the Qatar website.

What is the conversion rate?

The ratio is 4.5 : 1, with a minimum of 4,500 Avios getting you 1,000 Accor Live Limitless points.

There is a transfer cap of 100,000 Avios per year.

Is this a good deal?

Not really.

Accor Live Limitless is a 100% revenue based programme. There is no reward chart. The number of points needed for a free night is the cost of that room divided by 2 Eurocents.

A room costing the equivalent of €204 will be 10,200 Accor Live Limitless points, for example.

As an Accor Live Limitless point is redeemable for 2 Eurocents of free hotel room, it means that:

• 4,500 Avios gets you ….

• 1,000 Accor Live Limitless points which gets you ….

• €20 (£17.30) of free hotel stays

This is VERY weak at under 0.4p per Avios. Remember that you can get 0.66p per Avios by redeeming them for Nectar points and spending them in Sainsbury’s, Argos or on eBay, so this should be your minimum redemption value.

Why might you want to do this?

That said, there are a couple of reasons why this conversion may make sense.

It keeps your Accor Live Limitless points alive

Accor has tough expiry rules. If there is no activity on your account for 12 months, you lose all of your points. If you don’t have any Accor stays lined up, this is an easy way of extending the life of your points without leaving your desk. After all, Accor doesn’t have many other partners to earn with.

You can top up your Accor Live Limitless account

You need at least 2,000 Accor points to cash out for hotel credit, and there are varying thresholds to transfer into other airline currencies. You could use an Avios transfer to top up a small balance to 2,000 Accor points.

The maths isn’t attractive, to be honest, but it depends on the relative value you place on the currencies.

Do NOT under any scenario use Accor as a way of converting Avios into other airline miles. The number are horrible. For example:

• 9,000 Avios would get you ….

• 2,000 Accor Live Limitless points which would get you ….

• 1,000 Flying Blue miles

This is shockingly bad.

You can use Avios for an Accor Experiences package

Accor has been building up its ‘Accor Experiences’ packages over the past year.

These redemptions can be a more valuable use of points than redeeming for a hotel room, which means that you would be getting better value for your Avios.

This article looks at what you got if you redeemed for the ALL suite at the BST Hyde Park concerts this summer.

Full details of the Qatar Airways ‘Avios to Accor’ conversion deal – and the detailed instructions on how to do it – are on the Qatar Airways site here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

When you book for 2+ nights, you will receive a 20% discount.

You do NOT need to pre-pay these sale rates and bookings can be cancelled.

You must book by Friday 22nd September for stays between 29th October and 11th December.

Participating countries are: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

Taking Fairmont Windsor Park as an example, from 10th to 12th November:

• sale rate, room only, cancellable – £814 for two nights
• sale rate with breakfast, cancellable – £851 for two nights
• Advanced Purchase, room only, non-refundable – £863 for two nights
• Advanced Purchase, with breakfast, non-refundable – £911 for two nights

The saving isn’t huge – but it IS a saving – over the cheapest alternative rate, but the real benefit is getting free cancellation included on such a cheap deal.

You can find out more on this special page of the Accor website.

PS. If you have been planning to try Fairmont Windsor Park, image above, you should go now before it is demolished.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Until 20th September, the company is currently offering bonus Accor Live Limitless points if you sign up for either of the cards – but are they worth it?

You can find full details of the two Accor ALL PLUS subscription cards here.

Let’s look at each of the cards in turn.

The ALL PLUS ibis card

This card sells for €99.

Until 20th September, you will receive 1,000 Accor Live Limitless points with your purchase. These can be redeemed for €20 off an Accor booking or 1,000 Avios in Iberia Plus, amongst other things.

The card benefits are:

• 15% discount on stays at ibis hotels (discount valid on all public rates, not just Best Flexible Rate)
• discount valid against up to two rooms per stay
• guaranteed room availability up to two days before arrival
• 10 free status nights in Accor Live Limitless

There are two points I want to flag here:

• whilst you get a 15% discount with this card, you would – without it – get an Accor Live Limitless member discount of up to 10% regardless. This means that the actual additional saving will average 5%-8%.

• your 10 free status nights gets you instant Silver status in Accor Live Limitless (key benefits are a welcome drink and the possibility of late check out) and means that you will hit Gold status if you do another 20 nights (usually requires 30 nights)

When I discussed the card with Accor, they described it as ‘transactional’. This is a fair assessment. If you think you will do enough ibis stays to justify the €99 fee then you will buy it and if not, you won’t.

The card that ALL PLUS ibis replaced (the ibis Business card) gave automatic Gold status in Accor Live Limitless. This meant that there was a carrot for signing up even if you weren’t sure that you’d justify the fee in room discounts. Getting free Silver status via this new card is not such an incentive.

The ALL PLUS Voyageur card

This card sells for €199.

Until 20th September, you will receive 2,000 Accor Live Limitless points with your purchase. These can be redeemed for €40 off an Accor booking or 2,000 Avios in Iberia Plus.

