For our upcoming Southeast Asia trip in April, I was trying to use two 2024 American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) credits on two different Amex Platinum cards. These are $200 credits that are applied to the cost of American Express Travel hotel bookings for a subset of hotels that provide a lot of benefits in exchange for the booking. Benefits include free breakfast for two, early check-in/late check-out (if available), a one category upgrade, and a property credit. You can also use this $200 credit for a subset of hotels called The Hotel Collection which provides fewer benefits and requires at least a two night booking.

Another benefit of FHR bookings is that you can also combine it with your elite benefits at Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt and earn points for the full price (before the credit is applied) in those programs as it’s a cash booking. Sometimes you can get a multiple category upgrade when the hotel applies the FHR and hotel elite program benefits.

In the past, I have used these credits for stays in Portugal and Quebec City. I had previously booked two from 2023 for Phnom Penh at the Raffles Hotel when our Asia trip was scheduled for February and March. In rebooking the trip, I canceled the bookings and the $200 credits were unfortunately clawed back by Amex.

I had a few options to try and use the credits when I rebooked the trip. I had two night stays in Singapore, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh which made sense for the credits as I only had two to use for 2024. When you book back-to-back nights with two credits, you can get $200 off per night and most of the other benefits for both nights although you do not get multiples of the property credit to use in that situation. I checked all of the cities and I decided to book through Hyatt for the Park Hyatt in Siem Reap (as there was a specific suite I wanted and I was able to book it with Hyatt points plus a suite upgrade award plus a small cash premium) and Hyatt Regency in Phnom Penh (as I found a very good cash rate plus a suite upgrade award). So, it was down to Singapore.

There were lots of options, but many were upwards of $5-600 per night or higher. Even with the $200 credit, it does not make a lot of sense in most cases to pay $400+ out of pocket for a city hotel. I saw that the Conrad Centennial was about $220 per night after the credit was applied. That sounded more reasonable. We would also have the chance of a double upgrade and additional benefits because my wife is a Hilton Diamond (both of these bookings were through her Amex Platinum cards). One additional benefit of booking through FHR instead of via Hilton is that we could have breakfast in the restaurant instead of the lounge, and the hotel restaurant is supposed to have one of the best breakfasts in Singapore.

The other option I had been considering was the Andaz via Hyatt directly. As a Hyatt Globalist, I would get most of the same benefits as booking through FHR. The cost in points was 20k per night, which I value around $400. The cash rate was about $350 per night so cash seemed like a better deal for our dates. Right now, I have both options booked.

In the end, I think we will stick with the FHR booking as we will save about $260 total. The locations are similar with the Conrad slightly more central to the main tourist sites. Hopefully, we will enjoy our stay at the Conrad, earn some Hilton points and get a nice double upgrade. I’ll have a full review of the hotel when we return from the trip.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.