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Time running out to get Amex Platinum if you want free Accor Platinum status

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If you have been thinking about getting the American Express Platinum charge card, there is a ‘sweet spot’ for the next 10 days or so.

Six weeks ago, American Express added three new hotel status benefits to the Platinum card:

Hilton HHonors – Gold status (gets free breakfast)

Shangri-La Golden Circle – Jade status

MeliaRewards – Gold status

This is on top of the existing three hotel status cards:

Le Club AccorHotels – Platinum (top tier) status

Starwood Preferred Guest – Gold status

Club Carlson (Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn) – Gold status

However …..

According to the Amex website:

Enrolment to receive the American Express benefit of 1-year complimentary Le Club AccorHotels Platinum tier membership will end on 15 April 2016; after which Cardmember requests cannot be accepted, and Cardmembers will not be enrolled or upgraded to Le Club AccorHotels Platinum tier.

Yes, after 15th April you will no longer be eligible for free Accor Platinum status.

If you stay at Ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Sofitel, M Gallery or Pullman hotels on a regular basis, this status is worth having.  I never took great advantage of this, but my wife used it successfully at the Sofitel in Sochi.  Even on my last Novotel stay I received two free drinks, an upgrade and bonus points.

This is the only top-tier hotel status that comes with Platinum.  You are guaranteed lounge access at Sofitel hotels, for a start, which is a good benefit.

If you want to grab Le Club Accor Hotels Platinum status, you would need to apply for Amex Platinum within the next 7-10 days.

You need to be 100% certain that you will receive your card before 15th April because you need the card in your hand before you can register it and claim your Accor status.

My full review of Amex Platinum is here.  The application page is here.

You will receive 30,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up and spending £2,000 within 90 days.  These will convert to 30,000 Avios points or various other things.

If, after a few months, you find that the card does not suit your lifestyle, you can cancel it for a pro-rata refund of the £450 annual fee.  You will retain your hotel status cards until they expire naturally, usually after 12 months.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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 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 card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

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

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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

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

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

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

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up 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

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Category

Accor Live Limitless, American Express Platinum card

Comments (68)

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

  • Leo says:
    21 Mar21 March 16:03

    So it looks like the plat is NOT going to get you Accor status even if you apply within the “sweet spot”?? Pity I had planned to do just this to use for next year’s trip to Vietnam – won’t bother now. Is the Hilton Diamond status good till the end of March? Might switch location to somewhere with a few Hiltons!

    • Genghis says:
      21 Mar21 March 16:07

      It’s Hilton Gold that’s on Amex Plat and that’s a permanent benefit. Happy to offer some advice on Vietnam – we travelled around the country for 3 weeks last year.

      • Leo says:
        21 Mar21 March 19:26

        Cheers yes I’m already a Diamond member – just seeing that the card only says 03/2017 for expiry I was taking that to be the end of the month. I was thinking or Accor because the hotels it has in the country suited my plans.

        • Genghis says:
          21 Mar21 March 21:39

          I didn’t stay there but the Sofitel in Hanoi looks top banana.

    • Rob says:
      21 Mar21 March 18:19

      Don’t believe anything Amex tell you.

      The Accor Platinum application form is still on americanexpress.co.uk/platinum – you can access this site even if you are not already a cardholder. Click Benefits Directory – there is the Accor form.

  • Alex W says:
    21 Mar21 March 21:30

    2 queries.

    1. I applied for a supplementary card a week ago and had no reply either by email or post. However my wife’s name is now showing as a supp card holder in my online account. Can she expect to receive the card soon or do we need to query this with Amex?

    2. I think I read somewhere that the 450 fee is charged in the 2nd month. However I’ve had it in my first months bill. Can I get them to refund it/charge it again? This is annoying as I’ll now need to take money out of savings to pay it.

