American Express Platinum cards offer up to $200 per year in airline fee reimbursements. These reimbursements can go a long way towards easing the sting of the high annual fees charged by personal Amex Platinum and Business Platinum cards and the Hilton Aspire offers up to $250 per year in airline fee reimbursements. Readers often wonder which types of charges will trigger these credits and/or which methods still work. In many cases in this post, we have cleaned up by removing older data points and replacing with some newer ones. If something is listed as working, it very likely still works; we’ll be sure to change it as soon as we have verified negative datapoints. On that note, reader input is always appreciated. Share your data points in the comments.
Amex airline fee credits are offered by calendar year. For example, Platinum cardholders can get up to $200 in fee credits for charges made up until December of this year, and $200 more for charges made next calendar year.
Step 1 is to make sure that you’ve selected a preferred airline here. Officially, you can change this selection once per year in January (if you don’t change it, your previous selection remains in place). Anecdotally, chat agents are usually willing to help you change your selected airline if you need to do so during the year.
Step 2 is to make qualifying purchases with your airline of choice in order to get reimbursed.
Things you need to know about Amex airline fee credits
A few helpful notes for airline incidental credits:
- Be sure to select your chosen airline at least one calendar day before attempting to use the credit. We sometimes see a lag before eligible charges are credited. Waiting for the email confirming that you’ve selected an airline is not always enough.
- Wait at least 2 weeks before assuming failure. While credits often post within a few days and/or the benefit counter typically moves before the credits post, there are frequently periods where things post more slowly than usual. Wait at least two weeks before attempting a different charge, contacting Amex, or reporting a negative data point.
- Charges are reimbursed based on the date of charge and count toward the allotment for the year in which the charge is dated. For example, a charge that posts to your statement dated December 29, 2022 will count against your 2022 airline incidental credit even if the charge itself doesn’t reimburse until early 2023. However, don’t wait until the very last minute — I once charged United club passes late at night on 12/31 and the charge posted with a 1/1 date and I missed using the airline incidental credits.
- While Amex officially says that you can change your airline once each year in January, chat agents are often willing to change it for you if you ask nicely, even mid-year (and sometimes even if you’ve used part of the credit already).
What purchases count… officially?
Eligible incidental fees include:
- Checked baggage fees (including overweight/oversize)
- Itinerary change fees
- Phone reservation fees
- Pet flight fees
- Seat assignment fees
- In-flight amenity fees (beverages, food, pillows/blankets, headphones)
- In-flight entertainment fees (excluding wireless internet because it’s not charged by the airline)
- Airport lounge day passes & annual memberships
And, officially, the following purchases are not deemed to be incidental fees:
- Airline tickets
- Upgrades
- Mileage points purchases
- Mileage points transfer fees
- Gift cards
- Duty free purchases
- Award tickets
What purchases count… unofficially?
Sometimes purchases of gift cards (update: As of July 2019, gift cards appear to be mostly dead with an occasional exception when the purchase does not code as a gift card), award fees, or even low-cost airfare are reimbursed even though they shouldn’t be. In some cases there seem to be maximum dollar limits. The things that work or don’t work vary by airline and over time. Something that worked in the past won’t necessarily work today.
The following table shows the unofficial stuff that works or doesn’t work with each airline that can be chosen as your preferred airline:
Alaska Airlines
**Note** In 2022, there were many reports of Alaska charges not being reimbursed automatically. It seems that many have had success getting charges for premium seat selection and things that ordinarily should be included (like lounge access, onboard purchases, etc) manually credited via the chat function, but only after 2 weeks has passed since the transaction date. Historical Alaska data included below, but beware that you may need to chat and hope for a friendly agent. See more data in this Flyertalk thread.
