How to get luxury hotel perks without a premium credit card, and what SKYLARK adds if you have one.

No. The card programs are the best-known route because the banks advertise them, but the perks come from the hotels, which add them to bookings that arrive through partners they trust. American Express, Chase and Capital One run those partnerships for their cardholders. Travel advisors and memberships like SKYLARK have hotel partnerships of their own, so you can get similar perks without the card.

American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts. Platinum Card members ($895 a year) get daily breakfast for two, a $100 credit toward hotel charges such as dining or the spa, a room upgrade and noon check-in when available, and a guaranteed 4 pm checkout when they book through Amex Travel and pay with the card. The card also gives up to $600 a year (up to $300 every six months) back on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts and Hotel Collection stays, which offsets part of the fee if you use it.

Chase Sapphire Reserve: The Edit. Sapphire Reserve cardholders ($795 a year) get daily breakfast for two, a $100 property credit, and a room upgrade, early check-in and late checkout when available, booking through Chase Travel at hotels in its main Hotel + Resort Collection (its smaller All-In and Boutique collections carry different perks). The card gives up to $500 a year back on prepaid Edit stays of two nights or more, at most $250 per booking.

Capital One Premier Collection. Venture X and Venture X Business cardholders ($395 a year for Venture X) get daily breakfast for two, an experience credit of up to $100, and a room upgrade, early check-in and late checkout when available, booking through Capital One Travel. Some hotels set a minimum number of nights.

If you already carry one of these cards for other reasons, its hotel program costs you nothing extra. If the hotel perks are the main reason you would get the card, weigh the annual fee against how many nights you actually book.

Often, yes. Luxury travel advisors belong to networks whose partner hotels add perks when the advisor makes the booking, and most advisors charge travelers nothing because the hotel pays them a commission. The trade-off is the process: you ask, the advisor checks and books, and changes go back through them. On a complicated trip, a good advisor is worth that.

SKYLARK is a hotel booking service with a membership. SKYLARK Friend costs $250 a year. SKYLARK's platform has 4,000+ hand-picked luxury hotels, and at more than 3,000 of them members generally get daily breakfast for two, a property credit of $100 or more per stay, and priority for room upgrades and early check-in or late checkout, plus member-only rates at hundreds of hotels. Members book online themselves, and SKYLARK's advisors are there when they want help.

SKYLARK Guest is free and books public rates. SKYLARK Best Friend ($1,500 a year) is by invitation. Perks vary by hotel, and the Members' List shows every hotel where membership gets you more, sorted by what it's worth.

The card programs are good at what they do, and a SKYLARK membership doesn't replace them. It differs in four ways. It isn't tied to a card, so you pay with whichever one you like. Its hotels are hand-picked by SKYLARK: 4,000+ luxury hotels on our platform, with perks at 3,000+ of them. It comes with an in-house team of luxury travel advisors who know many of the hotels and their general managers firsthand, so you can message an advisor who knows the hotel when you want a recommendation or something goes wrong. And you earn your hotel loyalty points with the hotel's own program, in nearly all cases.

You choose the route for each stay, so a card and a membership can sit side by side. Welcome to Friends With Amenities (FWA), SKYLARK's name for the membership's perks.

• You already have the Platinum Card, Sapphire Reserve or Venture X: use its hotel program at hotels that are in it. You have already paid for the perks. SKYLARK is worth a look for stays outside the program's hotels, or when you want an advisor who knows the property.
• You stay at luxury hotels a few times a year and don't want a $395 to $895 card: a membership costs less. SKYLARK's own math is that one night usually covers the $250.
• Your trip has several stops, a safari or a villa: an advisor earns their keep. SKYLARK members get advisors too.

• The total price. A rate with perks can cost more than the lowest public rate, so count what the perks are worth to you.
• Cancellation terms. Some perk rates are prepaid and can't be refunded.
• The upgrade. Every route offers it only when the hotel has a better room free.
• What the credit covers. Property credits usually go to food, drink or the spa, and they don't carry over to another stay.
• Loyalty points. Whether a booking earns hotel points varies by route, hotel and chain. In nearly all cases a SKYLARK booking does. For any route, add your number when you book and confirm before you pay.