New: up to 24% return with quadruple Accor points at Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure etc

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• Concerto says:

  12 Jun12 June 08:15

  De I need to deactivate the Avios offer if I want to participate in this one, though? Or is it just a question of changing miles/Avios earning back to points? Not an aficionado of Accor, so not sure.

  Concerning the hotels.com offer where you get an extra night’s credit for a new booking, having finally found the TCs I can report that a minimum 2 nights stay is required, for those who received that offer.

  • Rob says:

    12 Jun12 June 08:56

    Just change back.

  • ThinkSquare says:

    12 Jun12 June 08:58

    It appears that you just change your earning preference. As far as I can tell, you didn’t have to register for the Triple Avios.

• Jovanna says:

  12 Jun12 June 09:25

  OT: Can anyone throw some light on this? I received an email over the weekend notifying me that the ESTA would expire next month. I’d applied for it last July and, rather than the 2 year period, it expires July 2017. I didn’t check the period at the time and automatically assumed it would be 2 years. My passport is due to expire in April 2018. I checked the website and it says that an ESTA is valid for 2 years or until the expiration of your passport, whichever is the sooner. I’m at a loss to explain why it would only be granted for a year.

  I’ve a trip to New York in August, so I’ll need to make another application and then another application come April when I receive my new passport.

  • Mark LLL says:

    12 Jun12 June 09:40

    I think you can elect to renew your passport as early as you like, so if you do that now you would be able to apply for a two year ESTA covering both planned trips.

  • Alan Young says:

    12 Jun12 June 09:56

    Just checked my wife’s and that is valid for 2 years (Expires August 18), my application last year was rejected due to visiting Sudan so had to get a £200+ visa. Did you get your ESTA directly from the US Government or through a 3rd party rip off.

  • Lewis Watson says:

    12 Jun12 June 10:20

    You are allowed to have two valid British passports at once.

    • Anna says:

      12 Jun12 June 15:39

      And any number of foreign ones!

  • RussellH says:

    12 Jun12 June 11:03

    An ESTA expires EITHER two years from date of issue OR when your passport expires, whichever is sooner.

    • Jovanna says:

      12 Jun12 June 13:31

      Not mine. ESTA issued July 2016, expires July 2017. Passport expires April 2018.

• ThinkSquare says:

  12 Jun12 June 09:50

  I’ve never had notification of an ESTA expiring. Could it be a phishing email?

  • Jovanna says:

    12 Jun12 June 10:09

    I applied directly. I paid $14. I’ve checked the actual ESTA website, with my reference number, and it confirms the expiry of July 2017. In addition, I printed off the confirmation and on re-checking the document it also states July 2017 as the expiry date.

  • wgbalf says:

    12 Jun12 June 10:55

    I received an email in Jan this year stating my US ESTA was about to expire in Feb.

  • Fenny says:

    12 Jun12 June 13:22

    I get them. Only ever applied via the official site.

    I find the reminders useful, especially if I haven’t been to the US for a while, as I can usually find the email saying when the expiry date is.

• Tony says:

  12 Jun12 June 10:50

  My wife and I have been excellent Accor customers over the years but they’re now beginning to PMO.

  We were caught up in the BA fiasco on 27 May and therefore didn’t manage to take up our one night stay in Bangkok in our favoured Novotel on 28 May. This was their most expensive room, FWIW.

  I was most courteous and emailed ahead to inform them that we wouldn’t make the booking. It was a non-refundable reservation but would at least expect that we were still credited the points. This also provided the hotel to offer out the room and double their money. We also checked in online two days prior.

  I also would have expected the booking to be added as ‘Validated’ to the Accor Places app.

  Am I being unreasonable?

  I will have a moan to their customer services on our return to the UK but don’t expect a positive outcome at all. So, all in all, probably time to look to other chains loyalty programmes. Accor isn’t great, anyway, but come on.

  • Tony says:

    12 Jun12 June 11:03

    Sorry, just to clarify when I say Accor isn’t great, I meant their loyalty programme. We really like Accor hotels but they have PMO in the past when I had a live online chat with their customer service team requesting lost points and they insisted that I had to evidence the hotel bill. FGS, we paid for the hotel and stayed there. How hard would it have been to check their reservation system for confirmation rather than put the onus on me?

    If I don’t get a satisfactory outcome this time then that’s it.

  • Genghis says:

    12 Jun12 June 12:47

    1) You claim on travel insurance and so have non-refundable room costs refunded
    2) You’ve not lost out and you didn’t stay that night so why be awarded the points? I don’t see an issue TBH

• Me says:

  12 Jun12 June 14:53

  1. No linkage with Accor, thus immaterial point.
  2. Tony will have lost out (having to claim via insurance even, hassle factor, excess payable etc)

  I fully agree with Tony’s point, Accor ‘should’ award points when a room is prepaid & non-refundable, especially in this circumstance where the predicament is clearly not of his making. Just like mattress runs, where someone checks in and then promptly walks out & goes home (a process performed by some on this site, whether time is taken to ruffle the bed duvet or not). In essence it’s the same thing, indeed the mattress run analogy is more immoral/dishonest; at least Tony afforded Accor the opportunity to resell their room (or upgrade a differing customer from a lessor room to his now vacated room)

  (I also agree Accor are being awkward by requesting the hoop jumping…although other hotel groups act similarly unfortunately)

  • Rob says:

    12 Jun12 June 15:30

    It won’t happen. If it was allowed, you would find low-cost hotels in cheaper parts of the world suddenly filled with no-show bookings. That sounds great, but actually the hotel needs you to check in because it also relies on guests spending money in bars and restaurants to survive.

    I am guilty of this myself, having booked a £5 hostel in Bangalore 2 years ago because I heard (correctly) that the owners checked you in anyway and so it would count as a Hotels.com Rewards credit. This kept my credits alive for another 12 months. There is a good reason why I didn’t write about on HFP.

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    12 Jun12 June 15:33

    I’m not sure of any hotel chains (or airlines) who award points if the room is not used/flight not taken. If they did then there would be many more options in terms of booking really cheap rooms across the world in order to achieve status benefits.

    I get the BA farce may seem like extenuating circumstances but the same could be said for illness etc. I’d claim the lost costs on your travel insurance and move on…

• Alexey says:

  12 Jun12 June 20:50

  OT – but accor related … I’ve got email recently from aeroflot bonus program which now has accor as parner , saying that “now you can stay one night per year free in ‘their’ hotel ” – I assume that include Novotel in SVO and few others … but can’t find any further details … anyone heard about that option ?

• Leif says:

  13 Jun13 June 11:29

  Just a watch-out: the T&Cs suggest you need to book direct to benefit – it would seem travel agent bookings won’t be eligible.

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