Hotel programs from Amex, Chase, and more can get you freebies like room upgrades and on-property credits - here's how

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Hotel programs from Amex, Chase, and more can get you freebies like room upgrades and on-property credits - here's how
Le Bristol Hotel Paris

David Slotnick/Business Insider

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The Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts program gets you room upgrades and other benefits at properties including the Hotel Le Bristol in Paris.

  • Many travel rewards cards offer benefits like free breakfast, food and beverage credits, and complimentary Wi-Fi when you book through their online portals.
  • American Express, Chase, Mastercard, and Visa all field hotel-booking portals - the benefits vary depending on which program you book through, and which card you have.
  • If you have the Platinum Card® from American Express, you can book through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program to enjoy perks like free breakfast and room upgrades.
  • The prices available through credit card travel portals are often on par with those of other online travel agencies or booking direct through hotels.
  • See Business Insider's list of the best travel rewards credit cards »

Top-tier hotel credit cards like the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express and the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card offer members hundreds of dollars in credits each year toward hotel room rates and on-property purchases like dining or spa treatments.

However, you don't need to carry a specific hotel program's co-branded card to enjoy such benefits. Depending on the issuer and type of credit card you carry, you might have access to special online booking portals where reservations include these sorts of freebies, too.

American Express fields both The Hotel Collection and the Fine Hotels & Resorts program for different cardmembers. For its part, Chase has a Luxury Hotel & Resorts Collection. Depending on your credit card, you might be eligible to book through either the Visa Signature Hotels or Visa Infinite Hotels sites, and World Mastercard and World Elite Mastercard holders can access their own specialized portal.

Here are the details on these hotel programs and what you can expect when you book through each.

Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back.

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American Express Hotel Collection and Fine Hotels & Resorts

Amex fields not one, but two, online hotel booking portals for certain cardholders. The first is called The Hotel Collection and is available to those with The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Business Platinum® Card from American Express, the American Express® Gold Card, the American Express® Business Gold Card, and the Centurion Card.

With the various versions of the Amex Platinum card, you'll earn 5 points per dollar on prepaid bookings made through here. Those with either the business or the personal Gold card earn 2 points per dollar.

The Hotel Collection

With The Hotel Collection, cardholders who book a stay of two consecutive nights (either paid or using Pay With Points) receive the following benefits:

  • A $100 hotel credit to spend on qualifying dining, spa and other resort activities (but not room rates, taxes, gratuities or fees)
  • A room upgrade at check-in, if available

Given that room rates through The Hotel Collection are generally the same as you'll find through pretty much any other channel, adding an extra $100 in value to your stay and a good shot at an upgrade are reason enough to book through here instead. Although you won't earn hotel points or credit toward elite status by booking through this portal, the $100 credit will likely make up for it. Plus, many of the hotels that participate are not in the major chains, so you won't really be missing out.

You can book these hotels through American Express Travel Services, online at amextravel.com, or by phone at (800) 297-2977. The collection of partner properties includes over 600 hotels worldwide, and is a mix of luxury hotels, chain hotels and smaller boutique properties. A few examples include the NoMad Hotel in New York City, the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht, Atlantis The Palm in Dubai, and the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in Hawaii.

Amex Hotel Collection benefits: Click here to learn more about the Amex Gold card »

Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts

Fine Hotels & Resorts is a program exclusively for cardholders with the Amex Platinum card, the Business Platinum card - who earn 5x points per dollar on prepaid bookings - and the invite-only Centurion card.

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The program comprises over 1,000 ultra-luxurious properties globally, including stunners like Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, Alila Villas Uluwatu in Bali, and the Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt Buenos Aires.

Cardholder benefits are much more comprehensive, and include:

  • A room upgrade at check-in, if available
  • Noon check-in, if available
  • 4:00pm guaranteed late check-out
  • Occasional third- or fourth-night-free rates
  • Complimentary Wi-Fi
  • Daily breakfast for two
  • A unique amenity valued at $100 that varies by property

Given the caliber of hotels that can be found within Fine Hotels & Resorts, a third or fourth free night can be worth north of $1,000. Breakfast for two, likewise, can be a benefit worth over $100 per day. Although many hotels offer free Wi-Fi, you'll also find some that charge $20 per day for it, adding even more value. Finally, if you do plan to eat at the hotel, enjoy drinks at the bar, or partake of an activity or spa session, the $100 amenity might come in handy, too.