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on Alaska Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Award redeposit fee | $125 (x 2 passengers) 6/19. Had to call as it did not post automatically (via Flyertalk) |
| Fare difference | Price increase if $9 and $50. 12/20 (ykz1991) |
| Seat selection | • $65 PC seat selection (automatic) 12/20 (safari ari) • $45 & $49 seat upgrade 12/20 (Grant) • $149 PC seat selection (via chat). 12/20 (bbmatt) • $99 PC seat selection (via chat) 12/20 (EddyRoad) |
| Club Membership | 7/19. Had to call to get it to post (Randy) |
| Split Airfare Purchase | 9/6/22: $250 airfare paid with $101 in wallet funds and $149 charged to Aspire card (Summit) $149 ticket paid with $50 gift card and $99 charged to card (Camilla) |
| Airfare purchase | $58.10 & $78.10 saver fares (note previous failure reports below; YMMV) 12/20 (Grant) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Airfare under $100 |
Via BK250: • 8/3/19: $63.30, reimbursed 8/7 • 8/9/19: $54.30, not reimbursed • 8/19/19: $63.30, not reimbursed • 9/12/19: $68.80, not reimbursed • 6/22/20: $49, not reimbursed (PeterSFO) |
| E-gift card | • Gift card purchases stopped working summer 2017 • $50 10/28/17 • $25 8/6/17 |
| Split Airfare | • $138 two tickets for $69 each on card + $25 Alasksa gift card not reimbursed 1/22 (Lrdx) • 1/22 (Victor) |
| In-flight snacks | 1/22 (Victor) |
American
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on American Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Split airfare purchase | $107.60 ticket purchased with $60 flight credit + $47.60 on Platinum card 7/22 (redtop43 on flyertalk) but see negative data point in “What fails” section below also |
| In-flight food & beverage | $18 in drinks 8/22 (FallenPlat on flyertalk) |
| Seat selection | • Main Cabin Extra purchased online ($138). 8/22 (Nick) • Main Cabin Extra purchased at kiosk. 12/20 (durial) • First Class upgrade purchased at kiosk 12/20 (durial) |
| Admirals Club | • Day pass 12/20 (durial) • Food / bar tab 12/20 (durial) |
| Physical Gift card $50 or less | 12/9/17: Note that we are doubtful this still works, but did not uncover a direct data point. |
| 5 Star Service | $325 3/21/17 |
| Mileage Multiplier | 7/4/19 |
| Unaccompanied minor fee | 8/2022 (John) |
| Award taxes** | **Note that award taxes and fees are not consistently reimbursed. See “What fails” for negative data points. 9/2022: $11.20 x 2 (Robert) |
| Upgrade sticker | $0 500 mile sticker 12/20 (Travelfitforaking) $40 500 mile stickers. 12/20 (festriaqua) $40.00 500 mile upgrade purchased online 7/26/19 (Will). Also reported by cliburn. |
| Status Buyback | Buyback for Gold status triggered credit (reader report on Youtube) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Split airfare | $200 ticket using $140 trip credit and $60 on Platinum card 9/22 (lowkeyflyer on flyertalk) |
| E-gift card | Gift card purchases stopped working for many around February / March 2019. It just depends on how AA codes the purchase (coded as a gift certificate will not trigger the credit) and we have not been able to determine a way to predict how it will code. We had some positive reports in February, but most data points from mid-February onward have been negative. |
| $75 close-in fee | 7/15/19 (Dan P) |
| Award taxes | Reports here are inconsistent. Most fail, but there are some reports of fees being reimbursed (see this 5/22 report from merlin90 on flyertalk) 8/2022: $64 did not credit (Nick) 6/2022: $5.60 did not credit (Mark) |
Delta
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on Delta Air Lines?
