There is a new Amex Offer out for $100 back on $500 or more at Ritz-Carlton. While the terms state that you must book directly through Ritz-Calrton, my experience with this exact same offer last year was that it did stack with Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts — I received the $100 back from this offer as well as a $100 resort credit and free breakfast for two, making this a pretty solid deal if used together with Fine Hotels & Resorts.
The Deal
- Spend $500 or more at Ritz-Carlton, get $100 back
- Sync via Twitter with #AmexRC
Key Terms
- Expires 12/11/17
- Terms state you must book through ritzcarlton.com, the Ritz app, or by calling the 800#, though Fine Hotels & Resorts has worked in the past
Quick Thoughts
This is obviously a nice discount if you have a planned Ritz-Carlton stay. What’s more, this offer can be synced via Twitter, enabling you to pay with your SPG card (if you sync that card via Twitter) for bonus points on Ritz-Calrton spend.
While some Ritz-Calrton properties can certainly be quite expensive, many are pretty reasonable – especially with this offer. For example, here is a two-night stay this November at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corners (a DC suburb known for its malls):
Note that there is an even better rate of $159 a night available, but that rate is nonrefundable. That’s great if you know your plans are set in stone, but I rarely book a prepaid rate as plans can change.
That same room is actually $10 more expensive through FHR, but it comes with some nice benefits:
Through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, you would get noon check-in on availability, guaranteed 4pm late checkout, free breakfast for two each day, a $100 property credit (to be used on food/spa, can’t be applied to your room rate), and a room upgrade on arrival based on availability. If that stacks with the $100 Amex offer (as it has in my experience), that’s a great deal – a net $410 for 2 nights with breakfast each morning and a $100 property credit looks like a very good deal — though I haven’t stayed at the Tysons Corners location and can’t comment as to its quality.
As a reminder, Fine Hotels & Resorts is a feature of the Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum cards — if you hold either card, you can book select hotels with the above benefits. Note that you must have a Platinum card in order to book, but you can pay with any Amex card in your name. This means that you could sync this with your SPG card and pay with your SPG card — which would earn you 2X Starpoints at a Ritz-Carlton property. Also note that the on-property amenity can vary from a general $100 property credit to a spa-specific credit or even something like round-rip airport transportation or dinner for 2 — check the terms when looking at an individual property.
If you don’t have a Platinum card, you might be able to book through Virtuoso for similar benefits (YMMV, but many properties participate in both and offer similar benefits).
If you aren’t interested in FHR or Virtuoso, there are certainly other good rates and properties.
Bottom line
This is a nice Amex Offer to sync if you’re planning a paid Ritz-Carlton stay. While I can’t guarantee that the credit will stack with Fine Hotels & Resorts, it has for my wife and I both in the past. Even if used on its own, this one can pair with some nice shoulder-season or low-season rates to get a multi-night stay for a pretty reasonable price. See our Complete Guide to Amex Offers for more information on syncing this offer to multiple cards, which is probably easiest to do via Twitter on this one.
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[…] $100 back on $500 at Ritz-Carlton with new Amex Offer (Expires 12/11/17) […]
[…] $100 back on $500 at Ritz-Carlton with new Amex Offer (Expires 12/11/17) […]
–“I rarely book a prepaid rate as plans can change”
Why not just book through a card that provides good travel insurance? Then, even if plans change, it doesn’t cost anything.
I have a Ritz Carlton stay I book through Citi’s 4th Night. There’s no creative way to utilize both this offer from Amex and still have the 4th night as well?
Greg wrote a post about this a while back. Some people have had success paying with a card other than the Prestige and getting the fourth night free, but apparently it’s a gamble.
https://frequentmiler.com/2015/06/26/you-dont-have-to-pay-with-your-prestige-card-for-4th-night-free/
I just logged into both my husband and my American Express accounts (we each have 4 cards) but no offers for Ritz Carlton on ANY of them. And we have a reservation at one in Philadelphia at the end of October. Any suggestions on how I can get the offer?
Yup — the post has the Twitter sync (#AmexRC) and a link to our Complete Guide to Amex Offers for information on how to sync with Twitter if you’re not familiar:
https://frequentmiler.com/complete-guide-amex-offers/
Have fun!
OK I think i did it (I am not that technologically savvy!). I got a message that I am enrolled. So for this it will not appear as something I add to my American Express card. Correct?
It will appear — check the offers that were added to your card in your online Amex account and you’ll see it there. You can also create multiple Twitter accounts and sync each of your cards to a different Twitter account to add it to more cards if you plan on spending more one multiple of $500.
