Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa airline fee credits: What works?

The Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Infinite card is no longer available to new applicants, but it is available to those with Chase Marriott consumer cards via a product change.  Unlike the Marriott cards, though, the Ritz card costs a whopping $450 per year.  Fortunately, it also offers $300 per year in airline fee reimbursements. These reimbursements can help to mitigate that $450 annual fee if you can put them to good use.

Chase Ritz airline fee credits are offered by calendar year. For example, Ritz cardholders can get up to $300 in fee credits for charges made up until December of this year, and $300 more for charges made next calendar year.

What purchases count… officially towards Ritz airline fee credits?

Eligible incidental fees include:

• Airline lounge day pass
• Yearly lounge membership of your choice
• Airline seat upgrades
• Airline baggage fees
• In-flight internet/entertainment
• In-flight meals and drinks
• Global Entry fees

And, officially, the following purchases are not deemed to be incidental fees:

• Airline tickets
• Mileage points purchases
• Mileage points transfer fees
• Gift cards
• Duty free purchases
• Award tickets

What purchases count… unofficially towards Ritz airline fee credits?

Sometimes purchases of gift cards, award fees, or even low-cost airfare are reimbursed even though they shouldn’t be.

The key that makes the Chase Ritz-Carlton card different from some other premium cards is that the fee reimbursement is not automatic on this card. You will need to either call in to speak with an agent or send a secure message in order to request reimbursement. This means you will be relying on a human to manually credit the reimbursement….and therefore relying on that human’s interpretation of what works and scrutiny (or lack thereof) regarding your charge.

If you are looking to get reimbursed for gift cards, you may want to consider denominations that line up with fees that would ordinarily qualify for the credit. Gift cards purchased in a denomination that correlates with the associated fee for a checked or overweight bag, for instance, might be more likely to be reimbursed. On the other hand, if the charge shows up on your statement as “AIRLINE ABC – GIFT CARDS”, an agent may deny reimbursement even if you had purchased in an appropriate denomination. Secure message may be an easier method than phone, though some report the opposite is true. The things that work or don’t work vary by airline and by agent and may change over time. Something that worked in the past won’t necessarily work today — but since the best way to predict future behavior is by looking at past behavior, we will collect datapoints here to try to determine the trends.

Remember that a successful data point is more powerful than a negative datapoint in that a successful data point shows something is possible. Recognize that in some cases, you may need to HUCA (Hang up, Call again) or send a message again in order to be successful.

This resource page will be maintained and updated as we receive reader data. If you have recently attempted to receive reimbursement via your Ritz travel credit, please comment to add your data points including:

1. Type of charge
2. Date of charge
3. Requested via phone or secure message
4. Success or failure

The following table shows the unofficial stuff that works or doesn’t work with each airline that we have collected so far (note that I am including some things that officially count as well, like a seat upgrade in economy class on Lufthsana as readers sometimes ask about charges from foreign carriers and for small upgrades like extra legroom, etc):

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