Credit Card Hotel Collections That Offer Elite-Like Benefits Without Needing Elite Status

Offers for the Centurion^® Card from American Express, The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card, Chase Freedom Flex℠, Hawaiian Airlines^® World Elite Mastercard^®, J.P. Morgan Reserve card, United MileagePlus^® Club Card and Virgin Atlantic^® World Elite MasterCard^® are not available through this site. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers

Holding elite hotel status is a surefire way to enhance your hotel stays. Elite hotel benefits like welcome amenities, bonus points, early check-in, late checkout, free breakfast, and complimentary room upgrades improve the hotel experience at no additional cost.

But, if you don’t travel regularly for business or pleasure, it can be difficult to collect enough nights within one hotel program to reach elite status, let alone across multiple programs. There is also the issue that chain hotels have a limited footprint in some areas of the world, restricting the number of destinations where you can enjoy your elite status benefits.

One possible solution to getting elite-like perks without holding elite status is by using luxury hotel collections offered by card issuers such as American Express, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Visa, and Mastercard. While the perks only apply to paid stays, you can access luxury hotels all over the globe at competitive rates and receive complimentary elite benefits similar to what you’d receive as a mid or top-tier elite member within the hotel’s loyalty program.

To access these benefits, you must hold an eligible credit card within the program and book your stay through the provider’s travel service or portal, such as American Express Travel^® or The Edit by Chase Travel's website.

The six programs covered are:

• American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts^®
• Capital One Premier Collection
• The Edit by Chase Travel
• Citi Luxury Collection
• Visa Luxury Hotel Collection
• Mastercard^® Luxury Hotel & Resorts Portfolio

All six are worth a look. An important point to keep in mind, if you're deciding whether to book through one of these programs or direct with a hotel, is that it is highly likely that you'll be booked on a points/elite night eligible rate, which means these nights may count towards your required annual total if you're chasing elite status and staying at a hotel that participates in your preferred loyalty program. It's not a guarantee, however.

Overview of Luxury Hotel Programs

Each luxury hotel program offers perks for booking accommodations through its portal or program. Common perks include space-available upgrades at the time of check-in, an on-property credit to use during your stay, or complimentary Wi-Fi. Access to any of these programs depends on which credit card you hold.

Below is an overview of luxury hotel programs accessed through credit card membership:

Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.

Keemala in Phuket, Thailand. Credit: Small Luxury Hotels of the World

American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts

Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts is only available to those with the Amex Platinum, Business Platinum Card, and Amex Centurion Card.

You must book through the Platinum Travel Service, Business Platinum Travel Service, Centurion Travel Service, americanexpress.com/fhr, any American Express Travel office, or the Agency Services Desk for the perks to apply.

Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts benefits

Four of the six Amex benefits are guaranteed, including a 4 p.m. checkout, which is exclusive to Amex and a highlight of the listed benefits.

• Daily breakfast for two people
• Guaranteed 4 p.m. late check-out
• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• Complimentary experience credit valued at $100
• Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
• 12 p.m. early check-in, when available

It’s worth noting that the free breakfast and $100 experience credit are applied even if the daily hotel rate falls under $100. That's not a situation likely to happen often with hotels of this caliber, but it's a steal if you can find a cheap overnight stay.

Credit: American Express

Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts hotel selection

Amex lists over a thousand hotels in its Fine Hotels + Resorts collection, which you can search by vacation type on the dedicated FH+R directory website. Filters include ambiance, environment, guest experience, and features and activities. If searching from the Amex Travel home page, a simple button on the left side also allows you to filter for Fine Hotels + Resorts properties only.

It's also worth pointing out that the Amex Platinum offers up to $200 in statement credits annually toward prepaid hotel bookings with Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection. (Hotel Collection bookings require a minimum two-night stay to use your $200 credit). This can really reduce the cost of your stay while still enjoying the perks mentioned above.

Capital One Premier Collection

The Capital One Premier Collection is available exclusively to those who hold a Capital One Venture X or Venture X Business. The collection can be accessed through Capital One Travel.

When searching for hotels through Capital One Travel, you'll have the option to search Premier Collection properties exclusively. All you need are your dates, location, and number of travelers.

Credit: Capital One

Capital One Premier Collection benefits

Capital One guarantees four benefits when booking Premier Collection hotels, including 10x per $1 spent on each booking. There are three additional benefits that depend on availability:

• Earn 10 miles per dollar on each booking
• Complimentary $100 experience credit
• Daily breakfast for two
• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• Room upgrade, when available
• Early check-in, when available
• Late checkout, when available

The experience credit can be used towards at least one food and beverage experience and various other expenses, such as spa treatments, that can be charged to your room. This perk will vary by property.

