uclacolumbiaunc

This exclusion does not make a lot of sense. FHR hotels are usually high end / expensive hotels. If AmEx wants to encourage spending on amextravel website, then they should allow bonus points for booking FHR hotels.

CRAZ8

When you book through Amex Travel, you typically are paying in advance for the tracel services, so they are sort of paying themselves so they don't mind paying the Amex fees, and can use that to add double points to your account - they control the whole process.

When you book with FHR, you actually pay the hotel at checkout. Amex would need to track the payment and match it back to the original FHR booking to get double points applied. This is a bit trickier to pull off, but they could put some effort in to make this happen.

As a tip to get extra points, in the USA I use my Everyday Preferred card at FHR hotels to get 1.5 points per dollar spent as I almost always hit the 30 transaction minimum for the bonus.

Raffles

In about 50% of cases, in my experience, the hotel forgets to force you to pay with an Amex card and so lets you substitute something else - which (if working towards a sign up bonus or simply if the card is a good one) can be a better deal than an extra MR point anyway!

mia

travel.amercanexpress.com is outsourced to Orbitz, and they pay for the bonus Membership Rewards.

When you book through the Fine Hotels and Resorts program you are booking through Platinum (or Centurion) Travel Service or their separate website americanexpressfhr.com . Near as I can tell PTS is not outsourced.

phant0m

My booking experience sucked from trip last month even though I saved $100, I should have just booked it directly with the hotel to save myself the headache.

I was trying to add a person's name to my room so they could check in for me since I was 3-4 hours out in traffic and the hotel said they could not and I would have to call Amex Travel. Called Amex Travel and they said I could not without cancelling the entire room and rebooking it. 3-4 hours of trying to go back and forth between the hotel and amex travel they wanted to fax over paperwork to get it done.

fliesdelta

I fly Delta all the time (thus my username...) but I need to go to Iceland in November. AA (my second choice) doesn't go there and I can't find a reasonable routing with any of the ST or OW carriers.

Thus, Icelandair.

Would there be any advantage to book the ticket through Amex website (I'm a Plat cardholder, so no fees) over directly with the airline?

My departing airport will be RDU, so I'll connect via B6 at JFK or BOS.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

What's wrong with RDU-LHR-KEF on AA/BA? According to the KEF Airport Wiki, BA starts LHR-KEF service on October 25. (Not sure if the flights are loaded yet, or what the connections would be like.)

Skywise

You'll get double membership points

fliesdelta

The fare is horrendous, as in a few thousand dollars instead of $840.

Smiley90

Is it just me or is the travel.amex/gcd website not working? It's been down for a week for me and I get "AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING
We're sorry. We're currently experiencing issues with the site.
Please click here to visit American Express Travel."

GeoSpark

Hi

I was wondering is their any point to book flights through Amex Travel? I always book directly with the airline incase of any issues its easier to get changed or fixed. I used Expedia once along time ago and it was horror unable to change seats etc so I have always booked directly at the airline website.

Is Amex Travel for flight just like another Expedia? Or do you people actually prefer to book with Amex instead of directly with the carrier?

The savings is negligible sometimes cost more sometimes less than the airline.

Please note this pertains to Amex Platinum card benefits. I also I don't care for the points. I get double points on Chase Sapphire preferred when I book with the airline.

pugsley21

I'm not sure why you'd use your AMX Plat over your Chase Sapphire Preferred. In my opinion, not only do you get double points (which I know you don't care about) but I believe you get the better coverage.

The exception to this would be if you are buying an international ticket with 2 people traveling, then I'd go with the AMX Plat. With the International Airline Program, your companion can fly free on the same itinerary as yours when you purchase a First-Class or Business-Class ticket on participating airlines through Platinum Travel Service.

mia

Not exactly. You need to buy an unrestricted full fare ticket. In most instances the ticket will cost a bit more than double the cost of the lowest priced business class tickets offered by the same carrier. American Express' program is a different path to similar saving, not a way to further reduce the price of deeply discounted fares.

Discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...n-members.html

suziemay

I almost always book direct with the airline, but I do browse both Expedia and Amex Travel to check on flight options/prices first to minimize separately searching each airline's site.

When I do actually book my flight with Amex Travel, it's because:

1) I want to purchase with MR points
2) Airline site for whatever reason wasn't showing me the connecting flights I wanted so I booked on Amex Travel. I could have also used Expedia for the same fare, but went with Amex Travel for the 2x MR points.

I don't think I've ever found a cheaper fare on Amex Travel, at least not in recent years.

When I do use Amex Travel, I've been able to go onto the airline website and used the record locator # to deal with seat selection etc, same as if I were to buy from the airline but like you, I prefer to go direct to minimize potential issues.

mia

americanexpress.com/travel is a general purpose booking site which anyone can use. It is currently outsourced to Orbitz which is now owned by Expedia. I cannot think of any reason to book through this site, other than to earn one additional Membership Rewards point per dollar.

Platinum Travel Service is a separate agency available only to Platinum Card holders. There is no bonus for booking through PTS, and I believe there is a booking fee for airline tickets. Most use PTS only when booking Fine Hotels & Resorts properties.