While I'm still typing up ALL of the card benefits for the revamped American Express Platinum (personal) Card and it's monstrous $895 annual fee (increased from $695, starting 9/18/2025); I have to say, I utilized just ONE of the benefits, last past weekend for a stay at Grand Hyatt Vail and am very impressed!
Before I jump into the details of how I utilized this benefit, I'm going to cover the benefits themselves.
$600 Annual Hotel Credit
As of 9/18/25 updates, Platinum cardholders now receive $600 annually to use through Amex Travel Portal for a prepaid hotel stay in the form of a statement credit for hotels falling under two categories: Fine Hotels & Resorts Credit (FHR) and The Hotel Collection (HC). Essentially, you charge your platinum card for a hotel stay in Amex Portal and you are then reimbursed up to $300, twice a year (Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec) with a statement credit.
Your stay to use the $300 bi-annual credits doesn't have to take place during the time period, just the reservation needs to be made during these time periods...AND, just as important, you need to hold an Amex credit card at the time of check-in.
For example, it's September now - I could use my $300 credit (expiring 12/31/25) to book a stay next April (2026). If I cancel my Amex Platinum before April 2026, my reservation still stands (because it's prepaid), but I would need to have another Amex credit card in April 2026 when I check into my hotel stay.
The differences between the two hotel categories are:
Fine Hotels & Resorts
Benefits of booking an FHR hotel:
- Requires only a one-night (although you can stay longer)
- Free daily breakfast for 2*, even if you stay longer than one night
- $100 Resort Credit** (valid only once, no matter how long you stay)
- Upgraded room, if available
- Check in as early as noon, if available
- Guaranteed 4pm check out
*This will vary some amongst hotels: some hotels will give a fixed dollar amount for daily breakfast (which could cover more than 2 people) and some will stick to 2-person rule. Ask at your specific hotel. Be sure to charge breakfast to your room to take advantage of this credit.
**The uses of the $100 Resort Credit will also vary per hotel (some may require this be used on an experience, such as spa, but others will allow this to cover restaurant, room service, and parking fees). Ask at your hotel for the specific credit coverage. Be sure to charge to your room to take advantage of this credit.
You do not HAVE to be using the $600 hotel credit to book an FHR hotel! You can book FHR anytime in the Amex Travel Portal (it's just that you often are paying a premium (in cash or points) for the benefits listed above).
Be aware that you will be responsible to pay resort fees (if applicable) at the hotel and that resort fees cannot be covered by the $100 Resort Credit.
The Hotel Collection
The benefits of booking an HC hotel are not quite as extensive as FHR, but do include the following:
- $100 Resort Credit* (valid only once, no matter how long you stay)
- Upgraded room, if available
- Check in as early as noon, if available
- Check out as late as 4p, if available
- However, HC hotels require a two-night minimum stay (although you can stay longer)
*The uses of the $100 Resort Credit will also vary per hotel (some may require this be used on an experience, such as spa, but others will allow this to cover restaurant, room service, and parking fees). Ask at your hotel for the specific credit coverage. Be sure to charge to your room to take advantage of this credit.
You do not HAVE to be using the $600 hotel credit to book an HC hotel! You can book HC anytime in the Amex Travel Portal (it's just that you often are paying a premium (in cash or points) for the benefits listed above). Personally I don't foresee myself booking a Hotel Collection hotel because the costs are usually pretty high, that I would rather do a direct booking point redemption than book in Amex Travel Portal for better value/less point.
How I Saved over $600 with my $300 Credit
Yes, you read that correctly. I utilized my $300 Hotel Credit recently and was pretty shocked when I added up the value received from just this one benefit! Here's how!
If you know me, you know I LOVE fall colors in Colorado! The last weekend of September, every year, is generally prime leaf peeping time! So, when I realized I was scheduled to be home alone with the kids the weekend of 9/26/25, I used my Hyatt points and booked us a night at Grand Hyatt Vail directly. We stayed at this hotel last October and loved it (funnily enough, I also had work affiliated with the hotel remodel here back in 2016 when I lived in Vail!)
