Originally Posted by
lowfareair
Fully agreed, and I've gotten good use of my credits every year across LatAm, rural-ish Spain, and Oman never spending more than $100 on the stay after the credit, but I was explaining "why a lot of people haven't used the credit". We are almost certainly outside the norm - willing to bend our travel plans a bit to use them, more likely to be traveling outside of the major touristy areas + seasons, and willing to check every time we are planning a trip to see if this will be "the trip" where it makes sense to use it.
How many searches have you done on AmexTravel to use the credit? I'm easily in the double digits every year. The average person is not willing to do that to potentially save $200, and likely even less so once they see what the typical FHR/THC hotels cost.
I've had pretty good success using the credit in Las Vegas.
I visit LV maybe once a year to rock climb in the neighboring parks, but based on the travel time from the east coast, I usually always have to spend a night in LV either before rock climbing (upon arrival) or after.
I've stayed at the Palazzo and the Fontainebleau four times (three times Palazzo, one time Fontainebleau) for nothing (sans the resort fee) after the FHR credit was applied within the last four years.
I actually was able to get the resort fee waived at the Fontainebleau, so that stay was completely free.