Welcome back to Part 2 of the Best Use of the $300 Amex Platinum Hotel Credit series! If you’ve read Part 1, you’ll know that I already used $195 of my $300 credit at the Wynn Las Vegas. I intentionally didn’t book a more expensive room there because I wanted to use the remaining credit for an extra night at another Fine Hotels + Resorts property. And with that, we’re off to the Bellagio.

• Related Article: Best Use of the $300 Amex Platinum Hotel Credit: Wynn Las Vegas (Part 1)

 

Amex Platinum Referral Link

If you are thinking about getting the Amex Platinum and would like to help the blog, feel free to signup with my referral link! Currently, you can get up to 175,000 for signing up and get all the benefits of Amex’s hotel program that I’m going to talk about below.

 

Difference Between Amex’s Two Hotel Programs: Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection

Amex Platinum and Centurion cardholders can choose between two hotel programs when using their $300 hotel credit: Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR) and The Hotel Collection (THC). In simple terms, The Hotel Collection includes mid to high-end hotels, while Fine Hotels + Resorts focuses on luxury and five-star properties.

The key difference for the purposes of this blog is the minimum stay requirement. Fine Hotels + Resorts only requires a one-night stay, whereas The Hotel Collection requires a two-night stay. Since the Bellagio Las Vegas is part of the Fine Hotels + Resorts program, I was only required to stay one night.

 

Why Did I Choose Las Vegas to Use my Amex Platinum Hotel Credit?

My strategy from the start was to stretch my $300 Amex Platinum hotel credit across two nights instead of just one. Most hotels within the FHR or THC programs are typically expensive, often starting at $400 to $500 per night. However, Las Vegas is known for having very affordable weekday rates, and hotel prices tend to drop even more during the holidays.

Because of this, I knew there was a chance I could book two separate nights and still receive the full Amex hotel benefits for each stay.

Luckily, I pulled it off! I booked one night at the Wynn for $195 and another night at the Bellagio for $135. I did go slightly over the $300 credit by about $30, but I’d rather spend a little extra than leave money on the table.

Side note: I later realized that it may be possible to book a stay for the following year as long as you prepay during the eligible credit period. For example, if your $300 credit applies from July through December 2025, you could potentially book a stay in 2026 as long as the payment is made between July and December 2025. Since the charge posts to your Amex immediately, the credit would typically appear within a few days. I haven’t personally tested this yet, but I’ve heard of others doing this successfully.

 

Why Did I Choose the Bellagio Las Vegas?

Even though I’ve stayed at the Bellagio a bunch of times, I really wanted to stay here this particular time to utilize their $100 Food and Beverage credit. My goal was to try Las Vegas’ newest restaurant, Carbone Riviera. Getting a reservation there was not easy since they are booked out weeks in advance, but luckily I set a notification on their reservation system and someone canceled! 

 

How Much Did it Cost To Stay at the Bellagio Las Vegas?

I stayed at the Bellagio Las Vegas on a Thursday-Friday and it cost me $135.14. When you are calculating how much your $300 Amex Platinum hotel credit will be used towards, you want to look at the points amount. The $119.20 number is before taxes, but the credit covers the taxes so you want to look at the points amount which is 13,514 points or $135.14 (1 cent per point). Now, keep in mind that the $62.36 is the resort fee ($55 resort fee + $7.36 resort fee tax) is NOT covered by the Amex credit. You will have to pay that directly at the the hotel.

 

The Fine Hotels + Resorts Benefits at the Bellagio

With each Fine Hotels + Resorts booking, you get a slew of benefits. Below is what is advertised for the Bellagio.

 

$100 Food and Beverage Credit

The great thing about staying at the Bellagio is that you can use the $100 credit not only at the Bellagio, but at any restaurant at ANY MGM property. For example, you can stay at the Bellagio and eat dinner at the Aria and the credit will still apply. All you have to do is charge it back to your hotel and room. As mentioned above though, I already knew what restaurant I wanted to eat at which was Carbone Riviera.

I haven’t even had the chance to go try the original Carbone yet but I actually like this restaurant better since I’m more of a seafood person anyways. Also, can we talk about the ambiance! Like who doesn’t want to sit out side on that patio. Just FYI, the minimum spend to sit on the patio is $175/person, which isn’t that hard to reach when you’re eating at such a fancy place. But at least I knew that I was getting $100 off my bill at the end of the night so that’s a win in my book!

