Reply To: Accor vs IHG / Hilton

[Froggee]

As Rob has observed, Accor seem to treat elites well. I bought gold for two years via the old scheme where it was cheap to do so. Since then I have had four Accor stays which went thusly:

Mercure Marseille – upgraded to the top category of room. Free chocolates, free Rugby World Cup commemorative soap (!)
Pullman CDG – grumpily allowed to check in early after initially being told to go away. Free chocolates.
Sofitel Heathrow – single category upgrade and free chocolate.
Sofitel Heathrow – double category upgrade and free chocolate.

Platinum looks lovely but Diamond only seems a marginal improvement to me unless you want to eat lots of free breakfasts at the weekend? If your stays are normally low value then you’d be buying quite a lot of status points to get to Diamond. If you could see yourself using the suite night upgrades somewhere special then it could pay off. Otherwise I imagine Platinum will be plenty.