Accor Gold with Amex Platinum?

[kiley]

Just had a very swift and delightful check in at Brussels Novotel, Apparently I have gold status with Accor.
Which I’m assuming came with my amex plat… also got late checkout, a rather large bar of chocolate and two complementary drinks at the bar…. So far so good

[Froggee]

Totally not. Amex ended their relationship with Accor in 2016 so there must be some other mysterious way you have Accor Gold!

[kiley]

Thanks, you’re right.

I’ve since asked at reception about my accor account and they said there are 40000 points on my account, but the email on the account was a BA holidays email!

But they also told where the points came from. they were from a stay I made with work last year in Hanover ( 1 night at an airport hotel!!) Defo not a ba holiday booking…

So a little bit of a puzzle to solve and points to spend or convert to avios when I get home tomorrow.

In other news Accor Gold got me and my partner a complementary breakfast tomorrow on top of the OP benifits…

This trip just keeps on giving.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

kiley wrote:

Thanks, you’re right.

I’ve since asked at reception about my accor account and they said there are 40000 points on my account, but the email on the account was a BA holidays email!

But they also told where the points came from. they were from a stay I made with work last year in Hanover ( 1 night at an airport hotel!!) Defo not a ba holiday booking…

So a little bit of a puzzle to solve and points to spend or convert to avios when I get home tomorrow.

In other news Accor Gold got me and my partner a complementary breakfast tomorrow on top of the OP benifits…

This trip just keeps on giving.

Wow @kiley – if that’s 40,000 Accor points you’re talking about then they have a value of 2 cents each (Euro 40 per 2,000), so they have a face value of Euro 800 (unless you had a zero too many there, in which case your 4,000 points would be worth Euro 80 which is still worth having). Enjoy your trip and let us know when you get to the bottom of how you seem to have gained decent status and so many points with Accor without really doing much! 😉

[kiley]

Case closed!

Albeit a strange one.

I asked the hotel reception team to share some further details of my “gold” status and points.

When they dug a bit deeper they noticed the account was not in my name! And was a fraudulent account added to the booked for the purpose of gaining points and status. the staff member told me its most likely been added at time of bookimg by a third party.

They cancelled the membership immediately, the hotel staff did look pretty pissed off and said this happens now and again and is very annoying.

So I’m thinking easy come, easy go, no worries. also the hanover stay must of been pure coincidence

But I did ask what’s the name on the fraudulent account….they gave me the name and the email!

It was a British Airways email address…I wont share the name on here.

Alls well, that ends well as the staff member offered me a further 2 free drinks from the bar (ontop of my welcome drinks I received as a gold /not gold member) for my troubles.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Thanks for coming back to post this follow-up @kiley. I’m not so sure this is ‘case closed’ though but more “The plot thickens” from my perspective!

You are saying that somehow an Accor loyalty account number not in your name was added to your booking in their system. This account had gold status and hence the benefits you enjoyed on check-in!

What intrigues me is how this number was attached to your booking – did you make it direct or is it one arranged through a third party (e.g. agent / BA Holidays etc.)? The BA email address makes me think it could be the latter… I am also rather surprised that an account number with a different member name could be attached to your booking without their system flagging it.

Anyway, it sounds like they would have got away with it if it hadn’t been for your curiosity, so well done you for being a ‘pesky kid’! I can imagine a lot of people in your situation just thinking it was a computer error in their favour and not mentioning anything for fear of losing the perks (or worse having to pay for them)- this could explain how they’d built up their high points total and status that you just wiped out for them!

[kiley]

Yep, agreed, I couldn’t just let that go last night. The name on the gold status member didn’t show up when I checked in, it was only when another member of staff went “digging” for me he found a different name and promptly voided the account.

Yes, it was made through BA holidays during the Jan sale. When I made the booking the agent did tell me he had arranged a early check in and late checkout which if I had purchased at the hotel without “gold” status it would of been €35 each so 70 euro saved, 4 welcome drinks, a rather large bar of Belgium chocolate and a very high standard of service all round. So I’m not complaining.

This was only ever supposed to be a tier point run to save silver status for another 12 months, but woth the “gold” extrax, along with amex plat dining credit, it’s turned into a little gem of a 36hrs trip.

I’ve though about raising with BA, but I really can’t be bothered as I don’t have any complaints. And would rather not (for previously awarded tier points on reward flight reasons) bring unnecessary attention to mine or my partners BAEC accounts.

[Froggee]

Gosh – it’s pretty flagrant though isn’t it?

I always find it strange when someone in a position of trust angle shoots on something like this. They’ll clear some free nights in a hotel etc as an upside but the downside is somewhere on a scale between losing their job for gross misconduct and being reported to the police and a possible fraud conviction.

My parents brought me up to go big or go home when it came to crime. If I’m not robbing Fort Knox then don’t do it was their mantra.

One day I hope to make them proud.

[kiley]

Flagrant? Nop, I never asked for anything, it was all given to me, albeit from circumstances which we still don’t fully understand.

I made a query about the situation to the hotel and the hotel honoured the gold benifits which had already been given.

I’m trying to assume positive intentions by someone at BA. Maybe they added thier accor number to get the early check in and late checkout after they committed when selling the holiday.

