Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection bookings come with an attractive suite of benefits. More importantly for some, Amex Platinum cardholders receive up to $200 per calendar year in statement credits for prepaid Fine Hotels and Resorts (henceforth FHR) or The Hotel Collection (THC for short) bookings. Previously, it was impossible to change the date on those prepaid bookings without cancelling and rebooking, which could cause a clawback situation on the credit (more explanation to follow below). However, you can now change the date online. For those already a few steps ahead of me, I’ll say that I don’t know whether the credit will get clawed back, but I have reason to believe it won’t.
The Amex Platinum prepaid hotel benefit
The consumer versions of the Amex Platinum card come with an annual benefit of up to $200 in statement credits each year for prepaid hotel bookings through either Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection. Both of those programs offer benefits that somewhat replicate elite status. You can read more about those programs and other similar ones in this post: Getting the elite experience without elite status via credit card & preferred partner hotel booking programs.
This benefit is relatively straightforward: make a prepaid FHR or THC hotel booking, get a statement credit(s) up to $200 in statement credits per calendar year.
Amex typically applies the $200 statement credit for a qualifying booking within a few days after booking. So, for example, if you made a qualifying prepaid booking today (7/24/23) for a stay that happens in September (let’s say 9/15/23), you would expect to receive the $200 credit a few days after the charge posts (probably by 7/31/23 more or less).
Previously, the only way to change a Fine Hotels and Resorts or The Hotel Collection booking was to cancel it and rebook it. Amex claws back the credit when you cancel and then re-applies it when you rebook. I’ll provide a simple example here, but in the next section I’ll explain why that gets messy.
Let’s again consider the example above where you book a stay today that will occur in September. Then, let’s say that sometime next month you decide that you would like to switch dates to October or you’d like to switch hotels: previously, your only option was to cancel the September reservation (provided the cancellation policy of the hotel allows for it). In that case, Amex will claw back the $200 statement credit in rather short order. In other words, you’ll have:
- Paid $200 on 7/24/23. Card balance shows $200 (for example)
- Received a $200 statement credit around 7/31/23 (give or take). Card balance shows $0 (for example)
- If you later cancel, you’d get a $200 refund from the hotel. Card balance shows -$200.
- Amex would then claw back their previous $200 statement credit. Card balance returns to $0.
You could then make another qualifying booking to once again trigger the $200 prepaid booking credit.
Essentially, if you change plans the same year in which you’ve used the credit, then the news I’m reporting today doesn’t matter to you since you could always just cancel and rebook.
The reason this news is exciting is for those who plan to use this year’s credit toward a hotel stay that occurs next year.
Can’t use your credit for a stay this year? Book a stay this year for next year
What if you won’t have a need for a prepaid FHR or THC booking this year? The solution has been to wait until late in the year and then make a booking for next calendar year. You’ll trigger this year’s prepaid hotel benefit and enjoy the stay next year.
For instance, near the end of 2023, you could make a reservation for a stay that really occurs in the middle of 2024 and you will receive the 2023 $200 statement credit within a few days after the charge posts. Then, in January 2024, you’ll have a fresh statement credit benefit to use on another booking. Some people even time this out and book those for back-to-back stays at the same property (just don’t expect to get the $100 on-property credit twice on back-to-back bookings).
Stretching the FHR/THC benefit into the next calendar year gets messy when plans change
While a booking made this year for a stay that occurs next year can be a good way to use up the statement credit benefit when plans don’t change, things get messy if you need to change plans in that scenario. As noted above, you previously could not change the dates of an FHR or THC booking. Your only option if plans changed was to cancel and rebook.
As an example, let’s roll back the clock: I did not find an opportunity to use the prepaid hotel benefit on one of my Platinum cards in 2022 (this actually happened on a couple of cards, but let’s keep it simple and talk about one specific card). In December of 2022, I made a qualifying prepaid The Hotel Collection booking for a stay scheduled from August 2-4, 2023. I received the the $200 statement credit for 2022.
I have also used my 2023 prepaid hotel credit with a separate booking that was completed several months ago.
However, plans have since changed for the reservation I made in December 2022 and I need to change the dates on that stay. The problem to this point has been that if I cancel that stay, Amex will claw back my 2022 prepaid hotel booking credit. I can not jump in a time machine to make a new qualifying 2022 booking, so once they claw back the credit (since I will not have had a qualifying booking in 2022), there will be no way for me to recover last year’s prepaid hotel credit. Essentially, I will have missed out on using that benefit.
Again, previously, readers reported contacting both Amex and the hotel directly to inquire about date changes and were told it was not possible to change the dates without cancelling and rebooking. This has meant that some have lost out on the credits.
However, Amex has made a change that I think will be a massive improvement: you can now change the dates on a prepaid Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection booking online.
The dates no longer work for that booking I made in December 2022 for August 2-4, 2023. However, when I go to manage the booking in My Trips, I now see a button to “Change Dates”. This is huge.
