American Express Travel 72-hour Labor Day sale

American Express Travel is running a 72-hour sale, offering discounts of 20-40% on hotels. Most notably on the list are the Wynn and Encore in Las Vegas, which have been discounted to as low as $132 per night. I checked the Wynn calendar and it appears the savings listed by American Express are accurate. However, there is a catch: You need to book a certain number of nights to get the discounted rate.

For example, between September 23-26, the Wynn Deluxe Resort room goes for $189 per night. American Express Travel is offering the same room for $132 per night if you book at least two nights. Most people aren’t going to Vegas for a single night, so this works out to be a pretty good deal.

You can use your Membership Rewards points to pay for these hotel stays, though based on limited searches, I’ve found it’s better to charge these stays to your Arrival Plus card. That’s based on the rate of accumulating both currencies as well as redemption value.

It’s also worth noting that M-life resorts like the Luxor (which partners with Hyatt’s Gold Passport program) could present a good mattress running opportunity, with the recent targeted Hyatt promotion, as well as Hyatt counting partner, stays towards elite status.

There’s no telling whether these third party bookings will count as eligible nights towards status. But if you’re heading to Vegas anyway and looking for cheap hotels, you may get the added bonus of elite night credits.

Looking to travel elsewhere? There is a search function that allows you to look for deals outside of the “featured” list. I’ve found some of the best deals are in Vegas and San Diego. A search for cities including San Francisco and New York turned up nothing but a few low rate guarantees.

Bookings must be made by 11:50 PM (ET) on August 28. Discounts are good for travel between September 2 – 30, 2014. While it would have been nice to get last minute Labor Day discounts, these deals could still be a money saver for those who are planning to travel after Labor Day.