Accor makes it even harder to earn Platinum status – but is offering £30 off via Amex

On 15th April, Le Club AccorHotels (the loyalty scheme for Mercure, Novotel, M Gallery, Sofitel, Ibis etc) is removing free Platinum membership from the perks available to American Express Platinum cardholders.  You can read more about that here.

Three years ago, ANYONE could get Accor Platinum status via a variety of free offers.  These were stopped.  After that, the American Express Platinum route was the best way.  Now that is going.

Anyone doing a modest number of Accor stays, however, would not have been too worried.  Accor runs a lot of generous promotions offering bonus points and those bonus points count towards status.  Status bonuses also counted, so once you had status it was easier to keep it.  This meant that hitting the 25,000 target for Platinum was not too tricky.

No longer.

From January 2017, Accor is changing the way you earn status in its programme. 

Full details are on the Accor website here.

There are a lot of moving parts here, but the headline changes are:

Status bonuses no longer count towards status

Point bonuses no longer count towards status

Points earned via the Places Facebook app or from partners (admittedly, there are not many of those) no longer count towards status

The number of points required to achieve or retain status is being reduced – but probably not by enough to make up for the three factors above

From next year, you will need to earn 14,000 status points (currently 25,000) to retain or earn Platinum status.   You will earn 25 status points for every €10 spent.

This means that Platinum will require (14,000 / 2.5) €5,600 of pre-tax spending or 60 nights.  This is not completely bonkers (Marriott requires 75 nights for top tier status) but will not be easy given that the majority of Accor hotels are midrange and priced accordingly.

The programme is also moving to a calendar year basis.  At present, you earn status based on a rolling 12-month period.  This new structure will be easier to understand even though some people will lose out.

You can read more about the changes on the Accor website here.

A little upside …. an American Express £30 offer

Here is some good news.

Some American Express cardholders will find an Accor offer sitting in the ‘Offers’ tab of their online statements.  Not me, ironically, but my wife does have it on her Amex Gold.

You will receive £30 cashback when you spend £250 or equivalent at a Sofitel, Pullman or M Gallery property before 30th April.  The Sofitel St James is pictured above.

This offer will work on top of any other Accor promotion.  Only some Sofitel, Pullman and M Gallery hotels are taking part – there is a list in the T&Cs on the Amex site.

Stays can be prepaid or ‘pay on departure’.  For non-UK stays you need to make sure that the converted sum is over £250.

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Accor Live Limitless update – April 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.