Background

While Jen was toiling away in China on a business trip a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a quick weekend trip to Honolulu to take advantage of a cheap American Airlines flight I found. I would only be in Hawaii for 24 hours, so I looked for a hotel that was both reasonably priced and not too far from the airport. The Hilton Hawaiian Village fit the bill, and while I’m normally not a fan of mega resorts, in this case it made sense.

I booked the hotel through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, which is an online booking site available to Platinum and Centurion cardholders. Its rate that was about $25 higher than the one on Hilton’s own website, but it came with a bunch of extra benefits such as a $100 dining credit, free breakfast (about a $40 value per day), a subject-to-availability room upgrade, 12pm check in, and 4pm check out. On top of that, I got a $10 dining credit for being having HHonors Gold status. So in total, my $204/night room rate came with $150 in credits, which made it quite a good deal.


Check-In

My Uber dropped me off at the hotel just before noon, and the main check-in area was hustling and bustling with a horde of people. After making my way to the front of the check-in line, I was told that the tower I was in (Ali’i Tower) had a separate reception desk, so I had to go there instead. It wasn’t too far away, so I was soon able to check in for real. They offered me an upgrade to an ocean view room, but that room wasn’t ready yet, so I declined the upgrade in favor of the basic resort view room, which was ready. Had I been staying longer than a day, I would have waited for the better room, but in this case I figured I wouldn’t be spending much time in the room anyway, so would rather have something available immediately. I appreciated being given the choice - sometimes hotels just assume you want the upgraded room, and make you wait for ages.

City Guide: Vancouver, British Columbia
Review: Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver
Review: Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver
Review: YVR Maple Leaf Lounge

American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts

When we visited Vancouver for a weekend back in March, Chris, and I wanted to take advantage of American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts' hotel deals so we stayed one night at one hotel and one night at another. If you've never heard of AmEx FHR, it's an awesome program that you get to take advantage of if you're anAmerican Express Platinum card holder. Since the Platinum card comes with a pretty hefty annual fee ($450), I don't have the card myself, but luckily, Chris does. When you book through FHR, you get the following benefits: 

• Noon check-in upon arrival, when available
  
• Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
  
• Daily breakfast for two people
• 4pm late checkout
  
• Additional special amenity unique to each property, such as a $100 food and beverage credit or a massage for two people

Depending on how often you travel and stay in hotels, this can be an awesome value. Back in March, all of the big Vancouver hotels were having awesome deals, so AmEx FHR's pricing was extremely reasonable as a result. 

Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver

There are really no words to describe how much I loved the Shangri-La hotel. It was, without a doubt, the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at with the nicest room. It was simply amazing! 

We decided to relocate right after breakfast at the Fairmont so that we could drop our stuff off and take advantage of the noon check-in from AmEx FHR. When you walk in from the street-level, you will see a concierge desk to your left and seating to the left and in front of you. Interestingly, you don't check in here, you have to take the elevator down a level to the front desk. Luckily, the concierge noticed the confused looks on our faces and walked us down to the front desk right away. We got our early check-in and were thrilled to hear that we had been upgraded to a one-bedroom suite. I was in Heaven.

City Guide: Vancouver, British Columbia
Review: Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver
Review: Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver
Review: YVR Maple Leaf Lounge

American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts

When we visited Vancouver for a weekend back in March, Chris, and I wanted to take advantage of American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts' hotel deals so we stayed one night at one hotel and one night at another. If you've never heard of AmEx FHR, it's an awesome program that you get to take advantage of if you're an American Express Platinum card holder. Since the Platinum card comes with a pretty hefty annual fee ($450), I don't have the card myself, but luckily, Chris does. When you book through FHR, you get the following benefits: 

• Noon check-in upon arrival, when available
  
• Room upgrade upon arrival, when available
  
• Daily breakfast for two people
• 4pm late checkout
  
• Additional special amenity unique to each property, such as a $100 food and beverage credit or a massage for two people

Depending on how often you travel and stay in hotels, this can be an awesome value. Back in March, all of the big Vancouver hotels were having awesome deals, so AmEx FHR's pricing was extremely reasonable as a result. 

Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver

Because we usually fly out late on Friday nights, we got into Vancouver around 12 AM and hopped on the SkyTrain into the city. From Waterfront Station, we walked over to the Fairmont Waterfront, which was about a 10-15 minute walk (depending on how much wine you drank during the flight). The lobby was expansive with a restaurant and bar to the right of the entrance, although it was mostly deserted by the time we arrived. The front desk agent was very nice and checked us in quickly while outlining the FHR benefits for our stay. We then headed up to the 5th floor to our room. 

The room was very nice and we lucked out with a larger king room that had a full sitting area to the right when you walked in and a desk near the window. Although you can't tell from the pictures below (taken around 1 AM), we did get a view of the Harbour, which was nice, but we ended up with gray, cloudy weather the next day, so the view wasn't as great as it could have been!