Accor Live Limitless (ALL) has just introduced a new improved Lounge benefit for ALL Diamond (and Limitless) members. Members who are Diamond Level (or higher) now get complimentary access to the Fairmont Gold Lounge.
This is an improvement for ALL Diamond status members, and provided a point of differentiation from the ALL Platinum level.
Until this change, lounge access at participating hotels with executive lounges was a perk for ALL Diamond and Platinum members. However, access to the Fairmont Lounge was not made available at the time Fairmont was folded into Accor. In order to access the Fairmont Gold lounge, you basically had to pay for it.
Final Words
It is always good to see improvements in benefits, and this helps improve the benefits of diamond over platinum. In addition, by extending this to Diamond and not Platinum members it should help maintain a level of exclusivity that Fairmont seem to aim for.
There have long been mutterings among Diamond members about the level of benefits provided at that level. Diamond was viewed as a much harder level to attain. Firstly, you can only achieve Diamond through Status Points not through the number of nights. Secondly, you required almost double the number of Status Points.
Even though it was more difficult to achieve, the benefits over Platinum have been marginal. This has been especially the case in Asia Pacific, where Platinum has been enough to receive breakfast.
The good news for Diamond members is that ALL have been slowly improving the benefits. For example, earlier this year they bumped up the earnings bonus for Diamond members.
