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Amex Platinum and Gold cards offer a perk that helps offset the large annual fees: airline incidental fee reimbursements. The idea is that when you use these cards on your selected airline to pay for incidental fees (checked bags, seat assignment fees, change fees, etc.) then Amex will reimburse that fee. Platinum cards offer up to $200 back per calendar year, and the Amex Gold card offers up to $100 back.
For years, many cardholders have pocketed the full reimbursement each year by buying airline gift cards. These apparently appeared to Amex as fees and so they were reimbursed. Unfortunately, Amex has recently figured out how to identify these charges and no longer reimburses most gift card purchases (there are a few exceptions though).
Some have called this a devaluation. I find that a bit silly since gift cards were never supposed to be reimbursed in the first place. But I do get the point. If the airline fee credit helps you justify paying the annual fee for a Platinum or Gold card each year, then you may suddenly be reconsidering. Maybe you won’t renew when the annual fee comes due again.
Personally, this change hasn’t affected me at all. I’ve earned the max reimbursement each year without buying gift cards. How? Award fees. Since Delta waives award change and redeposit fees for Platinum and Diamond elites (and I’m currently Diamond), I tend to book tons of Delta awards. If I see an award sale of interest, I book it just in case I’ll actually fly it. Sometimes when I don’t know exactly which day I’ll fly, I book multiple awards for different dates and make sure to cancel the ones I don’t need before it’s too late. As a result, I never have trouble using up my airline fee credits.
If I didn’t have high level elite status with Delta, I’d probably book far more awards with Southwest points since those awards are fully refundable for everyone. Of course then I’d have to pick Southwest as my preferred airline so that Amex would reimburse Southwest award fees.
Like gift cards, award fees aren’t supposed to be reimbursed, but in practice they usually are (except with United Airlines for some reason). In my experience, as long as award fees are under $200 or so, Amex sees them as fees and reimburses them. At least, that has been my experience with Delta. People have reported similar findings with a number of other airlines too. See our updated post: Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works?
Obviously, it’s possible that Amex will stop reimbursing award fees too. Amex specifically lists “award tickets” as one of the exclusions:
Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty free purchases, and award tickets are not deemed to be incidental fees.
Since the language is there, someone at Amex at some time in the past apparently decided that award fees were not the type of fees they wanted to reimburse. Why? I have no idea. But it seems different to me than gift card purchases. I can see why Amex would want to go the extra mile to disallow gift card purchases, but will they bother doing the same with award fees? I doubt it. Award fees are much closer to the intended use for reimbursements.
In the unlikely event that Amex does stop reimbursing award fees, what then? Ironically the solution may be to go back to gift cards. Will they reimburse a gift card if you buy it in an airport lounge (since lounge fees are allowed)? I expect so. And I know that Delta has been displaying gift cards in their lounges recently. Or, how about if you pay most of your airline ticket with a gift card so that the amount charged to your Amex card is less than $100? Would that sub-$100 charge get reimbursed as a fee? Probably. A number of people have reported success with that approach so far.
The best solution is for each of us to share our experiences with each other. What works? What doesn’t? Please check out our dedicated post on this subject, and report your own findings. I also recommend subscribing to comments on that post so that you’ll be informed when people report new things that work or not. You can find that post here: Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works?
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[…] On my mind (Amex airline fee credits and gift card edition) […]
It’s just ridiculously difficult to use the Amex credit. They should be loosening the requirements, not getting tougher. Amex, meet Chase.
Ummn so Amex Platinum reimburses 5.60 fees and also cancellation fee?. I’m yet to use $150 worth of credits this year. Speculative travel to rescue?
My wife and I have been using Southwest as our chosen airline with Amex Gold and Amex Business Platinum. Because we have companion pass we have been getting reimbursed for $100 and $200 worth of gift cards and getting the second companion passenger free as well. That made the annual fees much easier to justify. We will keep the Gold card because 4x on groceries is great and we use grubhub monthly. Business Platinum is just too much to continue paying.