The card benefits are:

• 20% discount across 11 luxury and premium brands and 15% off at ten midscale and economy brands (discount valid on all public rates, not just Best Flexible Rate)
• discount valid against up to two rooms per stay
• guaranteed room availability up to two days before arrival
• 20 free status nights in Accor Live Limitless

Here are the participating brands:

• Luxury: Sofitel, SO/, Sofitel LEGEND
• Premium: Grand Mercure, MGallery, 21C Museum Hotels, Mondrian, Mövenpick, Pullman, The Sebel, Adagio Premium
• Midscale: Handwritten Collection, Adagio Original, Mercure, Novotel, Tribe
• Economy: ibis budget, ibis, ibis Styles, greet, Adagio Access

There are four points I want to flag here:

• not all Accor brands participate – Fairmont and Raffles, probably the two most expensive Accor brands, are missing for a start

• Adagio Premium and Handwritten Collection have been added since we last looked at the benefits of this card, increasing the value

• whilst you get a 15%-20% discount with this card, you would – without it – get an Accor Live Limitless member discount of up to 10% regardless. This means that the actual additional saving will be lower.

• your 20 free status nights gets you instant Silver status in Accor Live Limitless (key benefits are a welcome drink and the possibility of late check out) and means that you will hit Gold status if you do another 10 nights (usually requires 30 nights)

Buy both and the status nights stack

The status nights benefit from these cards stacks. If you buy both (and this makes little sense otherwise, because the €199 Voyageur card has all of the benefits, and more, of the €99 ibis card) you would get a combined total of 30 free status nights.

30 nights is enough for Gold status in Accor Live Limitless which would get you a one level upgrade, subject to availability, and a welcome amenity.

It would also mean that Platinum would only require you to do another 30 nights under your own steam.

Is this worth €298, less the value of the 3,000 Accor points you’d receive? It’s up to you. If it is, I suspect it is better doing it in January so that you’d get 23 months of status – the rest of the current year and all of the following year.

You can see the full list of Accor status benefits on their website here.

There is a snag with this though

There are two ways of earning Accor Live Limitless status – by nights, or by spending.

I assume that few people achieve it via nights because the spend thresholds are so low.

It doesn’t make a lot of difference if you get 10, 20 or 30 free status nights via the two ALL PLUS cards because, unless all of your nights are in ibis hotels or in low cost countries, you are still likely to qualify on spend before you hit the nights target.

Gold, for example, requires 30 nights or €2,800 of spend. Even with 10 free status nights from the ALL PLUS ibis card, you would still qualify on spend rather than nights if your average nightly room rate ex tax was (€2,800 / 20) over €140.

Platinum requires 60 nights or €5,600 of spend. Even with 20 free status nights from the ALL PLUS Voyageur card, you would still qualify on spend rather than nights if your average nightly room rate ex tax was (€5,600 / 40) over €140.

Of course, if you buy both cards, you get instant Gold status via your 30 free status nights and are just 30 nights short of Platinum.

If you travel with friends or family, you also need to factor in that whilst spend from booking two rooms per night counts for status, two rooms only get you one elite night credit. This makes it even more likely that you will earn status based on spend and not nights.

Conclusion

The two new Accor ALL PLUS subscription cards are easy to understand and can clearly save some people money.

You’ll know if you are the sort of person who does enough annual Accor stays at participating brands to get value from this.

If so, you might want to jump in by 20th September whilst the bonus points are available.

My only criticism is that there is nothing here for someone who might be on the margins of switching to Accor. Silver status isn’t worth much. You are being asked to put up quite a bit of cash with no return unless you do 15-20 nights in the following 12 months. I would prefer to see Accor shouldering a bit more of the downside in the first year by way of a bigger bonus or a first year discount.

You can find out more about the ALL PLUS subscription cards, and buy, here.

You can learn more about the status benefits and requirements of Accor Live Limitless on this page of their site. Our two-part HfP guide to Accor Live Limitless starts here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Whilst you are virtually guaranteed to be paying more to sleep within Heathrow Airport, you can’t argue that it is the easiest option.

The ability to walk from your room to the check-in desk in a couple of minutes is fantastic – no-one wants to be messing about with buses at 6am. You can even nip out, check in your luggage and then pop back to the hotel for a leisurely breakfast.

Remember that, unlike many big airports, Heathrow has banned dedicated hotel shuttle buses. The only way to your hotel is by a public bus – which is no longer free – or the expensive Hotel Hoppa shuttle service. Each Hoppa route stops at multiple hotels and can be slower than (and is 4x the price of) the local buses.

Don’t think that the taxi drivers will be keen to help you either. Many queue for hours to get a fare from Heathrow to Central London, although there are rules to allow them to re-enter the queue higher up. Because Heathrow is not in Central London, black cabs have no legal obligation to take you.

You could try an Uber or similar but that won’t be cheap due to Heathrow fees. The one time I got an Uber at 5am from the old Crowne Plaza to Terminal 5, it cost me £20. This was before Heathrow started adding its £5 drop-off fee.

What are the onsite hotels at Heathrow?

