American Express Platinum cards are getting a $300 semi annual credit for Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection starting 9/18/25. Currently American Express Platinum cardholders receive a $200 annual credit that can be used on Fine Hotels & Resorts. It’s not confirmed but generally the new credit would replace the old credit, the important thing to know is that the booking just needs to be made before the credit ends rather than the stay actually being completed.
So it could make sense to book before 9/18 to use the current credit and then hopefully the new credit will come and you’ll effectively be able to take advantage of both credits.
Hat tip to Subiemat
So, just to be certain before I make a highly speculative hotel booking with this $200: 1) I make the booking before 19 Sept. 2) The actual stay can be anytime – before or after 19 Sept and even into 2026. 3) I pay for the stay and get reimbursed $200. 4) Then I wait and see how the new $300×2 credit works out and whether or not I can actually make it to my hotel — and if everything doesn’t fall into place, I can cancel and get a full refund.
Does that sound about right? Am I missing something?
As long as your first reservation is refundable then yes. Also make sure you choose to pay with your Plat in advance. Paying with points or on arrival will not give you the $200 credit.
Thanks Ss but what do you mean by ‘first reservation’? I am only making one and haven’t made any since getting the card. I understand I must ‘pay in advance’ with the Platinum card to get the $200 back.
Are some ‘first reservations’ not refundable? Are any of these non-refundable? Thanks again.
First reservation is the one you make now. Based on the leak it will be a $300 semi-annual credit, so if for instance you make your first reservation in 2026, you will then be making a 2nd one in the coming months to use the first $300 credit
Got it — thanks. I hope that’s how it works out.
In my experience if you cancel the $200 goes into limbo and can be used on a later booking until 12/31/202x. It has normally just applied to the next FHR booking.
So I wonder what will happen in reality (fwiw – I PC a Gold to Plat l a week ahead of the announcement in anticipation of the refresh announcement and had the 50K MR/$2K/6Mo upgrade offerer on/off since PC Plat to Gold (no retention offer when downgraded).
I will use the $200 to book in advance (to meet part of of the $2K MSR) then make a decision when we have DP on the $300.
Booked a FHR stay with points a couple weeks ago and got the $200 credit. I was honestly a little surprised.
Does anyone happen to know of any FHR/HC options that don’t cost much more than the value of the credit? I’d love to take advantage of this credit, but I’m not going to spend $600+ to do so.
http://www.maxFHR.com
Most of them are outside USA and unless one travels overseas annually, that is tough. I see a few within USA. are there more options within USA especially in NY etc that are reasonably priced?
on that note, can we have a similar wonderful List for redeeming the Equinox $300 Platinum credit and for The EDIT hotels for Chase Sapphire credit use?
Thanks in advance
I doubt you will have much lunch with cheap NY. If you know where you want to go just search and see. I usually use mine in Atlanta or Chicago – I can usually get places on HC for less than $200/night in either which with the new credit will limit the out of pocket.
Agree – I’ve gotten a couple deals at the Four Seasons Chicago and had wonderful stays.
Had great luck in Vegas, San Francisco, and Chicago.
Try the Washington DC area for cheaper properties on FHR. One of my favorites is the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner, VA which is often not much more than this amex credit.
Thanks for the tips. Will try one of them.
Also this $300 credit is coming only on personal platinum or also on business platinum too?
I have a trip booked for Malta and found ME Malta hotel for one night at $238 with a $200 experience credit. So $38 net cost ($238 -$200 Am Ex credit) plus $200 to spend on lunch and dinner (breakfast is already included through FHR ). That’s the best deal I’ve had through the AmEx benefit over four years of having the card.
I just booked a couple of nights in Seattle the week before Thanksgiving, one on my card, and one on P2’s. Each room was $276 inclusive.
When they made changes to Aspire resort credits, we got both old and new regardless of what had been used.
IIRC the semi-annual $200 Resort credit didn’t start till 1/1/2024 (only people with card renewals between 10.27.2023 and 12.31.2023 got to double dip the $250 RC – but everyone got the new $50 quarterly airline credit in Q4 2023. My memory is not what it was and I’m too lazt to.search for the email.
Interesante
Is your thang supposed to be green, dawg?
Are the $200 for stay cost or for spending like F&B or spa or activity?
$200 credit is for stay cost as long as you prepay. It shows up as a credit a couple days after you book. The $100 credit is onsite for things like F&B (depends on the hotel what it can be used for) and applied during your stay to the bill.
Couldn’t they say you already used the credit ($200) and your next credit will be for next year? Bit of a gamble it seems hmm
Or, they could say you used $200 of your new $300 credit and you have $100 left. Then what do you do with a $100 credit? Amex is probably reading these comments for breakage tips.
Then you could cancel the reservation and switch it to a $300 reservation.
Relax Cholo. It ain’t life and death. You can literally cancel the resso and rebook using the 300z
Easy, ese…
Or even more devious: You make the $200 booking thinking you can cancel if they only give you another $100 to use, or say you’ve already used your credit up. When you cancel, the credit is not returned since it no longer exists in its previous form and no new credit is given in its place since you already used your credit.
Is FHR booking prepaid typically?
Yes
To get the Platinum $200 Credit, it has to be prepaid. You can also book FHR as pay later, and use any Amex at check in (Marriott or Hilton could be advantageous).
You do get 5x MR points using the Plat, and many of the prepaid FHR’s are flexible/refundable if you cancel. But some are not.
Slightly off topic. What is the deal with the $100 credit? You just charge restaurant or spa onto your hotel bill, or do you pay explicitly with the plat?
Thx
Hotel bill
It’s property specific. vast majority of ones I have seen are food and beverage specific credit. a few are spa only. a few are property credit (so anything including food, parking, spa etc). You can see that on the amex travel portal FHR search, when you click through to a specific hotel to see the room rates, up top is a section on FHR benefits like early checkin, breakfast for 2 and what the property credit it. In my experience with the food credit, you go to the onsite restaurant to have a meal, charge it to the room, then at checkout the $100 amount is automatically take off the bill.
Same experience here, the $100 credit is adjusted at checkout.
Yes. Each property has its own rules. Call the desk and ask (or have the Platinum Concierge call if it’s international). My general experience has been that a 5* hotel desk can be pretty eager to please if you ask, but it’s still rare to find one that lets you use it for parking. More often they’ll have the flexibility to help with things like using your card to book Sat and your spouse’s to book Sun, and having them split a couples massage between the two.
I regularly stay at a Marriott property where the food is an acceptable use of the $100 credit but not the associated gratuity fwiw
I just paid my new annual fee for the platinum. I assume I won’t have to worry about any price increase until my next annual fee is due?
Correct.
Debating if I should go for Gold and then Platinum card back to back now as I’d been delaying both for a while
Once you get a Gold card, you may have to wait 3 months before you apply for Platinum from my experience. So if you want to get the Platinum before the end of the year, apply Gold now.
I had a NLL offer for both Platinum and Gold recently. I used the Platinum offer and attempted to do Gold, but it wouldn’t let me apply and I assumed the offer would disappear soon. 3 days later, the Gold offer worked and I was able to get both cards within a few days of each other.
Can you share the links if it is not the DoC one? Those didn’t work for me, thanks
Yeah, I think the opening gold card is more lenient. When you apply for the Platinum card, It seems Amex doesn’t allow card openings for 3 months from the last charge card you opened.
Seconding Nun’s request for that link. I’d also like to get another gold card (I upgraded recently to platinum). Thanks in advance!
I got 100k SUB on Gold in June, in July I got a 175k Platinum mailer, applied, and got that.