| What Works? | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Award fees under $200 | 11/2022 $185 (Bikeguy) 8/22/22: $124.70 (omxfl on flyertalk) 12/2020: $167 12/20 (JDK) 12/9/17: $54.76 |
| Lounge guest pass | 5/2022: $39 (Jeff) |
| Companion Ticket Taxes | 8/9/20: $20.20 (Greg) |
| Mileage Booster | 10/2019: $59 (Patrick) |
| Change Fee | • 12/9/22: Changed ticket to a more expensive one (Greg) |
| Split Airfare Purchase | • 7/14/23: Multiple tickets split between airline credits plus credit card all posted (Greg) • 2/2022: $733 ticket split between $500 gift card + $233 on Platinum card (Satellite) • 8/3/22: $297.20 ticket split between $50 gift card and $247.20 on Platinum card triggered $200 incidental credit (SoloDolo on flyertalk) • 11/28/21: $91.84 charged to card combined with previous flight credit (Anon) • 7/12/21: $198 ticket split between $50 gift card + $148 on Platinum card (Bethany) • 7/12/21: $162 ticket split between $50 gift card + $112 on Platinum card triggered remaining $52 of airline fee credit (Bethany) • 12/2020 $260 ticket split between $50 gift card + $210 on Aspire + $25 seat selection (Veteran Traveler) • 12/2020: $230 ticket split between $50 gift card + $180 on Platinum (Veteran Traveler) • 12/2020: $240 ticket split between miles + $190 on card. 12/20 (Dynastar) |
| In-flight WiFi** | 8/2022: Viasat charge triggered the credit (fold on flyertalk), but reports are that GoGo Internet charges will not trigger credit |
| Airfare | 1/20/22: $120 (Mel), but note that Greg has what appears to be a negative data point in 12/2022 |
| Upgrade to Comfort Plus (YMMV) | $200 Used the “change flight” function to switch to Comfort Plus 8/22 (hereitgoes) $169 (Patrick) YMMV: Not automatic, reimbursed via chat 1/21 |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Cheap airfare | 12/6/22: $78.60. Note that the cost to change to a more expensive ticket type did get reimbursed. (Greg) |
| Split airfare with pay with miles | • 3/24/23: $418.6 ticket: 5000 miles for $50 credit plus $368.90 charged to card did not trigger the credit (Cameron) • 4/3/23: split ticket: $252.80 + 5000 miles didn’t work (Greg) |
| Gift cards over $50 | |
| Award fees over $200 | |
| eGift cards | As per many reports at Flyertalk, this likely died around 6/22/19 |
| Economy Plus Upgrade |
7/12/19 (Arlington Traveler) |
Frontier
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on Frontier Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Discount Den membership | 3/20 (Hsn) |
| Airfare | • 1/2020: $38.98 1/20 (pragmaticpoints) • 8/10/2019: $18.31 on 8/10/19 (Rex) |
| Split Airfare | • 10/20/21: $108.17 combined with $59 Frontier credit 10/20/21 (Holly) • 6/2020: $119 paid as a mix of vouchers and money 6/20 (wed100105) |
| Seat selection | $17 1/20 (pragmaticpoints) |
| Fee for kids free with vouchers | Total under $30 (Usernamechuck) |
What fails?
We don’t yet have failure reports for Frontier charges.
