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File this one under ‘interesting, but not necessarily all that practical’ – but it is theoretically possible to get Accor Platinum status until the end of 2019 for just 5 stays and £65.
We wrote recently about how the loyalty programmes for Fairmont and Swissotel are finally going to be merged into Accor Le Club, following Accor’s acquisition of those brands back in 2016.
One of the features of that migration is the rather complex chart (below) showing what status in Le Club existing Fairmont President’s Club elite members will receive, including if they also already have some level of elite status with Le Club too:
The chart may take a couple of reads to get your head around (well, if you were up late/early listening to the cricket like me anyway!), but there are a couple of potentially interesting opportunities for ‘arbitrage’ that are worth noting.
The first (and simplest), is that if you can manage to fit in 10 stays at Fairmont hotels between 1st January 2018 and the loyalty programme merger date – 1st July 2018 – you will be matched straight across from Fairmont Platinum to Accor Platinum, and your status will last until the end of 2019.
The second (more complicated, but considerably cheaper) route, is to make 5 Fairmont stays (in order to get Fairmont Premier status) and also acquire Accor Gold status separately. As you can see in the chart above, Fairmont Premier + Accor Gold = Accor Platinum.
How then to get Accor Gold? Easy – just signup for Ibis Business membership here. It’s an annual subscription that offers a variety of discounts and benefits on Ibis stays, crucially including instant Le Club Accor Gold membership.
Better yet, it only costs £65 for UK residents:
Bear in mind that Accor Platinum status usually requires 60 nights at Accor hotels, so this is potentially a very decent short cut.
The problem is that although Fairmont hotels tend to be quite lovely, they’re not often very kind to your wallet. I’ve personally always found Accor Platinum status quite useful, but many would argue that the benefits do not match what Fairmont Platinums currently receive.
Bottom line
If you happen to be planning or already have a few Fairmont stays in the first half of next year, I would certainly look at the possibility of squeezing in a couple more and purchasing the Ibis Business card, in order to get Accor Platinum status through until the end of 2019. Looking at the numbers though, I doubt it would make sense for many people to attempt to do so from scratch, unless you managed to get a bargain rate somewhere.
Hat-tip: YHBU
Any arbitrage opportunity if you have Accor Platinum until end of this year?
Don’t think so unfortunately – I’m in the same position. Always worth trying some last minute status matches to other companies though if you haven’t already.
Losing Plat at the end of this year 🙁
Is there a soft landing down to Gold or is it just down to whatever I’ve qualified for this year (not much) ?
I would love to keep Plat as I think it’s one of the very best sets of benefits.
What’s generally the cheapest Fairmont worldwide ? Europwide ?
Good question – I’ve had Plat for so long now that I genuinely don’t know what the policy is these days on soft landings. I’m in the same boat though, so will be finding out pretty soon!
Fairmonts in Europe will be pretty pricey in most places I imagine (nice though – particularly the Four Seasons Hamburg this time of year and the Savoy, naturally!).
Ajman (UAE) can be pretty cheap (sub £100) when the weather warms up there, Yangcheng Lake in China can be similar too. They have a few in Egypt which should be cheap. Big coverage in Canada of course, so some of the less fashionable places there in Jan/Feb should be relatively cheap.
Istanbul is always a good shout these days for cheap luxury hotels too.
I’m pretty sure you can credit Raffles and Swissotel stays to President’s Club too, which might be helpful.
You only drop a level each year, so from Platinum you get Gold membership for 12 months, then Silver even if you didn’t earn any points.