Let’s not forget the Aspire card. This is wounding the value proposition of that card, as well.
Indeed payment with gift cards and cash works. About a month ago I purchased two one way tickets. I paid each with 3x $50 gift cards (from the time I was reimbursed) and the remaining $30 in cash. The cash part was reimbursed by AmEx.
Sadly this doesn’t work for American Airlines. I have booked over a dozen award tickets with my platinum card over the last 2 years in various dollar denominations ranging from $5.6 to $30 to $50 to $100 to $200 and never been reimbursed. Everyone has shown up with the full ticket itinerary. So while it may work for Delta in my experience with multiple data points it doesn’t work with American.
@ Greg — Thanks for the tips. These are great because AMEX is slow to keep up and 2019 will by the last year for my household’s AMEX cards. In the end, AMEX really is only hurting themselves with these changes. Idiots.
I appreciate the post, Greg. Just wondering if all fees are already waived for you as Delta Diamond, then what fees do you have to pay to get reimbursed?
The taxes and fees on awards ($5.60 for a domestic one-way, but more for international flights which varies based on the flight). The waived fees he references are change or cancellation fees with Delta. He’s saying that since he’s an elite member, he is able to make speculative award bookings since there will be no future penalty if has to cancel. That’s one of the benefits of Delta elite status — flexibility. Southwest is nice in that they are flexible for everyone when you’re booking awards.
I’m not sure if you will see this being 6 days ago but Amex has been very non-consistent with crediting the fees. I will try this again but on my companion pass Delta ticket using my Plat card, they didn’t credit the taxes for the companion ticket (although your blog said they would), then they credited an $11 fee on a small flight. The third they didn’t credit and I had to call them. So you get your Delta fees credited all the time or do you have to call? I think they are coded as a ticket now so I’m not sure if that’s what has changed.
No I don’t call. I just wait for the reimbursements. It does seem that they no longer reimburse companion ticket fees through.
A good example is booking round trip awards to Canada. The award taxes for those flights are just over $50. When I book for multiple people, Delta issues separate charges for each person and so a single round trip to Canada for four people can use up all $200 of the travel credits.
While you and other bloggers may still find value in speculative award bookings and having those fees covered, many of us are not in the same boat, esp when it is restricted to a single annual airline choice, and I understand that part of the issue is that Amex begins by din that it is by design with breakage in mind in how they fail in their attempt try to show value for an outsized AF which is on its face most disingenuous.
Even moreso than other issuers that make it far simpler across the board to use Travel credits for fee reimbursements or simply travel. The Infinite Visa cards Ritz or CNB they have far less restrictive policies which are not structured or designed for maximum breakage and minimal payout. The $100 domestic flight discount for 2nd-6th passenger on same reservation is far more valuable in many ways. As well as better targets the big spend that targeted clients tend to put on the card.
In many ways Amex set themselves up for Triple-dipping the Amex Pt/Gold Airline credits with fungible GC purchases – which many resold – others like us simply collected for emergency close in bookings or simple used for tickets to markets that served SW/AA/Delta.
We rarely use miles/points for domestic travel as we prefer to get out sized for international lie flat seats (which most of the times provides 2-3 checked bags). As well because most of our award redemption is for Int’l travel or stays we almost always pay for award fees and taxes with CSR for travel protections.
I think that the great majority of FM reader are not hard core MS’r or bloggers that are sitting on Bobby Axlerod (Billions) stash of “FU points/miles” with multiple top tier Elite status with airlines and hotels.
I fly out of NYC and use Delta as my primary airline and American as my secondary airline. I have always designated American as the airline for my Platinum and used it for one-day lounge access when I fly American.
The Ritz card doesn’t reimburse award booking fees either. That’s the card I think I’ll be closing soon, although I do like their travel insurance. Amex platinum doesn’t have this. This article makes you think for sure
2×150$ AA GC and then use SM to request. Works every time
SM?
You can send a secure message (SM) to Chase to ask for the reimbursement rather than calling
Are you referring to Ritz? If so, what do you say the charge was for?
