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I have Amex Plat and looking to book a hotel in Las Vegas through Amex travel (£200 credit) How do I ensure I get the late checkout and room credit benefits etc. I did a dummy booking and it said checkout was 11:00 not 16:00.
Thanks Tom
Hi Tom
First log in on the amex travel website.
Once logged in with your platinum card, some hotels will appear as ‘Fine Hotel & Resorts’ with a grey banner and a list of benefits inc. 4pm check-out.
You must be logged in to book these.
Not all hotels are available on FHR – You’ll probably see the wynn, cosmopolitan, crockfords, four seasons and one or two others at most.Often it is a comparable price to the direct/flex rate with the property, with many benefits on top.
… but ofter the properties available on FHR are silly expensive in the first place.
With vegas, it’s a perpetual game to find the sweet spots between FHR, Direct booking, and points!Vegas does have the odd situation of all the FHR hotels being on the same street. So splitting your stay across more than one of them means getting a fresh property credit in each.
I generally would concentrate on finding what suits you price-wise and amenity-wise first. Then if you were only booking through FHR for guaranteed late check out then perhaps only book 1 night, your last night, via FHR.
With a huge number of hotels with dynamic refundable rates and trivial travel between them, I’d agree that just booking one night to get FHR perks and £200 and then doing the cancel-and-rebook dance with the better properties direct will achieve the best outcome; even more so if you are happy to move midstay. I often do strip on weekdays and then downtown (I like the slightly old-school grittiness of it) on more expensive weekend nights to get a change of scenery and most bang for buck.
Good morning. Myself and my husband each have a platinum card ( and are each supps). Am going to cancel my husbands card before 1/10 so will only have mine ( and his supp ) for a future hotel booking. As we are a family of four and require 2 rooms – can we each book a room for the same dates at same hotel separately to gain the Fine Hotels benefits for each booking? 🙏 Thanks in advance!
If I book and pay hotel now for a stay next year which means using the £200 credit and then cancel card before 2 Oct is that OK or will they try and get the £200 back? I assume that because I would no longer have the card when I actually stay that I won’t get the benefits like upgrade. Is that correct?
@sm and @Mandy – in principle, you are supposed to be paying with the platinum card when you check in to be entitled to FHR or Hotel collection benefits. In practice, the hotel probably will not check if you use another Amex. It’s a slight risk though.
@Mandy – the ‘benefits’ will only apply on an FHR or Hotel Collection booking, fyi.@sm and @Mandy – in principle, you are supposed to be paying with the platinum card when you check in to be entitled to FHR or Hotel collection benefits. In practice, the hotel probably will not check if you use another Amex. It’s a slight risk though.
@Mandy – the ‘benefits’ will only apply on an FHR or Hotel Collection booking, fyi.Thank you so much for the reply. So at check-in, I will have my platinum card and my husband will be the supplementary card holder? Should be ok for 2 separate bookings?
Sorry – found out that you can book up to 3 rooms per platinum card which will all benefit from the FH&R extras ( hopefully including the $100 hotel credit per room ). So I think that means I don’t need to book each room separately with different cards now!👍
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)Just wanted to check something about FHR. I recently booked a hotel for an upcoming trip to Bangkok and noticed that my card was charged immediately. I had to enter my card details at time of booking but just assumed this was a guarantee rather than prepayment. However, it does indeed seem like FHR are now asking for prepayment as the charge has now cleared onto my account. I can cancel up to three days before arrival, which is flexible enough for my purposes but not exactly what I was lead to believe about type of bookings you get on FHR.
Is this how the scheme normally operates? Or is this just for Thailand?
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)Wow 4/4 on FHR, ha. That is serious travel benefits. I thought I was good doing 2 hotels over 3 nights.
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)Wow 4/4 on FHR, ha. That is serious travel benefits. I thought I was good doing 2 hotels over 3 nights.
Yes. All booked through FHR. Via the concierge service who recommended the best rooms to book that were upgradable. Excellent service.
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)Wow 4/4 on FHR, ha. That is serious travel benefits. I thought I was good doing 2 hotels over 3 nights.
Yes. All booked through FHR. Via the concierge service who recommended the best rooms to book that were upgradable. Excellent service.
Were some of those benefits not offset by 2.99% FX fee? Or is that not applicable when you book through AMEX as you’re charged in GBP? I always wondered.. as say, Booking.com or direct you’d pay in USD which makes everything 2.99% more expensive.
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)Wow 4/4 on FHR, ha. That is serious travel benefits. I thought I was good doing 2 hotels over 3 nights.
Yes. All booked through FHR. Via the concierge service who recommended the best rooms to book that were upgradable. Excellent service.