We have reviewed most of the onsite hotels at Heathrow. You can see all of our London airport hotels reviews – covering Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and, erm, Southend – here.

Let’s run through the options for staying directly at Heathrow airport.

Because transferring between Heathrow terminals can be more painful than getting a bus from a Bath Road hotel, especially with luggage, I recommend staying at a hotel in the terminal you are using.

Heathrow Terminal 5 hotels

There is only one hotel in Terminal 5 – the Sofitel (website here).

This is a five-star hotel, one of the smartest airport hotels in the world. You will pay for the privilege, of course.

I finally got around to reviewing the Sofitel at Heathrow Terminal 5 this year – see here. It was impressive, although the furnishings are looking a bit dated, and I stayed there again a few weeks later when I found myself on an unexpectedly early Terminal 5 flight.

Heathrow Terminal 4 hotels

The great news is that Heathrow Terminal 4 is hotel central with options for all budgets.

Your options are:

• Hilton London Heathrow – website here, review here (done after the recent refurbishment)

• Premier Inn London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 – website here, review here. This hotel can offer fantastic value for money.

• Crowne Plaza London Heathrow T4 – website here, review here. A very impressive and relatively new four star hotel.

• Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow T4 – website here, review here. This hotel shares the same building as the Crowne Plaza and you can cross-charge. All Holiday Inn Express guests get free breakfast too. If you don’t mind a slightly blander room, the smart money stays here, takes the free breakfast and enjoys the same bar and restaurant as Crowne Plaza guests.

All of these hotels are on the same covered walkway from the terminal, and there is very little in it when it comes to distance.

The YOTEL hotel which used to be in Terminal 4 is closed.

Heathrow Terminal 3 hotels

No hotel offers a quicker walk to your plane than the Aerotel in Terminal 3’s arrivals hall.

We reviewed Aerotel Heathrow here and the website is here.

It is a smart and modern hotel, but most of the bedrooms don’t have windows. You don’t really notice when you’re inside, however, and if you are arriving in darkness it doesn’t make any difference.

Heathrow Terminal 2 / 3

Finally, the newest hotel on this list is the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2/3, reviewed here. The website is here. An image is above.

This hotel is a bit more of a faff to reach, requiring a walk through the short stay car park if you are coming from Terminal 2. Terminal 3 is a little further away. The hotel is decent though, with a rooftop bar.

Note that, if you have Hilton Honors Diamond status, you do not AUTOMATICALLY get free breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn. HGI is the ONLY Hilton brand where a Diamond has to opt in to get a free breakfast. You must change your ‘MyWay’ benefits option 24 hours before checking in.  The default MyWay option is to refuse the free breakfast and award you 750 bonus points – which I’d value at £3 – instead. Hilton Garden Inn hotels do not offer upgrades to elite members of Hilton Honors.

(Heathrow Terminal 1 has been closed for some years, hence the lack of hotel options there.)

Other options for a bus-free Heathrow hotel

If you are determined to avoid the buses but want other options, try these hotels.

The Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport at Hatton Cross, review here, is 3-4 minutes walk from Hatton Cross underground station. This is the station before the airport, and the trains will drop you at the terminals within minutes. This trip is now free. Check the time of the first train if you are departing early. The website is here.

Be aware that the walk to the Hilton Garden Inn isn’t the easiest and not recommended with heavy suitcases. Depending on the route you walk, you will encounter a footbridge (EDIT: comments say this is closed for long term repairs) and a spot with no pavement.

The other hotel at Hatton Cross is the Atrium Hotel Heathrow, reviewed here. This a new but slightly bizarre hotel, seemingly aimed at the Indian wedding market. If you don’t know the area, it is easier to find than the Hilton Garden Inn – you can’t miss its bright blue facade as you exit the tube. This hotel is currently unbookable – I don’t know if it went bust or has been taken over by the Home Office.

Note that Hatton Cross underground station does not have an escalator or lift, although there are not many steps.

Readers have previously recommended the Staycity hotel which is directly opposite Hayes & Harlington station. Hayes & Harlington is an Elizabeth Line stop between Paddington and the airport. This is not currently bookable and appears to have been taken over by the Home Office.

A slightly off-beat option is the Thistle Heathrow Terminal 5 hotel which we reviewed here (website here). This is a very dated but cheap hotel. The reasons we mention it is that the POD driverless monorail from the airport car park to Terminal 5 operates from behind the hotel and you can ride it for £7 per person each way.

Finally, consider the Hilton London Paddington hotel – website here. This may be the best of both worlds – you can sleep in the city centre, inside the railway station – but, timed right, you can leave your room and be at Heathrow Airport within 25 minutes via Heathrow Express or within 35 minutes via the Elizabeth Line.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

Valuing miles and hotel points is a thankless job. We have always published articles on what Avios points are worth, but that Avios article is so complex that it simply proves my point.

In the face of constant reader requests, however, I wrote this series of articles on how we value each of the major hotel points currencies. I am updating the full series this week.

