Hotel reservation cancellation fee reimbursement ?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

      I booked a hotel for a two weeks using my American express PRG. I had to cancel that reservation for personal reasons. The hotel charged me 84$.as cancellation fees. Is there any benefit/feature/insurance on this card that can refund me that fees?

[Anonymous]

Why were you charged a cancellation fee? Which hotel chain did you have your original reservation with?  Have you called the hotel to see if they are willing to waive the cancellation fee?  If the hotel won't work with you I would call the main customer service line.    

I don't have any experience with the Amex PRG but I do have experience with having to cancel a hotel stay after the cancellation policy window has passed.  I had a hotel reservation last year at a Hampton Inn.  The cancellation policy required that I cancel 72 hours prior to arrival.  I had to cancel the reservation hours before I was due to check-in.  I called the actual hotel but they were unwilling to cancel my reservation.  I called the Hilton customer service line and explained why I had to cancel.  The customer service rep was very sympathetic to my predicament and cancelled my reservation.  They also stayed on the line until I received the email confirming that my reservation was in fact cancelled.  I am a Hilton Hhonors Silver member so I don't know if that helped.  

Probably not the advice you were looking for but I figured I would chip in and give my 2 cents. 

[Anonymous]

The hotel is Le meridian in India. I think SPG owns it. I booked the hotel through concur. I am not sure I can contact the hotel directly.

[UncleB]

I'm sorry you're having this issue... I'm not personally aware of any credit card benefit that would help out in this case.  Hopefully someone else on here will know of something that we've missed so far. 

Here's another hint for future cancellations that worked for me in the past... when it was past the window to cancel without a fee, I would simply call and tell them I needed to change the reservation - I would generally pick a date two weeks out.  There was never push-back on that request.  Then I would call back a few days later to cancel the reservation, which was no problem (and no fee) since the date I had booked was still over a week away. 

It has been a few years since I had to cancel, but in the past this was effective.  Of course, YMMV but it's worth a shot if you're already past the no-fee cancel time frame.  

[RonM21]

I'm not aware of this sort of benefit either, but I'm curious if there is one out there somewhere.

[longtimelurker]

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@UncleB wrote:

I'm sorry you're having this issue... I'm not personally aware of any credit card benefit that would help out in this case.  Hopefully someone else on here will know of something that we've missed so far. 

Here's another hint for future cancellations that worked for me in the past... when it was past the window to cancel without a fee, I would simply call and tell them I needed to change the reservation - I would generally pick a date two weeks out.  There was never push-back on that request.  Then I would call back a few days later to cancel the reservation, which was no problem (and no fee) since the date I had booked was still over a week away. 

It has been a few years since I had to cancel, but in the past this was effective.  Of course, YMMV but it's worth a shot if you're already past the no-fee cancel time frame.  

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Mmmm, we could debate the ethics of that!

[UncleB]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@UncleB wrote:

I'm sorry you're having this issue... I'm not personally aware of any credit card benefit that would help out in this case.  Hopefully someone else on here will know of something that we've missed so far. 

Here's another hint for future cancellations that worked for me in the past... when it was past the window to cancel without a fee, I would simply call and tell them I needed to change the reservation - I would generally pick a date two weeks out.  There was never push-back on that request.  Then I would call back a few days later to cancel the reservation, which was no problem (and no fee) since the date I had booked was still over a week away. 

It has been a few years since I had to cancel, but in the past this was effective.  Of course, YMMV but it's worth a shot if you're already past the no-fee cancel time frame.  

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Mmmm, we could debate the ethics of that!

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[ibmrad7]

You are out of luck. If you have status with SPG then you can try your going through them. I have had success that way.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I don't think the PRG has that feature (although please somebody correct me if I'm wrong).  There are cards that do.  My understanding is that the CSP has a pretty forgiving trip cancellation insurance (for purchases made on the card), and I think the Citi Prestige card does as well.  There very well could be others.

[bourgogne]

did you online chat with amex and ask if they would eat the fee?  never hurts to ask, I find that they often side with the card holder