It really is a matter of perspective. If you want to use points or care about earning the 8x points, prepaying resort fee can be advantageous.

The Edit hotel that I wish to book for a 2-night stay also has points boost. Is there a way to pay $250 (to use up my semi-annual credit) and the rest in points to take advantage of the points boost?

Yes, you can easily choose to split the payment at checkout and pay $250 to the CSR and for the remaining balance to use points at 2 cpp.

All Edit hotels have points boost applied and you can use points at a value of 2 cpp (not just the one you are looking to book).

Edit vs. FHR
 

Explored a four-night booking in Tokyo for January, comparing all-in Edit rates, FHR rates and hotel rates:

Edit $4,892 - 250 credit = $4,642 (rate advertised as Points Boost!)
FHR $3,638.18-300 credit = $3,383 (plus late checkout guarantee!)
Hotel $3648.11

FHR is the clear winner.

If you are comparing the exact same property then yes, of course, FHR is the clear winner with a ~$1k delta between the rates which is quite steep to say the least.

If you compared 2 different properties you were equally considering, then you still obviously win $$$$ wise by going with the FHR option but it's not an apples to apples to comparison anymore.

i assure you I was comparing the same property. :confused:

It did not specify if the same property nor which property(s) was being compared in the original post; it just mentioned that a stay in Tokyo for 4 nights was being looked at. Tokyo can have several offerings in both programs some of which may be the same and others that are not, so I wasn't going to assume that the comparison was for the exact same property unless it was specified as such. Thank you for clarifying that you were comparing the same property across both programs for the same nights - it's pretty terrible (and crazy) that the Edit rates would be that much higher.

Same room/same terms?

Obviously same room, same hotel, same days, all cancellable.

Boy, this is a suspicious crowd who thinks that a fellow FTer would compare apples vs. oranges!

It's not so obvious unless specified.

You have been here long enough to know that people compare apples to oranges all the time.

My apologies, but I don't think the intent was to make you feel that we were suspicious. There are times that people can compare 2 different properties in the same locale that participate in Edit and/or FHR, for example, a Conrad vs a Four Seasons and for all intent and purposes that is not an apples to apples comparison. While the Conrad may be a perfectly fine option, it is not a fair comparison to Four Seasons - one may not want to or feel it is necessary to pay the (much) higher rates at 4S but there is a big difference between those 2 properties.

Therefore, it is important to clarify that you were comparing the exact same property (and everything else i.e. rates, terms).

Chase Edit does seem to be more expensive across the board on the initial search result screen. Here's Jan 21-23. However, if I select a room on Amex FHR, I see both a non-refundable and a refundable option. The refundable option is essentially the same price as Chase. It appears that Amex is showing nonrefundable rates that make it appear cheaper than Chase Edit. But you won't know it until you select the room/rate.

Has anyone actually posted specific DP showing large price discrepancies?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9b4febc6fa.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ba783c9df5.png

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...062115b3fa.png
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...14c1c1fdf4.png

I have. See above.

didn’t mean to be difficult, I have just done a lot of searches and have never seen a $300/35% difference to booking direct for an Edit hotel. And the note that it is a points boost hotel, which is not relevant on a cash booking, made me wonder

It was a surprise to me. Both the FHR and Hotel rates were 3rd night free rates. As in everything FT, YMMV.

I posted the comparison to try to warn folks to comparison shop. Didn’t think I would have to explain the basic tenants of comparison shopping. 😀