Here are links to the full series:

• What are Hilton Honors points worth?
• What are IHG One Rewards points worth?
• What are Marriott Bonvoy points worth?
• What are Radisson Rewards points worth?
• What are World of Hyatt points worth?

The reason I have changed my mind about publishing valuations after all these years is that I have found a methodology that works for me. It takes a subjective valuation and then explains the boundaries around it. Or, in plain English:

• I will tell you (without justifying it) what I think an Accor Live Limitless point is worth

• I will tell you, on the upside, how far wrong I can be (which is good news)

• I will tell you, on the downside, how far wrong I can be (which is bad news)

• I will tell you what Accor Live Limitless points are worth if you turn them into something else – usually airline miles – which effectively locks in a floor value

Why I think ‘range’ is important when valuing hotel points

When we look at using Avios for business or First Class flights, the ‘cash alternative’ is often a poor comparison. Most HfP readers don’t want to, or simply can’t afford to, pay cash for business or First Class flights. Their choice is Avios or nothing. Even if you can afford to pay, what are you comparing with? A cheap non-refundable sale flight? A pricier flexible ticket? The cost of an indirect flight, not on BA?

Hotels redemptions are different:

• you stay in far more hotels each year compared to the number of premium cabin flights you take, so you can be selective about when you use points

• you can usually afford to pay for a hotel if you choose not to use points

• there are far more options in the hotel market than in the flight market – most people only have a lot of miles in one airline programme, whereas you are likely to hold hotel points in multiple schemes

It is easy to sit on hotel points until you get a good deal

The net result of the three facts above is that it is easy to turn down a hotel redemption when it doesn’t seem like good value. You can pay cash or redeem via another hotel scheme instead.

Here is the crux of what I am trying to say. If you compare two hotel schemes:

• scheme A usually gets you 0.3p per point but if you are lucky you can get 1p

• scheme B usually gets you 0.4p per point but if you are lucky you can get 0.6p

…. scheme A may actually be the best.

Most people who try to ‘value’ hotel points don’t take this into account.

If you redeemed points for every stay you did, regardless of the cash price, scheme B would be the best. No-one does this though. In reality you can pay cash for your stays in scheme A until the day when a bumper redemption arrives and you can get 1p.

Here’s a real example. I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p as our article will show in a few days. If you do 20 Marriott hotel stays and use Bonvoy points for all of them, I think you will average 0.5p, give or take.

However, last week I spent five nights at the JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Venice, reviewed here. We booked two Junior Suites for 594,000 points in total. I got 1.0p per point, and this was a ‘real’ saving – I have stayed in these rooms before at this hotel and would have paid cash if needed.

Last October, I booked three nights at the Al Maha desert resort in Dubai. This got me 1.5p per Bonvoy point vs my 0.5p valuation.

These redemptions justified all of the Marriott stays where I paid cash rather than redeem for 0.5p per point.

What are Accor Live Limitless points worth?

With our methodology out of the way, let’s take a look at what Accor Live Limitless points are worth.

To keep things simple, we do not adjust for the fact that you would earn points back if you paid cash instead. This can have a noticeable impact when generous bonuses are running.

Accor Live Limitless is different to other hotel programmes

Accor Live Limitless is different to other hotel schemes and this article is structured differently to the rest of the series.

For all of the other programmes we cover, our valuation is an educated estimate based on years of redeeming points. For Accor Live Limitless, it is NOT a guess. Your points have a fixed cash value.

This is both good and bad. The real problem it causes is psychological. It is difficult to get excited about Accor Live Limitless because you can never ‘beat the system’.

Redeem in the Ibis Rotherham East or the Raffles Maldives Meradhoo resort and you get the same value per point – 2.0 Eurocents. There is no logical reason to save your points for a high value redemption, and as you can never be sure that Accor won’t devalue it could even be risky. ‘Earn and burn’ is the logical option with Accor.

‘Earn and burn’ is bad for Accor. Members do not build up huge balances – there is no reason to do so – and so the programme sees cash going out more quickly than it otherwise would. Members are not incentivised to spend at Accor because there is no reason to target ‘aspirational’ redemptions.

The HfP average valuation of an Accor Live Limitless point:

2.0 Eurocents (currently 1.72p)

This is not an estimate. It is your guaranteed return when you redeem Accor Live Limitless points for payment towards a hotel room.

The only caveat is that you may want to adjust downwards to offset the fact that you do not earn points on redemption stays. The higher your status in Accor Live Limitless, the more points you would have earned if you had paid cash.

How high can value go on the upside?

2.0 Eurocents

Because your reward is fixed, you can’t do better than 2.0 Eurocents per point. Don’t hoard your points.

If you want to extract maximum value, redeem at a hotel which charges in Euro. You will receive the full 2 Eurocents per point without being hit by a potentially dubious FX calculation by Accor.

If you really want to squeeze every last cent of value out of your points, redeem at an ibis or another brand which earns Accor Live Limitless points at a reduced rate. You don’t earn points back on the element paid in points, and as ibis hotels earn at a lower rate, your loss is lower.

There is one exception to this strategy ….

There is one exception. Accor runs a small events programme via the Accor Experiences website.

