Maximizing American Express credit card rebates & credits

American Express credit card annual fees have continued to go up. And up. And up. In exchange for these increased fees, the bank continues to pile on benefits where you can get money (in the form of statement credits) back for doing certain kinds of spending.

Some of these rebates are for spend with specific merchants like Dell, Hilton or Saks Fifth Avenue; others are for specific types of spend such as airline fees or dining. These myriad bundles of credits have become so widespread that we’ve begun referring to them as Amex’s “coupon books.”

If you take full advantage of all of the “coupons”, the $695 annual fee on your Business Platinum may indeed be worth its yearly sticker price. However, in the real world, most of us don’t need $200 worth of Dell merchandise every 6 months and, if we’re buying stuff we don’t need or don’t even want, we’re not getting anywhere near the $400 in yearly value from this benefit.

So, what’s the best way to make sure that you’re getting the most value out of each of these credits? What can you do with your credit card’s airline incidental fee credits if you just want to buy airfare? What can you do with your Uber Cash if you don’t use rideshares? How can you still get value from all of these rebates if they cover things that you might not naturally use?

This post aims to answer questions like these and help you get as much bang as possible for your Amex “coupon” buck.

American Express Credit Card Rebates

Airline Rebates: $50 per quarter

Appears on: Hilton Honors Aspire

What it covers: Get up to $50 back when you use your card for flight purchases made directly with an airline or through Amex Travel. There is no need to pick your preferred airline for this credit.

Tips:

Each quarter in which you don’t spend $50 or more on airfare with your Aspire card, you could do one of these options instead:

• Use your Aspire card to add $50 to your United Travel Bank.
• Buy a $50-ish freely changeable future flight with just about any airline that you prefer.  For example, let’s say that you buy a $60 one-way ticket through Delta. You’ll get $50 back by paying with your Aspire card.  Then, next quarter, change that ticket to one that costs $110.  You’ll get $50 back by paying the difference with your Aspire card. Then next quarter, change to a $160 ticket. Eventually you’ll need to actually use the ticket for airfare, but this lets you accrue value over time.

Airline Fee Rebates: $200 per calendar year

Appears on: Amex Platinum Cards ($200 per year)

What it covers: Amex intends for these rebates to be used specifically for airline fees rather than airfare. This includes things like checked bag fees, itinerary change fees, pets, seat assignment fees, in-flight food purchases, and airport lounge passes. In reality, many purchases with airlines seem to get coded as incidental fees even if they’re not on Amex’s list.  For example, with some airlines, airfare under $100 will qualify. With others, splitting an airfare purchase by paying partially with travel credits or a gift card can trigger the rebate. Additionally, refundable award fees will often trigger the rebate.

Tips:

• You must enroll here with a specific airline to be eligible for this rebate.
• For full details about what types of purchases work to earn these rebates, see: Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works?  Here are a couple specific examples of how to get credit when buying airfare (assuming you picked this airline as your preferred airline):
  • Delta: If you have any Delta e-credits or gift cards that are smaller than the amount of the ticket you want to buy, you can buy a ticket with a combination of e-credit/gift card plus credit card. If you do so, the part of the ticket on the credit card will look like a fee and should be reimbursed (up to the max amount of your annual rebate).  For example, if you have a $50 Delta gift card and you apply it to a ticket costing $325, you can pay the remaining $275 with your Platinum card and you may get $200 back if you picked Delta as your preferred airline and if haven’t yet used your rebate this year.
  • United: This is the easiest. Simply use your Platinum card to add money to your United TravelBank.  As long as you’ve selected United as your preferred airline, you should get that money rebated.  Then, use the TravelBank funds to buy airfare.

Dell $400 rebate: $200 Jan-June + $200 July-Dec

Appears on: Amex Business Platinum

What it covers: Get up to $400 in statement credits annually for U.S. purchases with Dell Technologies. Get up to $200 in statement credits between January and June and up to $200 in statement credits between July and December.

Tips:

• You must enroll here to be eligible for this rebate.
• Make sure to create an account with Dell so that you’ll earn Dell Rewards with each purchase.
• Always start your shopping with the best current shopping portal for Dell. That way, even if you buy stuff you don’t want, you can get back cash or points for your purchase.  See the best portal options here. Paying partially (or entirely) with Dell Rewards credits does not diminish portal payouts.
• Dell allows splitting purchases across three credit cards (or payment methods). If you have multiple Business Platinum cards, you can use more than one in a single purchase.
• Dell will often cancel orders if you make too many separate orders too often. A good practice is to buy more things at once even if it means getting a lower discount.
• Stack the occasional Dell Amex Offer. Every now and then you’ll find that your business Platinum card has an offer for 10% back at Dell. Register for that offer and then make sure to spend at least $223 with Dell to make these offers stack. That way you’ll get 10% back from the Amex Offer ($22.30 back on a $223 purchase) plus $200 back thanks to the standard Dell rebate.

