American express fine hotels and resorts special offers

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One of the most overlooked perks of holding one of American Express’s premium cards is access to the Fine Hotels & Resorts program. By booking your hotel stay through this program, cardmembers get elite-like benefits ranging from free breakfast and late checkout to room upgrades and a perk worth at least $100.

Even better, Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings earn 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on eligible cards. There’s a lot to like about Fine Hotels & Resorts. Let’s show you why you should consider booking your next hotel stay through the program.

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American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts Program Overview

Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts is a hotel benefit program exclusively available to Platinum- or Centurion-branded American Express cardmembers. By booking a stay through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program, you’ll get guaranteed perks such as hotel credits, free breakfast, late checkout and more. See your American Express card details for terms and conditions.

There are currently over 1,800 hotels participating in Fine Hotels & Resorts. True to the program name, these include some of the “finest” hotels and resorts around. This isn’t the program to use if you’re looking for a motel by the highway. Indeed, some of the hotels in the program can be quite expensive.

With that said, you aren’t necessarily going to pay an arm and a leg for these stays. Along with the luxury hotels, there are some upscale hotels available at rates that won’t blow your budget.

American Express Cards With Fine Hotels & Resorts Access

Not all American Express cardmembers can use the Fine Hotels & Resorts program. You’ll need to have a Platinum- or Centurion-branded American Express card to be eligible to utilize the FHR program. That includes cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and the Centurion® Card from American Express*.

Co-branded Amex Platinum cards are also eligible to book Fine Hotels & Resorts. However, airline and hotel “Platinum” cards—like the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card—aren’t eligible.

Benefits of Booking Through Fine Hotels & Resorts

Unlike Amex’s International Airline Program, Fine Hotels & Resorts isn’t a discount program. Fine Hotels & Resorts is all about the perks. Many of the perks Fine Hotels & Resorts offer are ones that are offered to guests at the top-tier elite level. Getting these perks without having to qualify for status is a benefit in itself.

There are six benefits that travelers receive for booking through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program:

• Early Check-In: Check-in as early as noon, when available
• Room Upgrade: Get an upgrade to a nicer room at check-in, when available
• Complimentary Breakfast: Receive free breakfast for up to two guests
• $100 Experience Credit: Get up to $100 in on-site credits, depending on the hotel
• Complimentary Wi-Fi: Free Wi-Fi even if it’s included in a resort fee
• 4 p.m. Check-Out: Get guaranteed late check out as late as 4 p.m.

These perks can really add up. By analyzing 2020 bookings, American Express found that these perks add up to $550 in value for just a two-night stay.

Most of these benefits are guaranteed. However, the early check-in and room upgrade perks are both subject to availability. Also, the program’s terms note a catch-all that “certain room categories are not eligible for upgrade.”

It’s worth noting that these perks are applied per room for up to three rooms per stay. This means an Amex cardmember can book two additional rooms to accommodate friends or family. Each room will receive each of these benefits—including the $100 credit.

$100 Experience Credit

Cardmembers will get a “$100 Experience Credit” for each Fine Hotels & Resorts booking. The exact form of this credit varies by the hotel. Many properties offer a straight-forward $100 food and beverage credit. However, other sites will offer a spa service, round of golf or perhaps a dinner.

Thankfully, what you’ll get won’t be a surprise. Fine Hotels & Resorts clearly indicates which type of credit you’ll receive before you book.

Depending on your travel style, a food and beverage credit will generally be the easiest to use. However, as Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings come with complimentary breakfast, it might be hard to fully utilize a food and beverage credit on a short stay.

Complimentary Breakfast

While the $100 credit and upgrades are certainly appealing, don’t sleep on the complimentary breakfast benefit. By booking through Fine Hotels & Resorts, you’ll get free breakfast for up to two guests per room. Although the breakfast varies by property, you can find quality at any location.

Complimentary Wi-Fi

Over the past decade, most travelers have grown accustomed to getting free Wi-FI on all stays. However, there’s an interesting aspect to this Wi-Fi benefit. If a property charges a mandatory resort or amenity fee that includes Wi-Fi as part of the package, you’ll get a credit for a portion of the mandatory fee at checkout. That makes sure that the property can’t stealthily charge you for Wi-Fi via the property fee.

Guaranteed 4 p.m. Checkout

Another benefit that can come in handy is the guaranteed 4 p.m. late checkout. It can be frustrating to have a late-departing flight, but still have to check out of your room before noon. Whether it’s getting some work done during the day or coming back for a shower after visiting the pool, late checkout can make a stay a lot more pleasant. This perk alone may be worth splurging for a slightly more expensive hotel than you’d otherwise book.

