Luxury Escapes has grown into one of Australia’s biggest travel booking platforms, offering bundled deals that combine premium accommodation with inclusions like dining, spa credits and transfers. These packages sometimes cost less than booking direct, which helps the platform stand out from other online travel agents (OTAs).
Its new loyalty program, Société, offers an additional layer of rewards. Launched in April 2025, Société (pronounced the French way) has already signed up over 500,000 members. Globally, the Luxury Escapes platform now boasts more than 8 million users across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.
How Société works
Société is designed around a dual-currency model. Points are earned and redeemed as credit for future bookings and status credits enable members to progress through tiers.
The program is integrated across the entire Luxury Escapes ecosystem, from leading hotel chains to boutique resorts and curated experiences. This unlocks a level of flexibility that isn’t available with single-brand programs.
Earning and redeeming Société points
Members earn points on all Luxury Escapes purchases, including hotel packages, tours, cruises and flights. Gift cards, service fees and LuxPlus+ subscriptions are excluded. Points can be used for Luxury Escape bookings at checkout, and it’s possible to split payments between points and cash. A minimum 2,000 points redemption threshold applies.
Because Société isn’t tied to a single brand, members can earn and redeem points across the full Luxury Escapes portfolio, which includes leading hotel chains, independent properties and bespoke experiences.
Unlike Qantas or Velocity, which reset expiry with every earn or redemption, Société points have a hard three-year shelf life. Thankfully, the low 2,000 points redemption threshold makes them easy enough to use.
How status tiers work
The inclusion of status credits gives Société a structure that will feel familiar to frequent flyers. All members start at Bronze, with three higher tiers available, each unlocked by meeting minimum status credit and night requirements:
- Silver: 200 credits and 10 nights
- Gold: 600 credits and 20 nights
- Platinum: 1,000 credits and 30 nights
Status credits reset each membership year.
Société benefits at a glance
Société perks are designed to give members additional value when travelling on Luxury Escapes bookings. The key benefits are:
Free chauffeur service: Transfers operate to Sydney, Melbourne (Tullamarine), Brisbane and Perth International airports. Eligible members can add the benefit to a booking at checkout. The Luxury Escapes customer service team will then make contact to arrange the date and time of the pick up.
Lounge access: Eligible members can access Aspire lounges in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, plus The House in Melbourne. A single-entry pass to The House can be purchased for A$65 via Luxury Escapes, placing the value here at A$130 for two visits.
Room upgrades: Gold members get one guaranteed room upgrade, while Platinum members receive four. This benefit applies to LUX Exclusive offers and is confirmed at the time of booking, providing a point of difference to traditional hotel upgrade benefits, which are typically subject to availability.
Other perks include two tour credits per membership year, valued at $100 each for Silver, $250 each for Gold and $400 each for Platinum. All tiers receive a $200 TravelShoot voucher, priority phone support, and travel insurance discounts that scale from 5% for Silver up to 25% for Platinum.
Which Société membership tier to aim for?
While Silver status unlocks entry level perks like lounge passes and tour credits, Gold adds one guaranteed room upgrade and two chauffeur transfers, which may be attractive for travellers looking for extra comfort on a couple of trips each year.
Platinum builds on this with more upgrades and unlimited airport transfers, though the higher spend required to reach this tier only makes sense for members who can regularly use the hub-based chauffeur benefit.
What types of deals does Luxury Escapes offer?
Luxury Escapes offers a broad selection of travel deals, from weekend CBD hotel escapes to extended resort stays. Bali and Thailand packages with dining and spa credits are especially popular, along with ultra-luxe Maldives overwater villas.
The platform also offers cruising deals, multi-day tours, and curated experiences like wine tastings, spa packages and cooking classes. Flights can be added to packages or booked separately.
Many of these properties and packages sit outside the major hotel loyalty networks, which makes Société one of the few ways to earn reward points and status benefits on a stay.
Each deal is evaluated using an internal formula that adds up the value of inclusions to ensure the offer is genuinely compelling. Adam Schwab, Luxury Escapes’ co-founder, personally reviews each package.
How booking with Luxury Escapes stacks up
Elite hotel membership was once the domain of business travellers, but fast-track promotions, bonus night offers and credit card perks mean more leisure travellers now hold status. Booking direct for travellers chasing or maintaining status, but Luxury Escapes sometimes undercuts direct pricing by including benefits that go beyond top-tier hotel perks.
Airline portals like Qantas Hotels offer points earning on accommodation spend. For accommodation, the value of airline points might outweigh Société benefits. That said, flights booked through Luxury Escapes still attract frequent flyer points and status credits, while adding Société rewards on top.
Booking platforms such as Agoda and Expedia sometimes offer cashback rates of 10% or more. While Luxury Escapes plays in this space too, the rates are typically lower. Even so, the combination of bundled inclusions and Société rewards can tip the scales in its favour.
While Luxury Escapes offers local customer support, the main trade off with any third party platform is that changes, cancellations or unexpected issues can take longer to resolve compared to dealing directly with a hotel.
Before deciding where to book accommodation, it’s worth weighing the value of any cashback, points and other inclusions to see which platform delivers the best deal.
Stacking Societé to save more on Luxury Escapes
It’s often possible to layer Société with other savings strategies to push the value of a Luxury Escapes deal even further:
- Lux Plus+: Luxury Escapes’ paid subscription program offers additional discounts, early sale access and additional perks. Anyone can pay to sign up, and selected Citi credit cards include a complimentary membership.
- Cashback platforms: Platforms including ShopBack, Top Cashback and Cashrewards regularly partner with Luxury Escapes, allowing users to earn cashback rebates on eligible spend.
- Amex Spend & Save: From time to time, American Express offers targeted “Spend & Save” promotions for Luxury Escapes. These statement credits add savings on top of the standard points earned when paying for a Luxury Escapes package via an Amex card.
- Double or triple earning opportunities: Travellers can link airline or cruise frequent flyer numbers when booking eligible packages, unlocking the ability to rack up both Société points and airline or cruise points. Paying with a rewards credit card can add further earn.
Luxury Escapes gift cards are often sold with bonus Everyday Rewards or Flybuys points, adding value. However, bear in mind that bookings paid with gift cards won’t earn Société points or status credits.
Société’s place in the loyalty landscape
Société is closer to a hotel or airline loyalty program than a standard rebate scheme. It combines a points currency with status tiers, going beyond the incentives offered by most online travel agents.
Luxury Escapes often features boutique or independent accommodation providers that don’t belong to traditional loyalty programs. Société fills that gap, giving travellers a way to earn and redeem rewards on high-end stays where hotel points and status perks would otherwise be off the table.
The points system is simple to use, with no complex charts or blackout dates. A low 2,000-point redemption threshold makes “earn and burn” easy enough, but the trade-off is that there are no aspirational rewards like luxury hotel award nights or business class flight redemptions to aim for.
While Luxury Escapes pricing and inclusions can be compelling, travellers chasing status with traditional hotel loyalty programs might find booking direct is better suited to their needs.
Is Société worth it?
Société’s main drawcard is in the ability to layer loyalty benefits across the full Luxury Escapes ecosystem. Travellers who book with Luxury Escapes often enough might find Gold or Platinum worth the effort for guaranteed upgrades, lounge access and chauffeur transfers. The catch is that some of these perks only work from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, so they’ll hold less value if you live outside those hubs.
Société won’t suit every traveller, but for those already eyeing Luxury Escapes for its sharp package pricing, it’s a simple way to earn rewards while booking trips you’d take anyway.
The author attended the Société media launch as a guest of Luxury Escapes
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