[…] Frequent Miler, there’s a new useful AMEX Offer for folks with an upcoming stay at Ritz-Carlton! But […]
[…] $100 Credit on $500 Spent With Ritz-Carlton: Check your accounts for this new Amex offer. Being a frugal traveler doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some luxury from time to time. Currently if you book a stay with Ritz-Carlton and spend at least $500, you’ll get a $100 statement credit. That’s up to 20% off your stay! […]
[…] H/T: Frequent Miler […]
I called FHR last week to book a room for next Spring in Hawaii. I was told they were “negotiating” and wouldn’t know until late September or October if these properties would be avialble–Ritz Carlton and Wailea Relais and Chateaux. Do you know if this is new, or a yearly occurence? Anyway, I subsequently decided to book a Hyatt stay.
It’s a yearly occurrence. You’ll find it the same on most (I think all?) FHR properties until later in the year. I actually thought it wasn’t until November or December that they refreshed and made stuff available for spring, but it could be Sept/Oct. Either way, not new. (In this case, the Amex Offer is only available through Dec 11th anyway).
Btw, if you were considering the Ritz-Carlton in Maui, I’d recommend the Andaz over it anyway. I stayed at both last fall and didn’t care for the RC. It’s not that it’s a bad property….but the location is far away from most of what you would likely want to do on the island. It doesn’t have its own beach really — they will take you by shuttle to a beach, but it took multiple calls and nearly an hour of waiting to get a shuttle back on a very slow day where we saw very few other guests (we arrived a few days after a storm that had shut the entire resort down). I had booked 3 rooms through FHR and emailed in advance to ask if just 1 could be upgraded to an ocean view room if possible on check in. Rooms weren’t available when we arrived at 1pm and 0-for-3 rooms upgraded despite the relative emptiness. None of that ruined my stay, but I was kind of surprised that they didn’t make any effort to compensate for their relatively poor location and lack of a beach with the type of service that makes you want to come back at least. It wouldn’t be my go-to FHR pick on Maui anyway.
All that said, the property is obviously right for some folks. If you’re looking to really feel like you’re getting away from the crowds, it’s a good spot to do that. The rooms/beds are certainly very comfortable. And if you can stack FHR with this Amex Offer (as I did), the price can certainly be right.
This deal is probably best utilized in conjunction with the Ritz Carlton Offers page, some of the rooms cost 500 a night, but have 100 dollar resort credits and so on, so in fact one would be able to get 500 with 200 back, which is awesome
We have an award stay at a Ritz Carlton. Any thoughts on whether we could spend $500 in incidentals to trigger this credit? (Not sure we want to spend $500 in incidentals (!) but just wondering.)
I have the same question. Anyone know?
I don’t know for sure, but I would expect that it would trigger the credit as long as those incidentals are charged to your room folio. I suspect that for two reasons:
1) Last year, when I booked through FHR, I expected the $100 back on $500 to work (even though the terms that time specifically excluded FHR). I expected it to work because we know based on past patterns that any charge at the merchant in question *usually* triggers the credit — and I knew that FHR bookings are not charged by Amex but by the property itself (it shows up on your statement as Ritz-Carlton, not as Amex FHR or Amex Travel). Knowing that, I expected the charge to post from RC and trigger the credit. Along those same lines, past offers at Marriott have triggered the credit when just buying a gift card without even staying — again reconfirming the notion that any charge at the merchant in question will trigger it. Of course, that’s anecdotal — but I haven’t yet heard a story the other way with regard to the hotel offers (of course, not all hotels offer gift cards, so that won’t always work).
2) My stay last year was $488.XX for each of 3 rooms. I charged parking to 2 of those rooms and the small balance leftover on a check after using the $`100 resort credit to the third room to bring each room over $500. I got all three $100 credits (paid with 3 separate Amex cards loaded with the offer).
Since the incidentals combined with the room rate to trigger the credit, I would be very surprised if $500 in incidentals didn’t trigger the credit. Where you would need to be careful is in making sure that the incidentals you’re charging go on your room folio rather than somewhere else. For example, if you book a tour through the concierge, make sure that charge is getting added to your Ritz-Carlton folio and they aren’t just somehow running your card on behalf of the merchant in a way that it’ll show up as the merchant on your statement (hope that makes sense).
Great. Thanks for the reply.
It says that it is only valid in the US and US territories making the Abu Dhabi offer useless (unless you can buy then use a gift card?)
Whoops — not sure how I missed that in the terms. Updated and removed that example. Thank you.
Terms explicitly exclude gift cards. Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t work. You should try it and let us know if it does! 🙂