Originally Posted by ayz75

I've used the $200 travel credit a few times now between myself and my husband, here are a couple of things that may be helpful

- Regarding lower rates elsewhere. My husband called Amex to book Fairmont Southampton after seeing a promotional rate on Fairmont's own website for $299. The Amex agent initially quoted him $324, and when he informed the agent of the $299 rate, the agent did some digging and had a 3-way conversation between Fairmont's agent, my husband and Amex agent. It was quite helpful because only then we were told that the Fairmont upgrade certificate would not apply to the $299 room (so if I had done it online without calling, I wouldn't have been able to use the upgrade certificate from my Fairmont membership)

So technically, they can do some digging to match the rates. But sometimes you need to ask.

- Regarding using the credit for a hotel, then cancelling the hotel. I booked a hotel in London a while back and used my 2014 $200 credit (for those of you that haven't used it in the past, it's a credit applied to your statement, nothing to do with the actual hotel charge). I ended up cancelling it for other reasons and the credit stayed on my statement. So technically speaking, you can call and make some kind of hotel reservation and use the credit, then cancel - if you really don't know how to use the $200 credit. Having said that, this is the first time I've done that and not intentionally. I usually find a way to use the $200 credit.. (it's not that hard really)