- Caesar’s Palace – Palace Tower Room
- THEhotel – Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) Rate
- THEhotel – Amex FHR Breakfast and Bathhouse Spa
- Aria Resort & Casino – Deluxe King Room
- The Palazzo – Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) Rate
- The Mirage – Resort Queen Room
- New York-New York Las Vegas Review
The American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) program might be my favorite perk of the Amex Platinum card. It’s marketing materials say that you get $450 in complimentary benefits with every stay, and while that might be a slight exaggeration in my opinion, it definitely provides a few hundreds of dollars in value at the very least.
The best city in the world to use the Amex FHR program is Las Vegas. There’s even a dedicated thread to Vegas FHR hotels on Flyertalk. The reason it’s the best is simple: there are HUGE rate fluctuations depending on the time of year, and you can really get a steal of a rate at certain times of year. With that knowledge in hand, I frequently check the Vegas FHR rates and I found an excellent one at THEhotel for just $85.50 plus taxes and fees on a Thursday night. That was nearly the same price as the regular rate from Vegas.com!
Each of the hotels in Vegas offers slightly different benefits on the FHR rate. At THEhotel, the stated benefits are room upgrade when availalbe, 12pm check-in, 4pm check-out, breakfast credit of $40/person at THECafe or THECoffee Bar, and a $100 spa credit at the Bathhouse Spa or Spa Mandalay. As you can already tell, I’m getting exceptional value for my $86 rate!
I had work on Thursday so I wasn’t able to make use of the 12pm check-in, so I got there around 7pm after my JetBlue flight (which I really enjoyed btw). I didn’t bother with the $20 trick since I was only staying one night, but was hoping for a room upgrade. A room upgrade wasn’t available, and in fact they didn’t even have any King beds left so I was given a strip-view room with 2 Queen beds. I was also presented with a paper detailing my benefits from booking on the Amex FHR rate.
The check-in process was easy and very close to the entrance, and the elevators were also very close to the check-in counter. There is no dedicated casino for THEhotel – it shares the casino with Mandalay Bay, which is a short walk away through the lobby. I headed straight up to my room after check-in.
The living room was pretty nice, although the couches seemed a bit dated. I really liked the design on the carpet since it wasn’t just a standard pattern that you see in most other places. I also liked the fact that the entryway had tile instead of carpet also – these are little details that to me shows the hotel put a lot of thought and money into the design. The windows were floor-to-ceiling windows and had a pretty great view of the strip.
The bedroom was about the same size as the living room. Again, one of those little things that I noticed was the carpet pattern changed from the living room to the bedroom. If you’re wondering about my obsession with the carpet, I’m having some flooring work done in my own home so these are little things that I notice! Like the living room, the windows were nearly floor to ceiling and had the same great view.
The bathroom was also big and impressive.
One of my favorite features of this room was that it had a separate half bathroom. Never underestimate the value of an extra toilet when you’re in Vegas and scarfing down food at buffets non-stop!
My stay at THEhotel was comfortable and more than worth it given the extras from the Amex FHR rate. The only thing that I’d complain about was that housekeeping started super early in the morning and was very loud in the room next door. It was about 8am when the crew was talking loudly next door, and they were changing the sheets aggressively as the wall and my bed were shaking (insert inappropriate joke here).
Make sure you stay tuned for Part 3 of this Vegas series where I’ll describe my experience at the Bathhouse and breakfast!
Great post.
Thanks!