American Express has announced an expansion of Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection, with 400 more properties reportedly added to the collections. I ran a few test searches and ran across a handful of places that did indeed seem to be newly added, so it might be worth another look if you’ve been searching for a use of a Platinum card hotel credit.
The Amex announcement indicates that this expansion includes 49 newly-added destinations. The total footprint of Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection is reportedly now more than 3,100 properties in 114 countries around the world.
With properties in so many countries, you’re unlikely to notice a major impact of this expansion in any single destination, but I ran a few test searches and saw some properties that I don’t recall seeing listed under FHR or The Hotel Collection in the past. Specifically, I noticed a couple of newly-added Hotel Collection properties in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I searched a few other cities where I didn’t notice anything new, but your mileage may vary based on where and when you’re traveling.
Again, the impact here won’t necessarily feel measurable if you’re only looking at a destination or two, but it is nonetheless great to see additional properties added to these programs. With the rumored changes to Platinum cards expected to include expanded hotel credits for these programs, it is good to see an expansion to include a wider range of places where those credits can be used.
If you are looking for the most reasonably-priced Fine Hotels & Resorts properties in order to take advantage of the suite of benefits available on FHR bookings, don’t forget to check out MaxFHR. We have a post about that tool here. I’ve enjoyed using it to help me find good-value potential uses of FHR credits currently available on the consumer Platinum card (and perhaps coming soon on the business side).
H/T: Upgraded Points
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Is there any easy filter to search just the newly added ones?
Does anyone have an idea if the new credit will be full if you already used the 200 credit with the platinum.
I’ve only used the FHR benefit overseas (at properties costing around $200), but I’ve been genuinely delighted each time I’ve used it. If AMEX does indeed bump the Platinum benefit to $300 and give you 2 annual credits, cardholders will certainly value their “membership” more. As a Hyatt Globalist, these are the only hotel stays that are better than Hyatts for me. They’re always nice “five star” hotels and we’ve been given excellent breakfasts (usually buffet) and have been given $100 food credits that have bought us nice dinners and, sometimes, lunch, too. We’ve mostly been given good room upgrades and usually a welcome amenity, like a bottle of wine. No problems using the early arrival and late hotel checkout either. A $200 credit often doesn’t buy you a FHR night — we’ve been using them in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe — but a $300 credit will open up a lot more properties. MaxFHR will be very useful in finding them.
Did they add SGS? It’s always been a blaring omission from any program I can use these discounts on.
Is there an equivalent to MaxFHR for searching THC properties? While FHR is the ideal in using up your credit on a single night stay with better benefits there are a larger number of properties when you add in THC and some of them are more reasonably priced to where you may get two nights for the same price as one at an FHR property. Vegas is one good example where a lot of properties jumped to THC from FHR after the amount of single night stays booked through the program.
Ditto. I wish there is website to search THC properties.
I did notice a bunch of new properties in Charlottesville, VA get added to FHR/THC, and thought that was surprising. By itself, that increases the value of my Amex Platinum.
Found a full listing of FHR locations here. Idk if this is something that’s widely known but this helps me to know where there’s an FHR property!
https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/travel/discover/destinations?intlink=US-travel-getInspired-subNav-destinations
Nice! Any idea if they’ve been added to MaxFHR already, or if we can be alerted when they are?
I don’t know.
I would give it 48 hours before the places are added to MaxFHR.
I’ve never seen anyone write about how the supposed AmEx FHR benefits work in practice. I’ve heard that many hotels are cheating on the breakfast, just like Bonvoy hotels cheat. Like, they give you a credit that doesn’t even cover the cost of one breakfast with coffee, tip and tax.
Calling it “many” and “cheating” seems like significant hyperbole based on my experience. In Las Vegas, where most places don’t have a specific “hotel breakfast” but rather a whole bunch of separate restaurants, it’s common to have something like a $60 credit. In my experience, it typically does buy breakfast unless you’re looking for a more elaborate breakfast than what you would typically expect a free hotel breakfast to be.
I’m sure there are exceptions, but I’ve never had a problem giving breakfast on an FHR stay.
I think it would be fascinating for two people to book the same FHR hotel. One with the hotel loyalty program. One just through FHR. It would be a great experiment to see who receives the better upgrade and whether the breakfast benefit is executed differently.
FM did that on one of their challenges I believe. They did get different upgrades if I remember correctly but I’m sure they can remember the details better.
As Jim notes below, we have done that:
https://frequentmiler.com/our-experience-booking-via-marriott-stars-vs-amex-fine-hotels-resorts/
That said, it’s the kind of thing that I’m sure varies wildly based on individual property. I wouldn’t set broad expectations based on one such experience (or 5 or 10 such even). How well hotels execute benefits varies from one to another. It is probably more helpful to search for a specific property and words like “FHR experience” if you’re curious about that specifically.
Sure, but I suspect it’s reasonable to conclude that the Bonvoy hotels that cheat Bonvoy elites also cheat AmEx FHR guests.
I bet it’s not. Amex enforces their benefits, Bonvoy does not. There’s no risk to the hotel in not honoring Bonvoy benefits, not honoring Amex benefits will get them booted from FHR.
Exactly. I also think cheat is not a word I would ever use with an Amex FHR stay. I have never been denied benefits over dozens of stays. I believe the minimum breakfast benefit is $60 (or equivalent) per room and that is set by Amex, some properties will offer more. If you break it you definitely will lose your affiliation. Is $60 enough for two people at some hotels for a full breakfast, well not really in high cost places but it isn’t like they are just offering a coffee and muffin like some Marriott properties.
I think they for sure treat you as good as you can get with the fine hotel and resorts. I have used the benefit between 3 different cards I have had (2 player mode with one of us having another one). So have used it at least 12 different hotels between chicago, vegas, and nashville tn. I have never had an issue ever with anything. Always a room upgrade, always breakfast. Sometimes I even get thrown in a few drink coupons on check just for fun.
Oh and at the Fontainebleau in Vegas. By being a fine hotel and resorts member, we also were invited to their member only exclusive speak easy/restaurant called The Poodle Room on the 67th floor. It was a really amazing experience a few months ago. I hope they “invite” us again when we stay through the program, but it may be a one time invitation unless we become “members” which I have no idea how much that costs.