American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts
My husband’s birthday is coming up. Birthday week in our house is stressful. We actually have 3 birthdays in one week. My oldest and my husband share a birthday and our youngest is 4 days later. Since my husband lost his birthday almost 19 years ago I try to make him feel special another day in January. This year we have decided to do a staycation.
Of course, I thought let’s use our points and miles hobby to make this happen.
Here are the options I evaluated:
We have a free club access award that will expire at Hyatt. The Grand Hyatt in Nashville is AMAZING!! We stayed there last December and we had the best time. We could book a room for 25,000 points and upgrade to club access. The club access includes a free reception in the evening (with free wine!) and food. Last year we ended up spending our evening in there and skipped dinner. It also includes a lounge for breakfast that was complimentary.
Option 2
We have a free night certificate from our Hilton Aspire card. We love the Conrad Nashville. We stayed here for my birthday 2 years ago. We have diamond status with Hilton so which would provide us with a credit towards food and beverages. The hotel is beautiful and I love that part of Nashville away from Broadway. Don’t get me wrong Broadway is fun but not what we are looking for in our staycation. Other Hilton properties such as the Hilton Downtown have free lounge access but it’s not exactly what we are looking for in our staycation.
Option 3:
I was about to book the Grand Hyatt, but I remembered our American Express Platinum $200 Fine Hotels and Resorts credit will be available first of the year. How this credit works: I book a room through the American Express Travel portal for a fine hotel and resort. I pay for the room with my American Express Platinum card they reimburse me $200 and I get a ton of benefits.
I ended up booking the Thompson Hotel in Nashville. The room was $303 a night. We booked it for one night. We will get a free breakfast and $100 food and beverage credit. We will then get $200 back from American Express. I already made reservations for the restaurant onsite Marsh House. We will use our $100 food and beverage credit there. We quit buying presents for birthdays years ago so this will be an affordable way to celebrate my husband that is cheaper than any gift I could think of buying him.
