ALL Accor Live Limitless

ALL Accor Live Limitless is the loyalty program of Accor S.A. - EU’s largest hospitality group and 6th largest in the world.  They manage over 5,000 properties and 110 countries all over the world, under 44 brands.

Our 2 cents…

Accor may be a new name to many, but I am certain you have heard of some of their brands, such as Fairmont and Sofitel.  Their North American presence is limited with only around 150 properties, no co-branded credit card in the US and only one credit card transfer partner (Capital One).  The program follows dynamic pricing reward redemptions at 2.4 cents per point on official published pricing of Accor hotels (EUR0 .02 per point redeemed in increments of EUR40 per each 2000 points to be precise, which translates to 2.4 cents per point under the current exchange rate).  Transferring points from Capital One to Accor may not be the best use of your points, but still a reasonable choice in some situations. The most effective use of your Capital One points is transfer to Avianca’s LifeMiles, Cathay’s All Asia, Etihad or Qantas for airline tickets redemptions in premium classes. If you were not lucky enough to find a great reward in those programs and decide to use your points for hotels, transferring points to Accor would be a solid choice. However, before you decide to transfer, always check the best deal you can find for the desired property without using points.  In my experience, many Accor properties are available through 3rd party websites with better prices than the official Accor website.  

In the case where you find pricing at least 20 percent off, book it through a 3rd party site or an agency and use the “Redeem Travel Purchases” tab in your Capital One app or website to offset the purchase with points at a penny per point. If the property you are looking for is a luxury property (Fairmont, Raffles, MGallery, Sofitel and other 5 star properties), google if e the specific property you want is part of amenity program like AmEx Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR), Virtuoso, Signature or an amenity program of your card. Then book it non-prepaid through an agency or site.  You can then have the front desk apply ALL of your points for the reservation payment and any incidentals for your stay.  This way, you will get full amenities (room upgrade, complimentary breakfast for 2, and a $100 food, beverage or spa credit for your stay at the hotel) and still be able to use the points.  You will not get these valuable amenities if you book through  points directly on the Accor site. This is something we always do for our clients and they have never had a problem redeeming their points as long the reservation was not prepaid.  I called ALL toll free numbers a few times just to see what answers I would get. Three agents confirmed it would not be a problem to use points on FHR or Virtuoso rate as long as it is not a prepaid rate. I had one agent who said it is not possible. Once you make your reservation you can always reconfirm by calling the hotel’s front desk directly to apply your points to pay for the stay.