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American Express Platinum has a variety of benefits and perks. One of my favorites is their Fine hotels and resorts program. It offers incredible benefits at a multitude of luxury properties around the world ( free nights, upgrades, breakfast, credits, late check-out). However, one of the main requirements, and rightly so, is that you must pay with an American Express card at check out. It doesn’t need to be your platinum card, but it does need to be branded an Amex. I’ve utilized this program a lot, and the upgrades, free breakfast, and resort credits alone can offset your card’s annual fee.
But there are situations where you may want to pay with a card other than Amex.
Perhaps the only Amex you have is a Business Platinum, but you’re taking a personal trip and can’t charge it to your company’s credit card. Or perhaps you’re hitting a minimum spend requirement and would like to use a big hotel bill to help hit that spend? Or you’d like to make 3x points per dollar on travel with the Chase Sapphire Reserve? The list goes on and on.
You’re in luck! You can ask for a match… even on Amex FHR offers.
Often times, many of the properties participating in Amex’s Fine Hotels and Resorts also participate in Virtuoso or a hotel’s Preferred Program ( Ritz Stars, Hyatt Prive, Peninsula Pen Club, etc). According to Travelsort, you can match benefits between the programs, even on free night FHR offers if the properties participate in both programs. Simply ask your Virtuoso or Preferred Partner rep to reach out to their contact at the hotel and request the match.
Unfamiliar with Amex’s FHR offers? Participating hotels around the world offer a free 3rd, 4th, or 5th night. For instance…FHR is offering a 3rd night free at the Park Hyatt Chicago, but Virtuoso isn’t.
I doubt this will work at every property or preferred program, but it’s at least worth a shot. Much like requesting an airline status match. What do you have to lose?
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We work with two incredible Virtuoso Reps that maintain great relationships at luxury properties around the world.
If you’re looking to add an incredible amount of value to any vacation, whether you’re matching to FHR or not, I’d highly recommend reaching out. Most often, Virtuoso rates are competitive with the best available rate the hotel is offering through its website, but you get a bevy of benefits added to your stay.
We received an unbelievable welcome at the Peninsula Beijing utilizing Virtuoso benefits.
Many of the FHR and Virtuoso benefits overlap, but these are the biggest differences in between the two programs:
- Amex will guarantee a 4pm late check out whereas Virtuoso is upon availability
- Virtuoso guarantees a full breakfast, whereas FHR only guarantees continental breakfast.
Here’s a look at guaranteed benefits that are included. No commission or additional cost is added to your booking.
Did you know you could ask for a match?
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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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