Visa-ALL card: what to expect from Accor’s new initiative?

Accor and Visa announced last week a partnership that will result in the launch of a co-branded credit card.

The press release is rather laconic and does not tell us anything other than how such a card works as it is practiced everywhere. To learn more about how the card works and the concrete benefits for customers, we will have to wait.

But we can already try to get an idea of what customers can expect.

A card with several tiers: surely

To begin with, we can expect that, as with all initiatives of this type, the card will offer several tiers of status depending on the client’s income level, with each tier coming with more specific benefits. It remains to be seen how many levels will be implemented?

The rule would be 3 (Classic, Silver, Platinum to use the Visa vocabulary) but we can also imagine that at the beginning only two are set up or that the ultimate level (Platinum or why not Infinite) is not granted at the request of the customer but by invitation only at the initiative of Accor for its best customers.

The same benefits everywhere in the world? Certainly not!

Accor and Visa have announced that their partnership will be global, which means that the card will be offered in all countries. If this proves to be true, Accor would strike a blow because none of its competitors offers a co-branded card program worldwide!

But don’t expect the Visa-ALL card to offer the same benefits in all countries and to be more concrete, don’t expect you, the French, to have the same benefits as the cardholder living in the United States.

This is not discrimination or bad policy on the part of the hotel group and Visa, it is simply due to the way the credit card market works in different countries. I won’t go into more detail on the subject, but when it comes to loyalty programs, Europeans are often at a disadvantage compared to Americans due to the lower contribution of co-branded cards to the benefits offered to them and to obtaining the highest status. And why is this contribution lower? As we have explained at length, this is due to the fact that US credit cards are real credit cards with interest rates that often reach 20%. They bring in a lot of money for their issuers who can then convert this money into profits that they buy from the hotel or airline. Here, a card only brings in its fee, so there is no need to expect huge benefits in return.

A global program, certainly, but certainly local rules.

Earning points with your expenses: yes, but how much?

Logically, as it is the basic principle of such cards, Visa-ALL cardholders will earn points in the Accor Live Limitless program for each expenditure, whether at Accor or at any other merchant, which they will be able to spend in the same way as the points they earn in the program.

Now it remains to be seen how much.

– The number of points earned per euro spent can be expected to depend on the card level (classic, premier, platinum). The higher the status, the more you earn.

– Earn more at Accor: it is also possible that the money spent at Accor earns more points than money spent at merchants.

A status booster? Certainly

There are two ways to “earn” status in the Accor Live Limitless program. The first is by reaching a certain number of nights per year and therefore the level of expenses does not impact it. The second depends on the amounts spent. We can imagine that the holders of the Visa ALL card, in the logic of what was said above, see their expenses at Accor “boosted” to reach the required threshold more quickly. Then it remains to be seen how much the “bonus” could be? 10% ? 20% 80% ?

On the other hand, as far as the number of nights to be reached in order to obtain a status is concerned, another system is possible and it is safe to assume that this will be part of the benefits of the card as it is a standard market practice. There are several possible options.

– Depending on the level of the card the customer could receive “bonus nights” to reach the required number for a status faster. Example: At Marriott, the American Express Marriott Bonvoy gives 15 bonus nights that count towards the status and are therefore as many nights less to spend at the hotel. American Express Hilton Honors provides free silver status.

If the member reaches a certain level of spending in a year, he is entitled to an ALL status regardless of the number of nights spent. For example: the American Express Hilton Honors gives a gold status from $20,000 spent in the year whether it is at Hilton or not. At Marriott the American Express Marriott Bonvoy gives a Gold status after $30,000 of spending.

These benefits don’t just fall from the sky: American Express “buys” points and bonus nights from Marriott or Hilton to give to its members. In the airline industry some airlines are only profitable because credit card issuers buy large volumes from them. Here, as I said above, there may be huge differences depending on the country and what Visa earns from the cardholder.

As a reminder, non-co-branded American Express Platinum holders automatically have Gold status on Accor Live Limitless (and many other programs).

Additional benefits

Finally, it is possible that the ALL Visa card offers loyalty program benefits to its holders regardless of their status with ALL. For example:

As ALL wants to be an experiential brand that goes beyond the hotel business, we can envisage that the cardholder will have advantages at Accor’s partners. At PSG for example? That would make sense.

A bit of innovation?

What if Accor and Visa decided to go one step further and do something that has never been done before? We believe that one of the main benefits of the American Express Air France card is that it allows you to pay for all your expenses at Air France KLM in 3 free instalments! An unparalleled advantage on the market!

You will say that given the amounts involved, this has less value in the hotel industry where the price of a night has nothing to do with the price of an airplane ticket, especially in long-haul in the front classes. And yet…

Offering this possibility could allow cardholders to take advantage of more premium hotel classes because the expense would be spread out and therefore more bearable. So much more money for Accor.

Generally speaking, not everyone can afford one or two weeks in a hotel for their vacation. By making it possible to smooth out the expenditure, perhaps this could bring back into the hotel fold customers who have now gone to Airbnb for long stays.

This is basically what we can expect from the future Visa ALL card. Now we just have to wait for the official announcement from Accor and Visa and see if we were right.

Bertrand Duperrin
Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com
Compulsive traveler, present in the French #avgeek community since the late 2000s and passionate about (long) travel since his youth, Bertrand Duperrin co-founded Travel Guys with Olivier Delestre in March 2015.
1,324FansLike
934FollowersFollow
1,272FollowersFollow
351SubscribersSubscribe

Trending posts

Recent posts