Sofitel, Novotel A|Club loyalty program becomes Le Club Accorhotels

Hotel group Accor -- which runs business travel hotels Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure and MGallery, plus various other brands further towards the budget and family end of the market -- is revamping its A|Club loyalty program.

Frequent guests will now be members of Le Club Accorhotels instead when the changes go through.

Details of precisely how the changes will affect Australian business travellers at this stage are sketchy, as Simon McGrath, Vice President Accor Australia, admitted to Australian Business Traveller.

"This is a global initiative that will be introduced over the next few years, so it will be soe time before we can say how or when it will be implemented in this country. We will provide more details later in the year," McGrath promised.

With any change, business travellers with sizeable points balances in a frequent guest program will wonder what will happen to the value of their accumulated points. Devaluations, where your points get you fewer rewards, aren't uncommon.

So this might be the time to burn rather than earn A|Club points. You can redeem them for hotels -- perhaps the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth or Sofitel London Heathrow we reviewed recently? -- or convert them into airline points.

4000 A|Club points will get you A$120 of hotel vouchers or 4000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points -- one of the better deals out there.

You can also exchange 4000 A|Club points for 2000 points/miles in several programs, including British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards, Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer, and Thai Airways' Royal Orchid Plus.

Other changes afoot at Accor include the rebranding of several budget chains (including Formule 1, All Seasons and Etap) to fall in line with the better recognised Ibis marque.

Australian Business Traveller will bring you the latest on the revamped Le Club Accorhotels loyalty programme once details are revealed later in the year.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.