Programs: AA LT Gold, Delta Gold, USAir Plat, CO Gold, SPG Gold, HH Gold, Amex Centurion
Posts: 282
Centurion FHR
So I'm going to St Louis next week and checked out the centurion FHR program and only 1 hotel is available there. It's the Ritz Carlton. So I checked the rates on the amex travel site and it was $169, which I thought was a great deal for a Ritz especially with the $50 credit and free lunch or dinner with the FHR.
So I called up CTS to book it and it's $269 with the FHR amenities, or $169 without.
Is that standard practice - to up the rate to compensate for the amenities? That hardly seems like a benefit.
On the other hand, using FHR for my Vegas trip worked out great and even got a better rate with FHR than on the hotel's website.
Programs: AA LT Gold, Delta Gold, USAir Plat, CO Gold, SPG Gold, HH Gold, Amex Centurion
Posts: 282
Just called back and got someone else and now it's $229 with FHR!
Are the travel counselors like used car salesmen or something?!
Anyway, apparently I (if she was telling the truth) get a free upgrade at time of booking, so for the $229 you get a 1 bedroom executive suite ($349 on the ritz website). So I guess it's not quite as bad as I originally thought. But I still don't like how it's more expensive using FHR than without the FHR.
My hypothesis -- The FHR rates are tied to the regular nightly rate, and you're seeing a $169 weekend special rate. If you compare rates for a weeknight stay, things may not seem to out of whack.
One of the best Centurion perks is that FHR stays at Ritz Carlton properties receive an upgrade at time of booking.
I was surprised to see that the Ritz is the only FHR property in St. Louis. Admittedly, the city is not known for luxury hotels. That said, the Four Seasons is a great place, especially for stays in/around the downtown area. The Ritz is one of the best options if visiting the Clayton area.
Enjoy the trip.
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Old news and many threads on this topic already. The majority of the time you can find cheaper rates. Most Centurion agents will even tell you they can book you cheaper at a non FHR -benifit rate. At least they did in the past.
Most Centurion agents will even tell you they can book you cheaper at a non FHR -benifit rate. At least they did in the past.
In the past, I had (albeit rare) success having them offer to call the property to see if a lower rate may be combined with the FHR benefits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Centurion
Old news and many threads on this topic already. The majority of the time you can find cheaper rates.
True, but I suspect that this may not happen as often as some of the threads may lead us to believe. I don't have direct access to FHR rates (other than calling up AmEx), but I am able to look up Virtuoso rates. (Virtuoso is a program which is quite similar to AmEx FHR.) I reviewed 76 properties, and discovered that:
only 7 (apx. 9%) had a Virtuoso rate that was higher than the best availa(ble (refundable) rate;
27 (apx. 36%) had a Virtuoso rate which was identical to the best available (refundable) rate;
42 (55%) had a Virtuoso rate which was lower than the best available (refundable) rate.
When comparing FHR and Virtuoso rates to one another, I rarely see any significant difference between them. Given that, I suspect that we would see similar results if we took the same hotels and did the review of FHR versus BAR.
Admittedly, I only looked at a very small sample of properties, and focused only on 4 chains. Nonetheless, the results were enough to make me question whether FHR/Virtuoso are actually more expensive more often than not.
Programs: AA LT Gold, Delta Gold, USAir Plat, CO Gold, SPG Gold, HH Gold, Amex Centurion
Posts: 282
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarshKing
My hypothesis -- The FHR rates are tied to the regular nightly rate, and you're seeing a $169 weekend special rate. If you compare rates for a weeknight stay, things may not seem to out of whack.
One of the best Centurion perks is that FHR stays at Ritz Carlton properties receive an upgrade at time of booking.
I was surprised to see that the Ritz is the only FHR property in St. Louis. Admittedly, the city is not known for luxury hotels. That said, the Four Seasons is a great place, especially for stays in/around the downtown area. The Ritz is one of the best options if visiting the Clayton area.
Enjoy the trip.
Thanks for the info! I did end up booking the FHR rate and got the upgrade to the 1 bedroom executive suite at the time of booking, which was pretty cool.
