Which airlines let you convert OUT of their air miles and into Accor hotel points?

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Once upon a time, it was not unusual for airlines to offer transfer options out of their frequent flyer miles and into hotel schemes.

Over the years this changed, creating a pyramid of sorts:

Which airlines let you transfer out of their miles

Hertz would let you transfer into hotel and airline schemes

hotel schemes would let you transfer into airline schemes, but not car schemes

airlines schemes wouldn’t let you transfer to anyone

There are some exceptions. In the UK, Virgin Atlantic lets you transfer into Hilton Honors and IHG Rewards Club. In Europe, Finnair has a partnership with IHG.

That’s about it though. Or, at least, it was.

Accor has been striking multiple airline deals

Accor Live Limitless, previously known as Le Club AccorHotels, is the loyalty scheme for Novotel, ibis, Raffles, Swissotel, Mercure, Sofitel, Fairmont etc.

You can learn more on the Accor website here.

Accor Live Limitless transfers from airlines

In recent years, Accor has been working hard to agree two-way transfer deals with airlines. As well as the industry-standard transfer out option, Accor also allows many airline miles to be transferred IN.

This isn’t as great as it sounds

The one snag is that Accor Live Limitless has revenue-based redemptions. In plain English, each point is worth 2 Eurocents. Our article on what we think Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

It doesn’t matter if you want New York on New Year’s Eve or a wet January Wednesday in Walsall, you get 2 Eurocents per point. There is NO opportunity for arbitrage. This virtually guarantees that a transfer into Accor is a bad deal, because it puts a firm – low – value on your airline miles.

However, this is not always an issue. If you have 2,000 Aegean Miles+Bonus miles, you can’t do much with them. Move them into 500 Accor Live Limitless points and they are good for €10 off a room (albeit you need to redeem in chunks of €40) or to be transferred on into 500 Avios in Iberia Plus.

Which airlines are Accor Live Limitless partners?

Because Accor has been rolling out these deals so quickly, you might not realise that it is now working with an airline where you have a handful of useless miles.

These are the current Accor ‘transfer in’ airline partners. Full details are on this page of the Accor website – make sure you are on the ‘Earn’ tab of the airlines page.

Aegean Miles+ Bonus: 2,000 miles = 500 Accor points

Air France KLM Flying Blue: 4,000 miles = 1,000 Accor points

Azul: 10,000 TudoAzul points = 1,000 Accor points

Finnair Plus: 3,500 miles = 500 Accor points

Hainan Fortune Wings Club: 7,000 points = 1,000 Accor points

LATAM Pass: 5,000 miles (5,800 miles in Brazil) = 2,000 Accor points

Oman Air Sindbad: 1,500 miles = 500 Accor points

Qatar Airways: 4,500 Qmiles = 1,000 Accor points

Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer: 4,000 miles = 1,000 Accor points

Plus …. launching in 2021:

Qantas Frequent Flyer: transfer rate not yet known

Plus … not (obviously) on the airlines page of the Accor website:

Club Eurostar: 500 points = 1,500 Accor points

Conclusion

If you have enough airline miles for a free flight in any of the above schemes (or Eurostar points for a free trip) then it is likely that you will lose value by moving them to Accor Live Limitless.

However, if you have a small amount of orphaned miles in any of the schemes above, a transfer to Accor is a great way of getting some value from them.

You can learn more on the airlines page of Accor Live Limitless here.

Accor Live Limitless update – December 2021:

Earn bonus Accor points: Accor is not currently running a global promotion

New to Accor Live Limitless? Read our overview of Accor Live Limitless here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our analysis of what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Accor and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

Accor Live Limitless, Air France KLM and Flying Blue, Club Eurostar, Finnair and Finnair Plus, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

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

Nathan says:

8 Dec8 December 07:57

What to do with 40k Korean Air points pandemically orphaned, poor things 😥
- Vit says:
  
  8 Dec8 December 09:00
  
  Can you book regional flight a year ahead with that amount of points / miles with KE or maybe try their SkyTeam member within Europe? I am not familiar with what you can do with 40k KE points but I have ~38k miles of BR and booked one-way NRT-BKK in J a year out as these miles expires after 36 months and still have ~8k left.
Jonty says:

