Accor Live Limitless Rewards points are a useful major points currency to consider if you have an affinity for staying in hotels that are a part of the ever-expanding Accor Live Limitless (ALL) group.

This guide gets into the guts of the program, including hotel locations, how to get free status, stay benefits, and key redemption opportunities.

We’ve updated the details of the program benefits to reflect the introduction of the new Diamond status tier at the end of 2019, along with the program rebrand. Though for all but the biggest spenders, the changes are minimal.

Locations & key hotels

Accor have a large presence in the New Zealand and Australian market, and have over 4,200 hotels in 95 countries worldwide, providing accommodation in some of the most popular business destinations across the globe.

The group includes a range of brands such as Raffles, Fairmont, Swissotel, Banyan Tree, Angsana, Cassia, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, Grand Mercure, The Sebel, Ibis, MGallery, Adagio and Pullman. The Mantra, Art Series, Peppers and BreakFree brands have also recently joined Accor.

There are 36 properties in New Zealand. Current locations include:

• Auckland
• Christchurch
• Dunedin
• Hamilton
• Invercargill
• Nelson
• New Plymouth
• Queenstown
• Rotorua
• Wellington

Below are a few Accor properties that we have stayed at and reviewed:

Status

The ALL program offer five status tiers in the following order (from lowest to highest): Classic, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.

You can find more information about the status tiers and benefits on the Accor website.

Changes were made to the programme in late 2019, which included the introduction of the new Diamond status tier, an ‘invite only’ tier, and confirmed suite upgrades for Platinum members.

Here is an overview of the benefits for each status level.

Classic

Requirement: just enrolment in the programme

• Complimentary Internet
• Priority check-in at Fairmont properties
• Express check-out
• Complimentary newspaper and local calls at Fairmont and Swissotel properties
• Complimentary access to BMW bicycles and use of golf clubs at Fairmont properties
• Complimentary access to health club and sports facilities (if otherwise charged at the hotel)
• Access to Private Sales, 48 hours before non-members
• 10% discount on Willow steam spa treatments and products at Fairmont properties
• 10% discount at the on-property Fairmont Store
• Up to 10% discount off room rates at participating hotels

Silver

Requirement: 10 nights or 2,000 Status Points (€800 in eligible expenses)

In addition to Classic benefits:

• Priority check-in at all properties
• Priority waitlist status at Swissotel properties
• Complimentary welcome drink for you and registered guests staying in your room (different rules apply in France)
• Late check-out on request, and subject to availability. At MyResort properties, you’ll be able to enjoy resort amenities beyond normal times
• Daily turndown service at MGallery, Sofitel Legend, SO Sofitel and Sofitel properties
• Complimentary access to fitness gear at Fairmont properties

You’ll receive complimentary Silver status if you become an Accor Plus member.

Gold

Requirement: 30 nights or 7,000 Status Points (€2,800 in eligible expenses)

In addition to Classic and Silver benefits:

• Early check-in on request, and subject to availability, or late check-out
• Guaranteed room availability up to 3 days before arrival
• In-room welcome gift
• Complimentary upgrade to the next room category, if available at the time of check-in, excluding villas, one of a kind suites, specialty suites and presidential suites. If not available, upgrade to best available room in current category
• Host benefits at MyResorts properties
• 20% discount at Swissotel spa and sport facilities

You’ll receive complimentary Gold status if you become an ibis Business Card member.

Platinum

Requirement: 60 nights or 14,000 Status Points (€5,600 in eligible expenses)

In addition to Classic, Silver, and Gold benefits:

• Early check-in on request, and subject to availability, and late check-out
• Access to Executive Lounges in these locations
• Guaranteed room availability up to 2 days before arrival
• Complimentary breakfast at these Asia-Pacific properties
• Premium Wi-Fi where available
• Suite night upgrades
• Dedicated customer care line
• 10% discount on treatments at Thalassa Sea & Spa Institutes, Raffles spa treatments, and in the restaurant/bar at select Mercure properties (latter is not available in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Asia Pacific)
• 15% discount at the Raffles hotel boutique
• Complimentary ironing service at Pullman Hotels & Resorts (one item per stay)
• Guaranteed restaurant table at Raffles, with 24/hr notice
• Daily turndown service at Fairmont properties (in addition to the hotels available for Silver and Gold members)
• Free soft drinks from the mini-bar at MGallery
• Extend Platinum benefits to another room at MyResorts properties, plus receive a surprise gift

Diamond

Requirement: 26,000 Status Points (€10,400 in eligible expenses)

In addition to Classic, Silver, Gold and Platinum benefits:

• Complimentary breakfast on weekends world-wide
• Four vouchers worth €25 each to use on meals or spa treatment, which can be redeemed even when not staying at a hotel
• Gift Gold status to a friend or family member of your choice

Earning and redeeming Accor Live Limitless Rewards points

How can I earn points?

The ALL program offers varying earn rates at the different Accor brands, making it a bit confusing to calculate how many points you’ll earn. They also base their earn rate on the amount you spend, converted to euros.

Here is the full earn rate table:

They do have a calculator that you can use, which makes it a bit easier to work out exactly how much you’ll earn for your spend at any given property.