    Thanks

    • Alan says:
      21 Mar21 March 22:14

      1. I’d give it until Wednesday and if nothing has arrived call to chase them
      2. I expected the fee to be charged in the first month, I don’t recall any of the Amex literature stating it would charged in the 2nd month (although am happy to be corrected) and given you have to agree to the fee to be able to sign up for the card I can’t see any reason why they would be willing to do this, sorry.

  • Joe says:
    21 Mar21 March 23:49

    Ach, I’ve just paid the Gold yearly membership fee. If I were to upgrade to platinum now, will I be charged £450, and get my Gold fee refunded pro-rata? Any insight into this would be excellent.

    Thanks

    • Alan says:
      22 Mar22 March 00:07

      No problem getting pro-rata refund. If you’ve paid the fee I guess that means you’ve just entered year 2 of the card – assuming you hit the spend target OK you’d be worth holding off for the bonus MR to post before upgrading though?

  • Joe says:
    22 Mar22 March 01:06

    Thanks, Alan,

    Yes, year 2 of the card. and bonus MR for hitting £10k spend posted yesterday!

    • Alan says:
      22 Mar22 March 01:07

      Ah good, just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss out on that! 😀

  • JamesW says:
    22 Mar22 March 19:05

    I want to cancel my Gold before the £140 fee kicks in in a week or so and am very tempted to get the Platinum in its place. Whether I do or not, the gold is going.

    I know that I can cancel the gold then wait 6months+ before applyong for the Platinum & would then (most likely) get the 30,000 MR points offer if I spend £2k inside of 60 days.

    Will Amex entertain the idea of upgrading me to Platinum from Gold and giving me the 30,000 points (with a £2k spend) rather than have me cancel the gold completely and walk away ???

  • JamesW says:
    22 Mar22 March 19:45

    Nuts, got flagged I guess as didn’t get an instant acceptance of my upgrade to Platinum. Message telling me I’ll be informed via the post and I’ll know inside of ten days. Gold card 1st year membership fee due in a few days so that might be why ???

    Have a very good salary, very good credit record, never messed Amex about payment wise (or any other way !) so I’ll be very miffed if I’m not accepted and more importantly if I’m not accepted in time to get the Accor Platinum benefit – am taking a trip to Marseilles at the end of April (thanks to BA’s CE sale + 7,500 Avios) and am thinking of booking an Accor hotel if I get the status.
    If not I’ll probably stay at the Intercontinental which looks seriously nice (but pricey).

    Any suggestions as to which is the best Accor hotel there ? Any other recommendation for Marseilles ?

    • Radiata says:
      29 Mar29 March 12:29

      I would ring AMEX immediately rather than wait the ten days.

      This happened to me on applying for PRG. Rather puzzled so called them the next day. Informed that if system does not receive a reply from credit rating agency within specified time (?60 seconds but a guess as cannot remember), application status deferred for a member of staff to review. Card approved immediately when I rang and have since upgraded online to Plat and separately applied for and received BAPP without incident.

      • Alan says:
        29 Mar29 March 20:28

        Agree, flat numbers sometimes causes their system problems too, yet other times it can be fine! If you call them with the application number they can get processing sorted.

  • Waribai says:
    22 Mar22 March 21:43

    On a personal note, AMEX have been rather poor paying avios/MR bonuses this year. My wife referred me for the BA Amex in mid January. Still no bonus referral avios for her despite chasing for 2 months now. I added her as a supp on my gold card with the 3000 MR points offer. Not a sniff of those either yet!

  • JamesW says:
    23 Mar23 March 00:24

    Good Lord !! Just logged in to my Amex account to see if I’d received the 3000 MR points for the supplementary cardholder (on my Gold Card) and its gone !! The gold card !! AND all previous transaction history for it.
    The Platinum is in it’s place so I presume I have been accepted !! Not got an email to that effect.

    However very worryingly all of my accumulated MR points are nowhere to be seen 🙁

    Hopefully just a transitional thing and they’ll be back in the next couple of days.

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