Capital One Premier Collection hotel selection

Capital One doesn't advertise how many properties are part of the Premier Collection of hotels and resorts. However, it does boast that the hotels that are included in the Premier Collection are one-of-a-kind resorts, hotels, and other accommodations, and Capital One mentioned at launch that the properties list is constantly expanding. You can find private islands and villas in the collection, as well.

Because each property is hand-selected, there don't ever seem to be a ton of search results in any given city. When searching, you'll find that there's no way to further filter down results (by neighborhood, by features, etc.), but you can view hotels on a map to help narrow down your location.

Credit: Capital One

The Edit by Chase Travel

Formerly known as Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection (LHRC), The Edit by Chase Travel is available to those with certain United co-branded credit cards and those with either the Sapphire Reserve or J.P. Morgan Reserve card. Eligible cardholders can view bookable properties through the Chase Travel Portal or book through the antiquated LHRC website.

The full list of cards that can book through The Edit is as follows:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve^®
• The New United Gateway℠ Card
• The New United Club℠ Card
• The New United Quest℠ Card
• The New United℠ Business Card
• The New United℠ Explorer Card
• J.P. Morgan Reserve card (an invitation-only card for J.P. Morgan account holders with a minimum of $10 million in assets)

Credit: Chase

The Edit by Chase Travel benefits

On stays booked through The Edit by Chase Travel, you'll find a handful of benefits that pattern offerings from other hotel collection programs. Listed benefits include:

• Daily breakfast for 2
• $100 property credit (includes dining, spa or other activities at the property)
• Room upgrade at check-in, if available
• Early check-in/late check-out, if available
• Complimentary Wi-Fi

The Edit by Chase Travel hotel selection

Chase doesn’t list participating hotels in a directory, and there is no interactive map allowing you to search by region. Instead, you have to search each location manually via the search box on the homepage. However, you can view a map of your results after searching.

Chase advertises that over 1,000 properties participate in the program. The hotel selection covers every popular destination we entered, although cities in off-the-beaten-path regions may offer fewer options to choose from.

Citi Luxury Collection

Citi Luxury Collection is a collection of four- and five-star accommodations exclusively available to those with a Citi Strata Premier or Citi Prestige^® Card (no longer open to new applicants). Cardholders can earn up to 10x ThankYou^® Points, the bank's travel rewards currency, on hotels, rental cars, and activities booked through the Citi Travel portal.

Citi Luxury Collection benefits

The Citi Luxury Collection comes with a few guaranteed benefits and some that are based on availability:

• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• Daily breakfast for two
• $100 on-property credit
• Room upgrades at check-in, when available
• Early check-in and late checkout, when available

Credit: Citi Travel

Conveniently, there are no minimum stay requirements when booking hotels through Citi Luxury Collection, making it a great option for one-night stays.

However, if you're in need of a four-night stay or longer and you hold a Prestige Card, you can stack the fourth-night-free benefit with the other perks available when booking Citi Luxury Collection hotels. This benefit is available twice per year. Alternatively, if your reservation costs $500 or more, you can get $100 back as a statement credit when paying with the Citi Strata Premier. This perk is available once yearly.

Citi Luxury Collection hotel selection

When searching for Luxury Collection hotels in the Citi Travel portal, the results will bring back hotels and resorts belonging to both the Citi Luxury Collection and the Citi Hotel Collection, if you have the right card, as well as hotels that don't participate in either program. The real benefits are in the Citi Luxury Collection hotels so be careful to book with the right collection.

There's no way to filter results to only show Luxury Collection properties, and there's no master list available online. You'll need to look for hotels with the Luxury Collection tag in your search results and then ensure you choose a qualifying room rate.

Visa Luxury Hotel Collection

The Visa Luxury Hotel Collection offers over 900 properties around the globe, catering to both Visa Signature and Visa Infinite cardholders. The elite hotel benefits are similar, offering seven perks for Visa Signature cardmembers plus one more for those holding Visa Infinite cards — though only available at over 200 hotels across the collection.

Guaranteed perks include daily breakfast for two, food and beverage credits, and the extra Visa Infinite amenity, with the rest being “when available.” Reservations must be booked through the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection website or a Visa Concierge for benefits to apply.

The first seven benefits listed below are available to all U.S.-issued Visa Signature, Signature Preferred, and Signature Business credit cards. You even get access with the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card, which has a sub-$100 annual fee.

