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Both The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express come with $600 annual hotel credits split into 2, semi annual $300 credits to be used on pre-booked Fine Hotels and Resorts or The Hotel Collection. My wife and I have 6 Platinum cards between the two of us ( at one point 8, but we’ve downgraded 2 ) so we had a lot of credits to use up before the end of the year.
What trick did I do?
One thing that people don’t really know, is that the credit is triggered when you book the hotel, not when you stay because it’s stipulated that the $300 credit is valid on pre-booked stays.
FHR allows single night stays.
So… I booked 5, single night stays, all at the same hotel, in London, where we were traveling, anyways, early next year. Each card was credited with the $300 credit, and I’ll just phone the hotel ahead of time ( or email them ) to have them link all of the individual stays. Likely, we’ll have to recode our key each day, which is a minor annoyance I’m willing to accept.
I booked all of the nights in my name to make linking them easier ( yes, you can book a room in someone else’s name ). In fact, you just need to pay with an Amex – I’ve never had an issue paying with a different Amex than the one I used to book ( in case you were wondering if I need to present all 5 Amex Plats )
The other night I was able to make use of this year on our road trip to Indiana to visit my family.
What benefits will I get?
I’ll get the daily breakfast, late checkout, but likely just a single $100 property credit, not $500. This is in the terms; however, I have seen some hotels honor two $100 credits when doing this on two separate bookings from different people in the same room. I don’t expect that at all as it’s the exception. I’ve never done 5 in a row, so we’ll see how this works.
Total Cost
When the cards cost $895 a year, but you can organically make total use of the $600 that helps justify the card A LOT. Yes, I know that the FHR prices are sometimes higher, but I’d be using points for these stays, and I’m now earning points and elite stay nights.
- Night 1 – Nashville for $325
- Nights 2-6 – London at $385
- Total price – $2250
- Total credits – $1800 + $2×100 property credits + Free breakfast + points earned from the stay
Overall
This has actually worked out better than I would have hoped, and better than years past because the credit is so much larger and the Business Platinum qualifies as well.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Points Boost
- each account anniversary you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. 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.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
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.
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