Events promoted on this page tend to be offered cheaply compared to what you get. We have written about many of them on HfP, such as the VIP packages offered to the BST Hyde Park summer concerts this year.

Accor runs relatively few UK events via this platform so it isn’t a realistic route for spending large amounts of points. That said, if you are based in London it may be worth sitting on them and keeping an eye out for interesting Accor Experiences events.

How low can value go on the downside?

2.0 Eurocents

There is never a bad day to redeem Accor Live Limitless points. You will receive 2 Eurocents per point everywhere, on every day.

Some people clearly value this level of certainty or Accor would not continue offering it. If you are reading this website, however, I imagine that you are the sort of person who wants to maximise their returns via a higher than usual ‘pence per point’ redemption. Accor Live Limitless is not the programme for you.

If Accor Live Limitless devalues hugely tomorrow, what is my escape route?

This is our floor price. What can you do with your points if Accor Live Limitless devalues massively overnight? It could, with very little IT trouble, change the rate from 2 Eurocents per point to 1.5 Eurocents or worse.

With Accor Live Limitless, the best value is to convert your points to airline miles.

What is confusing about Accor is that there are generally two different rates used for converting to airline miles. Some programmes convert at 2:1 whilst others convert at 1:1.

Even more confusing is that:

• Accor to Iberia Plus Avios is 1:1 but

• Accor to British Airways Executive Club Avios is 2:1

If you are converting Accor Live Limitless points to Avios, send them to an Iberia Plus account and use ‘Combine My Avios’ – explained here – to move them to British Airways Executive Club. You will double the Avios you receive.

Head for Points values airline miles at 1p, for simplicity.

This means that, converting Accor Live Limitless points to Iberia Plus Avios, you are getting 1p (1.18 Eurocents) per Accor point. You are losing 40% of their value compared to redeeming for a hotel room.

Looked at from the other direction, you are ‘paying’ 1.72p per Avios, which is too high.

If your preferred airline partner has a 2:1 conversion rate from Accor, moving Accor points to miles is a terrible deal. You are giving up 4 Eurocents (3.45p) of hotel room for every airline mile you receive.

In summary …. what do we think Accor Live Limitless points are worth?

• on average: 2.0 Eurocents (1.72p) per point – this isn’t an estimate, it is a fact

• on a very good day: 2.0 Eurocents per point unless you get lucky with an Accor Experiences event ticket

• on a bad day: 2.0 Eurocents per point

• if you transfer out in a worse case scenario: 0.5p or 1p per Accor point, depending on the transfer rate to your preferred frequent flyer programme

The bottom line with Accor Live Limitless is that there is no point saving up for a bumper redemption at a luxury resort because revenue-based pricing makes those rewards no better value than your local Novotel.

As soon as your balance reaches 2,000 points, you should pull the trigger and redeem for a €40 discount on your next booking. There is no value in holding on unless you are in London and may redeem for an Accor Experiences event.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Qatar Privilege Club members will earn quadruple Avios when shopping at Bicester Village until 31st August.

You can find full details on the Qatar Airways website here.

The standard British Airways Avios rate at Bicester Village is 5 Avios per £4 spent, whilst the standard Qatar Airways Avios rate is 1 Avios per £1 spent. Getting 4 Avios per £1 is clearly a major improvement.

You do not need to claim your miles in each individual store you visit.  Instead, simply hold on to your receipts until the end of your shopping trip.

Once you’re done shopping for the day, go to the Village Welcome or Tourist Information Centre and present your Privilege Club card (or proof of membership) plus shopping receipts to collect your Avios.

Alternatively, you can use the e-redemption service. You can email a copy of your receipts to Bicester Village and they will ensure that your Avios are credited to your account. You can find out more on their website here.

Once the Avios have arrived in your Qatar Privilege Club account, you can move them across to British Airways following the instructions here.

Don’t forget to check your American Express cards for any Bicester Village cashback offers too – there is usually something available.

What is the best Bicester Village travel partner?

Oddly, and I only just realised this after many years, the most generous Bicester Village travel partner may be hotel programme Accor Live Limitless. See here for details.

As you can see, the standard earning rate is 3 Accor Live Limitless points per £1 spent. As 1 Accor point = 2 Eurocents off your next hotel stay (albeit redeemed in chunks of 2,000 points) you’re getting roughly 5% back.

This is roughly equal to the value you get during this Qatar Airways promotion, but if you’re at Bicester at a time when there are no Avios offers running then I think the Accor option is tempting.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £12,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

Get a 10,000 points bonus plus an extra 500 points for our readers Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

You can get a free 72-hour weekend car rental from Europcar, plus a decent discount on other rentals.

Since Europcar broke up with Nectar, there are few other real options for getting any sort of earning or spending benefit with a travel partner. You can earn a flat 500 Avios per Europcar rental by crediting them to a Qatar Privilege Club account and then transferring them across to a BA account.

Accor and Europcar have a useful partnership

It is surprisingly hard to find decent discount codes for Europcar, mainly because it doesn’t have a lot of airline and hotel partners compared to Hertz and Avis.

