American Express 5X applies only to prepaid hotels (and to airfare). Booking prepaid hotels through any agency makes changes or refunds complicated. Pre-pandemic it was often possible to estimate the probability that a specific trip would need to be changed, but now we cannot always make our own decisions.
It just needs to be prepaid to get the 5x, not nonrefundable. I didn't experience any delays with getting refunds under FHR, but I also never had to call in to do anything. The bigger issue is potential loss of points / elite benefits.
Originally Posted by
FrequentFlyer9000
I guess the 5% airfare benefit is nice but even that isn't really much better than the 4.5% CSR benefit. Just doesn't seem to be a card that it makes sense to spend on in most situations...
I guess it depends on travel portal usage; I never use it and always transfer URs, so maybe that's why I value the Plat 5x higher and put all my airline tickets and FHR on the Plat. Of course, it's nice to know travel portal is there as a baseline in case I ever need to "cash out" all my URs.