ABG

There are 100s of these types of promos out there.... Four Seasons, Mandarin, Ritz, Stariott.
I booked one today even for a Thompson Hotel in New York and a Montage in California

cmginc

I wanted to book something for Thanksgiving in NYC, but with FHR offline, and me traveling outside the US, I couldn't spend time on the phone running rates and dates. I also can't book for other cities. Also, you can't cancel existing reservations online. Bottom line, they have pretty much bricked the site. I don't know that was possible to operate like that in today's world.

SP03

dan327

Hotels not showing have not come to terms with Amex on the new structure. It sounds like it's not so much a technical issue as a financial one, which is way worse because there is essentially no time table. FHR is useless for the foreseeable future imo. I'd rather get 1X and have the ability to book online personally.

mia

Outside North America the usual way to book FHR rooms is by telephone. Online booking was added in the USA ~2010.

SP03

Exactly. 5x is nice, but not at the expense of online booking.

pzpa

I agree. I ended up using LHR for the first time the other day. I have more travel coming up in the next few days and weeks so I hope FHR will be up by then.

Kacee

This is getting really old.

I see now that the website is distinguishing between properties that are sold out, and those you have to call to book. If this is the new normal, it's going to change my booking patterns.

JetAway

FHR now basically useless. Platinum Lounges are overcrowded and food quality is dropping. Fewer reasons for me to keep the pricey Platinum Card.

CRAZ8

I just tried to make a booking at a Four Seasons hotel for January. I called the Platinum line, but the 5th night free that FS was offering was not available through FHR, increasing the average nightly rate by over $200.

I hung up and got with a FSPP travel agent to get the full benefits (better actually, as the $100 credit is for F&B not Spa), and the free night.

I then used my Chase Sapphire card for the deposit to get 3X points (and likely at checkout too)

This might not be working the way American Express was expecting

Colin

Kacee

I just went through a big hassle changing an FHR reservation at the Kahala. First I called the number on the reservation. That got me to AMEX online travel services. Worthless waste of time with an agent who was barely literate.

So I just canceled my existing reservation, and used the Platinum Travel Services chat function to rebook for new dates. It was really slow. The agent had to call the property to check availability. Apparently their online systems are down, too. This would basically not have worked at all if I had not already known the property and room type I wanted to book.

I mentioned frustration at inability to book FHR online. Agent said they are working on upgrades, and ability to book online will be restored. No timeline for restoration. My suspicion is they've run into some kind of major IT snag.

Oh, and there's no option to get the 5x points booking through an agent.

flyme2

Has this been resolved? I did a dummy booking that took me all the way to the billing page using the Canadian site.

Kacee

No.

Online is only available for some small subset of locations (including Singapore).

mia

To my knowledge this problem does not affect FHR Canada, because Canadian Platinum does not include the 5 point per dollar prepaid hotel feature.