The American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts Program
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American Express offers a program that is not very well promoted: Fine Hotels & Resorts (or “Fine Hotels & Resorts Program” in French). It is available only to holders of the Platinum Card® from American Express and the Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
The American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts Program
The American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program offers benefits at high-end hotels around the world.
Benefits of the Fine Hotels & Resorts program
When you book with your Platinum Card® from American Express through American Express Travel and Fine Hotels & Resorts, you are assured of benefits such as:
- Arrival from noon, depending on availability;
- Late departure at 4:00 p.m;
- Obtaining a superior category room, according to availability;
- Daily breakfast for two people;
- Wi-Fi access in the room, subject to certain exclusions;
- An additional special benefit, a credit for meals, drinks or care in a wellness center.
In addition, for some hotels, additional promotions may take place, such as free accommodation for the third or fourth night.
How to book a Fine Hotels & Resorts hotel
Reservations for hotels in the Fine Hotels & Resorts program can only be made with:
- American Express Platinum Card® Travel Services
- Centurion Travel Services,
- of American Express Travel
- from americanexpress.ca/travel
The easiest way to do your research is to visit the American Express Travel website.
Note that American Express has also launched a website dedicated to Fine Hotels & Resorts that you will find here (but at this time, only the hotels Fine Hotels & Resorts will be displayed, whereas on the American Express Travel website (option “Book a trip” in the screen below), they will be displayed first, before other hotels:
Once you have selected your hotel, you will proceed to checkout with the Platinum Card® from American Express or the Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
Some notes:
- The cardholder must be part of the trip
- Regardless of the number of nights: only one “package” of benefits will be issued per stay (this applies in particular to the credit that will be offered in the hotel)
- Possibility to book up to 3 rooms per stay
- Consecutive stays at the same institution participating in the program Fine Hotels & Resorts during a 24 hour period are considered as one stay (so don’t think about checking out/checking in to get the credit offered in the establishment again… unless you have the 2 platinum cards as you will see below 😉 )
An example of a Fine Hotels & Resorts reservation
When I’m not using points to book hotels and I’m not staying at a hotel where I have status (e.g. Marriott / Hilton), I look at what Fine Hotels & Resorts offers.
We are obviously talking about high-end hotels where the nightly rate will rarely go below 200 CA$. In the past, I have used the program to get a stay at the Four Seasons Whistler for example.
So I recently repeated the experience in Las Vegas. I was looking for a hotel that could suit my family trip (with 2 young children) and one hotel particularly caught my attention: the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is a particularly well-served destination for Fine Hotels & Resort, with 9 hotels in the program. And since it is often expensive to have breakfast or get a nice room in this casino town, it can be interesting to go through this program.
During the Easter weekend, this hotel was offered through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program at less than $300 CAD per night including taxes.
The hotel website offered the same room… at a slightly higher rate (excluding taxes!).
Not to mention the whole range of benefits that Fine Hotels & Resorts had to offer:
- Upgrade (room with view on the Strip)
- Arrival at noon
- Departure at 4pm
- Daily breakfast for 2 people (80 US$)
- US$100 credit for hotel spa services
We were able to take advantage of all these benefits:
- our flight from Montreal arrived in Las Vegas at 11am (perfect for check-in at 12pm)
- we were leaving Las Vegas at 5pm (perfect for the 4pm guaranteed fare departure).
- we were upgraded 2 categories (room with view on the strip)
- the credit of 80 US$ / day was – just – enough to cover the breakfasts for the 2 of us (the children having their breakfast offered!)
- the 100 US$ credit was also sufficient for a basic spa treatment (Manicure / Pedicure)
- Bad surprise: as for almost all the hotels in Las Vegas, I was charged a resort fee (40 US$ / night). Find out on the Facebook group how I intend to contest it😉
Tip for Multiple Platinum Cardholders
The Fine Hotels & Resorts program is available to holders of one of the two Platinum cards:
If you have a multi-night stay, and you have both cards (or your spouse also has a Platinum card), you can bypass the rule described above:
Consecutive stays at the same Fine Hotels & Resorts participating property within a 24-hour period are considered one stay
Being each a holder of each version of the card (yes… we like Platinum cards…!), this is what we did in Las Vegas. We divided our stay into 2 nights + 1 night and were able to take advantage of the 100 US$ credit in the Spa twice (1 hour manicure + 1 hour pedicure). We could have done 1 night + 1 night + 1 night…!
Note that this can be advantageous in hotels offering US$100 for meals and drinks in the hotel in addition to free breakfast!
You will just have to be careful to see if the hotel doesn’t offer a promotion like “third/fourth night free” which will then be much more interesting!
The list of Fine Hotels & Resorts
You can find a complete directory of American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts on this site.
In Canada, Fine Hotels & Resorts has about 20 properties. In Montreal, for example, 3 hotels are part of the Fine Hotels & Resorts program: Hotel Le St-James, Loews Hotel Vogue, Ritz-Carlton Montreal.
Bottom Line
Of course, it is an expensive and high-end hotel. But it’s worth keeping this option in the back of your mind or for special occasions!
- Annual fee
- $799
- Our valuationMilesopedia first-year estimate First-year valueWelcome bonus$1,190Total$1,190Plus $510 of bonus paid after the first year, not counted in this total.Rewards on your spending are not included. The calculator that adds them from your own profile is on the card's page.
- $1,190
- Welcome offerAfter $10,000 in 3 months
- Up to 100,000 points
Apply Now
on American Express's website
Apply with confidenceCheck whether your application will be approved before you submit it, with no impact on your credit score*When you apply for a personal American Express Credit Card, we will tell you whether you are eligible without affecting your credit score. So you can apply with confidence.*Instant decisions are only available for consumer Card applications (also called “personal Cards”).
- Annual fee
- $799
- Our valuationMilesopedia first-year estimate First-year valueWelcome bonus$1,360Total$1,360Plus $680 of bonus paid after the first year, not counted in this total.Rewards on your spending are not included. The calculator that adds them from your own profile is on the card's page.
- $1,360
- Welcome offerAfter $15,000 in 3 months
- Up to 120,000 points
Apply Now
on American Express's website
Apply with confidenceCheck whether your application will be approved before you submit it, with no impact on your credit score*When you apply for a personal American Express Credit Card, we will tell you whether you are eligible without affecting your credit score. So you can apply with confidence.*Instant decisions are only available for consumer Card applications (also called “personal Cards”).
