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There is a new targeted Amex Offer out this morning on Platinum cards (both business and consumer) that’s good for $300 back when you spend $1,000 or more on “International Airline Program” flights with select airlines at Amex Travel. Note that there are a number of restrictions — like that your flights need to begin and end in a US gateway or select Canadian gateways — but if you’ll be booking paid flights with one of the qualifying airlines, this can be a great deal.
The Deal
- A new targeted Amex Offer is out for $300 back when you spend $1,000+ on qualifying flights through Amex Travel [enrollment required]
Key Terms
- Offer valid only for flights operated by select airlines (or a flight + hotel package) and booked directly with American Express Travel online through AmericanExpress.com/us/
AmexTravelIAP, through the Amex® App, or by calling the number on the back of your Card. - Select airlines include
- AeroMexico
- Air France
- Air New Zealand
- ANA
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- British Airways
- Brussels Airlines
- Cathay Pacific
- China Airlines
- Delta
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Finnair
- Iberia Airlines
- Japan Airlines
- KLM
- LATAM
- Lufthansa
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Singapore Airlines
- Swiss International Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic.
- Flights booked directly with a qualifying airline or through other third-party sites and apps, not listed as eligible, are excluded.
- Offer not valid for all other types of American Express Travel bookings or purchases not listed as eligible.
- International Airline Program benefits are valid only for eligible U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum Card® and Centurion® Members (Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Card Members are not eligible), on int’l tkts booked through Amex Travel for select 1st class, business class, and premium economy tickets with participating airlines, subject to availability.
- Travel must originate in and return to U.S. gateway and select Canadian gateways.
- An eligible Card Member can book for himself/herself and up to 7 passengers traveling on the same itinerary as that Card Member.
- Bookings must be made using an eligible Card in the Card Member’s name.
- Discounts are applied to the base airfare. Discounts are not combinable with other offers unless indicated and may not apply to codeshare partners.
- See offer for full terms
Quick Thoughts
This could be a great offer if you intended to buy flights in the near future. Saving three hundred bucks on flights is always a nice win.
Note that there are some restrictions. For instance, I was initially excited because I was about to book a flight on British Airways before I saw this offer, but then I realized that terms indicate that only flights departing and returning to US or select Canadian gateways qualify. I’m booking a flight from Europe–>US–>Europe, so I don’t believe it will qualify for the offer.
There’s also the fact that the offer details notes that it’s good for $300 back when you spend $1,000 or more on “International Airline Program” flights. The Amex International Airline program is a special program offering discounts for Amex Platinum cardholders (both consumer and business) with select international airlines in premium cabins. You can read more about the program in this post. While the terms seem to suggest that you must be booking International Airline program fares, I don’t know whether that is enforced or if any ex-US flight on the included airlines will work.
I’m also not positive whether this will stack with the Pay With Points rebate for Business Platinum cardholders, but I think it might. Those with the Business Platinum card can pay with points for flights booked via Amex Travel and get 35% of their points back (up to 1 million points back per year) when they redeem for flights on their chosen/registered airline (US-based airlines only) or on any airline when booking business or first class. While it may not seem intuitive, I think this might stack because of the way Amex handles those reservations, first charging the flight to your Business Platinum card and then “reimbursing” it with points (note that the rebate takes something like up to 8 or 12 weeks). I’m thinking the offer may trigger at the initial charge, though I don’t know that for sure. It’s certainly worth a shot if you were buying a qualifying ticket anyway.
Also keep in mind that while most of the eligible airlines are foreign, Delta made the list. Given the requirement to use the International Airline program, it sounds like domestic flights would not qualify. One nice thing to keep in mind is that Delta has a fairly generous change policy, so you may be able to lock in the discount now and later change to the flight you want, though keep in mind that you may be in for some hassle in rebooking it through Amex Travel.
Overall, this is obviously a valuable offer that I’m sure will be of interest to many. I would recommend syncing this up ASAP if you have an intention to use it.