Accor Live Limitless offers decent discounts at Europcar, except for US and Canada rentals, which increase if you have status:

• 10% discount for ALL Classic members
• 15% discount for ALL Silver and Gold members
• 20% discount for ALL Platinum and higher members

Note that Classic status is what you get for signing up to the Accor programme. It basically means that everyone can get a 10% Europcar discount if they bother to join Accor Live Limitless.

The discounts above are genuine – I saved £70 on a rental in Scotland last year using my Accor Diamond status.

You also earn Accor points when you rent at the rate of 3 points for every €1 spent.

As 1 Accor point = 2 Eurocents off your next Accor hotel booking, you are getting a return of 6%.

If you are Accor Diamond, you get an extra bonus

If you have Diamond status in Accor Live Limitless, you get Privilege Elite VIP status in the Europcar Privilege scheme.

This is top tier status, usually requiring 40 rentals.

What was impressive is that the status upgrade is processed immediately when you join Privilege. Europcar clearly has a way of accessing your Accor Live Limitless status from your Accor account number.

You can see the full benefits of being Privilege Elite VIP on the Europcar website here.

The benefits of Elite VIP are OK – double upgrade (when available), a free additional driver, €30 coupon after four rentals and free standard Priority Pass airport lounge membership. This is the version of Priority Pass which comes with one free lounge visit but charges you £20 for subsequent visits.

You also receive a voucher for a free 72-hour weekend rental, valid for 12 months.

Europcar dishes these vouchers out at any excuse, to be honest. Everyone gets one after their 3rd rental in any calendar year and everyone gets one when they get promoted to a new status tier. However, getting one for doing no rentals at all is clearly a better deal.

Conclusion

If you are a member of Accor Live Limitless status (and joining is free) it is worth bearing Europcar in mind next time you are renting a car, unless it is in the US or Canada.

Even ‘no status’ members of Accor Live Limitless who have just signed up get 10% off their rentals.

If you have Diamond status in Accor Live Limitless, you should also claim your free Elite VIP status in Europcar Privilege and bank your free weekend rental voucher.

You can learn more about the Europcar / Accor partnership on the Europcar website here and on the Accor Hotels site here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Last Friday Accor kindly invited me to their BST suite to see Billy Joel in concert.

As Accor has confirmed that it will be sponsoring BST in 2024 – so these redemptions will be back – and because the suite is genuinely a ‘money can’t buy’ redemption, I thought I’d show you what you get.

Accor Live Limitless is the loyalty scheme for ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Pullman, Raffles, Fairmont, Swissotel and other leading hotel brands. Our review of Accor Live Limitless is here.

Accor lets you redeem Accor Live Limitless points for various BST Hyde Park packages, each offering access to a different viewing area. Because I only experienced the ALL suite – the top end redemption – I can’t comment on how the other options work. I know (because they sent photos!) that the readers who won our BST ‘Diamond View’ tickets for Take That had a great time.

If you have been to a concert at the O2 in the Marriott Bonvoy suite, and you can imagine that suite transplanted to the side of the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, then you have a rough idea of what you get with the Accor suite at BST!

What these pictures don’t fully convey is the scale of the event. There were 65,000 people at the Billy Joel concert on Friday night. 64,900 of those people were standing in one huge open air crowd, some of whom looked to be around half a mile from the stage.

Around 100 people were in the small number of private suites, where they were:

• about 10 feet higher than the main crowd, so nearly level with the stage and with nothing blocking their view
• had a seat, if they wanted it
• were covered, in case of rain
• had access to a free bar and food
• had semi-private entry and exit to the concert, on the opposite side of Hyde Park to the main crowd

For scale, here is a picture I took from the Accor suite looking away from the stage:

It is a weird feeling to be in your spacious suite looking at 65,000 people in the main crowd.

The top photo gives you a good feel for the suite itself. Here is the bar (these are all Accor PR photos):

…. and this is how the seating looks on the balcony, if you choose to sit:

Here is a photo we took at the Billy Joel concert from the suite. It gives a good impression of where you are versus the stage (although you are nearer than the photo implies) and how you sit higher than the other guests:

Clearly – as always happens when we write about the Marriott Bonvoy suite at the O2 – some people will say that it’s better to be in the middle of a crowd of 65,000 people, a long way from the stage, with no free food or drink, with no private exit / entrance to the arena and with no access to seating. I’m happy for you 🙂

However, as the BST concerts often skew towards an older crowd (Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Guns n’ Roses, Take That) who like their creature comforts, the Accor suite offers a unique opportunity. And you won’t get wet if it rains ….

You also need to remember that if you make a full day of it (support acts are on from 2pm, even though the main act only starts at 8pm) the suite makes a good base because you are looking at eight hours on your feet otherwise.

Accor Live Limitless will be offering redemptions for the 2024 BST Hyde Park concerts from next spring. Points pricing has historically varied by concert but examples are here.

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

This didn’t used to be the case.  If you go back 15 years, Hilton Honors had quite a few inbound airline partners including American Airlines.  Over the years the deals have fallen away.  

