Qantas Corrects Accor Earn Rate Error

Qantas will fix an error that saw frequent flyers receive fewer points than advertised at Accor hotels
Qantas will fix an error that saw frequent flyers receive fewer points than advertised at Accor hotels. Image: Qantas.

Qantas Frequent Flyer is working to fix an error that saw members earning fewer points than they should have when staying at Accor hotels.

Under the new partnership between Qantas Frequent Flyer and Accor ALL, which launched last month, members of both loyalty programs can link their accounts to receive reciprocal Qantas and Accor benefits.

One of these benefits is the ability for Qantas Frequent Flyer members to earn 3 Qantas points per AU$1 when staying at Accor hotel brands in the Asia Pacific region. This applies when booking hotels direct with Accor, and is in addition to any Accor ALL points and status benefits.

But after recently staying at a Pullman hotel in Brisbane, one AFF member noticed that they had been shortchanged on Qantas points. Their hotel booking had cost $330, but they only received 540 Qantas points instead of the 990 points they should have received based on the advertised earn rate of 3 Qantas points per $1.

Another AFF member noticed the same thing, and worked out that they had actually received 3 Qantas points per Euro spent, rather than 3 Qantas points per AUD as advertised. They also noticed that no Qantas points had been earned on the GST component of their hotel bill – something which Qantas makes no mention of in its advertising or in any of the examples given on its website.

As Accor is a French company, Accor ALL points themselves are earned based on the amount of Euros spent at participating hotels. Where a room is paid for using a different currency, the rate is converted to Euros for the purpose of Accor ALL accrual. But section 5.1 of the Qantas cross reward terms & conditions clearly states that “every $1 (AUD) of Eligible Spend (Hotels) earns three (3) Qantas Points”.

The good news is that Qantas Frequent Flyer is aware of the Accor earn rate error and is now actively working to resolve it. Australian Frequent Flyer understands that this will be fixed in the coming weeks.

Anyone who has received fewer points than they should have for their Accor hotel stay will receive a top-up of the remaining points in the near future. This will be backdated so that nobody misses out on any points. The missing points will be added to Qantas Frequent Flyer members’ accounts automatically, so there is no need to do anything.

If this doesn’t happen, you could try to contact Accor Live Limitless.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Qantas to launch in-depth partnership with Accor ALL

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Interesting -

AAdvantage and World of Hyatt have a similar arrangement (since last year) - initially there were fast track offers for Hotel Elites to garner AA status (not the other way IIRC).

Currently only WoH/AAdvantage elites can earn additional AAdvantage Miles/WoH points on AA flights/WoH Stays.

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Qantas says this is the first such partnership in the Asia Pacific region, although it's not new for an airline and hotel loyalty program to form a close partnership. We've seen this in the USA with American Airlines/Hyatt and United/Marriott Bonvoy.


A good development and nice to see some extra benefits, but we should call them out on their spin the exact wording which is ....

Scheduled to launch mid-2021, it will be the first partnership of its kind between an airline and hospitality group in the Asia Pacific region.

It's not really the "first" though is it?

1) Shangri-La hotels are more of a niche provider, but SQ and Shangri-La have had a "double dipping" partnership for a little while now, and both are firmly rooted in the Asia Pacific region ....

and

2) there's also the now disbanded SPG/China Eastern partnership ..

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It would be neat if status were gifted too much like happens with some of the other partnerships. It definitely would give me incentive to use Accor.

Certainly this has been on the cards for awhile as QF and Accor have been slowly building things for a couple of years now. Good to see it will hopefully bear more fruit in the future

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Qantas says that you'll soon be able to double-dip by earning both Qantas & Accor points for both Accor hotel stays in the Asia Pacific region, as well as for Qantas domestic & international flights.

Not really sure what that means... I already convert the points I earn with Accor to Qantas so unless they're planning to boost the earn rates...

I currently stay with Accor a couple of times a year, mostly to use the free room credit/silver status that comes with my AMEX Platinum card. Would certainly consider staying with them more if they offered extra benefits/points for my Qantas Platinum status.

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I look forward to seeing what the earn rates and reciprocal benefits are.

ALL's not the most amazing loyalty program for earning potential (it's effectively a flat 5% cashback at core brands before status bonus) and the status experience varies wildly by property, but their ubiquity in Australia all the way from the ibis budget end of the market up to the Sofitels et al make them a decent partner for Qantas IMO.

Pure guess work but I reckon this is how it'll pan out:
- Base earn rate of 1 QFF point per dollar on Accor stays, and 1 ALL point per dollar on Qantas flights.
- Status bonus for ALL points earned from Qantas flights in line with existing ALL status bonus - Silver +25%, Gold +50%, Plat/Diamond +80%
- Status bonus for Qantas points earned from Accor stays either as above, or in line with Qantas status bonus (+50/75/100%)
- Qantas Gold get ALL Silver, Qantas Plat get ALL Gold (which isn't particularly coveted given you can buy it), Qantas P1/CL get ALL Plat
- Existing ALL Gold or Plat (and higher) and get something like QFF Silver after one Qantas flight, a couple of lounge passes, or a status challenge like 200 SC in 90 days for QFF Gold.
- Points conversion from ALL to Qantas will be removed

Cant wait to return to this post in mid 2021 and see how close I am 😁

Not really sure what that means... I already convert the points I earn with Accor to Qantas so unless they're planning to boost the earn rates...

You'll now earn both Qantas and ALL points on your Accor stays, rather than need to transfer them across, hence the double-dip. You'll also start earning ALL points on your Qantas flights.

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If reciprocal status benefits are on the cards, eg Accor Gold = QF Gold then I could see one of the following happen -

• Ibis Business cards discontinuing.
• Ibis Business cards prices increasing.
• Sales of Ibis Business cards being unprecedented.

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If reciprocal status benefits are on the cards, eg Accor Gold = QF Gold then I could see one of the following happen -

• Ibis Business cards discontinuing.
• Ibis Business cards prices increasing.
• Sales of Ibis Business cards being unprecedented.

I don't think Accor (globally) would discontinue or change ibis Business for what seems to be an APAC initiative, hence my prediction ALL Gold at best gets QFF Silver and at worst gets some lounge passes or a status challenge.

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If reciprocal status benefits are on the cards, eg Accor Gold = QF Gold then I could see one of the following happen -

• Ibis Business cards discontinuing.
• Ibis Business cards prices increasing.
• Sales of Ibis Business cards being unprecedented.

Considering how much easier it is (in general) to earn hotel status than airline status, I'd be surprised if Qantas would give a straight match/reciprocal benefits to people with Accor status. There may be other benefits though, like what @sudoer suggests.

I do think it's possible that Qantas Gold may get you Accor Gold (for example) though.

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Agreed from most tie-ups the max an airline ever seems to offer in respect of hotel status is silver. I wouldn't be surprised if QF offers even less like some lounge invites and ancillary services like QF wine.

The benefit to QF is bringing more numbers and data into their FF ecosystem.

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AF FlyingBlue and ALL Accor already have a partnership that might provide a closer indication of what could be coming - basically FF points when you stay and Hotel points when you fly. There might some additional one off / introductory SCs thrown in.

I signed up for this when it came out - although I only have a token amount of flying and miles with AF/KLM. Not even enough to throw across to Accor before they start to expire...(4K min transfer from FB to 1000 Accor).

QFF/ALL should work better!

PS: The online eBook subscription seemed like a good idea until I found out that they’re 99.9% French language editions...

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