A few days ago I wrote about American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso, which are two methods of making reservations that can get you additional benefits on stays at hundreds of high end hotels.

Some of you brought up Visa Signature’s Luxury Hotel Collection, so I figured I’d make a follow up post about it. This is a bit smaller scale of a program that’s available to anyone with a US-issued Signature Visa credit card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, British Airways Visa, Hyatt Visa, United Explorer Visa, etc. To take advantage of this benefit you have to reserve and pay for hotel stays with a qualifying credit card.

The benefits for booking through the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection are as follows:

• Best available rate guarantee
• Automatic room upgrade upon arrival, when available
• Free in-room Internet or Valet parking
• Complimentary continental breakfast
• 3PM check-out, when available
• VIP Guest status
• $25 food or beverage voucher

To break that down a bit further, it seems like the best rate guarantee applies exclusively to the prevailing or best flexible rate. In other words, when booking through this program you can’t use an advance purchase/AAA/senior/government/corporate rate, so in many cases the savings that can be had there might more than compensate for the extra benefits.

I think most of the other benefits are pretty self explanatory, though the one I find especially intriguing is “free in-room internet or valet parking.” If the hotel offers both you can choose, and if you choose valet parking it can be a value of up to $50 per day. The Andaz West Hollywood is part of this hotel collection, so between the free valet parking (if you rent a car) and food and beverage credit, booking through here would likely be consistently cheaper than booking an otherwise discounted rate.

Anyway, the program itself consists of over 800 hotels, and while they have a lot of luxury hotels, they also seem to include a few more mid-range properties than Virtuoso, which is probably useful for many of us. For example, all the US Andaz hotels are included in the collection. The website lets you search hotels either by their brand, name, or location, which is pretty useful, and the website is as easy to use as just about any booking site.

The results page will list all hotels in the area (I searched Los Angeles) along with their corresponding prices.

If you click on “See Rooms & Rates” you’ll see all the room options along with the corresponding benefits.

The cool thing is that at no point in the booking process do you have to log in (though you can choose to have a username and password so your info will be saved). On the next page you simply have to complete the purchase with a Signature Visa credit card, and your reservation will be confirmed.

I actually hadn’t known about this program until a few weeks ago, and it really pained to me to think for how long I’ve been missing out on these benefits for the Andaz hotels I’ve been staying at.

As always you should look at all the options before making a booking, including advance purchase rates, AAA rates, etc. But in many cases the additional benefits with this program may total $100 per night. I think the biggest potential benefit here is free valet parking for up to a $50 per day value, which both American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso don’t offer as a benefit. So while I still generally prefer the offerings of those two programs, I can see many circumstances under which I’d use the Signature Visa program instead.

Happy booking!

While not nearly as lucrative as Starwood’s cash & points program, where the savings can be disproportionate, Priority Club has nonetheless offered a fixed cash & points redemption option for a few years now. At the beginning you could reduce the cost of an award stay by 5,000 points for $30 per night or reduce the cost of an award stay by 10,000 points for $60 per night.

This basically made it possible to buy Priority Club points for 0.6 cents each. The way the system worked was that if you made a cash & points booking your account would be credited those extra points, and the reservation would then be processed and charged the full number of points required. If you turned around and cancelled your reservation you would get the full number of points back but no cash back.

Back in November of 2010 Priority Club raised the co-pay amount for the 5,000 point discount from $30 to $40 per night, while keeping the 10,000 point discount at $60 per night.

Well it appears as if overnight, without any announcement, Priority Club has raised the cost of the 10,000 point discount from $60 to $70.

So that means Priority Club points now basically cost 0.7 cents each to “buy.” Between this and the award chart devaluation, it’s not turning out to be a great year for Priority Club.

(Tip of the hat to Stvr)

Win 25,000 SPG points from the Starwood American Express!
Review: Sheraton Tribeca New York
Attending the SPG AmEx Screening of “Mansome” at the Tribeca Film Festival

Reminder: In connection with my trip to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival I’m giving away 25,000 SPG points through Twitter. See this post for full details on how to win. Also, in the interest of full disclosure my lodging and transportation were paid for by the Starwood American Express for this trip.

I ran into my idol, Johnny Jet, at JFK, and we shared a cab to the Sheraton Tribeca.