The standard points price for this hotel, when booked through Hyatt, is 35,000 points per night. (Reminder: when booking direct with Hyatt on points, you do not pay the resort, which at GH Vail is a heft $60/nt + $6 tax!)
OR
When the news came out about the changed to Amex Platinum benefits and the increase to a $300 Hotel Credit, I searched Amex Travel Portal, and saw the Grand Hyatt Vail was classified as a Fine Hotel & Resort. I checked the price for the date I had booked already with Hyatt and was shocked to see that through Amex Travel Portal, the cash rate was heavily discounted! Amex was charging LESS than Hyatt direct!
The Hyatt pricing shown below does not include the $66 resort fee with taxes, so subtracting that from the Amex price shown, to compare apples to apples, Hyatt cost for one-night was $457 while Amex Travel Portal was approximately only $300! ($366.26 - $66.05 due at resort)
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| Hyatt Direct |
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| Amex Travel Portal |
So what did I do? I booked with Amex Travel and utilized the $300 Hotel Credit for this Jul-Dec, then I canceled the Hyatt-direct booking (be mindful of cancellation policies) and got my points back to my Hyatt account!
Y'all, I'm going to toot my own horn - but could I have done a better job with using the $300 credit?! The prepaid hotel charges hit my platinum card and within a few days the $300 statement credit also hit my card for a ne
t cost of 21 cents (vs Hyatt cash price of $457)!!!
Plus I earned 1,500 points for 5x points on Amex Travel Portal bookings.
but You said You saved $700+...
remember the FHR benefits? That's where additional savings came from!
The hotel cash price was $457 (I count the Amex Portal price as part of the savings), then I had the $100 resort credit - which I found out can be utilize to cover the $62 valet parking cost! and the remainder of that credit we utilized for dessert (and drink) room service!
Originally, when boking I thought I was going to have to pay for the resort fee ($66) + valet fee ($62); and still considering staying the one night for $128, during peak fall colors, a deal and well worth it for me... but in the end, I ended up paying $97 out of pocket, after the resort fee was charged and the $100 resort credit was applied.
Not shown on my receipt above, the other major FHR benefit was breakfast included for 2; which for Grand Hyatt Vail resorts translated to $70 breakfast credit. Although my charges were greater than that (we opted for the buffet since we had the credit. I definitely didn't eat $40 worth of food and wouldn't have done buffer otherwise!) and didn't even hit my bill!
Grand Hyatt Vail - Total One Night Cost
The cost equivalent of the stay without using benefits and paying cash:
- $457 room fee
- $66 resort fee
- $62 valet parking fee
- $86 breakfast
- $69 room service (includes room service fee and tip)
for a total price of $740!!!! Which of course, I would NEVER pay for....but instead, I utilized my $300 bi-annual Hotel Credit and Fine Hotel Resorts benefits; paid 0 points and $97 cash (on my Amex Platinum card to receive the benefits)!
So $740 - $97 out of pocket costs, I saved over $600!
Keep in mind: all bank travel portal hotel pricing is dynamic. Prices you see are going to fluctuate based on cash price. Hotels will be more expensive for holidays, peak seasons, etc. You won't find Grand Hyatt Vail during ski season or for New Years' Eve for $300/night.... but the free website Max FHR is created to intentionally helps you find low rates for Fine Hotel and Resorts so that you can find rates closer to that $300 credit to minimize your out of pocket costs.
Summary
Now was this stay necessary? No, absolutely not.
Was it worthwhile? For me - absolutely YES!
Even without considering any of the other Platinum Personal benefits, if I do a stay like this twice a year (to utilize the full $600 annual credit); I will MORE than get my money's worth of the updated $895 annual fee. Add on the other benefits that are even easier to use, and it makes the high-high annual fee justifiable to gain more value than the fee itself. Overall - I think Platinum Personal card is a keeper!
If you're interested in opening a Personal Platinum card, first keep in mind Amex Personal Card Family Rules: if you don't already hold a Personal Gold card (details why I love this card here!), if you open a Platinum card first, you will NOT be eligible for a Gold sign up bonus in the future (you must open Amex Personal cards in tiered order to earn sign up bonuses; so Gold then Platinum).
Second, as always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!
If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!
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> Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.
> Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!
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