[Accor]
We write about Accor’s All Signature program regularly, a paid scheme originated in Brazil but now international, where you can purchase status and redeemable points at a very reasonable price.
They have a very solid Black Friday offer now. Until December 2, you’ll get a discount when purchasing any of the plans with promo code BLACKFRIDAY2024:
- Monthly: 50% off
- Quarterly: 30% off
- Annual: 15% off
The discount only applies to the first cycle and you’ll renew at the regular price. Brazilian Real has been continuously plunging over the last year, making it an even sweeter deal now. Here’s how it works out for the Absolute Plan:
- Monthly: 280 BRL / €44 for 5,000 points (56% off)
- Quarterly: 1176 BRL / €183 for 15,000 points (39% off)
- Annual: 5712 BRL / €887 for 75,000 points (41% off)
(Brazilian Real is very volatile lately so the numbers you see above might have already expired.)
Another trick is to subscribe to Quarterly, switch to Monthly by the end and cancel after one month. You’ll pay 1736 BRL / €269 for 25,000 points, at 46% off. It involves manual adjustment from the customer service team though and things can go wrong… When I did it last time they switched me to an annual subscription by mistake and it took ages to resolve.
It is honestly one of my favourite offers as you are basically buying euros at a discount, and Accor points can be used against most of their rates. You can also redeem event tickets on the Limitless Experiences platform – I was at the Rolex Paris Masters game last week.
Great news for Londoners, although not finalised yet – Accor is signing a contract with the Wembley Arena and the partnership could start from as early as January. I went to a concert there years ago when IHG had an arrangement and it’s nice to see opportunities coming back.
[Melia]
Melia has been rather quiet in the last 6 months or so, and we finally see a new deal: to celebrate their 30th anniversary, you get a 30% bonus when buying points before November 21. They ran exactly the same deal back in February.
I checked out the buy-points page and the bonus was not displayed, but I trust that they’ll deposit the points correctly. With the bonus you’re paying €5 for every 1,300 points, or in other words, paying 0.385 euro cents / 0.323p per point.
We wrote a guide on Melia’s program. Unfortunately their standard award inventory is next to being non-existent now, and the cost of an award night is usually tightly coupled with the cash rate which is unattractive.
You can still however, easily save €20 or more on a reservation in exchange of only 2,000 points with their cash & points feature.
If you intend to stay at Melia hotels semi-regularly, it might be worth stocking a few thousand points for this purpose. Melia is one of the most underrated hotel programs in my opinion: with the 20%-off Gold voucher (available with Amex Platinum) + 5% app discount + cash & points discount + official sales, it’s very common to make a genuine 50% saving compared to the regular price.
Melia points are valid for 12 months and any account activity, including buy 1,000 points, will extend it.
Don’t know if it’s just me but I keep seeing “Payment declined” for ALL Signature, tried a few cards, a few browsers
I hear other people having the same problem, will try myself (when the exchange rate becomes more favourable…)
Happened to me as well. Just used a different card and it went through.
What is the actual cash value at Accor when booking hotels with those points? Is the discount percentage you indicate at the time of purchase what you will save by using those points on reservations compared to if you were to book with cash?
I am not familiar with Accor’s program, but I am familiar with Melía’s program where 1000 points have a real discount value of €4.25 on standard rates.
1000 Accor points = 20 euro, fixed