Everyone has their favorite area of New York, and Tribeca is certainly becoming one of the more trendy areas. I can’t say it’s my favorite part of the city just yet, but it certainly has a completely different “feel” than midtown or the Financial District (where I usually stay), and was very convenient for the theater at which the Tribeca Film Festival screening would take place that night.

Sheraton exterior

Sheraton entrance

The hotel only opened a couple of years ago so still has a pretty “fresh” feel to it. The agent at check-in was efficient and polite, and I presented my SPG Platinum card, a credit card, and ID. It occurred to me that I hadn’t previously added my SPG number to the reservation, so while I was already pre-assigned a room he also programmed my keys for access to the club lounge.

Lobby

Link@Sheraton in the lobby

I was assigned a room on the 17th floor so headed for the elevators, which require keys for access.

Hallway

The room was definitely on the small side though had a “fresh” feel to it and was nicely furnished. It featured one of Sheraton’s signature “Sweet Sleeper” beds, which I’m starting to like as much as the Westin Heavenly Bed.

Room

Room

Desk and TV

One of the things I do love about Tribeca are the great views of the city if you’re on a high enough floor, since most buildings in the immediate area aren’t high rises.

View from my room

The bathroom was a good size and featured a walk-in shower, toilet, and sink, with Sheraton branded toiletries.

Bathroom

Bathroom

As a Platinum member I had access to the club lounge, which is located on the 16th floor. It was a nice area with high-top seating, tables, and couches for lounging. While I never made it to the lounge for breakfast, the evening spread consisted of fruit, cheese, crackers, and two hot options (like spring rolls, chicken wings, etc.). Service was very attentive, and the attendant seemed to be pretty familiar with most of the guests, so it seemed like they were regulars.

Club lounge

Part of the evening spread

The highlight of the club lounge had to be the stunning terrace overlooking the city. It’s funny because I feel like people overlook the simplest things some time. The weather was beautiful, the temperature perfect, and the terrace had one of the nicest views of the city I’ve seen from anywhere. So I spent quite a bit of time out there.

Terrace

On the whole I quite liked the property. Let me be clear, there are higher end and more premium SPG hotels in the City, including the St. Regis and the Chatwal, but they come at a price. From a value perspective it’s tough to beat the Sheraton Tribeca given that it’s a category five property, making it as few as 12,000 SPG points per night (with the fifth night free). There aren’t many cities with higher hotel rates than New York, so I would recommend this hotel to anyone that wants to be in the Tribeca area.

I think both Virtuoso and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts are among the most overlooked programs when it comes to adding additional benefits to your hotel stays at no additional cost. As some of you may recall I was temporarily a luxury travel agent with access to Virtuoso properties, though I had a bit too much on my plate and in the end wasn’t able to do it justice while keeping up with my other obligations. I don’t for a second regret having done it, though, since I learned a ton about the travel industry, and hopefully in turn I can use that to provide you guys with an unbiased opinion about the programs.

So what are Virtuoso and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts? Basically they’re both booking channels through which you can get additional benefits for stays at select luxury hotels that belong to both groups while not paying more than the prevailing/flexible rate (it’s worth noting that you can’t get these benefits on points stays, corporate rates, discounted rates, or advance purchase rates). In some instances booking through Virtuoso or American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts is even cheaper than booking directly through the hotel (I specifically remember this being the case at a couple of InterContinental hotels in Europe), though that’s more the exception than the norm. The benefits typically include free breakfast, a room upgrade upon availability (typically one category), late check-out, and an added amenity that’s valued at about $100 (resort credit, spa credit, food and beverage credit, free lunch/dinner/afternoon tea, etc.).

View from the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong

The two programs are very similar, though there are a few distinctions that should help in your decision making process.

It’s worth noting that regardless of which program you book through, you can still earn points and elite credit if the hotel you’re staying at belongs to a loyalty program. For all practical purposes it’s like booking directly through the hotel. With that in mind, let me break down the basics:

How do you book through the programs?

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts is open to all American Express Platinum and Centurion card members (in the interest of full disclosure I do receive a referral credit for anyone that applies through that link). While you don’t have to settle your bill with your Platinum/Centurion card, you do have to use an American Express branded card.