I was then able to select new dates and the booking engine re-priced my stay.
In this case, the new dates were about $10 cheaper. The system accurately shows that I should expect a refund for that $9.53 difference.
The most exciting thing about this to me is that neither my hotel confirmation number nor the Amex Travel confirmation number changed. This was not a cancel-and-rebook situation, this was clearly just a modification of an existing reservation.
Let me be clear: I don’t yet know that Amex won’t claw back the statement credit on the grounds that I made a modification to the booking. However, I am at least very hopeful that since the booking did not get cancelled and the confirmation numbers remained the same, hopefully the system will not register any change in my eligibility status for that 2022 benefit.
Why is this awesome?
This is awesome because it makes those next calendar year bookings far more flexible.
As an example from my household, I have noted before that the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, just outside of Washington, DC, is a fallback use of the Platinum card benefit for me. The hotel is reasonably nice, it is connected to an upscale shopping mall, and it is around the halfway point of a drive we take to visit family members once or twice a year. I know that in most years I would find an opportunity where that property would be convenient (and conveniently, it often costs around $200 a night).
On one of my cards, I made a few speculative bookings at that hotel. I had to make several bookings because I knew that I previously couldn’t make a change. Since I didn’t know exactly when we would travel, I picked several dates hoping that one of them would work. The major annoyance there is that meant that I had to prepay for multiple $200+ bookings. I’d get a refund as I canceled the reservations we wouldn’t use, but it’s still a pain to prepay for multiple speculative reservations, especially in two-player mode. One could easily end up fronting a couple thousand dollars to Amex to scattershot speculative bookings.
However, assuming the previous year credit does not get clawed back in the event of a date change, I could presumably keep one booking for the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner and just change the date on that one booking if and when we decide to travel (obviously assuming that price and availability allows). That’s much more convenient both in the sense that I don’t need to front the money for 4 or 5 speculative prepaid reservations and also in the sense that I don’t have to plan my trip around when those 4 or 5 bookings exist but rather I could change to any date that works.
Note that you can’t change hotels and I don’t know if you could move the booking to a future year
The limitation here is that you can only change dates. If you want to change hotels, I think you’ll still be stuck cancelling and rebooking (and therefore losing that 2022 credit in the example above). You’ll therefore want to stick to speculative bookings at hotels in areas where you are highly confident you’ll want to travel.
In response to the question I anticipate some will ask, I’ll add that I don’t know how far out you can push the dates on the new booking. For instance, if I wanted to change my August 2-4, 2023 booking (that I reserved in December 2022 with my 2022 benefit) to actually stay in January 2024, would that be possible? Amex doesn’t typically open the booking calendar for next-calendar-year Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings until November, so I don’t think it would be possible to change the dates to 2024 until November. Could I instead change the dates now to November and then in November change the date again to January or June 2024 without a clawback of my 2022 statement credit? I don’t know. I’m probably not going to run that experiment.
Still, I think the ability to change dates is a huge improvement.
Bottom line
Amex has launched the ability to change dates on a Fine Hotels & Resorts booking, with a handy “change dates” button appearing in the top right corner when you pull up a booking to manage it. This is great news that makes Fine Hotels & Resorts bookings far more user-friendly and flexible. I am particularly excited about the fact that I was able to change the dates on a booking made in 2022, presumably without Amex clawing back a statement credit I had previously gotten for that booking (note that I just made the change over the weekend and I will update and republish if Amex ultimately claws back the credit, but I am hopeful that they will not). If this does work as I expect, it will be great news for those booking next-year stays with this year’s prepaid hotel booking benefit.
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I booked an August 2024 stay using 2023 $200 credit. Also, I have already used the 2024 credit for a stay last week.
Now I learn that I won’t be able to use the Aug 2024 stay, nor will I be able to stay there on a different date.
Some have suggested booking another pre-paid hotel first, then cancel the original booking. Anyone know if this works, especially at a different hotel, with prior-year credits in current year?
I was able to change the dates on a THC booking for the Hilton Berlin, but the date change knocked out my Hilton loyalty number on the Amex site and it won’t let me add it back. The reservation appears with the new dates in my Hilton account, so I assume I’ll still be eligible for elite benefits, but it wasn’t a completely worry-free change.
Certainly good news though a few months late for me. Had to cxl a stay in early June that was booked on 2022 credit because the dates didn’t work. Amex clawed the $200.
Used 2023 credit in July and they also had buy 2 stay 3 promo so worked out for a good deal at Regent Berlin.
[…] American Express has made a positive change to how these Fine Hotels + Resorts bookings work. Frequent Miler reports that you can now change the date on these bookings […]
[…] seems to be really excited that American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts bookings can now be changed. I guess it’s not unexciting, but personally I think that the true hack this could unlock […]
I just tried to change the date of a reservation that I booked using a cancelled card. I received an error message.
Good to know — thanks for the data point.
same
We’re sorry, but it looks like something went wrong.