8 Dec8 December 08:43

In support of a wet Wednesday in Wallsall, Holiday Inn Walsall M1 junction 10 was one of our favourite hotels before it burned down: a shallow swimming pool perfect for toddlers which was only open to hotel residents and often empty, and rooms split into separate living space with soafa bed for the kids and a bedroom for the grown ups, separated by the bathroom and its corridor
- RussellH says:
  
  8 Dec8 December 10:17
  
  We used it a lot too.
  1) only 10K points for a stay
  2) always got the amenity points and 2 free drinks from IHG Gold
  3) my partner loved the pool too
  
  When travelling on her own, my partner always booked a disabled persons room there (she does have a blue badge), but one night at about 2130 reception phoned to say that someone in a wheelchair had just turned up without a reservation and might she be persuaded to change rooms.
  Unasked for, the hotel refunded all her points, gave her a points bonus and free breakfast, and, of course, helped her change rooms. Good service.
  
  And, strangely, the hotel seemed very popular with a coach company bring parties of elderly Swiss women to the UK…
Vit says:

8 Dec8 December 09:07

Thanks Rob covering this. I still cannot find a way to top up my ALL point apart from staying in their hotel. Not sure if these ALL point will expire. I am still 1000 short of transferring out to IB. The 1000 from Aegean arrived fine though. 🙂

I was planning to transfer 5000 Aegean from my partner to mine with the cost of 15euros and then transfer out to my ALL account but it seems Aegean stop that now — a little too late!
- Lady London says:
  
  8 Dec8 December 22:01
  
  @Vit Accor call centre told me very recently buying food/drink in any Accor hotel even without staying crediting as Accor member gets you credit &
  stops points expiring. Also said their web shopping portal (i’d never even known they have one!) does the same if purchase made
- YL says:
  
  8 Dec8 December 22:43
  
  Perhaps try to sign up for the Club Opinions and do some surveys? This will at least stop the miles from expiring and give you more time to get to your target points.
- Vit says:
  
  10 Dec10 December 10:54
  
  Thank you both. Will look into the food / restaurant option @LL. Yes, had signed up for Club Opinions as well. 🙂
Ben says:

8 Dec8 December 09:59

I still have 45,000 M&M points from the Hilton promo a while back. It’s got to the point that it seems very unlikely that I’ll use these for travel (flights, hotels, car rental). Any ideas on best value or something totally unnecessary to buy through their shop? (I also noted that the shop specifically says they only deliver within the EU – I wonder what’s going to happen with that.)
- Rob says:
  
  8 Dec8 December 10:06
  
  It’s all poor value. You can convert them into Heathrow shopping vouchers via Heathrow Rewards but there is also a loss of value doing that. You really have no plans to fly anywhere? 45k would be a one way in Business to a lot of places.
  - RussellH says:
    
    8 Dec8 December 10:25
    
    Marks+Spencer gift cards?
    I have had two decent suitcases and a rucksack from the shop – not too bad value when they are on special offer.
    If I still had enough M+M miles to buy anything, I would be very tempted to spend them now. Who knows what state the country will be in on 1 Jan 2021?
    - Rob says:
      
      8 Dec8 December 10:51
      
      M&M miles are massively valuable, because it gives you access to Star Alliance. When you need a flight somewhere and BA / oneworld can’t deliver a seat, Star probably can.
      
      The only reason I have started building up a balance is that it very easy to get 4 x business class seats on Star in school holidays, especially as German, Swiss and Austrian school holidays rarely cross with UK ones. Even in Summer their kids are back in school in mid August.
      
      We have 4 x SWISS business to Dubai next week, booked a couple of weeks ago. We could have flown on any day. When I looked at BA yesterday it doesn’t have a single Club seat across the whole of December.
      - Ben says:
        
        8 Dec8 December 13:34
        
        I have two young kids, so don’t get the chance to do “fun” travel, like selecting a location based on a one-way reward ticket. Gone are those days! I’m so torn on whether to sit on these points or just use them up. But value you get on anything other than flights is just so poor!