American Express Platinum cards, both consumer and business Platinum, offer up to $200 in statement credits annually for airline incidental purchases. The way this benefit works is that the cardholder chooses a selected airline in January and then makes qualifying purchases with that airline through the end of the calendar year. In the past, it has always been possible to easily change your airline selection in January. Existing cardholders have traditionally kept their airline selection unless they proactively change in January. Oddly, that’s not the way it is working on Business Platinum cards this year. On Business Platinum cards, the airline selection has been dropped, and you’ll need to reselect an airline for the $200 credit.
This does not affect consumer Platinum cards
To be very clear, this does not affect consumer Platinum cards. The airline selection on all of our consumer Platinum cards carried over from last year into this year, with no change. The issue being reported here only affects Business Platinum cards.
Watch out: Even if it shows an airline for the 35% rebate, your airline might have been deselected for the $200 airline incidental fee rebate
The issue here is that the airline selection on Business Platinum cards has not carried over from 2025 into 2026 for those cardholders who had their Business Platinum card open last year. In years past, and on the consumer Platinum card this year, if you are a cardholder in the previous year, the system maintains your previous year’s airline selection, or you can manually choose a different airline.
The Business Platinum card has two different airline-related benefits: Up to $200 in statement credits for airline incidental fee charges and a 35% pay with points rebate that provides up to one million points back per year when using points to pay for airfare on your chosen airline. Crucially important is the fact that both the incidental fee credit and the 35% pay with points rebate apply to the same airline. In other words, if I choose Southwest for my airline incidental fee credit, then Southwest will also be my airline for the 35% pay with points rebate.
I was in my account just the other day checking which airlines I had selected from the previous year. I noticed that on one of our Business Platinum cards, at the top of the benefits section, it showed that the 35% pay with points rebate would apply to Jetblue.
I took that to mean that JetBlue was the airline selected for the $200 airline incidental fee credit (and I know that was the case last year, as we used it for the 25 for 25 promotion).
However, after Tim brought this issue to my attention today, I scrolled all the way down to the travel section of that business Platinum Card’s Benefits, and I saw that there was no airline selected for the $200 incidental fee credit.
Somehow, the system recognized Jetblue being the proper airline for the 35% rebate, but deselected Jetblue as the airline for the $200 airline incidental credit.
In my case, that wasn’t a big deal as I hadn’t yet used the card for incidentals. However, longtime Platinum cardholders probably expected the airline selection to carry over and might have made charges this month, expecting a reimbursement. However, unless you manually select the airline for your Business Platinum card, it seems that you may not be automatically credited for the qualifying purchases on a Business Platinum card. You’ll want to log into your account and make sure that you’ve selected an airline.
It is also worth mentioning that Amex has historically been good about allowing cardholders to change their airline selection at other times of year by calling or chatting. Officially, the selected airline can only be changed in January. But unofficially, agents are usually willing to help with that. Still, I wouldn’t have expected to need to manually select an airline again in the new year.
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Both me and p2 got our airlines deselected in the new year on our personal cards. Not sure if we are an outlier but it was definitely the first time its happened over the years.
All six of my business plats were unchecked when i looked after reading this article. I had done my united payments the night before and now i see that all the credits have posted for all cards. I did not go in and reselect an airline since united was still showing for the 35% bonus section. So seems it is a non-issue, at least for my experience. Hopefully everyone else sees the same results.
So I just found out that the $200 airline credit was unchecked but the 35% discount is still the same. I have already bought travel bank and the fee was posted. Will I be able to get the credit once I check United?
Mine were also deselected which I didn’t realize. One card the credits went through and the other didn’t.
I’m curious if anything changes with paying through Bilt alliance, which my building has. I don’t have a Bilt card but I earn either 0.5 Bilt points per dollar spent on rent with any credit card or 3x Atmos miles per dollar with my Atmos card, both of which come with a 3% fee. I pay rent either with a new card for a SUB (preferred) or my Atmos card if no new card. Rich didn’t answer questions about the Bilt alliance asked on the Reddit AMA so we’ll see if this changes…
It never seemed worth while to get a Bilt card because rent spend is much better spent on new cards for a SUB, and it seems even less useful now. 3% fee makes Bilt just another payment platform for rent, it’s not unique if the Bilt earnings go away. I will probably go back to using Clickpay if this is the case.
Nope. Spent $400+ on UA on incidentals and didn’t get automatically credited. I noticed that it wasn’t selected after I made the qualifying charge, so I selected the next day.
Now, I’m being told I need to wait 6-8 weeks before I can request a manual review, whereas my personal was credited within 3 days.
It seems like an IT bug.
I had it selected last year, and the expenses were refunded. This year’s expenses were refunded as well, although the airline’s name is missing. I just reselected the airline for the $200 air incidentals. Surprisingly, now I see the 35% with the name and the $200 without it.
I’ll pay another $100 and hope for the best.
This is nothing new. I’ve seen this for a while, definitely last few months in 2025. The 35% section says the airline name and the $200 section just says Airline Selected: with a green check. If the airline was not selected, it would be in gray without a check.
Bought UA travel bank on 1/3, credited 1/7 on both biz platinums. Checked benefits section today and saw a button to select airline. Maybe this is just a glitch, or maybe a backdoor way to get travel bank credit and then pick a different airline for the 35% point rebate?
Same here.
Since I got my full United reimbursement (2x$100 on both our biz plats) I wonder if I can now choose different airline for 2026. 😉
Mine were also deselected. Thanks Nick!
DP: Purchased 2x $100 United travel bank on 1/1/26. Credits posted on 1/3/26. United selection continued from last year.
I purchased 2x $100 United travel bank on my Vanilla Plat on January 4 and those credited on January 7. I did the same with my Amex Biz Plat on January 4 and they are not credited.
Same issue with the airline fee credit “Airline Selected:” but my 35% rebate is United.
Another plat credit issue: purchased tickets through Alaska website for a Hawaiian flight. Switched to Alaska Airways for business and personal platinum airline credits on the 1st. Then paid to upgrade seats on Alaska website for the Hawaiian flight charging over $200 on each Platinum card, but credit is not posting a week later (usually posts within a couple days). Amex appears to be treating Alaska and Hawaiin as two distinct airlines still. Reps are barely helpful, one saying try again after Jan 21st, the other saying it might post but will take up to 6-8 weeks.
Another word to the wise for the clueless among us (like me). Amex cards reimburse for Travel Bank on the CALENDAR year. Autograph Journey is on the CARD MEMBER anniversary . Oopsie.
Good point! Most of the airline fee reimbursements are on a calendar year – AMEX Platinum cards, AMEX Hilton Aspire, Chase Ritz Carlton card. Wells Fargo Autograph Journey is a bit of an outlier set to card member year.
Here’s my experience.
on 1/1 made UA Travel Bank loads without first checking benefits section.
on 1/2 or 1/3, I checked my benefita section via the app and noticed the airline was blank.
started chatting other points friends
walked over to my computer and checkedAndx via the full browser. Airline election showed there.
Credit posted as normal in the 4th or 5th.
Data Point: My Biz currently shows no airline, but I’ve already been credited for 2 x $100 last week.