Free Nights, Bonus Perks and Other Hotel-Specific Offers

If you’re looking for inspiration about where to book, check out the Fine Hotels & Resort’s special offers page. There you’ll find a long list of hotels that are offering additional perks. Some past offer have included:

• Second-night (or third-, fourth-, fifth- or sixth-night) free
• Up to $350 spa credits
• Up to $725 property credit
• Up to $300 food and beverage credit

Drawbacks of Booking Through Fine Hotels & Resorts

There aren’t many drawbacks to booking through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program. However, there are a couple of aspects to keep in mind: you may not get brand elite status perks and you might not get the cheapest price.

Elite Status

If you have elite status with a hotel brand, it’s important to note that you may not get elite status benefits. That’s because most hotel brands require you to book directly through the hotel’s booking channels to get elite status perks. Since you’re booking through an intermediary, the brand hotel may not grant you elite perks like bonus points or elite-night earnings. Some hotels consider American Express Travel in a different category than other third-party booking services and will grant status and night credit benefits, but this is not something you should rely on, rather a bonus if you get it.

However, the Fine Hotels & Resorts perks mirror many elite-like benefits—like upgrades, free breakfast, late checkout and complimentary Wi-Fi. So, you might not be losing out on much if the brand hotel doesn’t recognize your elite status.

Check to See If You Can Get a Cheaper Rate

It’s worth checking the rates offered by the hotel’s website, especially if you have elite status that mirrors the Fine Hotels & Resorts program benefits.  Fine Hotels & Resorts prices generally match what you’ll find through other booking platforms. But, there are some instances where there’s a cheaper way to book the same stay.

The decision then comes down to whether or not the Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits are worth the additional cost. In many cases, the benefits will outweigh the extra cost.

Limitations on Utilizing Fine Hotels & Resorts

Fine Hotels & Resorts doesn’t require a minimum stay, unlike Amex’s Hotel Collection program which requires bookings of at least two consecutive nights. However, there are some other limitations to keep in mind.

One limitation is that you can’t book multiple one-night stays at the same property to get multiple $100 credits. Per the terms and conditions, “Back-to-back stays within a 24-hour period at the same property are considered one stay.” And FHR benefits are applied “per room, per stay.”

Speaking of “per room”, eligible Amex cardmembers are limited to booking three rooms per stay through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program. Each room will receive a credit, breakfast for two, room upgrade and other benefits. If you want to apply the benefits to more than three rooms, you can consider adding an authorized user to your account. Amex Platinum cardmembers can add up to three authorized users at a cost of $175 total per year (Terms Apply).

Also, all benefits must be utilized during the stay booked. That means that you can’t save part of a $100 credit from one stay to apply to a future stay. Credits are applied to your hotel bill at checkout, so there wouldn’t be a way to retain it anyway.

Although you must have an Amex Platinum or Centurion card, the stay doesn’t necessarily need to be charged to one of these eligible cards. However, you will need to book the stay using an American Express card in the eligible cardmember’s name. This means that you can use a Fine Hotels & Resorts booking to help you toward a welcome bonus on another Amex card. Otherwise, it’s generally best to charge the stay to an Amex Platinum card for the 5 points per dollar earnings.

Finally, an eligible cardmember can’t book a stay for another traveler. The eligible cardmember must be traveling on the itinerary booked.

Finding and Booking Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Stays

Now that you’ve seen all the benefits—and the few potential pitfalls—of Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts, let’s walk through how to find a hotel and book a stay.

If you want to explore your options, you’ll want to start on the Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel finder page. There you can type in your destination city in the “Enter a destination” field. Or you can explore your options by region or by category:

Click on a property to learn more about the property, see photos, learn about the experience credit and more.

If you want to book that property, just click on the “check availability” link on the right side of the page. That will link you to Amex Travel where you can enter dates and complete the booking.

Alternatively, if you want to search all options for a particular destination, you’ll want to start your search on this page. Enter your destination, date, number of rooms and number of travelers. Then click search to see your results.

Although American Express Travel doesn’t let you sort by price, you can sort by the number of Membership Rewards points to effectively sort by price.

Cardmembers can also book Fine Hotels & Resorts stays through the Platinum Travel Service or Centurion Travel Service.

Using Membership Rewards Points for a Stay

Cardmembers can opt to use Membership Rewards points to pay for a Fine Hotels & Resorts stay via Pay With Points. The redemption rate is one cent per Membership Rewards point, and the minimum redemption is 5,000 points.

Generally, cardmembers can get a better value out of Membership Rewards points by transferring points to airline and hotel partners. However, the one cent per point rate isn’t as bad as some redemption options. Some cardmembers may be happy to utilize points at this rate.

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Bottom Line

The Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts program is a valuable perk for an Amex Platinum or Centurion cardmember. By booking hotel stays through the program, you can be treated like an elite at upscale and luxury hotels all around the world.

It’s probably not going to be the single perk that convinces you to sign up for—or keep—an Amex Platinum- or Centurion-branded card. However, it’s part of the suite of benefits that makes these cards especially valuable.

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