The trend may be reversing, however, with Accor Live Limitless striking multiple transfer deals with frequent flyer schemes in the last couple of years.

Of course, you can book hotels directly with your miles

Booking hotel rooms with Avios:

Many airlines let you book hotels directly using your loyalty points.  You don’t need to transfer them to a hotel loyalty programme before you can use them for a free night somewhere.

You can book hotel rooms with your Avios points via the British Airways hotel portal which can be accessed here.

It is not the greatest deal.  You receive around 0.57p per Avios point when you spend them on hotels this way.  Because these are third-party bookings, you are unlikely to receive any status benefits from the hotel.  You may not even receive points on your food and drink spend depending on the chain.

More importantly, you’d need to be slightly crazy to redeem your Avios for a hotel at 0.57p per point when you can transfer them to Nectar points and get 0.67p per Avios to spend at Sainsburys, Argos or eBay.

The other downside is that, because the number of Avios required is based on the cash price that night, there is no arbitrage.  On a busy night you will need more points.  This is not how the better hotel loyalty schemes work.

You could also book your hotel via the Nectar Hotels portal and indirectly get 0.67p per Avios when using them for a hotel booking. There is no reason to EVER book a hotel via the Avios hotel portal as long as Nectar Hotels exists.

Booking hotel rooms with Virgin Points:

Virgin Atlantic allows you to redeem your Virgin Points for a selection of hotels offered by Kaligo.com.  I ran through the maths on redeeming Virgin Flying Club points via Kaligo / Ascenda in this article.  

You will get around 0.62p per Virgin Point if you spend them this way (assuming nothing has changed since our 2022 analysis) which is nowhere near as good as a premium cabin flight redemption.

There are also some Branson-owned hotels you can book directly with Virgin Points, including Necker Island.

How to transfers your miles directly into hotel loyalty programmes

As far as I know, these are the transfer options from mainstream European and Middle East frequent flyer schemes which let you earn hotel points by sending over your airline miles:

Virgin Atlantic to Hilton Honors

Full details can be found on the Virgin Atlantic website here.  You will receive 1.5 Hilton Honors points per Virgin Point. 

Based on my 0.33p valuation of a Hilton point, you are getting 0.5p of value per Virgin Point.  This is a weak deal although, if you received the miles from business travel, you may be insensitive to that.

It is certainly a poor deal if you obtained your Virgin Points via credit card spend, Tesco Clubcard or American Express Membership Rewards transfers, because those miles had an opportunity cost.  The only exception would be if you needed to top up your Hilton Honors balance before a redemption.

Virgin Atlantic to IHG One Rewards

Full details can be found on the Virgin Atlantic website here.  The transfer rate is 1 IHG One Rewards point for 1 Virgin Point.   IHG points can be redeemed for Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Hotel Indigo etc hotels.

Based on my 0.4p valuation of an IHG One Rewards point, this deal is also not great.

As IHG One Rewards is not an Amex Membership Rewards partner, routing American Express points to Virgin Points to IHG One Rewards points is a potential compromise – albeit one which does not offer the best value for your American Express points.

The following options with non-UK airlines are listed in alphabetical order:

Aegean Miles+Bonus to Accor Live Limitless

This is a very niche one, but I am including it for completeness.

Accor Live Limitless is the Novotel / Sofitel / Ibis / Mercure / Fairmont etc loyalty programme.

You can transfer 2,000 Aegean Miles+Bonus miles into 500 Accor Live Limitless points. You can find out more on the Accor website here.

Finnair Plus to IHG One Rewards

Yes, surprisingly Finnair lets you convert your Finnair Plus points to IHG One Rewards.  Details are here.

As Finnair is a partner with American Express Membership Rewards, this could be another way of indirectly turning Amex points into IHG nights.

Unfortunately, the transfer rate is even worse than the Virgin Atlantic deal.   You need 2 Finnair Plus points for every 1 IHG One Rewards point.

If you happen to have 20,000+ Finnair points sitting unused then this is of course a ‘better than nothing’ way of using them but it is hard to recommend otherwise. 

Finnair Plus to Accor Live Limitless

The details of the Finnair / Accor deal are here.  As with the IHG offer, it offers a complex way of turning Amex points into something new by routing them via Finnair Plus.

It is hard to recommend it unless you have a very small Finnair balance to use up.  It requires 7,000 Finnair Plus points to receive 1,000 Accor Live Limitless points.  The Accor scheme is ‘fixed value’.  2,000 Accor points get you a €40 hotel voucher.  That means you are getting €20 of hotel stay for 7,000 Finnair points which is roughly 0.25p per Finnair Plus point.

Finnair Plus to Nordic Choice Hotels

This is a VERY niche one, but the option is there if you want it.  Details are here.  23,000 Finnair Plus points will get you 7,500 Nordic Choice Club points.

I have no idea if this is a  good deal or not, but might be worth investigating as Nordic hotel prices can be eye-watering at times.  Remember that you could go from American Express Membership Rewards to Finnair Plus to Nordic Choice Club.

