Combinations of ALL paid programs

[Chrisasaurus]

All (see what I did there?)

I’m trying to see how best to maximise an upcoming tour of Europe by using a number (zero or more) of ALL’s paid programs. Will have a bunch of mainly Novotel stays across Western Europe if that matters.

So far as I can tell IBIS card and Voyageur both credit status nights, but Signatures credits pretend status spend – so is it right that they don’t combine towards Status in any meaningful way? (Though of course do provide their other constituent benefits.)

Open to advice from someone knowledgeable. My status fell off in the early ALL days, was LeClub Plat for many years but work pattern has kept me away from decent Accor properties since

[Rob]

Have a read here (and the linked articles) – https://loyaltylobby.com/2023/11/27/accor-all-signature-subscription-15-off-through-november-30-2023-buy-all-points-at-29-off-earn-elite-points/

Signature is actually better for most people in terms of getting status because you’re earning spend credits, and unless your Accor stays are low value then most people qualify on spend before they qualify on nights.

[anuj]

You can buy shares on trading212 and that will get you ALL gold status, however you would still need the total amount of nights for platinum as they remain at 0.

[DJ]

Would the share purchased from Trading 212 be registered?

[BBbetter]

Don’t get Accor plus. Apparently that doesn’t combine with the other paid programs.

[Peeps]

For anyone who is considering buying ‘All Signature’, I bit the bullet yesterday and took the quarterly subscription option. I used an fx free card to eliminate additional charges for Brazilian Reals so the actual charge for 3 months was £269.69. It proved to be relatively easy to do considering Accor’s glitchy IT – used google translate on browser and the transaction went through in seconds with the upgraded ‘status’ including the first monthly batch of points visible on refresh.
I reasoned that it would be a no brainer for me at this point in time – even without an additional offer on the subscription. It gives me the ability to ‘purchase’ more Accor points at a discounted price and, more importantly, the ability to reach Platinum status without much effort. Up until now, IHG has been my hotel chain of choice but the loss of a UK credit card has made me look in other directions and Accor is proving to be an attractive alternative.

[Peeps]

Also, I forgot to mention that I already have ‘Voyager’ and that has combined with ‘Signature’ with no problems.

[BBbetter]

It’s a good way to retain leisure customers who only make a few trips a year and happy to be loyal in exchange for decent status benefits.

IHG could come up with something similar, with just a few tweaks to the Ambassador program. Make the platinum status more useful and let the voucher be used anywhere any day. God knows when they’ll realise something needs to be done.

[meta]

I bought ALL Signature Absolute Quarterly when they ran 40% discount last year at £160 or so. It was a no-brainer really considering you get that back in points. I also got 5000 points extra after 4 months so that was a bit of a profit. I’m going to ditch Voyageur as it’s no useless given that I’ll get Platinum with Signature at the end of the year and discounted rates are not worth it.

It is nothing new that Signature works with other subscriptions.

[BBbetter]

meta wrote:

I’m going to ditch Voyageur as it’s no useless given that I’ll get Platinum with Signature at the end of the year and discounted rates are not worth it.

Doesnt Voyageur help you reach platinum quicker?

[anuj]

DJ wrote:

Would the share purchased from Trading 212 be registered?

Yes I have achieved it buying a single share on Trading 212.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

BBbetter wrote:

meta wrote:

I’m going to ditch Voyageur as it’s no useless given that I’ll get Platinum with Signature at the end of the year and discounted rates are not worth it.

Doesnt Voyageur help you reach platinum quicker?

With Signature you get to Platinum via spend rather than status nights, as the subscription gives you 12,000 status points and you only need 14,000 (an extra €800 spend) to get Plat.

Don’t see Voyageur helping there as it only gives you status nights, not status points, and the 20 nights it gives don’t come close to Plat (need 60 for that). As @Rob says above, spend is going to get most people to Plat faster than nights.

That being said, Voyageur may still be worth it on top of Signature for the discount, but @meta seems to indicate otherwise…

Now that the old Ibis card ‘trick’ to get Gold status for 2 years at cost of c.£65 is dead in the water, the Signature program looks worthwhile for anyone consistently using Accor hotels to the tune of at least a couple of thousand Euros a year. I’m seriously considering it as my Gold status ends 31/12/24 and retaining it will cost quite a bit more than the Signature sub plus another €800 spend to hit Plat. Plat is the sweet spot in the All system, with suite night awards, lounge access and free weekend breakfast etc.

[Rob]

I’m also tempted by Signature but, as I ‘accidentally’ hit Diamond with a late December stay last year, I am good for Plat until the end of 2025 so its not something I will think about for a year. The maths is very attractive during a sign-up promo though.

[Peeps]

Voyager is still useful for me! For example, I’m getting a 20% discount off an upcoming 4 day stay at Sofitel Istanbul equating to a saving of more than £250 plus I’ll be saving on the pre-flight stay (and parking) at Sofitel Heathrow. One short break is returning more than the card fee ……. horses for courses!

