When I upgraded my AMEX Gold Card to a Platinum Card earlier this year, I evaluated the benefits I now had access to. While some of them were easy to use, like the $20 credit for a NY Times online subscription and a yearly credit for CLEAR membership, others were more difficult for us to take advantage of.
One of those benefits is the $200 Fine Hotels & Resorts Hotel Credit which I put into the “Things I Might Use But Probably Not” category. We just don’t stay in fancy hotels often enough so I thought we’d let this benefit go to waste.
But as I was looking at Frequent Miler’s post reminding people to use their yearly credits, I found out that you could book a prepaid room for 2023 and it would count as long as you paid for the room before the end of the year. Since you have the option to prepay for rooms on the AMEX Fine Hotel & Resort website, I went over our stays for 2023.
One hotel stay that stood out was the single night I booked at the Park Hyatt Saigon before meeting with our tour group the next day. I’ve already booked a room with 15,000 World of Hyatt points.
The Park Hyatt Saigon is a member of the Fine Hotels & Resorts network. Once I logged into my AMEX Platinum account, I could book a room for $294 a night.
Since I’d be getting a $200 credit, I’d only be paying $94 for the room. In addition, I’d get the benefits of booking through the Fine Hotels & Resorts website.
I’m not one to play the system, but I’m planning to ask the hotel if we can stay in the same room for the next two nights, which were booked through our travel package. If they can provide an upgrade for the entire stay, then good for us. If not, I’d gladly accept the room we booked and pass on the upgrade for a single night. I’m hoping they’ll let us use the $100 credit for the duration of our stay.
I hadn’t thought of using the AMEX Platinum FH&R credit for our Park Hyatt stay in 2023 until I read about credits expiring at the end of the year. Since we don’t usually stay at hotels that are a part of the program, I wasn’t expecting to use the $200 credit.
However, I’m saving 15,000 Hyatt points after paying $140 (for taxes and fees) but I’ll get a $100 property credit and possibly an upgraded room for our three-night stay.
These are the little ways you hack the system to take advantage of all of your travel credits and even those of us who live in this space can let some opportunities fall through the cracks.
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4 comments
I really hate when bloggers lie or exaggerate. You forgot to mention one pretty important detail — that this $294 rate came with $46 taxes and fees. Which you would know if you actually booked via Amex. It’s still better than redeeming 15k points, but not as amazing as you present it to be. I went and checked because I ran into this EVERY SINGLE TIME I tried to use the $200 credit. I have 3 Amex platinum cards across family members, and I have never been able to find a use for it because the rates + taxes and fees are always ridiculous. Just tried again to use it for Tokyo and found $100 taxes and fees on $320 rate!!!
I didn’t mean to exaggerate. At the end of the post, I did mention that the final rate included the extra fees and I’d end up paying $140 for the night but we’d get $100 credit. Even at $150, I’d still pay the money and keep the 15K WoH points.
Don’t you have to book 2 nights to get the $200 Amex Credt? Thanks!
The Hotel Collection properties require a two nights stay. Fine Hotels & Resorts properties qualify for single-night bookings.