Were some of those benefits not offset by 2.99% FX fee? Or is that not applicable when you book through AMEX as you’re charged in GBP? I always wondered.. as say, Booking.com or direct you’d pay in USD which makes everything 2.99% more expensive.
Charged in GBP
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)Wow 4/4 on FHR, ha. That is serious travel benefits. I thought I was good doing 2 hotels over 3 nights.
Yes. All booked through FHR. Via the concierge service who recommended the best rooms to book that were upgradable. Excellent service.
Were some of those benefits not offset by 2.99% FX fee? Or is that not applicable when you book through AMEX as you’re charged in GBP? I always wondered.. as say, Booking.com or direct you’d pay in USD which makes everything 2.99% more expensive.
Charged in GBP
Learn something new every day. That can change the value a decent bit. Is FHR bonus added on top usually or the booking is that much more expensive? Say, standard room with free cancellation is £500 for a night, is FHR rate usually that too or it’d be say £600/£650 which means benefits are the same as if you paid yourself almost. What is your general perception of FHR’s value proposition? If all goes well, we’d consider using it for next year in Vegas for a 2/3 hotel hop.
We’ve done multiple articles on this if you search.
Pricing SHOULD match Best Flexible Rate but sometimes doesn’t, because of the way the Amex contracts work with the hotels.
The best reason to book FHR is if you need the 4pm check out which is guaranteed. Great if you’re on a weekend break or got an overnight flight back from the US.
If you don’t need the 4pm guarantee, it’s a numbers game. Adjust for the $100 F&B credit and breakfast and compare to other rates on the table. Be vary of valuing the upgrade because it’s not guaranteed.
Remember that PREPAID FHR bookings don’t earn hotel loyalty points or status benefits whilst pay on departure rates do.
If the Amex rate is higher than Best Flex consider using a luxury travel agent like our partner – https://www.headforpoints.com/virtuoso-agent-london/ These will, absolutely, match Best Flex and with some chains, eg Four Seasons, they match other promo deals as well such as ‘3 for 2’. In general these bookings have higher upgrade priority than Amex FHR, but only Amex FHR guarantees 4pm check out.
I suspect if you pay on departure you’d pay in the local currency therefore very much subject to the FX fees – alternatively could you pay with a free FX card I wonder?
@Simey – The FHR programme is what the Education Secretary would call the Fu£king High Rates programme – i.e. if you pay us the very highest rate in town, then we’ll chuck you a few bones and to thank Amex for getting you to pay quite so much we’ll also bung them 20%. That’s the nuts and bolts of it, however it may be dressed up.
You would be very hard pressed not be be able to replicate the ‘benefits’ at a meaningfully lower cost. Also with FHR, the benefit of the F&B credit rapidly diminishes if you stay longer and the maybe upgrade “subject to availability” is totally unsatisfactory in both the prospect of not getting or or just getting some totally nominal ‘upgrade’.
I have never much liked the concept of paying a lot of extra cash for some nebulous benefits that cost the hotel little to provide and FHR is particularly ridiculous example, but I can’t deny Amex markets the concept/dream very well and no doubtmakes lots of money out of it. Personally, I would rather use their commission myself.
@Simey – The FHR programme is what the Education Secretary would call the Fu£king High Rates programme – i.e. if you pay us the very highest rate in town, then we’ll chuck you a few bones and to thank Amex for getting you to pay quite so much we’ll also bung them 20%. That’s the nuts and bolts of it, however it may be dressed up.
You would be very hard pressed not be be able to replicate the ‘benefits’ at a meaningfully lower cost. Also with FHR, the benefit of the F&B credit rapidly diminishes if you stay longer and the maybe upgrade “subject to availability” is totally unsatisfactory in both the prospect of not getting or or just getting some totally nominal ‘upgrade’.
I have never much liked the concept of paying a lot of extra cash for some nebulous benefits that cost the hotel little to provide and FHR is particularly ridiculous example, but I can’t deny Amex markets the concept/dream very well and no doubtmakes lots of money out of it. Personally, I would rather use their commission myself.
I’ve certainly have a mixed bag of feelings about it. As said before on HFP – it seems like pretty decent value for 1/2 night stays. I agree with that 100%, last time someone compared direct rate with FHR rate the same 10 night stay was about £1000 different excluding taxes in Vegas, so I guess mileage may vary on this very much.. at which point you can self pay and save around 500 quid.
Just returned Booked 4 single nights. Got the benefits in each…..
Bellagio. Upgraded to biggest suite ever
Waldorf Astoria. Best food.
Crockfords (my fave)
Palazzo. (least fave)What’s wrong with Palazzo / right with Crockfords? Planning a trip soon, so any feedback appreciated – thanks.
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