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[…] Check Your Amex Offers: If you’ve been planning for summer travel, you may have noticed that airfare is considerably higher than in the past. You might check your Amex Offers to help ease the sting from higher airfare costs. […]
I had an Amex offer for travel on Delta limited to flights originating in the US. It was triggered for a one was from Cabo to SF with a stop in LAX of course. I did book on Delta’s US site so the transaction was in dollars.
Probably won’t work with this offer but ya never know.
Is there a list of “select Canadian gateways” anywhere?
I would assume any major Canadian city ought to work.
Maybe only if that city actually has International Airline Program fares?
I would guess. But it seems odd to have a clear distinction made in the terms and no actual list provided anywhere.
Maybe I am not understanding this bullet point. Can I use this offer to purchase economy tickets? Or it is premium economy and up?
The IAP program is only for premium economy, business, and first class tickets. This is an offer related to the IAP program. In practice, is it possible that you could purchase economy tickets through AMEXTravel and still get the $300 credit? Maybe. Depends on how well it’s coded. We won’t know unless people offer data points.
Hello, what is “US gateway”? Is there a list of US gateways that would qualify for the offer?
It just means you need to depart from and return to the United States or Canada. You can’t depart from Mexico for example or use it for a trip from London–>New York—>London because you didn’t depart and return to the US.
Ah ok, thanks. I thought it must be some kind of “international hub”. I did price comparison for a couple of Delta roundtrip flights that I’m actually interested in, and the price through the AMEX intl program is about $300 more for a $1k flight booked through Delta. So looks like a typical business tactic of inflating the price and then giving you a discount to make you feel you’re getting a heck of a deal. But YMMV of course. Pass for me though.
That doesn’t sound right. Flights are very often the same price wherever you book and sometimes these IAP flights can cost quite a bit less (particularly when they have Insider Fares available). For example, I just an hour ago booked a flight through Amex Travel. It was more than $5,000 less for three passengers via Amex Travel than via Google Flights / the airline website. Still not sure why that is in that specific instance, but I mention it here to say that what you’re describing is definitely not a universal “business tactic of inflating the price and giving you a discount”.
You’re right. I re-ran the itineraries and paid closer attention, saw that on the return leg of the flight, the cheaper flight on Delta has a longer layover in ATL. But for some reason, that itinerary is not available for me through AMEX, only the one with a shorter layover, which is more expensive. I suppose if the longer layover itenarary was available, prices then would be comparable. Ok, my bad.
“Bookings must be made using an eligible Card in the Card Member’s name”
How strict are they on this for flights or hotel? The cardmember don’t want to travel but a family member might
Would like to know as well
They’re pretty strict on this for flights. We couldn’t use my wife’s card to book for MIL, so we had to add MIL as an authorized user in order to buy her a ticket using the IAP.
Previously there was an Amex Offer for 200 back on 1000 for Air France or KLM. The terms say you have to book through their sites or via the app. Doesn’t seem like there is a way to double dip these two offers, correct?
I don’t believe so, but not 100% sure.
DP on Delta booking thru amextravel: booked using a prev amex offer on DL; cancelled the flight later after credit has posted on account; the cancelled flight turned into an evoucher that can be used later for another flight
Theoretically, if you can find a DL iap fare for 1k, book it, wait for credit to post, then turn your flight into an evoucher. A 1k voucher for 700 bucks is def not bad at all
Since you are booking through amextravel, don’t you have to use amextravel to cancel instead of directly calling Delta to cancel.
It would be great ,If you can cancel through Delta and get the evoucher after the credit is posted.
I didn’t cancel thru amextravel. Used the booking ref and cancelled the flight thru Delta. The evoucher came in later
Great to hear that. Thanks Franz
I’ve had the same experience.
How long did it take for the voucher to come?
That’s what I was getting at with flexible policies 🙂
In this case, why would you have to wait until the credit posted before canceling? Wouldn’t you just have to wait 24 hours, so there’s no danger they’d refund the ticket purchase instead of issuing you a voucher? As long as Delta doesn’t refund to your card, Amex has a qualifying transaction in your ledger and should issue the credit.
