American Express Membership Rewards - Prepaying for Fine Hotel & Resort Stays

I will be staying at a number of FHR hotels (back to back stays at different hotels) booked through PTS.

Since the total cost of my stays will likely be greater than my Platinum card exposure limit, I don't want there to be any chance that the my card get denied when checking in at a subsequent property (and having to pay with another card and not getting the FHR amenities).

I called the hotel which I will be staying first and asked them about the possibility of prepaying for that stay (the first and most expensive stay on my itinerary) and they had no problem with it.

So, if I prepay for my hotel stay (using the Platinum card I used when making the FHR reservation through PTS), will I still be entitled to the FHR amenities?

Or do FHR amenities apply only to those who pay in full upon check-out (along with large hold backs on the card at check-in when arriving at the hotel)?

Prepaying a hotel can be risky.

Especially if by the time your stay rolls around, you would be outside the window for doing a chargeback with your credit card if things don't go the way they're supposed to. If your reserved room type is unavailable, or if they don't honor their stated refund policy, you are pretty much screwed.

You would be better off calling Amex and prepaying some of your charges directly to them (they will let you do this), and then paying normally at the hotel. That way, you have the opportunity to dispute any B.S. that arises.

Not sure what has happened, probably the economy, but hotels seem to be playing more games lately. No way I would consider losing my chargeback rights.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Also note that FHR stays only need be paid by an AmEx in the plat/cent cardholder's name, but not necessarily with the plat/cent card itself. So if you have an SPG card or the like that would work, too.

But I agree that pre-paying is a risky move.

Call Amex and explain what you're going to do. They should be able to work with you...

Its not exactly a bad idea, though. I recently had my card declined at check-in and did not receive my FHR benefits as I had to use my Visa Signature. It took AMEX 3 days to sort it out and by that time, a room upgrade mattered very little.

Call Amex and explain what you're going to do. They should be able to work with you...

I called AMEX, and was told that the charge would go through.

They also told me that since I am using a Platinum charge card that I can use my online banking to make a payment into my Platinum card account before leaving on my trip and that a prepayment will not freeze my account as it is a "charge card". However, if I tried doing the same with my other AMEX "credit card", then the account would get frozen.

Perhaps this is a Canadian thing (as I am dealing with AMEX Canada)? It seems like that from looking at other threads that if you have a credit balance on an AMEX then the account will get frozen (or were the posters referring to "credit cards"?).