You can swap points between Club Eurostar and Accor Live Limitless – but should you?

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Accor Live Limitless has a little known partnership with Club Eurostar.

As there are very few ways of earning Club Eurostar points apart from using their services, I thought it was worth a closer look. You can convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Club Eurostar at the rate of 15:1 but this is pretty much it in terms of partner earning options.

How do you earn Club Eurostar points with Accor Live Limitless?

As the biggest hotel group in France and with a big UK presence, Accor was a natural fit for Club Eurostar’s first major travel partnership.

You can move Accor Live Limitless points to Club Eurostar, and Club Eurostar points to Accor Live Limitless.

Full details are on the Accor website here.

But should you do it?

Accor Live Limitless Club Eurostar transfer

Accor is the only airline or hotel group which is really pushing the concept of two-way transfer partnerships. You have been able to transfer Finnair points to and from Accor for years, and Qatar Airways was added more recently.

In a roundabout way, this is a way of converting Finnair or Qatar Airways miles into Avios or many other airlines, using Accor Live Limitless as an intermediary. You lose a LOT of value doing this though – it would make more sense to move the points into Accor and spend them on a hotel.

The snag with these transfer deals is that they are never generous. Accor Live Limitless is a revenue based loyalty scheme, with 1 Accor point worth 2 Eurocents off a hotel room. There is no redemption chart – the number of points needed for a free night is based on the cash cost of the room you want.

Because it is revenue based, it is hard for the scheme to be too generous on transfers because it needs to make a profit both on transfers in and transfers out.

What are the transfer rates between Accor Live Limitless and Club Eurostar?

You can see what I mean by looking at the asymmetrical Accor rates to and from Club Eurostar:

500 Club Eurostar points gets you 1,500 Accor Live Limitless points

4,000 Accor Live Limitless points gets you 350 Club Eurostar points

Point transfers do NOT count towards status in either scheme.

Let’s try to put a cash value on this. I decided in this article that Club Eurostar points are worth 10p – 12p. Let’s stick with 10p to be safe, although on a short-notice trip you can do a lot better.

Accor Live Limitless launches Club Eurostar partnership

Going back to our original trade:

500 Eurostar points (value £50) gets you 1,500 Accor points (value €30)

4,000 Accor points (value €80) gets you 350 Eurostar points (value £35)

This is clearly a bad trade whichever way you do it.

Of course, life isn’t always that simple.

Perhaps you have a handful of Club Eurostar points you won’t use and will expire? In this case, 1,500 Accor points is better than nothing. You can always stop Club Eurostar points expiring by transfering a small number of American Express Membership Rewards points though.

If you have 4,000 Accor Live Limitless points sitting around you could convert to 4,000 Avios in Iberia Plus (NOT in BA Executive Club, which has a worse rate). Even better, you would get €80 off a hotel room. Converting to Eurostar is probably equally as good as moving to Avios in Iberia Plus, but you are losing almost 50% of the value compared to booking a room.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it is always good to have more redemption options. This one involves a noticeable loss of value, on my valuations, but you may have a different view than me on what your Eurostar points are worth.

You can find out more about this new partnership on the Accor Live Limitless website here.

How to get Club Eurostar points and lounge access from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Club Eurostar does not have a UK credit card. However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 1,333 Club Eurostar points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 2,000 Club Eurostar points. Card benefits include Eurostar lounge access.

American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 333 Club Eurostar points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you will get the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum comes with a great Eurostar benefit – Eurostar lounge access!

You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk. No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a free supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Category

Accor Live Limitless, Club Eurostar

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Paul74 says:

14 Jun14 June 07:58

I’ve been thinking about transferring in (from either Accor or Amex) so that I have enough for a decent redemption. Unfortunately, according to section 7.5 of Club Eurostar’s Ts&Cs, it appears that the points for a Business Premier ticket aren’t refundable like a money ticket is (unless I’ve read that wrong!).
Worth taking into account when judging the value of Club Eurostar points.
- John says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 11:36
  
  You should be ok for a points refund on a Business Premier booking as that is a refundable ticket type (it’s the only refundable one these days)…
  
  OT has anyone heard if Eurostar will be making any extension or threshold reduction for Carte Blanche? Aside from a cancelled trip, I’ve had no bookings in my current membership year.
  