Hawaiian
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on Hawaiian Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Airfare under $50 | • 1/31/22: $39.10 x 4 (swdcflyer on flyertalk) • 1/21/2021: Fare under $50 (Michael) • 11/21/2017: $29.83 (via Flyertalk). Used gift card to reduce airfare |
| Extra comfort upgrade | • 12/31/21: $99 x 2 (sullim4 on flyertalk) • 6/2019: $89 (benjinito) • 6/2020: $180 (Guest) |
| Food & beverage on board | Success reported 10/18 (via Flyertalk) |
| Seat upgrade | $10 (Michael) 1/21 |
| Split payment for airfare w/ less than $50 charged to the card | $29.80 & $44 11/18 (via Flyertalk) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Gift cards | $50 7/19/17 (via Flyertalk) |
| Airfare over $50 | $53 10/17 (via Flyertalk) |
JetBlue
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on JetBlue?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Airfare under $150? | • $97 9/22 (Michael Spellman on flyertalk) • $116.60 & $83.40 4/22 (LAST EXIT on flyertalk) • $145.60 1/22 (Jason) • $140 11/20 (Bill) • $100 11/20 (christvs) • $108.10 11/20 (earthisdoomed) |
| Award taxes / fees | • $5.60-$85 7/19 (via Flyertalk) • $130 (1/19) (via Flyertalk) |
| Cancellation fees | $75 7/19 (via Flyertalk) |
| Seat selection | $5 11/20 (financialhippie) |
| Upgrade from Mint to Mint Studio | $199 6/22 (fishccy on flyertalk) |
| Even More Space upgrade | $35, $50 1/19 (via Flyertalk) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Airfare over $150 | • $151.10 9/20 (Earthgoeshard) • $250 1/11/17 (via Flyertalk) |
| Gift cards | They don’t sell them |
Spirit
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on Spirit Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| $9 Fare Club Membership | • $59.92 (1/20) (optimilez2016) • $69 11/18 (Joe) |
| Big Front Seat | • 5/11/22: Confirmed Big Front Seat package works (Vincent) • 1/2020: $41 x2 (optimilez2016) |
| Partial Airfare | $6 (Rest using airline credit) 12/20 (Joe Y) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Ticket purchase | $52.80 1/20 (optimilez2016) |
| Bags bundled with ticket purchase | 1/20 (and a couple previous DPs) (s.k.d) |
Southwest
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on Southwest Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Airfare under $100 | • 12/17/22: $83.98 x 3 (Lrdx) • 11/30/22: $89.98 (Cathy) • 4/1/22: $98 (Harsh B) • 1/2021: $94 (Scott) • 1/2021: $71.99 & $48.99 (KKM) • 12/2020: $49.98 (John) • 5/2020: $99 (Mark and Greg) • 1/2020: $54 (Chia) – I don’t recommend doing this |
| Airfare over $100 | • 12/2020: $104.98 (Jed) • 12/20/19: $100.50 ($200 rebated out of $201 in charges, so we now know that $100 isn’t the exact limit) (David G) |
| Early bird check-in | • 1/2022: $20 (Chris) • 5/14/20: $20 (Greg) • 9/11/19: $50 (Norm) |
| Award Fees | • 1/2022: $97.76 (Dee) • 12/2020: $11.20 (Beth) • 11/2020 $70.34 (Greg) • 2/2020: $5.60 (Matthew) |
| A1-A15 boarding | 12/2019: $40 (Sdin123) |
| Split payment for airfare w/ under $100 charged to card | 10/2019: $96 Used a gift card to pay part of the airfare ($42) and paid $96 remainder on Amex Gold. Got $96 credit. (Marshall Davis) Jason reported success too. |
| In-flight beverage | 11/19 (veeRobb) |
| Itinerary change | 5/13/22: $5 & $3.02 (Nick) 5/17/20: $66.50 (Greg) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| On-board Wi-Fi | $8 charge posted, but was not credited (2/18) |
| $185 e-Gift card | Charge posted 6/22/18, no reimbursement as of 7/9/18 (Katie) |
| All e-Gift cards | Stopped working in June 2019 (via Flyertalk) |
| Split payment for airfare w/ $100 or more charged to card | $155 (7/19) via Flyertalk |
United
**Note that you may need to wait until the next business day after selecting United as your qualifying airline. Since TravelBank works as of 12/22, most of the other uses are less interesting.
