Amex Clawing Back $200 Platinum Credit for Rebooked FHR Reservations
Om July 1, American Express refreshed the Amex Platinum card by increasing the annual fee to $695 and adding new benefits. One of those benefits is an annual $200 statement credit for prepaid bookings at Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection properties made through American Express Travel.
But it looks like Amex is really on the lookout about how cardmembers use this new benefit. If you already had eligible bookings before this benefit launched, and decide to re-book to take advantage of the $200 credit, it could get clawed back. The information comes from reddit where one Amex Platinum cardmember did just that.
In June he had booked a $600 hotel for October through AmexTravel’s Fine Hotels + Resorts. When the Amex Platinum card was refreshed, he cancelled his fully refundable reservation and rebooked to get the $200 credit. The $200 statement credit posted a week later, but it was clawed back about a week after that. He was told by the AmexTravel team that they manually removed the $200 credit because they could see this was for a booking that was originally made in June, before the new benefit went live.
$200 Hotel Credit
The $200 Hotel Credit is a new annual benefit of the U.S. Platinum Card® and Additional Platinum Cards on a Platinum Card Account. Each year, when using your Card, you can receive $200 back in a statement credit on your Card Account for eligible prepaid hotel bookings with American Express Travel’s curated collections of hotels: Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection when you pay with your eligible U.S. Platinum Card.
Prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings that are made through American Express Travel with your eligible U.S. Platinum Card are eligible for the Hotel Credit. Eligible bookings do not include, for example, Pay Later or Pay at Hotel bookings or non-Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings.
You can receive the $200 Hotel Credit if you use Pay with Points with your eligible U.S. Platinum Card for some or all of your eligible prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection booking.
Bookings made before July 1, 2021 are not eligible for the $200 Hotel Credit. But I don’t see anything in the terms about canceling and rebooking the same stay after July 1.
Guru’s Wrap-up
This seems very extreme from American Express. They are monitoring and manually clawing back these credits, when they see that a previous booking was canceled and rebooked to take advantage of the $200 credit. In this case, the cardholder was told to call the dedicated Amex Platinum team if he wanted to dispute it further. He didn’t do that, but that could maybe solve the issue. Let me know if you try it.
2 thoughts on “Amex Clawing Back $200 Platinum Credit for Rebooked FHR Reservations”
I am fine with a $200 clawback but they clawed back the credit from cancelling the reservation itself of over $400! That makes no sense because I no longer have a reservation and I have paid for it with no credit now. Can’t get an answer yet since on my wife’s card but I did all the transactions. Will have to get her to call and put me on, so annoying!
That’s a new low for Amex.
What if you just book another exact stay, and then cancel the first booking later?