Credit: Visa Luxury Hotel Collection

To qualify for the final benefit, you must hold a Visa Infinite rewards card issued in the U.S., such as these:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve^®
• The New United Club℠ Card
• The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card
• Crystal^® Visa Infinite^® Credit Card
• UBS Visa Infinite credit card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Visa Luxury Hotel Collection benefits

The following perks are available on both Signature and Infinite cards:

• Automatic room upgrade upon arrival, when available
• Complimentary in-room Wi-Fi, when available
• Complimentary continental breakfast for two
• $25 food or beverage credit
• VIP Guest status
• Late checkout upon request, when available

The final benefit is only offered to Visa Infinite cardholders at roughly 200 hotels in the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection. Some of the perks you might receive for this benefit include:

• An additional $75 food & beverage credit, on top of the existing $25 food and beverage credit
• $100 hotel credit
• $100 spa credit
• $100 golf credit
• $100 room rate credit

Restricting the Visa Infinite benefit to just 25% of the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection puts it at a distinct disadvantage to Chase and Amex’s offerings, which both offer the amenity across all properties.

Visa Luxury Hotel Collection hotel selection

You can access the property list for Visa’s hotel collection via VisaSignatureHotels.com, and Visa offers the ability to refine your search by region, rating, style, and brand, or you can click on the interactive map at the top of the page for a visual approach. To see the Visa Infinite properties, you need to enter your card details on the Visa Infinite website.

Credit: Visa

Mastercard^® Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection

Mastercard offers a different program, with over 3,000 properties in its portfolio. This program is part of  Mastercard Travel and Lifestyle Services and offers a concierge-style helpline, which is another benefit of holding a Mastercard credit card.

The program covers all World Elite Mastercard^® products, an extensive list of cards that includes:

• Hawaiian Airlines^® World Elite Mastercard^®
• Citi Prestige^® Card (no longer open to new applicants)
• Citi Strata Premier℠ Card
• Citi^® / AAdvantage^® Executive World Elite Mastercard^®
• IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
• The Bilt Mastercard^® (Rates & Fees)
• Chase Freedom Flex℠

Note that this benefit is not restricted to premium cards, as you'll see some cards on the list have no annual fee. To reserve a hotel in the Mastercard Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection, book online via travel.mastercard.com or call 855-802-1387.

Mastercard^® Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection benefits

The benefits section is where Mastercard’s offering gets interesting.

In addition to complimentary daily breakfast and “when available” check-in, check-out, and room upgrades, you receive one customized benefit. The bonus perks range from $50 and $100 hotel credits to guaranteed late check-out or even a private wine-tasting experience. The listed benefits include:

• Complimentary daily breakfast
• Complimentary room upgrade, subject to availability at check-in
• Early check-in, subject to availability
• Late check-out, subject to availability
• Special amenity worth up to $100

Credit: Mastercard

Mastercard includes two more benefits when booking a hotel in the Luxury Portfolio and paying with a World Elite Mastercard:

• Mastercard Hotel Stay Guarantee: If your 3-star or higher-rated hotel is not working out, a Lifestyle Manager will work to make it right.
• Mastercard Lowest Hotel Rate Guarantee: If you find the same prepaid hotel stay for less, Mastercard will refund the difference.

A common complaint we hear from members attempting to book hotels through these portals is they can find the same room cheaper elsewhere, so the low-price guarantee is a nice touch to ensure you get the best deal.

Mastercard^® Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection hotel selection

The hotel selection at Mastercard offers more variety and more locations than its rivals. After putting in your destination and dates, you can further filter results by amenities, star rating, whether it's part of the hotel collection, and price.

Do Prices Differ Between Luxury Hotel Collections?

Yes, they do. Most of the time, you'll see similar pricing between the six collections, but we have seen occasions where the price differs by $100 or more per night for the same room. The only advice we can give is to do your own research for each room based on the cards you hold, as perks as prices can vary across programs for the same room.

The collections crossover in most cities we searched, so you may qualify with multiple cards if you hold more than one eligible rewards card.

It's also worth checking the price for booking directly with the hotel. If booking via one of these portals is more expensive, weigh the price difference against the added perks. Would you pay $10 more per night to get daily breakfast included? Probably. Would you pay $80 more for these elite hotel benefits? Probably not.

Final Thoughts

Elite benefits like complimentary breakfast and late checkout can make a significant difference to the quality of your hotel stay. Getting those perks as a credit card benefit — rather than through hotel status earned either the old-fashioned way or through a credit card — adds another layer of value to cards like the Sapphire Reserve and the Amex Platinum.

As for the best program? Assuming room rates were similar (any significant difference and it’s a no-brainer to choose the least expensive), we give an edge here to Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts for the guaranteed 4 p.m. late check-out, something none of the other programs offer as standard. And while there's no guarantee that hotels booked through these programs will honor your elite status benefits or give you stay credit with your favorite loyalty program, it never hurts to ask if you can add your rewards number to the booking.

AwardWallet Tip of The Day

Curious about which of your loyalty program balances have recently changed? AwardWallet shows an indicator (to the left of the account) for accounts that have changed in the last 24 hours. Look for this indicator to easily spot any accounts that have been recently updated.
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