Delta Stays Credits: $100 – $250 per calendar year

Appears on: Delta SkyMiles Gold ($100), Delta SkyMiles Gold Business ($150), Delta SkyMiles Platinum ($150), Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business ($200), Delta SkyMiles Reserve ($200), Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business ($250) 

What it covers: Book a prepaid hotel or vacation rental with Delta Stays and you can receive a statement credit of up to $100-$250, depending on the card you have.

Tips:

• Your booking must be prepaid. Paying later at the hotel will not trigger the credit.
• Stays booked through Delta Vacations will not apply towards the credit.
• Anything booked through Delta Stays besides vacation rentals and hotels will not work to trigger the credit.
• When booking through Delta Stays, you usually won’t earn hotel points or elite status credits. You most likely won’t receive elite benefits either.
• Charges must be processed within a given calendar year for the credit to count; when the stay actually occurs doesn’t matter. For instance, if you booked a stay for July, 2025 in December, 2024, your 2024 credits would apply, so long as the charge is processed before the end of the December 31st.

Digital Entertainment Credit: $7 – $20 per calendar month

Appears on: Consumer Platinum Cards ($20/mo.), Blue Cash Preferred ($7/mo.)

What it covers:

• Platinum Cards: Earn up to $20 back per month for eligible purchases at: Disney+, The Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock, SiriusXM, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
• Blue Cash Preferred: Earn up to $7 back per month on a subscription to The Disney Bundle. Valid only at Disneyplus.com, Hulu.com, or Plus.espn.com. Subscription must cost at least $12.99 per month to qualify.

Tips:

• Sign up for digital entertainment services through a shopping portal to earn extra rewards. Use CashBackMonitor to find the best options: Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock, SiriusXM, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal.
• Platinum rebate works for both online and print subscriptions to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
• The Disney Bundle Duo Premium (Hulu and Disney+ with no ads) nicely uses up the Platinum card benefit since it costs $19.99 per month.
• Via Hulu, the following add-ons will trigger the rebate:
  • HBO Max
  • Showtime
  • Cinemax
  • Starz
  • Hulu Live TV (which itself offers add-ons: unlimited screens, sports, entertainment, español)

Dining Credit (Bonvoy Brilliant): $25 per calendar month

Appears on: Amex Bonvoy Brilliant

What it covers: $25 back on restaurant purchases each calendar month.

This one is easy enough if you use your Brilliant card for the first $25 of dining out each month (but it doesn’t offer great value for dining spend beyond that). It can also be used to buy gift cards at many, if not most, physical restaurant locations.

Tips:

Dining Credit (Amex Gold): $10 per calendar month

Appears on: Amex Gold

What it covers: Eligible purchases at any of the following will earn up to $10 back per month: Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and select Shake Shack locations.

Tips:

• Grubhub specific opportunities:
  • Sign up for Grubhub+ for $9.99 per month (plus taxes) to automatically use your credits monthly. This isn’t a great choice, though, if you can otherwise get Grubhub+ for free, such as with a 1 year free trial through Amazon Prime.
  • See: 12+ tips & tricks for Grubhub orders: Get free food, discounts, free Grubhub+, hotel points & more.
• Buy gift cards. Here’s what works:
  • Buy a $10 e-gift card through Goldbelly.com. It’s not necessary to sign up for GoldBelly to do this, but if you do you’ll earn Gold Belly rewards with each gift card purchase.
  • Buy a $25 e-gift card through wine.com
  • Buying  a $10 gift card in person at The Cheesecake Factory, Milk Bar, or Shake Shack.
• Here’s which gift cards don’t work to trigger the credit:
  • Buying Grubhub gift cards through Fluz does NOT work
  • Buying The Cheesecake Factory gift cards online does NOT work (purchases go through Cashstar.com)
  • Buying a Shake Shack e-giftcard online does NOT work (purchases go through Buyatab.com)

Flexible Business Credit (FedEx, Grubhub, office supply): $20 per calendar month

Appears on: Amex Business Gold Card

What it covers: Up to $20 back per calendar month for spend with FedEx, Grubhub, or at office supply stores.

Tips:

• GrubHub:
  • 12+ tips & tricks for Grubhub orders: Get free food, discounts, free Grubhub+, hotel points & more.
• Office Supply:
  • Go in-store to Staples, Office Depot, OfficeMax to buy gift cards. These stores frequently carry valuable gift cards for places like Amazon.com, gas stations, grocery stores, and more.  Additionally, they frequently offer discounts off purchase fees for Visa or Mastercard gift cards.
  • Buy gift cards online at Staples.com.
  • While Office Depot does have an online gift card portal on their website, they don’t process the payments and so those purchases won’t trigger the $20 rebate.