And, if I flagged to BA, how far would it get? Their “back office” ?

Then I wait 3 months, chase it up and get a email from a faceless inbox with a copy paste response.

[alig4th]

I think the “flagrant” comment was aimed at the BA rep, not you.

If this was a person in a customer facing position in BA trying to use customer bookings to line their own Accor Account then it’d imagine it’s at least a disciplinary issue (but why would the person use their work email address for a personal Accor Account?)

If this is a standard BA practice where a central BA “persona” account is used to enhance guest stays as part of the BA Holidays package (and presumably any earned Accor points are dealt with by an internal BA process) then that’s fine by BA… Where it might become murky is whether Accor’s policy lets a guest stay and get status benefits by attaching a non-guest status holders account number…

[Froggee]

@kiley – you behaved entirely honourable in my opinion. The flagrant comment was very much aimed at whoever is squirrelling away Accor points at BA. It seems pretty likely that the 40,000 points on that account will have been earned from spend so likely 15,000 euros or so. The gold status will almost definitely have come from this spend so at some point the rep will have put their Accor number into a booking for zero benefit to the customer for the first stay when the account had no status.

It just seems so unlikely that there is a policy that allows this at BA. It’s also a bit weird as my expectation for third party bookings is you never earn hotel points but this can’t be the case at Accor unless there is a different relationship there.

It’s fascinating but all a bit weird. I also wouldn’t flag to BA holidays as whilst naughty I would not wish to cost someone their job. However the Accor reaction to it of voiding the account does imply they are unamused!

[kiley]

Thanks frogge, sorry for the misunderstanding.

I’ve checked out now, enjoyed one of the best sunday lunches ever curtisy of amex plat dining credit and about to get the train to the airport, where the BA lounge awaits!

X

[moe8555]

Not to be a downer, but Accor Gold is not really a high status, certainly one not worth committing fraud over (not that fraud should ever be committed, of course)! In fact, it is a status that was able to be purchased directly from Accor via signing up for their Ibis Business program until last month.

[Froggee]

Nobody committed fraud to get the status. The status appears to have been a byproduct of someone at BA fraudulently associating an Accor account with other people’s bookings.

And if you read Rob’s write up on the buying Gold thing he highlighted that Accor Golds tend to get treated pretty well as it doesn’t come free in a packet of cornflakes or with a credit card etc.

[BuildBackBetter]

Are you sure there was no identity fraud? How did the hotel check you in if the booking was associated with another account?

[kiley]

BuildBackBetter wrote:

Are you sure there was no identity fraud? How did the hotel check you in if the booking was associated with another account?

Not sure, at check the staff were too busy handing out “gold” beifits and treating me like some sort of celebrity. Plus the actual name wasn’t found until I went back later in the evening and asked for further info regarding the points. I didn’t see his screen, but there seem alot of mouse clicks before he realised what had gone on, so I’m guessing the name wasn’t on the header sheet of the accor system. But unsure.

Anyway I’m back in UK now, super flight back, biz class heathrow express (thanks to BA silver status matched to star aliance gold) and parked up in euston for the night as there are no trains back to Warwickshire this evening.

[Rob]

Could be an innocent error. I had 2 IHG stays credit to my account last year (12 nights in total!) and had another one about 5 years ago.

[trader363]

Not sure if this is similiar, but worth sharing. . . .

I woke up at home one day to an email received at 3am from IHG which said “Thanks for checking in” at an IHG in West London. I called the hotel immediately to let them know that someone must have hacked my IHG account and to stop them. Cut a long story short – The Hotel and IHG CS both told me the name on the booking is not mine and they have probably assigned the wrong IHG number to the booking and the occupant of the room has paid in full on his Amex. Although the occupant’s name is different to mine, they are unwilling to do anything and that I should just keep the free points and count myself lucky.

The points wasn’t the point (no pun intended!). I could see his booking on my IHG account and he can probably see atleast some of my IHG details. It’s likely that it was a CS mistake when adding the occupant’s IHG number to his account (added mine unintentionally) but I found it appalling that IHG wasn’t willing to rectify it. I tried and gave up in the end.

[kiley]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Could be an innocent error. I had 2 IHG stays credit to my account last year (12 nights in total!) and had another one about 5 years ago.

I really can’t se how this is an error, it may be innocent, it may be best intentions but not an error.

[Charles Martel]

kiley wrote:

Just had a very swift and delightful check in at Brussels Novotel, Apparently I have gold status with Accor.
Which I’m assuming came with my amex plat… also got late checkout, a rather large bar of chocolate and two complementary drinks at the bar…. So far so good

The Australia and New Zealand Platinum cards come with Accor Plus but that only includes status to Silver, is your card definitely UK issued?

[BuildBackBetter]

kiley wrote:

Rob Burgess wrote:

Could be an innocent error. I had 2 IHG stays credit to my account last year (12 nights in total!) and had another one about 5 years ago.

I really can’t se how this is an error, it may be innocent, it may be best intentions but not an error.

It’s possible. Say, if the booking was done through Emyr or FHR, does IHG really verify the account number at the time of booking?

[Carlos]

I had a third party booking earn status points just by asking the check in desk