Miss out on the $200 Fine Hotels + Resorts® credit before the increase? You might now have that.

Back in mid-September, American Express revamped both the American Express Platinum Card® and Business American Express Platinum Card®, increasing their annual fees, as well as updating and – in some cases – increasing the benefits.

Before those changes, the consumer Platinum card had a once-per-year credit offering up to $200 back on stays booked through Fine Hotels + Resorts®. Before the card revamps, rumors abounded that the benefit would be increased to $300 twice per year, one valid for bookings made from January-June and one for bookings made July-December. There was speculation that people who used that benefit before the card changes would get a second benefit through the end of 2025 for $300, but that anyone who didn’t use it would only get access to the $300 benefit (i.e. the difference between up to $500 and up to $300 of value).

As a result, many of us made last minute bookings just before the card changes. It didn’t seem like some of us got those bookings in on time because those late bookings were applied to the new $300 benefit rather than the old $200 benefit. In a positive development though, some cardholders are being notified by American Express that they’re being awarded with up to a $200 statement credit after all.

Both my wife and I were affected by this. I knew that we’d flown close to the sun on this because we both made bookings on the evening of September 17, just hours before the card benefits were set to change. Going into it, I knew that there was a good possibility that the reservations would count towards the new $300 credits rather than the old $200 ones, but figured it was worth a try.

When checking a few days later, the tracker on our accounts showed the ~$250 as having been deducted from the $300 credits, so I shrugged and went about with my life. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to get a couple of emails from Amex yesterday with the subject line ‘An important message from American Express’.

Now, that subject line might ordinarily strike fear into the heart of certain Amex cardholders who are apprehensive of a financial review, but in this case the contents of the email contained good news:

We’ve issued a statement credit(s) to your account listed above.

Making sure you know about any mistakes we find is important, so we’d like to explain what happened and what we’ve done to make it right.

What happened

Due to a technical error, previously unearned credits from your $200 Hotel Credit benefit were not considered when calculating the statement credit earned on your September 17, 2025 prepaid booking. We sincerely apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

We’ve credited your account

To make things right, we’ve issued a statement credit to your account. You’ll see this credit(s) on your upcoming billing statement.

We’re here to help

Thank you for your understanding. While there’s nothing further you need to do, you can track your credits, manage your account, or reach us anytime online at americanexpress.com.

I’d noticed one of these $200 credits on my account the day before and had been confused as to why it was there, so this made sense. Getting a total of $400 back from Amex that I hadn’t anticipated was a welcome surprise, so it’s worth checking your accounts if you made similar last minute Fine Hotels + Resorts bookings three months ago.

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