Fine Hotels & Resorts Rebate: $200 per calendar year

Appears on: Amex Consumer Platinum Cards

What it covers: Get $200 back in statement credits each year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings when you book through American Express Travel when you pay with your Platinum Card.

• Fine Hotels & Resorts stays include daily breakfast for 2; $100 experience credit (details vary by hotel); guaranteed 4pm late check-out; 12pm check-in when available; room upgrade when available; and free wi-fi.
• The Hotel Collection stays include a $100 experience credit (details vary by hotel); and a room upgrade when available.

Tips:

• Prepaid hotels booked through Fine Hotels & Resorts or through The Hotel Collection are usually fully refundable. If you get to the end of the year and haven’t used your credit yet, you can still book a hotel for next year in order to earn the credit now and, if your plans change, you can cancel the stay to get your money back. If that happens, expect Amex to take back the $200. Make sure to note the cancellation rules when booking a hotel because different hotels have different rules as to how far in advance you must cancel in order to get a full refund.
• When booking a chain hotel through a 3rd party online, you usually won’t earn hotel points or elite status credits, but with Fine Hotels & Resorts and The Hotel Collection, you usually do. Make sure to include your hotel loyalty rewards number when checking out.
• If your dates are flexible, there are ways to find dates in which qualifying hotels cost less than usual. If you can find a stay that costs only $200, you can get the full stay rebated plus get all of the perks that come with the reservations. See this post for details: Searching for deals through Fine Hotels & Resorts.
• When booking through Amex, you’ll lose out on other, better ways to book the same hotel.  For example, you can’t use hotel points for your stay; you can’t click through a portal to book; you can’t apply AAA discounts; etc. Still, getting $200 off can be a good trade-off. You can minimize that trade-off, though, by booking only one night through Amex and book the rest of your nights at the same hotel in other ways. Alternatively, if you have multiple Platinum cards, you can book each night separately through Amex.  That way you’ll get the $200 rebate for each night (but you may not get more than one experience credit). Note though that the terms refer to this as “Prohibited Action,” so there’s always a chance that you might get pushback from the hotel or from Amex.  A better option is if two people travelling together each have their own Platinum cards and you can alternate 1 night stays.
• While its fine to book a Fine Hotels & Resorts stay for just one night, The Hotel Collection requires at least 2 nights.

Hilton Hotel Credit: $50-60 per quarter

Appears on: Hilton Honors Surpass, Hilton Honors Business

What it covers: Get up to $50 or $60 back each quarter for purchases made directly with any Hilton property. This credit is not limited to resorts.

Tips:

• Buy gift cards online.  Readers report that buying Hilton gift cards through buyhiltongiftcards.com will trigger the credit.
• All charges to your room will count. For example, if you book an award stay, you can still trigger your credit by charging meals, activities, spa treatments, etc. to your room.
• The credit may apply if you ask the hotel to prepay for part of your stay. Nick outlined this approach here: Maximize Hilton resort credit without staying every year.
• Book a future stay at a hotel that charges a deposit at the time of booking.
• It’s possible to earn the credit even if you’re not actually staying at a participating hotel. Some have reported success with asking at the front desk to open a house account so that they could charge meals or other services to their “room,” then use their credit card to pay off the house account.

Hilton Resort Credit: $200 from Jan-Jun + $200 from Jul-Dec

Appears on: Hilton Honors Aspire

What it covers: Twice each year, get up to $200 in statement credits for eligible purchases made directly with participating Hilton Resorts. The full list of properties classified as resorts for this credit can be found at this link: www.hilton.com/en/resorts/

Tips:

• The credit will not be triggered by spend that goes towards a prepaid reservation.
• All charges to your room at a participating resort will count. For example, if you book an award stay at a resort, you can still use your credit by charging meals, activities, spa treatments, etc. to your room.
• The credit may apply if you ask the hotel to prepay for part of your stay. Nick outlined this approach here: Maximize Hilton resort credit without staying every year.
• Book a future stay at a resort that charges a deposit at the time of booking.
• It’s possible to earn the credit even if you’re not actually staying at a participating hotel. Some have reported success with asking at the front desk to open a house account so that they could charge meals or other services to their “room,” then use their credit card to pay off the house account.

