Amex Platinum $200 airline fee credited AA gift cards

amex biz plat american express business platinum

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.


Amex Platinum $200 airline fee credited AA gift cards

A few days ago I went ahead and charged a couple $100 AA gift cards to my Amex Business Platinum with the expectation they would be credited a few days later.  If you don’t know about this strategy, it’s a great way to use up your Amex Platinum Airline fee credit on things other than “incidentals.” For whatever reason, AA gift cards code as incidentals with Amex and, as a result, the fees get reimbursed. This makes the fee credit far more valuable as it can be used for flights directly instead of bag fees, change fees, etc. Usually this wouldn’t be of any concern and it has gone off without a hitch in years past with credits every time. However, over the last 6 or 7 months I’ve had a few friends and family tell me that their AA gift cards hadn’t been refunded. This was cause of concern as it would significantly decrease the value of holding an Amex Plat. Good news! The Amex Platinum $200 airline fee credited AA gift cards and the strategy still works!

In case you are unfamiliar with the $200 Airline fee credit perk of Amex Platinum

Amex Platinum $200 airline fee credited AA gift cards

Screen Shot 2017-01-17 at 6.39.00 AM

 

When I upgraded my Amex Business Gold to Platinum last fall I tried the credit out and it worked for calendar year 2016. If I’m any indication of the current policy…it’s still working in 2017

I’d read where people have had trouble if they buy gift cards on the same day. That wasn’t the case for me. I did have two independent transactions.

  • You can not buy 1 – $200 gift card
  • You must be 2 or more cards that total $200
  • Use different transactions. Don’t but 2 cards in the same purchase.

Amex Platinum $200 airline fee credited AA gift cards

It’s worth noting that when you purchase gift cards they aren’t immediately available for use. You have to wait 3 days.

As you can see from the Amex screen shot I purchased these gift cards on Jan 14th.

Amex Platinum $200 airline fee credited AA gift cards

When I upgraded my Business Gold to Business Platinum I received 50,000 Amex MR. In addition, I’ve received $400 in airline credit. That nets out to just $50 in annual fee. Add in the Gogo in flight wifi passes…I’m net ahead + bonus points + lounge access + Fine Hotels and Resorts.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

a blue credit card with lines and symbols

Learn More

 Affiliate link 

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

3 Comments

Leave a Reply to John Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.