What works to trigger Amex airline incidental credits on United Airlines?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Standard stuff | Economy Plus, United Club, Pet Fee, Same Day Flight Change (Note: A charge for United Club one-time passes on December 31st posted with a date of January 1st and missed using the annual credit – Nick) |
| Seat upgrade | Made through kiosk 11/18 (Ambrosio) |
| Economy+ seat | $132 12/23/21 (Elizabeth) 6/22/19 from Flyertalk and also $175 for transatlantic Economy+ seat in 2/19 (SKJL).$84 each (x 2) 2/20 (Matthew) |
| United TravelBank | Note that TravelBank has stopped working and started working again several times over the past few years, so it’s always worth checking back for any new DPs here before making a purchase. 12/17/22: $50 and $100 loads (Joe Y) 11/2022: $100 x 2 (MalMel) 5/15/22: TravelBank is working. |
| In-flight WiFi | 12/19/22: $8 in-flight WiFi (Nick) 11/2020 (atat) |
| In-flight F&B | 12/18/22: $10.99 snack box (Nick) |
What fails?
| Purchase type | Recent Reports |
|---|---|
| Upgrade from economy to first class |
$175 charge on 12/27/2018 may have been too large to look like a fee |
| Split payment with GC and airfare under $100 | $50.19 partial ticket payment did not trigger credit 3/26/22 (Captain Greg) |
| MileagePlus X App Purchases | |
| United Gift Registry | This doesn’t really fail — it’s just no longer available |
| Award Fees | This appears to have stopped working according to a DP from JB in San Diego from October 2019. |
| Gift Card | |
| $99 Upgrade Fee | 2016 |
Please report your results!
If you try any unofficial options, please let us know via the comments whether it worked. Tell us the date of purchase, what you purchased, the dollar amount, and whether or not you were reimbursed. Please do not report purchases that are officially reimbursed unless you do not get the credit.
What to do if you’re not reimbursed?
First, double check that you picked the airline in question as your preferred airline. If you did not, then Amex won’t reimburse you (but they have been known to make an exception if you call and say that you forgot to set your preferred airline).
If you do not get reimbursed for things that are officially allowed (checked bags, change fees, lounge fees, etc.), then contact Amex for help. If you do not get reimbursed for things that are not officially allowed (gift cards, award fees, airfare, etc.) do not contact Amex. You weren’t really supposed to get reimbursed for those anyway.
Other cards that offer fee reimbursements
Quite a few other cards offer airline fee reimbursements. We’d like to setup pages like this for each of them. For example, see: Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa airline fee credits: What works?
If you have experience earning or not earning airline fee credits with other cards, we’d like to hear that too! Please comment below with your experience, but please make sure to include the card name and airline in your comment. Here are some that have been reported:
CNB Crystal Visa Infinite 7/30/17 $54.86 Delta award fee reimbursed 8/3/17 (Greg)
CNB Crystal Visa Infinite 6/1/18 $56.02 Southwest fee to change from anytime to Business Select (Justice Jen)
CNB Crystal Visa Infinite 2019-Feb-14 $50 AA eGC — reimbursed 2019-Feb-20 (Jeph36)
CNB Crystal Visa Infinite 2019-Feb-20 $200 AA eGC — reimbursed 2019-Feb-27 (Jeph36)
CNB Crystal Visa Infinite (P2) 2019-Mar-03 $250 AA eGC — reimbursed 2019-Mar-13 (Jeph36)
PenFed Pathfinder 2019-Mar-04 $100 AA eGC — reimbursed 2019-Jun-06 (Jeph36)
Previous Post Updates
Update 1/18/21: Reports indicate that United Travel Bank purchases are once again dead. Click to skip to the rest of the “Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements” post.
Update 12/15/20: Recent data points added for most airlines. As a general piece of advice, don’t panic if a few days pass and you aren’t yet reimbursed. If there are positive data points in the chart, there is a good chance that it still works. Sometimes reimbursement happens in 2 or 3 days, sometimes 2 or 3 weeks. Report your data points in the comments. Thanks!
Update 7/22/19: Added many data points. eGift cards no longer consistently work with any airline, though a number of other options remain or have since been found. Added a table of contents below for convenience so you can find your chosen airline. Please add your data points in the comments (but wait a few weeks to be sure your credit posts or doesn’t post before reporting it as alive/dead).
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
