Does Amex Platinum offer any benefits at Hyatt?

The American Express Platinum card Hilton benefit offers Hilton Honors Gold status to cardholders who enroll in the Hilton Honors rewards program. The benefit provides its members with an 80% bonus on points earned during each stay, a free 5^th night when booking a stay of 5+ nights, 2 free bottles of water per stay, and a complimentary breakfast for the cardholder and 1 guest.… read full answer

Cardholders are also eligible for late checkouts and complimentary room upgrades, when available. Without the benefit, a cardholder would have to book 40 nights at any of Hilton’s 18 hotel brands to qualify for Gold elite status.

To get the American Express Platinum card Hilton benefits, activate Hilton Honors Gold elite status by logging in to your Platinum account from the Amex benefits page and clicking the “Enroll Now” button. Once you’re enrolled, you’re immediately eligible for Gold status. But keep in mind that to receive the benefits, you must book your stay directly with a Hilton hotel property. Bookings through a third-party website such as Amex Travel do not earn Hilton points or Gold elite status perks.

The Platinum Card® from American Express gives you 5 Amex Platinum points per $1 spent on flights and hotels, plus 1 point per $1 on everything else. To qualify for this card’s 5 points per $1 bonus rewards rate, flights must be booked through the airline or Amex, and hotels must be booked through Amex. The Platinum Card® from American Express also has an initial bonus of 75,000 points for spending $5,000 in the first 6 months.… read full answer

There are lots of different ways to redeem your card’s points. You can use them to book travel through Amex, get gift cards or cash back, shop online, and even make charitable donations. The Platinum Card® from American Express points are worth 0.7 cents to 1 cent each in most cases.

Here’s how to redeem points:

• Book travel through Amex. Just log in to your Amex account via the Amex travel portal, then search for the transportation and accommodations you want to book. When it comes time to check out, there will be an option to pay with points.
• Transfer points. You can actually move your points at a 1:1 ratio to 18 airline and 3 hotel loyalty programs. To do so, log in to your Amex account and choose your loyalty program. Just keep in mind that you have to transfer in 1,000-point increments.
• Get gift cards. Log in to Amex’s gift card reward page to make your selection. There are dozens to choose from, from restaurants and movie theaters to airlines and bookstores.
• Donate. You can make a tax-deductible charitable donation with your rewards points by logging in at Amex’s Members Give page.
• Pay for Uber. If you connect your card to your Uber account, you should see a “use points” option in your app.
• Amazon Shop with Points. If you connect your Amex card to your Amazon account, you can use their Shop with Points system to spend points on merchandise. But you’ll only get 0.7 cents per point using this method.
• Statement credit. You can use your points to pay for charges on your statement, at a rate of 0.6 cents per point, by logging in to your Amex account.

There are a few other ways to spend this card’s points. They’re worth 0.5 cents each toward Ticketmaster purchases and 0.7 cents each toward Rite Aid purchases, Bestbuy.com, Staples.com and a few other sites. Plus, you can use them at a rate of 1 cent each toward NYC Taxi rides.

Most people will probably spend the bulk of their points on travel, because this is a card marketed toward frequent travelers. But it’s nice to know there are lots of options. It’s best to redeem points often to minimize the chances that Amex devalues them by raising the amount you need for certain redemption options.