Originally Posted by
trilinearmipmap
Has anyone had any luck when booking through the property directly to get the FHR benefits with an advertised promotional rate?
That is simply not how FHR works. It makes no difference whether or not you are a US or Canadian cardholder in my experience.
Amex negotiates these rates directly with each property, in the same way that your employer will negotiate special rates with hotels that your employees use heavily. They are based on discounts off the rack rate and do not adjust themselves in line with any promotional deal.
If you look back 3 years on FT, you will see that everyone hated FHR and thought it was cr*p. That is because, post 9/11, hotels were discounting heavily for a couple of years and it was rare that you would find the FHR rate (which always beats rack rate) was better than whatever special was currently being offered to fill rooms.
Today, the tide has turned. The hotel industry is booming. Special offers are rarer, especially at peak times. Today, the FHR rate is normally a better deal than the hotels own rate, because the hotel is only selling at rack rate.
In your case, the Four Seasons promo rate beats FHR. You should be grateful for the promo rate, book it and move on. You forget to mention that if you were only staying in that resort for 1-3 nights, FHR would still beat the hotels own rates.