Just trying to get a handle on how these things work.
I would assume all of that exactly as you state. Hopefully someone who has done it can confirm.
So… Theoretically it is possible to book a qualifying “dummy flight” for just over $1000 thru amex travel. Cancel thru delta. End up paying $700 for $1000 Delta credit on a future flight.
When you do this, and rebook a new flight. Are you still covered by Amex Platinum travel insurance like trip delay/trip cancellation?
I doubt you would be. If it works as people report above, what I think I would do is rebook a new flight that costs at least a little bit more than the credit so that I could put part of the cost of the new flight on a CSR since you only need to pay partial with the CSR to get trip delay coverage.
That’s brilliant Franz. Could share the departure and destination to help save some time looking for that flight that’s just over 1k?
Not targeted on my Schwab Platinum. Bummer.
Terms seem to imply round trip only (originate AND return to US/Canada). However, when I search, one ways show up under the IAP banner, so I wonder if that would be enforced.
[…] Orignally published on 2022-05-19 14:04:34 by frequentmiler.com […]
Cannot be used when “paying with points” through Amex?
I noted that I’m not sure. Are you asking, or sharing a data point?
Mostly just demonstrating my poor reading ability, since I didn’t realize you’d addressed it (or a related question).
I don’t have the business platinum card so, in my case, the question was: Would you get the $300 credit at all when paying with MR instead of actual money? I know the airlines see that as a cash purchase, but does Amex consider it a cash purchase, or a redemption? I think you answer that question — yes, it’s charged as a cash purchase against your card and later credited off using the points, so you should definitely get the $300.
Combined with the 35% rebate, it would be fantastic.
It has been a while since I have used pay with points. I was just about to book a flight that this would work on, so could be perfect timing– thanks for posting!
What I think happens is when I book with points it first charges my card in dollars, then refunds that to convert to points. So then I would get the 35% back in points on my biz plat, but, if I have a charge and reversal, would I get the $300 for amex offer? I might be confused on the details.
I would like to be able to use the $300 rebate for sure, and if I can then get the 35% back in points, even better, but that is secondary. How would I purchase to ensure the $300 rebate and test out the 35% points rebate? Anyone have ideas/info?
Thanks!
Yeah I don’t know whether it will trigger the $300 rebate (or trigger it and take it back?). The charge doesn’t really get “reversed” but rather “reimbursed” via points, so based on that logic I would think they probably would stack, but none of us on the FM team knew for sure.
As a DP that won’t do you much good, I booked a British Airways itinerary today that didn’t depart/return to US gateways (it is Europe–>US–>Europe) and it therefore wasn’t an international airline program fare (but it is through one of the IAP Airlines in BA). I’m using Pay With Points for the 35% rebate, but the charge of course first shows up on my card, so I see it pending now. I did not receive a “congrats, you used your Amex Offer” email. I didn’t expect that this flight would work since it doesn’t depart from the US and isn’t in the IAP, but I can at least confirm that they have that much coded properly it seems in terms of what will trigger the Amex Offer. Not just any charge with a qualifying airline through Amex Travel will do.
Or the notification just didn’t trigger. I used to get Amex Offer notifications close to 100% of the time, these days it’s inconsistent. I wouldn’t yet call it confirmed that they don’t trigger the offer.
Good point!
The terms are kind of vague. The first part seems to lay out the terms for getting cash back, which don’t really specify IAP or needing to book any specific origin/destination. They do state that you need to book using the IAP link, but it also lists that you can use the Amex Travel app and phone, which don’t specify IAP. After this section ends, it explains the rules for IAP discounts, including the origin/destination information, etc. I highly suspect that any purchases at Amex Travel on these airlines will get the rebate, but it’s going to require some datapoints. I think the intention of the promo is to call attention to IAP, but in practice any flight on these airlines on Amex Travel will do.