Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways · Wednesday, August 12, 2026
A listener shared a strategy for maximizing Amex Platinum card's hotel credits by booking stays that straddle calendar year-end. This allows cardholders to potentially use two $300 credits for a single stay, effectively covering a vacation.
“And I've heard sort of a hack that a couple listeners now have told me. It's not actually when you stay at the hotel that it matters, but when you book. And so I know a lot of people will just book at the end of December and then they'll book again at the beginning of January, so they can double up those credits.”
“But it will be for the same stay so they'll do two nights and it'll be a booking in let's say March or something. So they'll book two nights and use one of the credits and then another two nights at the same hotel just two days later and use their next batch of credits.”
“Which I think is a really smart way to basically get possibly a full vacation covered by your credit card benefits.”