The other bit of good news is that bookings at hotels that participate in the major loyalty programs generally earn points and elite credit when booked through FHR, so there's no reason to book through a hotel site instead of here.

American Express estimates the average value per stay to be $550 - interestingly enough, that's the equivalent of the Platinum card's annual fee, and just shy of the $595 per year the Business Platinum card costs.

Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits: Click here to learn more about the Amex Platinum card »

Chase Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collection

In a similar vein, and with many properties that overlap with Amex FHR, Chase fields its own Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collection.

Chase does not publish a list of cards that are eligible for bookings made through it. However, online evidence suggests that it's open to cardholders of the following products:

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The program now includes nearly 1,000 participating hotels and resorts around the world, including the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, the St. Regis San Francisco, and the Rosewood Phuket in Thailand.

By booking through the Chase Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collection, cardmembers receive the following benefits:

  • A room upgrade at check-in, if available
  • Early check-in and late check-out
  • Complimentary Wi-Fi
  • Daily breakfast for two
  • A special benefit unique to each property such as a meal, afternoon tea, complimentary spa services, or on-property credits that range up to around $100

While some hotels do offer a straightforward $100 on-property credit to be used during the stay, others substitute location-specific experiences like a dinner for two in the hotel's restaurant, or a particular spa treatment. Before booking, be sure to double-check what the extra services entail and whether you will actually use them.

Click here to learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card »

Visa Signature Hotels and Visa Infinite Hotels

Visa has two hotel booking portals through which you can expect to reap hundreds of dollars of value per reservation. What's more, you are probably already carrying a card that entitles you to use them without even knowing it.

The first and largest is Visa Signature Hotels. Its open to cardholders of various Visa Signature products including the:

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It, too, counts nearly 1,000 properties worldwide, such as the Peninsula Shanghai and the Belmond Copa Cabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro.

When you make a reservation through Visa Signature Hotels, you're automatically entitled to the following:

  • Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
  • Free in-room Wi-Fi
  • Late check-out upon request, when available
  • Complimentary breakfast for two
  • A $25 USD food or beverage credit

While not quite as wide-ranging as Amex or Chase's luxury offerings, the perks still do provide quite a bit of value, especially that breakfast benefit. When you consider that many of the cards that are eligible for this benefit have annual fees of $95 or less, you can make up that value in a single stay.

Read more: How to decide if a credit card annual fee is worth it

The one disadvantage to beware of is that bookings made through Visa Signature Hotels will not earn hotel points or elite credits, so if you are gunning for status with a particular chain, you are better off booking direct.

Visa Infinite cardholders - basically just those with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite, the UBS Visa Infinite, and the Crystal Visa Infinite Card from City National Bank - have access to an even more specialized booking portal called Visa Infinite Hotels.

The perks are mostly the same as those offered by Visa Signature Hotels, though the on-property credit is usually $75 to $100 instead.

World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard Hotels

There are over a dozen World and World Elite Mastercard products that are eligible for bookings made through Mastercard's hotel collection. They include the:

The collection includes hundreds of hotels around the world, such as the Delano South Beach and the Mandarin Oriental New York. Like the other booking portals, this one bestows benefits like early check-in, late check-out, upgrades based on availability, daily breakfast, and on-property credits of around $50-$100 depending on the hotel.

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Bottom line

You might not have a premium hotel credit card or elite status with one of the major loyalty programs. However, that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of credit cards' booking portals to enjoy perks like room upgrades, free breakfast, and on-property credits. Before booking anything, double-check which portals you might be eligible to use, and which one will give you the benefits that best suit your needs.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.

Business Insider may receive a commission from The Points Guy Affiliate Network, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.

Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

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