[meta]

BBbetter wrote:

meta wrote:

I’m going to ditch Voyageur as it’s no useless given that I’ll get Platinum with Signature at the end of the year and discounted rates are not worth it.

Doesnt Voyageur help you reach platinum quicker?

With Signature you get 1000 status points each month (and you need 14k per year to get Platinum), but with Voyageur you only get 20 status nights and it requires an additional 40 nights to reach Platinum. You could get another 10 nights with Ibis sub, but still it’s easier to qualify with Signature and you get a lot of points you can spend. 15k points each quarter + 4 monthly bonus of 5k is a very good return.

[meta]

Peeps wrote:

Voyager is still useful for me! For example, I’m getting a 20% discount off an upcoming 4 day stay at Sofitel Istanbul equating to a saving of more than £250 plus I’ll be saving on the pre-flight stay (and parking) at Sofitel Heathrow. One short break is returning more than the card fee ……. horses for courses!

You are only getting extra 10% discount. All members Silver or above get 10% off public rate.

[meta]

To add it’s 15% off for Platinum and above. I am not sure 5% discount every time is worth €199 a year.

[Peeps]

meta wrote:

Peeps wrote:

Voyager is still useful for me! For example, I’m getting a 20% discount off an upcoming 4 day stay at Sofitel Istanbul equating to a saving of more than £250 plus I’ll be saving on the pre-flight stay (and parking) at Sofitel Heathrow. One short break is returning more than the card fee ……. horses for courses!

You are only getting extra 10% discount. All members Silver or above get 10% off public rate.

True – stand corrected!

[Peeps]

meta wrote:

To add it’s 15% off for Platinum and above. I am not sure 5% discount every time is worth €199 a year.

Yes, I can see your point but still useful for me at this point. It has paid for itself but I may reconsider when I achieve platinum.

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

This has been a really handy discussion to distill the options on All status using their paid-for cards.

It has made me realise that Signature is quite an attractive proposition, providing you’re going to be spending a certain minimum with Accor. As they are a purely revenue based program just earning and burning will always make sense and the risk of a devaluation while holding a balance is lower.

The main issue I see is if you don’t sign-up for Signature in January then you have a sub-optimal subscription cycle for achieving Platinum status, as status points reset annually on 31 December.

Even if you weren’t going to spend all the subscription points in one year, you could do alternating years and with the soft-landing policy you’d never drop below Gold status and have discounted points to spend over that two year period.

Right – think I’ve talked myself into it – now to do battle with the Portuguese website 🙂

[BBbetter]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

The main issue I see is if you don’t sign-up for Signature in January then you have a sub-optimal subscription cycle for achieving Platinum status, as status points reset annually on 31 December.

Even if you weren’t going to spend all the subscription points in one year, you could do alternating years and with the soft-landing policy you’d never drop below Gold status and have discounted points to spend over that two year period.

Sorry for being a bit thick, lets say you achieve platinum in Dec 2024, how long do you keep the plat status? Until Dec 2025?

[Guernsey Globetrotter]

Yes, so in that scenario you could stop the Signature sub in 2025 while enjoying Plat for the year & redeeming points accrued, suite night etc. & dropping to Gold on 1/1/26. Then re-sub Jan 26, earn Plat by Dec & rinse, repeat…

[Wiseoldman]

anuj wrote:

DJ wrote:

Would the share purchased from Trading 212 be registered?

Yes I have achieved it buying a single share on Trading 212.

Hi @anuj How long did the process take? Anythings to be vary of?

[QFFlyer]

BBbetter wrote:

Don’t get Accor plus. Apparently that doesn’t combine with the other paid programs.

Accor Plus and Signature combine. But Accor Plus is targeted towards Asia-Pacific, not sure if the free night certificate can be used elsewhere?

If you do join, pick your country of residence wisely (and also note that your ALL account gets transferred to and is managed by Accor Plus in that region – this hasn’t been a problem for me, the country my ALL account is managed by has my correct home address and always has, and I’ve never had any issues with customer service, in fact issues have been resolved remarkably quickly).

Signature is like buying hotel points at around about face value (slightly more than face value, I think) with status thrown in on top, so I figure I can’t really lose with that – I hit Platinum through stays and points during Covid when they doubled the earn rate, but won’t do it organically, not with the bulk of my stays being Hilton/IHG focused (but I use ALL enough that having Platinum swings it, especially in Australia, where there’s quite a heavy footprint from Accor, not so much from the others).

[BBbetter]

QFFlyer wrote:

BBbetter wrote:

Don’t get Accor plus. Apparently that doesn’t combine with the other paid programs.

Accor Plus and Signature combine.

Interesting. There were posts on other forums suggesting not to combine them.

Are the Accor plus dining and discount offers restricted to one country in Asia? That will be a disappointing as we plan to visit different places each year.

Agreed on Signature, no brainer if visiting Asia and Australia, strongholds of Accor. Waiting for my ihg diamond to roll off and unsure on hilton gold from amex plat.