Accor has overhauled and rebranded their rewards program to Accor Live Limitless, or ALL for short. I dug into the program to search for opportunities. Here are a few take-aways:
- ALL Rewards points are more valuable than most competing hotel points. Points are worth a bit over 2 cents each towards hotel stays. Alternatively, points can be transferred 1 to 1 to a few airline programs (or 2 to 1 to many others).
- The ALL program isn’t very rewarding. Yes, points are valuable, but you don’t get very many points for your stays. Base members earn only 2.5 points per Euro (so, less than 2.5 points per dollar). Compare that to 10 points per dollar with Marriott, Hilton, or IHG or 5 points per dollar with Hyatt.
- The new loyalty program has a few nice perks including suite upgrades, early check-in, late check-out, lounge access, and ironing. On the other hand, even at the top tier you won’t get free breakfast on weekdays unless you’re staying in the Asia Pacific region.
- Accor partners with Air France. If you ever spend money with Accor or with Air France, you might as well enroll in their Miles+Points program in order to earn more points & miles.
- ALL Rewards points expire after 365 days. The only way to reset the clock is by staying at an Accor property. Most other programs let you reset the clock by earning points in any way or by spending points. This is the worst feature of the program in my opinion.
Bottom Line: The ALL rewards program doesn’t appear to be rewarding enough to justify staying with Accor properties rather than competitors. However, if you stay at Accor properties anyway, it would be crazy not to sign up in order to earn rewards and possibly perks from status. If you do earn points, though, keep in mind Accor’s draconian expiry policy.
ALL Overview
ALL includes a huge number of hotels, with most (almost 3,000!) in Europe. A very large percentage of ALL hotels are economy or midscale. When we filter to only top luxury hotels, we get a much smaller list (fewer than 400):
Acor lists the following brands in the ALL portfolio: Raffles, Orient-Express, Banyan Tree, Delano, Sofitel Legend, Fairmont, SLS, SO/, Sofitel, The House of Originals, Rixos, onefinestay, Mantis, MGallery, Art Series, Mondrian, Pullman, Swissôtel, Angsana, 25hours, Hyde, Mövenpick, Grand Mercure, Peppers, The Sebel, Mantra, Novotel, Mercure, Aparthotel Adagio, Mama Shelter, Tribe, BreakFree, ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget, JO&JOE, hotelF1, wojo, MamaWorks, Disruptive, Potel & Chabot, Paris Society, D-EDGE, Gekko, VeryChic, ResDiary, John Paul, adoria, Astore.
ALL Rewards Points
The standard way to earn ALL Rewards points is via hotel stays. At most brands, base members (those without elite status) earn 2.5 Rewards points per Euro (25 per 10 Euros). As you can see in the chart below, some brands earn less:
It’s also possible to earn ALL Rewards points from various partners (found here).
ALL Elite Status
Elite status is earned each year by completing a set number of nights at ALL hotels or by earning enough status points. Status points are earned by all members at the same rates that Rewards points are earned for base members:
If you stay in the regular brands that earn 25 status points per 10 Euros, then you can achieve status with nights or spend totals as follows:
- Silver: 10 nights or €800 (2,000 status points)
- Gold: 30 nights or €2,800 (7,000 status points)
- Platinum: 60 nights or €5,600 (14,000 status points)
- Diamond: €10,400 (26,000 status points)
A summary of the top elite benefits are listed below. A full chart of elite status benefits can be found here.
- Beginning with Gold status, perks include:
- Choose either early check in or late check out
- Welcome gift
- Room upgrade to next level (subject to availability)
- Beginning with Platinum status, members get:
- Suite Night Upgrades: You earn 2 Suite Night Upgrades when you achieve Platinum status. Then, for every additional 4,000 Status points earned, you get an additional Suite Night Upgrade (limited to 12 Suite Night Upgrades per year).
- Early check in and late check out
- Free breakfast in the Asia-Pacific region only
- Executive Lounge access
- Ironing service at Pullman hotels (one piece per day)
- With Diamond status, members get:
- Free breakfast on weekends worldwide (and everyday in Asia-Pacific)
- Gift Gold status
ALL Award Charts
The simplest and probably best use for ALL Rewards points is to use the points to settle your bill for a paid stay. ALL uses a very simple formula: 2,000 points = 40 Euros. That’s a per point value of just over 2 US cents per point (as long as the Euro is worth slightly more than the US Dollar). I believe that you can simply book your hotel as if it was an all-cash stay and then redeem points when checking out.
Other options for using points are as follows:
- Book “Dream Stays” (luxury homes) via onefinestay (found here). Points are worth just over 1.4 cents each this way.
- Book Experiences (found here). These may be a valuable use of points, but it’s hard to say since the retail value isn’t listed.
- Pay with points at select restaurants (found here). The value is just over 1 cent per point (1,000 Reward points = €10).
- Convert points to airline miles and other programs. See the sections below for details.
ALL Point Transfers to Airlines
ALL Rewards points can be transferred to a wide variety of airline programs, usually at a 2 to 1 ratio. It’s worth noting that there are four transfer partners that transfer 1 to 1: Finnair, Iberia, Qantas, and Virgin Australia. With SPG a thing of the past, ALL is is the only hotel program I can think of that has the ability to transfer hotel points to some airline miles 1 to 1. I don’t know about Finnair, but I do know that Iberia, Qantas, and Virgin Australia each have sweetspots where their miles are more valuable than the norm. Plus, with Iberia you can freely move points 1 to 1 to British Airways or Aer Lingus for additional opportunities (see: How to transfer Avios between Aer Lingus, BA, and Iberia).
Here’s the complete list of transfer partners:
ALL Point Transfers to Other Programs
In addition to transferring points to airline miles, you can transfer points to Die Bahn, Europcar, and Eurostar. I don’t know much about any of these programs, but on the surface none of the transfer ratios look interesting:
ALL Air France KLM Partnership
Accor and Air France KLM have partnered to offer the following benefits to those who enroll in the Miles+Points program:
- Earn points and Flying Blue miles on eligible stays (1 euro spent at the hotel = 1 Flying Blue Mile)
- Earn points and Flying Blue miles on eligible flights (2 euros spent on a flight = 1 Rewards point)
ALL Managing Points
Point Expiry
Rewards points expire after 365 days. The clock is reset each time you stay at an ALL property and earn at least one status point (in other words, stays booked through an Online Travel Agency won’t help).
Sharing Points
It doesn’t look like it’s possible to move points to other people’s accounts or to create a family account.
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