American Express Platinum closes its “UK Hotel Collection” of special deals

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American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders get a number of decent hotel deals, mainly through the Fine Hotels & Resorts programme (late check-out, upgrade if available at check-in, free breakfast, bonus amenity).

A relatively new venture over the last 5-6 years is the Amex Platinum UK Hotel Collection (PDF document, this is the 2016 version – there is no 2017 version. Mobile users should click here instead.) It showcases 31 top properties, both city and country, such as Chewton Glen, Gleneagles, The Grove, Coworth Park, Lucknam Park and Cliveden (photo below).

Unlike many hotel promotions, this scheme manages to tick all my boxes:

Your upgrade – it is guaranteed AT TIME OF BOOKING

Late check-out – GUARANTEED for 2pm, except at two properties

Breakfast – included for two guests per room

And a special amenity, which is often a food and drink credit so as good as cash

Rates are guaranteed to be no higher than the Best Flexible Rate offered by the hotel itself. This means, if you need a cancellable rate, you will get value here as your only alternative is Best Flex from the hotel without these benefits. If you are happy with a cheaper, non-refundable rate, you’d need to weigh up the benefits of this programme versus the extra cost.

Unfortunately, American Express is closing the UK Hotel Collection on 31st March as you can read here. It isn’t clear if 31st March is the last day to book or the last day to stay.

It is a shame to see the end of this offer, although Amex did a bad job of promoting it. There has always been quite a lot of churn in the portfolio since it launched and the total number of hotels kept getting smaller.

It would have been better if all of the hotels had been folded into Fine Hotels & Resorts instead although I can imagine that some would not want to do the 4pm guaranteed check-out required by FHR members.

If you are planning a UK break over the next few weeks and have an American Express Platinum card, you may still be able to squeeze in a booking. You can find out more here.

Hotel offers update – December 2021:

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points? There is currently a special offer running with IHG Rewards (80% bonus to 4th January 2022) and World of Hyatt (30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, to 30th December 2021).

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American Express Platinum card

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Save East Coast Rewards says:

7 Feb7 February 11:57

Same old Virgin, always moaning. It’s the Virgin way to play the victim. Virgin Trains lost the west coast franchise in 2012 and continually said how First’s bid was not viable and after a lot of protesting ‘irregularities’ were found in the bidding process and Virgin were allowed to go on for a couple of years until the government sorted out the franchising process.

Fast forward to 2018 and Virgin are still operating the west coast franchise and have just been awarded another direct award which will take them to 2020 without any competition in the franchising process. So because of their whining about how unfair things was they went from losing the franchise to having it handed to them on a plate for the next 8 years.

Virgin are being very quiet about the failure of east coast though. They’ve left it to Stagecoach to be the front for that. Funnily enough they’re happy to claim the credit when VTEC were seeming to do well and also tried to make it appear they were responsible for the government ordered class 800 trains.
- RussellH says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 16:31
  
  Fair enough to let Stagecoach take the rap for VTEC, since all Virgin do is own 10% in order to give the operation a Virgin name, which is thought to carry more kudos.
  
  TBH I have never had any difficulty in not feeling the slightest sympathy fro Brian Souter
Alex W says:

7 Feb7 February 12:04

Sods. Not on any of our 5 Amexes.
xcalx says:

7 Feb7 February 12:24

Same tactics (moaning) until they got there hands on the BMI slots.
Duck Ling says:

7 Feb7 February 13:07

So WHHHYYYYYY did VS not put in a realistic bid to snap up the ex-BMI slots when they had the chance?

Answer – they wanted them for next to nothing and let the deal slip through their fingers. And now they moan about BA’s domination.

Pathetic.
- Rob says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 14:21
  
  VS should have joined Star and Star should have jointly bought BMI. A once in a generation chance lost.
  - CV3V says:
    
    7 Feb7 February 17:33
    
    Many years ago there was a persistent rumour that VS would buy or team up with BMI, always thought it a shame it didn’t happen.
- Michael Jennings says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 16:40
  
  This is like Three Mobile complaining and litigating endlessly about not having enough 4G spectrum. There was an auction held in 2012/13 and they could have bought a great deal more than they did, had they been willing to spend a little bit more money. EE and Vodafone ended up with more spectrum and better networks because they were willing to spend a bit more money. They now benefit from this, as they should.
ANT says:

7 Feb7 February 13:13

Completely OT: we are flying into Doha this Saturday arriving at 0445 and departing at 1600. We have the options:
Go to Marriott hotel where we have a room booked through the Qatar promotion or stay at the airport anduse the lounge and do the city tour. Asssume there will be availability,

What do you suggest? Is it enough time to go to hotel, maybe use the pool and visit city or should we stick to lounge.

Thanks
- Leo says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 16:18
  
  The lounge isn’t worth 11 hours…..
- CV3V says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 17:35
  
  If I am travelling onwards for that length of transfer i would prefer to just chill out rather than rush a city tour. I’d be doing the hotel and then the lounge.
- John says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 17:40
  
  Will 0700-1400 coincide with night time for your body clock? If yes, go to hotel and sleep; if no, do city tour.
Gavin says:

7 Feb7 February 14:24

Nice to see a pic of Cliveden, I proposed there to Mrs G
Dave H says:

7 Feb7 February 14:28

OT:Amex Plat insurance.
I have paid a deposit on a villa rental on my card some months ago, I have booked and paid for flights and car hire separately on my card, today I went to pay the villa balance to be told they no longer accept amex due to the changes in charges, anyone know where I will stand with the Plat Ins, I have just spent some time of chat and phone going backwards and forwards but can’t get an answer?
- Genghis says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 15:03
  
  If are not given opportunity to pay on Amex, you’re covered.
  - Dave H says:
    
    7 Feb7 February 16:23
    
    Cheers, hopefully that is the case, what makes this slightly different is that the deposit was paid by amex and at the time I could have paid the full amount, but by the time the balance was due the firm no longer accepted amex
- Canuck says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 16:11
  
  I understand it that you have to pay wholly with your Amex Plat. At least that’s what I was told when claiming for flights.
  - Dave H says:
    
    7 Feb7 February 16:24
    
    There is a clause that covers you if the trader does not accept Amex you can still be insured, hopefully that will apply in these circumstances
Andrew says:

7 Feb7 February 15:18

OT I booked a 2-4-1 CW trip to Antigua in May and later we separately booked the hotels for the trip through BA. Am I able to connect these bookings? And any reason I would or wouldn’t want to, eg so the hotel booking would be automatically protected if BA screw up the flights?
- Rob says:
  
  7 Feb7 February 15:42
  
  No, can’t be done. But, given it is Antigua, you’d have full travel insurance anyway which would cover the hotel cost if the flight was delayed.