What Did I Order

• Champagne, Laurent-Perrier, La Cuvée ($28): Since this was a solo date, I decided to treat myself to a glass of champagne to get this dinner started!
• Chardonnay, Failla, Sonoma Coast 2023 ($26): I love Sonoma chardonnays so this was kind of a no-brainer. I wanted a good white wine to go with my pasta.
• Lightly Grilled Chu Toro ($40): Amazing! Definitely worth the money. Not a lot of people talk about it on Yelp or Google but I loved this dish.
• Beef Carpaccio Piemontese ($36): I originally wanted to get the clams casino but my server said that the portion was huge for one person so he suggest the beef carpaccio instead and it was fantastic! If you love truffle, this is the dish for you!
• Capellini Crab AOP ($46): To be honest, I was expecting more and I LOVE crab. I was hoping that it would be a better version of clams linguine but it just felt like the skinny noodles were too much. A thicker noodle would have done better in my opinion. Also, for the spice, they used jalapeños which I thought was interesting choice. Again, I would have preferred something like red chili flakes. The crab meat was great, but the pasta as a whole was just okay. I would choose something else if you’re in the same boat as me.
• Total ($176): Wow! I got surprisingly close to the $175 minimum didn’t I? I knew I needed at least make the minimum but I didn’t think I would actually be close. 

 

 

Complimentary Room Upgrade

Not sure what the typical room upgrade would have been since every time I stay at the Bellagio, it seems that I get kicked over to the Spa Tower next door. This time, I asked the receptionist nicely if there was any chance of getting a fountain view room. She had to call somewhere in the back to get permission but she was able to pull it off! If anyone works in a hotel, can you tell me who’s she calling? Does the supervisor have to okay each upgrade request?

 

Complimentary Noon Check-In

I did not use this so I can’t attest if they would have given it to me or not. I was coming from the Wynn so I didn’t check-in until 3:30 pm.

 

Complimentary Guaranteed 4:00pm Late Check-Out

Yes, I used it until exactly 4:00 pm! Which was clutch since I decided to use my breakfast credit for a late lunch at Spago instead. More on that down below!

 

Complimentary In-Room Wi-Fi

Since you have to pay a resort fee when you check-in, the hotel credits you back $5.00 for the Wi-Fi since technically it’s supposed to come with the Amex FHR benefits. So, the resort fee drops from $55 to $50. After tax, it ends up being $56.69 ($50 resort fee + $6.69 resort fee tax). 

 

Daily Breakfast for 2 People

The paper they give you states that there are two $30 breakfast credits, but you can absolutely use both on yourself. That’s exactly what I did. The best part is that there are multiple restaurants at the Bellagio where you can use the credit for brunch or lunch instead of breakfast. I’m not a breakfast person at all, and sometimes I really have to force myself to wake up and eat in the morning. Because of that, being able to use the credit for lunch feels like such a treat.

For the most part, Lago and the Bellagio Buffet are open every day and serve brunch until 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm, respectively. If you want something extra special, you should know that Spago only serves brunch Friday through Sunday. Since we were staying at the Bellagio on Thursday night, I decided to use my credit at Spago for their Friday brunch. This was perfect because I got to use the $60 credit at Spago without having to stay during an expensive weekend night.

On top of that, I knew the Bellagio fountains start at 3:00 pm Monday through Friday, so I took a chance and booked a 2:30 pm reservation. I was hoping to snag a patio seat and watch the fountain show during lunch, and guess what, it totally worked. I was seated on the patio and got to enjoy a late lunch while watching the fountains.

 

My Strategy of Staying Mid-Week

There is a reason why I specifically picked a weekday stay and even more specifically Thursday to Friday. First and foremost, it’s just plain cheaper on the weekdays. If I were to book the Bellagio on a weekend night, it would probably start around $400 which would blow my whole Amex Platinum hotel credit budget and then some. Second, I wanted to stay as close to the weekend as possible and specifically checkout on Friday because that way, I could use my breakfast credit at Spago’s brunch which is only Friday-Sunday. 

 

Price Breakdown

This is how much is cost me out-of-pocket to stay one-night at the Bellagio Las Vegas using my Amex Platinum hotel credit benefit and booking through Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts website.

	Cost	Covered By Amex	Remaining Costs
Hotel	$135.14	-$105.26 (left over from Wynn)	$29.88
Resort Fee	$62.36 ($55+$7.36 tax)	-$5 (wifi credit)	$56.69 ($50+$6.69 tax)
Carbone Riviera	$190.74 + $40 (tip) = $230.74	-$100	+$130.74
Spago Lunch	$54.19 + $9 (tip) = $63.19	-$60	+$9
TOTAL	$491.43	-$270.26	$226.31

 

Conclusion

As you can see, I only had to pay $227 out-of-pocket for an amazing fountain view room at the Bellagio, dinner at one of the hottest new restaurants in Las Vegas, lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s famous Spago, and late check-out until 4:00 pm. If I were to put everything together from my Wynn stay, I only spent $398.97 (Bellagio: $226.31 + Wynn: $172.66) for almost an $1,100 2-night stay. I saved almost $700! Not going to lie, this is probably the best use of my Amex $300 hotel credit that I’ve done. It was so good that I seriously think I’m going to do this again next holiday season. See you there!