A couple of days ago Qatar Airways and Le Club Accor Hotels announced a new partnership. Qatar Airways advertised this new partnership as offering "reciprocal benefits" and as being "industry leading." Is that really the case, though? Per Qatar Airways' press release, here's what the partnership entails: "For the first time ever, Qatar Airways Privilege…
Continue reading: Qatar & Accor’s Disappointing New “Industry Leading” Partnership
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I actually reckon Admiral Ackbar, o ye of the short-arsed Arabs, would actually partake of much wailing and gnashing of teeth upon reading your article. Reciprocal? What a load of bollocky gobshite. Keep up the good work, Ben; call it out for what it is!
Always nice to be appreciated, especially when the post structure and examples are identical. :rolleyes:
LoyaltyLobby already reported this last year (Nov & Dec 2016)
http://loyaltylobby.com/2016/12/08/le-club-accorhotels-qatar-airways-privilege-club-conversation-ratio/
QR has always been offering 3K Qmiles (goodness…) as goodwill gesture (I guess, it’s a standard amount?) whenever I had some issues in flight (in J class). I have absolutely nowhere to use these miles, so at least, good to have an option to convert to other miles (e.g. Qmiles -> Accor -> BA Avios). To me, the most annoying thing is that "You need to contact Qatar Airways to convert Qmiles to Le Club AccorHotels points.”. No online processing. Again, goodness…
Maybe so, but Accor is the only hotel chain I feel any affinity with, perhaps because I spend a lot of time in Europe.
Otherwise I don't have a lot of time for hotel programs, while loving airline programs
I can't say I am surprised. Accor are notorious for over promising and under delivering. I was reading their Platinum benefits and they list 'LE CLUB ACCORHOTELS CUSTOMER CARE' as one of the benefits. Sounds great except all that means is they have a handful of FAQ and help topics on their website (not even a priority phone number). Try emailing them and you will be lucky to receive a response. I've sent straightforward queries and received replies weeks and even months later.
In terms of disappointing partnerships, two weeks ago I received an email about a 'Morning, Noon and Night' promotion Accor are running with Mastercard (book with Mastercard and get free breakfast). I did a number of searches and this promotion was always more expensive than the standard discounts Accor offer (in most cases this offer was far more expensive). So the 'free breakfast' was not really free at all.