It ended up being $60 more expensive than just booking with the hotel directly or amex's non FHR rate. But for that $60 I get:
4 pm checkout
executive suite ($349 normally)
$50 hotel credit
Free lunch or dinner
I was able to get the same cut-rate Internet rate through FHR for the Ritz Grand Cayman.
The AmEx 2 for 1 deal not so much.
Sometimes (like with the MO free night deal) I've had to book one higher level of room than the cheapest available, but the price was still the same as on the hotel website.
So I called up CTS to book it and it's $269 with the FHR amenities, or $169 without.
Is that standard practice - to up the rate to compensate for the amenities? That hardly seems like a benefit.
No, it's not standard practice. Generally speaking, the FHR rates are set independently of the direct-booking rates. The direct-booking rates also tend to fluctuate more with supply and demand than the FHR rates, so during low-demand periods, the FHR rates tend to be more, and during high-demand periods, they can be less.
I guess the one important thing to realize and that many people miss is that the FHR rate is not designed to be an "always cheaper" rate, nor is it ever marketed as such. Yet, it seems that there is a steady stream of people who post here with the tone that they've been ripped off or bait and switched when they find that the FHR rate isn't cheaper than the standard rate, or is in some cases more expensive. Amex never said or implied that it would be cheaper, or even that you can book at standard rates and get extra benefits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gallardo
Thanks for the info! I did end up booking the FHR rate and got the upgrade to the 1 bedroom executive suite at the time of booking, which was pretty cool.
It ended up being $60 more expensive than just booking with the hotel directly or amex's non FHR rate. But for that $60 I get:
4 pm checkout
executive suite ($349 normally)
$50 hotel credit
Free lunch or dinner
So it's not a bad deal!
What you found is often the case - the price isn't any cheaper (or is sometimes more expensive), but the benefits are the key. At many of these properties, the "breakfast for 2 every day" benefit alone is worth $50/day just by itself. The special amenity is often another meal or hotel credit of some sort. The guaranteed 4pm checkout can be worth a lot when you need to use it, and is worthless if you don't need it.
It's just like any other promotional rate or program - you need to compare it with other options to see what works out best. In my experience, if you were going to stay at FHR-grade properties anyway and just went ahead and booked the FHR rate each time without comparing, in the long run you'd end up ahead.
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum; QF Lifetime Gold, QF Platinum; Starwood Platinum; Hyatt Diamond & Misc Other
Posts: 5,607
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve M
I guess the one important thing to realize and that many people miss is that the FHR rate is not designed to be an "always cheaper" rate, nor is it ever marketed as such. Yet, it seems that there is a steady stream of people who post here with the tone that they've been ripped off or bait and switched when they find that the FHR rate isn't cheaper than the standard rate, or is in some cases more expensive. Amex never said or implied that it would be cheaper, or even that you can book at standard rates and get extra benefits.
No, it's not advertisied as that, but it is based on stupid customers.
Once in ahile it is a good deal. The Cent Ritz gtd suite UG is worth something...breakfast is worth something.
But on the other side, for $2,500/year, we should get great benefits at great rates. Not good benefits at premium rates, because we've already paid for the benefits with the card membership. They should be saving us money and getting us benefits, or the value proposition doesn't work.
The Cent card had good value originally. Then, airlines went out of business and those benefits disappeared, and they dropped Hyatt Diamond and SPG Platinum, and UGH. What a waste.
They gotta get something back: Hyatt Diamond would be a good start, IMO.
Otherwise, the FHR program is garbage.
The RC Suite UG is OK.
If someone is able to take advantage of many Mandarin free nights, maybe they can manage their way to some value...but there aren't many Mandarins (and NY and London don't participate).
I am likely to eliminate my Cent card...and with AMEX's buying power, I don't know why they can't put together a better card/program.
I tend to like the FHR program, but I will agree that the delta between the FHR perks for Platinum members vs. Centurion members is not always significant.
One nice thing about the Ritz Carlton deal for Centurion members is that it is a guaranteed upgrade at booking, and it is not necessarily limited to just a regular suite. In other words, you can book an Executive Suite at the RC Phoenix, and then be automatically upgraded (at time of booking) to their Ritz Carlton Suite. I suppose that Platinum members could receive the same upgrade, but it would only be provided upon check-in.
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