Accor LeClub – Iberia transfer rate falling, and a way to get low points balances out of your account

I’ve written a few times about leveraging the Accor LeClub program to transfer points into British Airways (or Iberia Avios) at very appealing rates.

The method is

1. Earn points with Accor
2. Transfer them to Iberia Plus Avios at 2 Le Club : 5 Avios
3. Transfer from Iberia to BA using Avios.com
4. Use the handy BA booking system to book Avios redemptions (e.g 4,500 Avios for Sydney – Melbourne)

The key parts to this process are both in point 2 – the transfer rate for Iberia is effectively 1:2.5, compared to BA directly which is 1:0.5 for the exact same points currency. Secondly, once your account is enabled for auto transfers out of Accor LeClub, any points you earn (even nominal amounts) are transferred immediately out.

This is the fiddly bit, as up until now, I thought that the only way to enable points transfers was to have an account with a minimum number of a couple of stays or nights accrued to it, otherwise you were stuck with a 4000 point minimum transfer. However, making some enquiries over at the excellent Head for Points blog in the UK, it turns out there is a specific Accor link which will enable your account for auto transfers immediately, no messing around.

Have a read of the instructions on Flyertalk first, and the link is http://s-leclub.accorhotels.com/burn-auto-fast-track-init.action?lang=en&promotionCode=FFPBAS01T&programName=Iberia%20Plus

The other related news is that Accor have announced they will be reducing the transfer rate from 1:2.5 to 1:1. It’s still better than the BA transfer rate, and the old, better, rate is in place until the end of February, so now is the time to get in and pull your points out of Accor LeClub and into Iberia while the higher rate is still in place.

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