Rideshare Credits: $10 per calendar month

Appears on: Delta SkyMiles Platinum, Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business, Delta SkyMiles Reserve, Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business 

What it covers: Get up to $10 back per calendar month for rideshare spend. Purchases with the following rideshare companies qualify for this rebate:

• Uber
• Lyft
• Curb
• Revel
• Alto

Tips:

• You must enroll in this benefit before paying for rideshare services. After logging into your American Express account, go to the Benefits page; make sure you have selected your Delta card (if you have multiple Amex cards), click the “Enroll” link to bring up all of the benefits that require enrollment, then enroll in the Rideshare benefit.
• You may pay for rideshare with the primary card or an authorized user card, but each account is only eligible for up to $10 in statement credits per month, for a total of up to $120 per calendar year. In other words, authorized users don’t get their own additional credits.
• The following types of purchases do not count according to the terms: delivery services (e.g. food delivery, groceries, etc), bikeshare, scooter, car rental, transit, membership, or any other non-rideshare services offered by the rideshare providers.
• As far as we can tell, the only way to use this credit with Uber is as intended. Uber charges look completely different when you use the Uber app to pay for rideshare vs. ordering Uber Eats or reloading credit. It seems that Amex will only credit true rideshare use.
• The credit is triggered with Lyft by adding Lyft Cash, although the smallest amount that Lyft will let you add is $25.

Saks Rebate: $50 Jan-Jun + $50 Jul-Dec

Appears on: Amex Consumer Platinum cards

What it covers: Up to $100 in statement credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue or saks.com when using your Platinum Card; up to $50 in statement credits from January through June and up to $50 in statement credits from July through December.

Tips:

• You must enroll here in order to be eligible for this rebate.
• If shopping online, always click through to Saks from a shopping portal to earn additional rewards. See the best current portal options here.
• Buy Saks gift cards:
  • Buy a $50 gift card in-store or a $150 gift card online (or a $200 card, which gets free shipping)
• Saks will let you return an item for gift card credit.
• Purchases made at Saks through PayPal do not trigger the offer.

Uber Cash: $10-35/month

Appears on: Amex Platinum cards ($15/mo, $35 Dec.), Amex Gold ($10/mo)

What it covers: When you add your eligible card to your Uber account, you’ll automatically get Uber Cash added each month. Uber Cash can be used for Uber rides or Uber Eats delivery and pick-up orders. Unused Uber Cash expires at the end of each month.

Tips:

• If you are new to Uber Eats, you can use our code at check-out to get $20 off your first Uber Eats order of $25 or more: eats-uberfrequentmiler.
• If you have multiple cards that offer the Uber Cash benefit, you can add each of these cards to your Uber account in order to stack Uber Cash.
• If a family member or friend has no need for Uber Cash, you can add their card to your Uber account to earn additional Uber cash each month. This can be especially useful within a family to consolidate Uber Cash into one account.
• If a purchase exceeds the amount of Uber Cash you have available, you do not have to pay the balance with your Amex card.
• An easy way to use the credit without excessive fees is to order pickup rather than delivery through Uber Eats.
• By using the switch payment function, you can apply Uber Cash to a past ride or delivery, which can enable you to use the current month’s Uber Cash for past orders. (h/t: GC Galore)
• You can stack this benefit with the Bonvoy Brilliant $25 monthly dining credit by paying Uber Eats charges above the Uber Cash amount with your Bonvoy Brilliant card.

Wireless Phone Credits: $10 Per Month

Appears on: Business Platinum card

What it covers: Get up to $10 back per calendar month when you use your Business Platinum card to pay for wireless telephone service in the U.S. This one is easy enough to use by simply setting up your Business Platinum card for automatic payments to your cell phone provider. Fortunately, the Platinum cards also offer good cell phone protection when you use your card to pay the monthly bill.

Tips:

• Use your card each month to prepay $10 of your bill.
• With some carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) you’ll lose some or all of their autopay discount if you autopay from a credit card. They prefer for you to autopay from a debit card or bank account. The trick is to set up auto pay with your debit card or bank account in order to get the full discount, but then once per month use your credit card to pay at least $10 of the bill manually.
• Readers have reported success with buying Verizon gift cards online and from a Verizon store in-person.
• Readers have found that payments to Google Fi do not always trigger the credit.  You can still get the credit manually applied, either by phone or online. Recently, we thought that this had been fixed and was applying automatically, but reader comments indicate that it’s still an issue.

Let us know your tips!

Crowd-sourcing in the points and miles community is an invaluable means of learning new tips and tricks for many things, including ways of maximizing the value of these sometimes frustrating Amex credits. We learn so much from reader input, as well as from folks in our Frequent Miler Insiders group.

If you have any hot tips for using the credits that are mentioned here, or for capturing rebates that we left out, please leave them in the comments! We’d love to read them and we’ll gradually incorporate them into future versions of this post.

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