If you need to change the dates of this booking, please chat with us online or call the number on the back of your Card. Be sure to have your American Express Booking Confirmation number (xxxx-xxxx) available.
were you able to change the date by calling? or did you cancel the reservation?
were you able to change the date by calling? or did you cancel the reservation?
The problem is amex uses expedia vs their own internal travel company.. this can be very problematic if things happen
So, data point: I went to update a booking to merge 2 consecutive bookings (5 nights + 2 nights) and the price in total is higher by $130 to merge them.
The 5 nights were booked in 2022 and we added a couple nights to extend the stay (we’ll only get one set of FHR benefits which is fine).
When I looked at the 5 + 2 separately, the 5 nights went up in price $130 and the 2 nights is the same price.
So it seems to re-price the original stay which may be a good or bad thing depending on the current price.
[…] 【2023.7 更新】博主FM发现近日FHR新增了改日期功能，这很有用。以前FHR订的酒店只能退不能改日期，如果想改日期只能先退了再重新订。本来这样操作也没什么，但是如果你还想撸白金卡的$200报销就有个潜在问题了：比如有可能你在2022年订了个2023年的prepaid酒店拿到了$200报销，如果到了2023年才退，那么退的时候$200报销会被收回，而再重新订时2022年的$200报销已经没法再撸了。现在可以直接改日期了，那么就没有这个问题了。甚至你如果某一年实在用不掉$200 credit了，还可以年末订一个下一年很久以后的日期，也许到时候就用上了。注意这样操作只能改日期，不能改酒店。 […]
If only other hotel booking platforms adopted this, life would be so much simpler.
will this option work for repricing as well? Especially when I book in advance I will recheck rates every so often and if it is cheaper I book the cheaper rate through FHR and cancel the original.
As you can see in the screenshot, it repriced my reservation and said that I’ll get $9.53 back since it dropped in price a little bit.
But you changed the date. If you want to re-price the same date due to a lowered price, an error msg says you must change the date. To re-price the same date probably requires changing it to a new date and then back to the original date. Has anyone done this?
Ron, that is exactly how it worked for me last week in Las Vegas. I changed to a different day, than back to the original — all good.
About to cancel my Platinum and have not used my FHR credit. If I book a date in the future but the card is closed at time of check-in would I have a problem checking in? Thanks
The rules of the FHR program actually state that you need to present any American Express credit card in your name at check in. The rules do not state that it needs to be a Platinum card that gets presented at check in. I have occasionally run into a desk agent who doesn’t understand that distinction, but you can pull up the wording on the American Express website to show it if need be. Most of the time, I feel like they don’t even look to make sure I’m using an Amex card.
And yes, plenty of readers have booked that FHR stay that occurs after they will ultimately have closed the card and it’s been fine.
This is interesting that you need to present an AMEX card to enjoy the benefits. I have used the FHR benefits in the past at a few hotels and was never asked to use an AMEX card for incidentals. However, I have an upcoming stay at Seaport 33 in NYC this week which was booked using my wife’s Platinum and she won’t be traveling with me, so we emaild the hotel to ensure that I could check in independently. This was the hotel’s response – “Hello XXXX, Thank you for booking through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts. The reservation is prepaid however the credit card for incidentals must be an American Express in order to receive the wonderful benefits that comes with the program. Best, Front Office Team”
Most FHR hotels’ accounting software is hard-coded so that if a person uses a credit card other than an Amex to pay for incidentals on a FHR booking, FHR benefits will be stripped from the room and the person will be paying for that breakfast, welcome amenity, etc. But, YMMV.
In the event that the booking was made on a canceled card, I wonder how this date change can work for either an increase or decrease in price, does it allow you to give a different Amex card? Would that trigger a clawback? I do have another Amex Plat card I can check in with.
In my experience, they always asked and insisted that I check in with Amex but never cared which Amex card it was. First time they almost caught me without an Amex card on hand but after some scrambling through the stack of cards, I found Hilton Aspire.
Last week I just cancelled a Sep stay that I had booked in Jan before downgrading because it did not work with my plans. I am not sure if I was just not paying attention to the page which showed the option to adjust dates, or if it was not an option. Either way, I missed out. I would have been a test case for switching years since I would not have been able to use it any time this year, but now someone else will have to try that.
Just curious did they refund the hotel cost to another card? Or just completely forfeited, as I may have to face similar situation, or try date change.
In my case, I downgraded the Amex Platinum to a Green since I had already paid the annual fee in Nov. I plan to keep that Green open only until the next fee hits. So my purchase was credited back to the original account, even though it is a different card type at this point. If the card was closed, I am not sure what they do.
My account shows the credit back on my account as of July 21, but the clawback has not happened yet.
did they claw back the credit?
Not yet. The charge was made in early January, then after I got the credit I downgraded to Green. I cancelled the reservation and got the refund in July. My AF is due in a week, so I am probably either going to cancel the card or consider an upgrade offer (15K MR for the Gold card after $1K spend).