Virtuoso

Virtuoso hotels can be booked through any travel agency with a Virtuoso affiliation. Typically these are the top agencies since being a member isn’t cheap/easy. Many Virtuoso agents don’t charge service fees, so as a consumer you shouldn’t have any issue finding a Virtuoso agent willing to work with you.

How do you search rates and benefits?

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts

If you’re a Platinum or Centurion card member you can go to this page to search for affiliated hotels. Once you log-in and select your preferred city or hotel, both the price and benefits will be displayed. Like I said earlier, in 90%+ of cases the rate will match the flexible/best available rate displayed on the hotel’s website directly.

Search page

Benefits page

Pricing page

Virtuoso

While Virtuoso won’t let you search rates online, they will let you search the hotels and benefits. Simply go to virtuoso.com, click on “Exclusive Offers,” and then click on the “Properties” tab, which will bring you to this page. From there you can either search by the property’s name in the “Keyword” section, or narrow down the hotels by region.

Search page

For example, when searching for Florida, here are some of the results that are returned:

Results page

Once you select a specific hotel you’ll be brought to a page which displays a lot of information about the hotel. If you scroll all the way down you’ll see the “Virtuoso Exclusive Benefits.” In the case of the Four Seasons Miami, for example, they’re as follows:

Benefits page

How do the benefits differ?

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts

For reasons I really can’t understand, American Express really has their affiliate hotels by the you-know-what. They have the exclusive rights to offering guaranteed 4PM late check-out at their hotels. So while you may get 4PM late check-out subject to availability through Virtuoso, they’re not technically allowed to offer it on a guaranteed basis.

Virtuoso

While American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts offers continental breakfast, Virtuoso typically offers full breakfast.

Customer service

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts

It’s rather convenient to be able to make bookings online, though at the same time you typically don’t have a dedicated travel agent like you’d have if working with a Virtuoso agent.

Virtuoso

The beauty of Virtuoso is that if you have a good agent they can work wonders for you and really customize your stay. At the end of the day if you’re a good customer of their’s, they can make just about anything happen if they have the right contacts at a hotel.

While mildly unrelated, let me say this as an onlooker: understand that for the most part your agent is working on a commission, so the more money you spend on hotels, the more the agent will want to go out of their way to take care of you. Along the same lines if you’re working with an agent for the first time and making a one-night booking at a mid-range hotel, don’t expect them to secure you a suite upgrade at the time of booking or anything like that. At the end of the day they have to leverage their relationships to make “one time exceptions” happen, and it isn’t fair to do that to them if you’re a first time customer. But by building a relationship with a Virtuoso affiliate agent they usually will go the extra mile for you over time.

Other random observations

American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts seems to have more properties. In the past six months I’ve used Fine Hotels & Resorts more often than Virtuoso due to the fact that they have a lot of properties that Virtuoso doesn’t, including the Westin Grand Frankfurt, Le Meridien San Francisco, St. Regis Bangkok, etc. Keep in mind that participation in both programs is reviewed annually, so it could be that they’ll still be added to Virtuoso, or they might not meet their “standards.” So while there is a lot of overlap, there are some properties unique to each program.

St. Regis Bangkok

Always compare the benefits. The obvious benefit that sets apart Fine Hotels & Resorts is the guaranteed 4PM late check-out. The obvious benefit that sets apart Virtuoso is the full breakfast (instead of continental breakfast). While everyone places different value on those things, always compare the other benefits. Typically the “added amenity” is about $100 of retail value, though one program might offer a $100 spa credit while another offers a $100 food and beverage credit. Depending on which you prefer, that could make a huge difference in the value you get out of the program, and for me is often the deciding factor when choosing which program to book through. For example, I’d rather have a $100 food and beverage credit than afternoon tea.

Added amenity is on a per stay basis. While the room upgrade and breakfast are benefits applicable throughout the entire stay, the “added amenity” is only offered once per stay. That’s why it’s often advantageous to book just one or two night stays, since a $100 resort credit (for example) goes a lot further on a one night stay than a five night stay.

Make your life easier by looking up rates first. Rather than findind a Virtuoso agent and waiting to hear from them with rate quotes, you can cut out a lot of the communication lag by looking up rates on your own first. For example, if you want to stay at the Four Seasons Seattle, go to their website and type in your dates. The first rate displayed will be the best flexible rate.

Rates on fourseasons.com

Combine that with searching the Virtuoso website and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts website for the benefits, and you have as much information as the agent does.