Flying Blue to Accor Live Limitless

This is part of a genuinely ambitious partnership between Accor and Flying Blue.  Once registered:

• When you stay at Accor hotels, you will earn 1 Flying Blue airline mile per €1 – on top of the Accor points you would usually earn

• When you fly with Air France or KLM, you will earn 1 Accor hotel point per €2 – on top of the Flying Blue miles you would usually earn

You can only be better off by registering for this offer.  As far as I can tell, there is no downside. Even if you have no interest in Flying Blue miles, you can convert them to Accor to earn even more Accor Live Limitless points.

You can also transfer lump sums of Flying Blue miles to Accor.  Unsurprisingly, the rate is not great:

• 4,000 Flying Blue miles = 1,000 Accor points

This means that you are swapping 4,000 Flying Blue miles for a €20 Accor hotel discount.  This is just 0.5 Eurocents per mile, which is poor.  Of course, if you have Flying Blue miles you can’t use it is better than nothing.

Our full article on the Accor and Flying Blue partnership is here.

Qatar Privilege Club to Accor Live Limitless

Qatar Privilege Club – which now uses Avios as its loyalty currency – also has a two way partnership with Accor Live Limitless.  Once registered:

• When you stay at Accor hotels, you will earn 1 Avios per €1 – on top of the Accor points you would usually earn

• When you fly with Qatar Airways, you will earn 1 Accor hotel point per $2 – on top of the Avios you would usually earn

You can only be better off by registering for this offer.  There is no downside. Even if you have no interest in earning Avios from Accor hotel stays (although as a HfP reader you probably do!), you can convert them to back to Accor to earn even more Accor Live Limitless points.

You can also transfer lump sums of Avios (via Qatar Privilege Club) to Accor.  Unsurprisingly, the rate is not great:

• 4,500 Avios = 1,000 Accor points

If you have no interest in Accor points, you might as well take them if you are buying Qatar Airways tickets for cash. You can always convert them back to Avios.

This is not a good way of using Avios to get free hotel stays. You are swapping 4,500 Avios for a €20 Accor hotel discount, which is just 0.38p per Avios.

As I noted above, you can get 0.67p per Avios by transferring them to Nectar and booking hotels via the Nectar portal. There is no logic in redeeming them for Accor hotels via this route and getting under 0.4p.

Our full article on the Accor and Qatar Privilege Club partnership is here.

Our article on how to link your British Airways Executive Club Avios account and your Qatar Privilege Club Avios account to move points back and forth is here.

Club Eurostar to Accor Live Limitless

Whilst this article is focused on airline schemes, it would be remiss not to remind you that Club Eurostar points can also be transferred to Accor Live Limitless – details here.

It’s also worth mentioning ….

I should also briefly mention the partnership between United Airlines and Marriott Bonvoy, even though this article is in theory restricted to EMEA schemes.  If you have Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite status, which is not many people admittedly, you can move up to 100,000 United MileagePlus miles per year into Marriott Bonvoy.  You can learn more about the Marriott and United RewardsPlus partnership in this article.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer has recently launched a partnership with Marriott Bonvoy. The transfer rate of 2:1 from KrisFlyer to Bonvoy is not attractive unless you have expiring Singapore Airlines miles.

For completeness I should note that, on top of the partnerships above, Accor Live Limitless also accepts transfer IN from the following airlines:

• Azul
• Hainan Airlines
• ITA Airways
• Japan Airlines
• LATAM
• Oman Air
• Qantas
• Royal Air Maroc

You can find out more on the Accor website here.

Conclusion

There are a few ways of moving airline miles into hotel points.  The value is generally poor, however, and it is only recommended if you are topping up a hotel account or emptying out an airline one.

The ‘least bad’ option for booking hotels with airline miles is moving Avios to Nectar and then spending the Nectar points at Nectar Hotels. You will get 0.67p per Avios point this way.

Hotel offers update – January 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering an 80% to 100% bonus when you buy points by 12th March 2024. Click here.

• IHG One Rewards is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 2nd February 2024. Click here.

Arora Group, owner of Fairmont Windsor Park, acquired the hotel in December 2021. It will now undergo a full programme of refurbishment before reopening under the Fairmont brand. Fairmont is part of Accor Live Limitless.

Dating back to 1601, the resort sits on a 1,100 acre estate. It currently has 258 bedrooms, four restaurants, a spa and a golf course and was previously part of Elite Hotels.

It follows the recent announcement that The Mere hotel in Cheshire will join Fairmont after its own refurbishment.

Mark Willis, CEO of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement:

“There are few hotels in the world with the incredible heritage and grand, elegant estate of Luton Hoo Hotel, Golf & Spa. This is a perfect addition to a collection of hotels that already includes such icons as The Plaza in New York, The Savoy in London, Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai. We will be honored to welcome the Luton Hoo Hotel to the Fairmont family, and are excited to see the property’s transformation unfold over the coming months and years.”

Accor Live Limitless update – January 2024:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless?  Read our review of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.