  Though I wonder they’ll take it as an opportunity to reduce membership as lounges were often crowded pre-pandemic.
  - Paul74 says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 11:48
    
    Thanks, yes that clause seems to suggest so. I’ll look into it further when I get back to seriously considering it.
  - Ben says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 12:06
    
    @John there has been little-to-no public information. I’m surprised that more people aren’t asking questions about this – not least because Carte Blanche is now such a valuable and difficult tier to attain.
    
    At the end of May, Eurostar confirmed on the phone that Carte Blanche cards expiring in June and July will be renewed if the account has at least 1800 qualifying points (the normal requirement was upped from 1800 to 2400 in a panic move to reduce lounge overcrowding last year).
    
    So I read this as a fair but not generous reduction of 25%, effectively assuming zero travel for three months.
    
    At that time, the policy for August and onwards had not yet been released internally. However, for as long as lockdown / international quarantine requirements continue, you’d expect the threshold to drop “pro rata” by 200 points per month.
    
    They also clarified that booked travel on cancelled trains would NOT count towards qualifying points.
  - Roy says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 14:08
    
    That link is talking about money-off discount of £10 per 200 points, though. That’s very poor value (5p per point) compared with redeeming for travel directly (10p-12p per point).
    - Roy says:
      
      14 Jun14 June 14:13
      
      I mean, would you rather spend 9,600 points to get a £480 discount on your £490 business premier ticket – or just spend 3,000 to get a free business premier ticket?
- John says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 11:45
  
  Hmm, just looked at the T&C, and it contradicts the statement in the FAQ.
  
  I think the FAQ only applies to where there was part-payment with points.
  - Paul74 says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 11:50
    
    Right, back to square one! If points are definitely not refundable, whatever the fare, it’s certainly worth taking into account.
Peter K says:

14 Jun14 June 08:42

Am I the only one that always reads it as Accor Live (to rhyme with hive) Limitless.

It just sounds like a naff festival.
- Roy says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 11:13
  
  That’s what it’s called, isn’t it? 🙂
  
  Seriously, I’d never even noticed there *was* another way to read it until now.
- AJA says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 12:45
  
  I read live as in give. I assumed the aim of the program was to live your life unlimited by restrictions.
  - Peter K says:
    
    14 Jun14 June 13:11
    
    I agree with you but that’s not how my brain wants to read it!
    - Crafty says:
      
      15 Jun15 June 08:41
      
      If it’s live (give) as opposed to live (hive), surely it ought to be “live limitlessly”?
FrenchLondoner says:

14 Jun14 June 11:56

On a side note, has anyone heard about any Club Eurostar status extension? Especially for Carte Blanche holders? Wondering if they are doing anything given they had increased the thresholds significantly last year…
- FrenchLondoner says:
  
  14 Jun14 June 12:37
  
  Just seen the discussion on this exact question above between @John and @Ben… Missed it. Thank you @Ben, I was not aware of the 25% reduction, better than nothing I suppose…
Anon says:

16 Jun16 June 11:11

First post/contribution. I was also interested in the extensions to period to earn CB status. Was just told on the phone that anyone whose CB status was due to expire (I think by end April) and who had between 1800 and 2399 points at the point would have their CB status frozen – not clear for how long. Anyone with less than 1800 would be downgraded.

Any new measures/policies after this point are speculation I was told. Seems like they are going to look at proportionately how far towards reaching 2400 you are. So e.g. if you’re less than 1200 with over 6 months left, no extension.
- Rob says:
  
  16 Jun16 June 11:51
  
  This is the feedback I get from others who have enquired. Seems to be a sliding scale of needing 200 fewer points per month (not sure when they are counting from) to retain it, so a Sep year end may be OK with 1200 (assuming they are counting from March).