You can also earn points with a few niche partners:

• Avis, up to 150 points per day
• Club Med, 1 point per euro spent
• Club Opinions, up to 600 points for completing your first survey
• e-rewards, 250 points for completing your first survey
• Europcar, earn up to 1,000 points for every rental, plus get a 15-20% discount
• Hertz, 3 points per euro spent
• La Collection, 1 point per euro spent on shopping
• Priority Pass, up to 1,500 points for a new membership
• The Economist, up to 4,500 points for a print + digital subscription

Some of the offers above are ‘one-time’ only, so make sure you look at offers with different programs first to make sure you’re picking the one that offers you the points you need (for example, you can earn up to 1,000 Airpoints Dollars on a ‘The Economist’ subscription, at the same price as offered here).

Flying Blue Miles+Points Partnership

Every time you complete an eligible stay at an Accor property or take an Air France, KLM or HOP flight, you can earn both Rewards points and Flying Blue Miles.

While most will be unfamiliar with the Flying Blue program—in Australia and New Zealand, their points are mainly only of use with SkyTeam partners like China Airlines and Korean Air—these are effectively points for nothing, so you may as well take advantage of this.

Start by joining Flying Blue, logging in, and then linking your accounts.

Then:

• With the exception of ibis and Adagio properties, you will earn 1 Flying Blue mile for every 1 Euro spent at Accor properties worldwide.
• For every 2 Euros spent on a flight with Air France, KLM or HOP, you will earn 1 Rewards point

You can find the full terms and conditions of the partnership here.

How can I redeem points?

Accor offer a variety of ways in which you can use your ALL points.

The most obvious is using your points on future stays. You can redeem 2,000 Rewards points for €40 (~$68 NZD) of credit to spend at participating Accor properties.

Other redemption opportunities/partners include:

• Dream stay packages
• Elite Experiences, including Cirque du Soleil and the Australian Open
• Europcar
• La Collection, an online shopping mall
• Transfer to varying frequent flyer partners, including KrisFlyer, Asia Miles, Qantas, and Velocity

Most of these redemptions are poor value, though if you are a road warrior and prefer to experience other things in life than more hotel stays, using your points for any of these would make perfect sense.

Frequent flyer transfers are explained further below.

Should I transfer Le Club points to frequent flyer programmes?

As a general rule of thumb, points earned through hotel rewards programs are best kept and used towards future hotel stays. This is where you maximise their value.

Rewards points have a value of approximately NZD 3.4 cents each when used for credit to spend at Accor properties. This should always serve as your value baseline when deciding whether to transfer to a frequent flyer program.

You can read more about how we value points here.

If you want to use the points towards a flight redemption, the general rule is 4,000 Rewards points transfer to 2,000 miles.

This means you’re effectively ‘spending’ 6.8 cents on every mile. You’d have to be doing very well with your flight redemptions to be getting that much value from each mile.

Why preference Qantas and Velocity?

There are some exceptions. Qantas and Velocity are two examples where points are converted at a more favourable 1:1 ratio — 1 Rewards point equals 1 Qantas or Velocity Frequent Flyer point.

This means you’re ‘spending’ a far more favourable amount per point – only 3.4 cents. While we generally only value these points at around 2 cents each, you’ll be more likely to find redemptions where you’ll get much more bang for your buck, compared to those programs where the ratio is 2:1.

What about Airpoints Dollars?

You cannot convert Rewards points to Airpoints Dollars. However you can choose to earn Airpoints Dollars instead at select hotels in New Zealand and Fiji.

You’ll earn 20 APD for stays at Sofitel properties.

Stays at Pullman Hotels, Mgallery Hotels, Grand Mercure Hotels & Apartments, Novotel Hotels & Resorts, and Mercure Hotels & Resorts will see you earn 1 APD per NZD $15 spent.

See here for more information.

From my own experience, you cannot earn both Airpoints Dollars, and book your stay online as a logged in an Accor Live Limitless member. If you are logged in, when you check-in at the hotel, they will often inform you that you will only earn Rewards points and not Airpoints Dollars. I raised this issue with Air New Zealand and was told that they are working on tweaks to this arrangement but I have not heard anything further.

How to transfer points to frequent flyer programs

All Live Limitless offers the option of transferring your points to any of their partner frequent flyer programs.

Here are the transfer rates and minimum manual transfer amounts for the most popular programmes for us in Australia and New Zealand:

• Qantas: 1:1 ratio, 2,000 minimum
• Velocity: 1:1, 4,000 minimum
• Asia Miles: 2:1, 4,000 minimum
• KrisFlyer: 2:1, 4,000 minimum
• United MileagePlus: 2:1, 2,000 minimum

To transfer your points from ALL to the frequent flyer program of your choice, you can either do it yourself when you reach the minimum threshold, or you can set up an automatic transfer that takes place once that same threshold is met.

Visit this page, click your partner of choice, and then scroll down on the partner page until you see the ‘Convert your rewards points’ button:

You will then be presented with the option of submitting a manual transfer request, or setting up an automatic sweep of points:

Current offers

You can access a full list of current offers here.

Summing up

The best value option between keeping your points in Accor Live Limitless compared to transferring to a frequent flyer program is dependent on your personal circumstances, as always — and especially in this case how many Rewards points you have, are likely to earn, and where you want to transfer them due to Accor’s transfer limits.

I stay at Accor properties quite frequently, and therefore keep my points in the ALL program until I know exactly what I want to do with them. They’ll never expire as long as you earn points at least once per year. This way, it effectively functions as an excellent flexible points program.

Though for those people who don’t stay at hotels regularly, I would be inclined to recommend transferring the points to your preferred frequent flyer program, and learning how to get the best value for their use.

Supplementary images courtesy Accor Live Limitless.