Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Is the super generous Accor points to Avios conversion rate going away?

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Accor – the Sofitel / Novotel / Mercure / Ibis hotel group – runs their loyalty scheme slightly differently to most.

Instead of collecting points to redeem for free nights, you can only redeem your points for money off vouchers.  This took a lot of fun out of the scheme, since there was no possible arbitrage (ie no fun in finding very expensive hotels offered at very low points levels).

For Avios collectors, due to a unique arbitrage, the money-off vouchers have historically been a poor way of using your points compared to converting to Avios!  You had to convert to Iberia to exploit this, though.

For historical reasons, Iberia has always had a more generous deal with Accor than British Airways for converting points to airline miles.  It didn’t matter when each scheme was separate, but since Avios was launched as the common currency, the arbitrage was just weird!  The exchange rate was:

  • 2,000 points = 2,000 British Airways Avios, but …
  • 2,000 points = 5,000 Iberia Plus Avios

You therefore got 250% more Avios by converting to Iberia and then using ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them to BAEC!

On this basis, 2,000 points would get you 5,000 Avios or an €40 discount.  This means that you are ‘buying’ Avios for around 0.6p each, which is a great deal!  Frankly, forget the vouchers!

However, this deal may be going away.  The ability to transfer points to Iberia via Accor is ‘temporarily unavailable’.  Members have been told that it is returning soon ‘following the implementation of a new deal between Iberia and Accor’.

However, there is a very real possibility that these extremely generous rates will no longer exist when the conversion does return.  And it is too late to convert now if you haven’t already.  Let’s see.

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Accor Live Limitless update – March 2025:

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.

Category

Accor Live Limitless, Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (19)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alan says:
    18 Jan18 January 07:56

    And annoyingly you had to hit 5k before being allowed to transfer points anywhere, so despite knowing about this deal I’ve still been stuck with Accor points.

    • gagravarr says:
      18 Jan18 January 09:35

      Auto-convert doesn’t have the same limit – for most (but apparently not all) people an auto-convert Iberia transfer will trigger on a single point. Too late for you now though…

      • Alan says:
        18 Jan18 January 14:33

        My understanding is that for auto-convert you still need to hit the 5k target before it starts auto converting. I’ve had it set the whole time (for IB naturally!), but despite 2.5k posting none of it has converted.

        • gagravarr says:
          18 Jan18 January 16:10

          I think you’re in the “unlucky” bucket then. For myself, and most other people who have commented on it here or on flytalk, you set up auto-convert and as soon as you earn points they transfer over, even if it’s just a few tens of points. I set it up when I had a zero balance, and it’s always just gone, no waiting / building up.

          • Alan says:
            18 Jan18 January 16:13

            Damn! I’d definitely read some others that hadn’t auto converted too, but annoying to know it has worked for many! Out of interest did this apply to promotional points too? (that’s what all of mine have been!)

          • gagravarr says:
            18 Jan18 January 17:05

            Yup, stays, facebook games and facebook places (in the rare event that that works) all went across just the same

          • Alan says:
            18 Jan18 January 18:35

            @gagravarr – hmm, I’ve had no valid stays yet (all mine were ineligible rates) so I’ve only had promo points – perhaps that’s why?

        • John says:
          18 Jan18 January 18:03

          I meant, I just tried it today and it apparently worked on one but not the other; but definitely worked in November

        • Alan says:
          18 Jan18 January 18:34

          Tried the link and it says “The given promotion code is not usable anymore”

        • Alan says:
          18 Jan18 January 18:41

          PS just checked my email from when I activated auto-convert – they said:

          “Dear Alan,

          You have asked for your Le Club Accorhotels points to be automatically transferred to your Iberia airline Frequent Flyer program account. Each time that your Le Club Accorhotels points balance reaches 3,000, your Le Club Accorhotels points will be automatically transferred to your Frequent Flyer account.

          It’s an ideal way to get a premium ticket even more quickly and jet off to your destination of choice!

          If you would like to keep your points and stop converting your Le Club Accorhotels points automatically, simply connect to your client space on http://www.accorhotels.com.

          Please don’t hesitate to contact our customer service team or to consult the FAQ section on the accorhotels.com website for more information.

          See you soon,

          Your Le Club Accorhotels team ”

          So sounds like there were some promo links that allowed immediate transfers, but the default was only at a 3k level.

  • daniel says:
    18 Jan18 January 08:48

    Can you transfer membership awards to accor points?
    If yes how do I do that?
    And would it then be worth it to transfer from membership rewards to accor and then on to avios?

  • Gus says:
    18 Jan18 January 09:38

    So glad I transferred 45,000 points from Accor to IB in November 🙂

  • gagravarr says:
    18 Jan18 January 09:38

    Accor have also announced that fairly soon (it’s being rolled out to different hotels over time) you’ll be able to use your Le Club points to book discounted advanced-purchase rooms online, fixing the previous large disadvantage that you could only use the vouchers on fully-flexible rates. The LeClub flyertalk forum has the info, but not sure it makes up for the Iberia change

    • Raffles says:
      18 Jan18 January 09:46

      Yes, I spotted this – there is a post lined up for a ‘quiet news day’ next week!

  • flyoff says:
    22 Jan22 January 16:30

    I have just successfully transferred 3000 Accor points to 7500 Iberia Avios – the conversion appears to be back. I will be checking my Iberia account carefully that the conversion is honoured.

    • Raffles says:
      22 Jan22 January 16:48

      Excellent news!

    • Alan says:
      22 Jan22 January 19:14

      Great it’s back (and I had to switch autoconvert back on as their temporary removal of Iberia seems to have switched it off), but sadly at 2500 pts I’m still finding my convert button greyed out (whether autoconvert is on or not).

      Anyone know an easy way to get 500 Accor points? Would be nice to hit the 3k mark and turn them into 7.5k Avios!

  • Georgi Belinski says:
    22 Jan22 January 20:09

    Whohooo, just converted 6000 Accor points to 15k avios, can’t wait for them to post!

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