This whole airline credit is so unrealistic. Why the need to appoint one airline? Why can’t it be applied to any airline ? It’s designed like it is so that for many, if not most, it will not be fully utilized. Similar to the Uber credit – why is it not $200 per year instead of $15/month which is lost if not used? Because Amex expects that these credits will never be used.
And the Saks $50 every 6 months. There isn’t much to buy for $50 at Saks.
Yes, it is definitely designed so that most people won’t get the full benefit. I believe that many cardholders never get any reimbursements at all. It’s valuable only to the extent that you maximize these reimbursements
Uber and Saks want to develop new customers through regular, repeat visits. And yes, just like with the sale of gift cards, there is the expectation a portion will go unredeemed.
If I do the same thing as you and book a lot of speculative Southwest Airlines flights using miles and just pay the $5 award fee, and I end up canceling maybe three-quarters of them, how would that effect my AMX credits?
The credits remain
I would also like to know, thanks! It takes a lot of award bookings to recuperate that $200 (or $300 in my case since I have both)!
Yes, it does. In my case I also often book for multiple family members and so it can add up quickly especially when traveling outside of the US since award fees then are often higher.
Yes, still works but I prefer to use my Chase Sapphire Reserve because you are still protected when you paid just a little portion of the ticket with your CC, this benefits is for flight/bag cancellation/delays, and they will even cover the hotel if the flight has been canceled due to weather (which most airlines won’t do).
Why couldn’t put off this post for at least a while? Drawing more attention right now is just idiotic.
TPG posted much more explicitly a couple of days ago. With their reach, anything I write is just noise around the edges.
I also doubt very much that Amex minds if we get reimbursed for award fees. That’s very close to the intended use IMO
Greg, since the Amex Platinum doesn’t have the insurance protection of say the CSR or Ritz, how do you protect your trip when using Amex Platinum for award fees?
That’s a great question. On trips where I think there’s a chance of needing travel protection, I prefer to pay the award fees with my Sapphire Reserve or Ritz card, both of which have great protections and offer travel reimbursements.
Are you keeping the Ritz after year 1, assuming no CL reduction “trick” on the AF? My wife’s AF just posted, I’m on the fence if we should keep it. The Infinite $100 discount perk is cool in theory but we never seem to be able to use it, not even once. We have 1 Personal Plat and 2 Aspires, so the PP restaurant access is most appealing benefit.
On a side note, Marriott extended my 1 remaining 60k capped cert (from the bonus last year) by 1 year, so that was a pleasant surprise.
Just curious what your long term plan is for this card.
Yes I plan to keep it. I like the 50K cert that you get each year. I might even try to upgrade my Premier card to the Ritz card at some point
hmm, i didn’t know TPG posted that info. I gotta loook for it
If Amex didn’t mind, it would be on the list of eligible fees. If TPG jumps off a bridge will you do the same?
It’s hardly idiotic. It’s what he does for a living.
Now, let’s say I gave you a trading strategy that had made me money for 10 years and you then SOLD it to other people (which happened). I’d be pissed. At first at you and then myself.
The fact is that all these little arbitrage strategies come and go as too many people use them.
Oh, and BTW, I’m calling the Pope to let him know one of his nuns called someone a mean name.
Oh come on, Amex already is aware of what is currently working despite being on the disallow list. It’s likely just a matter of how much they care, or more precisely, how much time and resources it would take to modify their systems such that award fees (or whatever) don’t automatically get reimbursed. Amex compares that to its estimate of how much they’re paying out in reimbursement that they don’t want to be, and decides whether to take action or not.
I do dislike Amex’s approach of setting up benefits that are so cumbersome to use that they’re often of little to no use to many people. I mean, they’re not alone in using that method to an extent but at least Chase and others have relatively low-hassle benefits.
Ryan, I never said Amex isn’t aware. You’re really making my point so thanks. The hole will be closed faster if publicized enough that everyone piles on.