Virtuoso benefits

Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits

Nothing makes an agent’s day quite like getting a request from a client that knows exactly what they want.

Free night promotions. I saved among the best for last here. One of the other huge benefits of these two programs is that they’re often running third or fourth night free promotions. Sometimes both programs are running overlapping promotions, while at other times they’re not. For example, back in January I stayed at the Park Hyatt Shanghai on a fourth night free promotion through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, since Virtuoso wasn’t offering the same promotion. At the same time I’ll be staying at the Four Seasons Dublin next month on a Virtuoso booking, since both American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts and Virtuoso were offering the third night free.

You can find these promotions on the Fine Hotels & Resorts website by the gold stars that display next to the hotels with the words “SPECIAL OFFER.”

Special offer listings

As you can see in New York, just about every hotel is offering the third or fourth night free. By clicking on “View Details” you can see the eligible dates and fine print of the promotion.

Mandarin Oriental fourth night free

Anyway, hopefully this was at least a useful explanation of the basics. If you have any questions about either program please let me know in the comments below!

Later today I’ll have a post explaining the benefits of the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection, which is a more mild version of these programs offered to Visa Signature card members.

Yesterday I wrote about British Airways’ amazing three day fare sale, whereby business class fares to London from most US airports were only $1,952 all-in roundtrip. For departures from the west coast that’s just about the best fare I’ve ever seen, though it seems it can get even better. If you’re a Chase British Airways Signature Visa card member you can get an additional 10% discount off the entire fare (not just the base fare) by using promotion code CARDOFFERU or by following this link.

This brings down the roundtrip all-in cost to $1,752!

Also, at this point several other airlines have matched the fare sale, including Delta, United, US Airways, and Virgin Atlantic.

If only my schedule wasn’t packed through early June…

(Tip of the hat to The Points Guy)

Back in April I wrote about the awesome new benefits that Citi added to their Platinum Select AAdvantage credit cards, including a free first checked bag, priority boarding, a 25% savings on in-flight purchases, a 10% refund on award redemptions, and more.

While many of those benefits didn’t interest me as an Executive Platinum member with American (since I get them anyway), I loved the 10% refund on AAdvantage award tickets, up to 10,000 miles per year. Given the $95 annual fee, that basically means I’m “buying” 10,000 miles per year for less than a cent each, which is a fantastic value.

While these benefits didn’t apply to American’s business credit cards, Citi did announce some new benefits for the CitiBusiness AAdvantage World Mastercard yesterday, including the following:

• Earn More Miles From Select Purchases. Earn two AAdvantage® miles for every $1 of purchases on American Airlines and on business purchases at certain office supply, telecommunications, and car rental merchants.
• Enjoy An AAdvantage Mileage Anniversary Bonus When You Renew Cardmembership. Receive a five percent AAdvantage® mileage bonus based on eligible purchases made with the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® during the cardmembership year, provided cardmembership is renewed.
• Save Money While Traveling on American Airlines. First checked bag is free for the primary cardmember and up to four companions traveling on the same domestic reservation for travel booked and ticketed on or after May 14, 2012. For a business owner and four employees traveling together within the U.S. in the main cabin, this would save $250 roundtrip. In addition, the cardmember will receive 25 percent savings on in-flight purchases of food, beverages and headsets when purchases are made with a Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card.
• Save Time in the Airport. Priority boarding for the primary cardmember and up to four companions traveling on the same reservation for travel booked and ticketed on or after May 14, 2012.
• Earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate. Earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate for domestic main cabin travel each year in which $30,000 in eligible purchases are made on the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® and the card is renewed. Redeeming the certificate costs a $99 ticketing fee (plus $21.60 to $43.20 in government taxes and fees based on itinerary).

While these benefits may prove valuable to those without elite status, there’s nothing here that really makes the card a “keeper” for me. Two miles per dollar spent on American? I’d rather earn three Membership Rewards points per dollar spent with the Premier Rewards Gold card or 2.14 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The 5% annual points bonus? I’d still rather earn the 7% annual points bonus from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, or use the Starwood American Express card, where I can convert the points to American with a 25% bonus when transferring in increments of 20,000 points.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see them adding benefits, though in my case they just don’t justify the annual fee. I’m sure these new benefits more than justify the annual fee for many of you.