Using American Express Fine Hotels+Resorts credits for the first time: Know more than me!
- The Opportunistic Traveler
- May 9, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 11, 2024
“Sir, do you possibly have a picture of your card in your phone you can refer to? Right now, that’s the only thing I can think of that you can do…”
This was what the American Express agent told me as I was becoming frantic in the lobby of the Kimpton Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. Fresh off the tram after connecting to Edinburgh via Paris from JFK, we walked into a fancier hotel than we are used to—they had a botanist (I can't even keep a cactus alive).
It was my first experience booking with American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts. I applied the $200 annual statement credit and prepaid for the room, which was still pricey when booked months before. While checking in, I presented my Chase Sapphire Preferred card for incidentals.
The front desk agent told me she needed the AmEx Platinum card to apply the rate and benefits. I did not have it with me. I don’t like traveling with that card if I don’t have to, just because it’s so heavy and ostentatious and not worth putting everyday spend on. I don't like lugging it around in my wallet unless I know I will need Centurion lounge access, which I didn’t on this trip (Virgin Clubhouse, ftw).
A little embarrassed, I retreated to the smartly-designed lobby and called American Express (forgetting to select my local e-sim, which cost me an even more embarrassingly amount of money for a phone call), only to be told that they don’t give out that information under any circumstances. The agent wasn’t even able to see this information herself. Although she couldn’t help, she was friendly and sympathetic and I understood.
However, what both the American Express agent and the first Front Desk Receptionist missed was that I had already prepaid for this booking with the AmEx Platinum card. I walked back up to the front desk, ready to pay the equivalent of a mortgage payment for a single IHG night with P2 about ready to pass out on the lobby couch, when another agent took a look at my reservation and said, in the most beautiful Scottish lilt I've ever heard, “Oh, it’s already been paid for; you’re perfectly fine.”
I tried not to show too much relief, or the slight buckling of thy knees. It would be short-lived anyway, as the bellhop informed me that Scottish banknotes are, in fact, different from English banknotes. Tipping sucks, but at least I know where the nearest ATM is.
