Amex Platinum Airline Credit Seat Upgrade

Amex Platinum Airline Credit Seat Upgrade – Summer Hull has been providing (and operating) travel tips, rewards credit cards and loyalty programs for over a decade. She has flown nearly a million miles, often on points and miles and with her family.

This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to these products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our advertising policy, visit this page.

Amex Platinum Airline Credit Seat Upgrade

It’s no surprise that the Platinum Card® from American Express offers premium benefits. One of the premium card’s most generous perks is an annual statement credit of up to $200 for airline incidentals. When fully utilized, this benefit can reduce the card’s annual fee by $695 (see rates and fees).

Do Amex Airline Credits Cover Mileage Boosters?

This credit runs on a calendar year, which means you must use the credit between January 1st and December 31st. Plus, you usually have until January 31st to choose your airline for the year, although we’ve heard that Amex has been pretty flexible if you call or chat with a representative.

It’s usually pretty easy for a traveler to fully max out the $200 annual airline fee credit within 12 months. However, the last couple of years have been anything but ordinary. With some travel patterns not fully back to normal, some may be wondering how to use the Amex Platinum Card $200 Airline Fee Credit in 2023.

Be sure to download the free TPG app to find out about all the credit card benefits and rewards in 2023.

Today we will introduce you to some typical rules and some timely use cases. First things first: Note that registration is required for this benefit before you can receive a loan.

Amex Platinum Clear® Plus Credit: How To Use And Save Up To $189 Per Year

If you have Amex Platinum, you can click here each January to select or change your airline selection (you’ll need to log in to access your Amex account). You can also access the airline selection screen by scrolling to the ‘Benefits’ section of your online account. In any case, you will see that you can choose one of the following airlines:

Note that Frontier Airlines previously appeared as an option, but is no longer available online as of January 1, 2023.

Amex has been pretty lenient about allowing airline selection changes well past the usual January 31st deadline for those who call or use the online chat function to ask. There’s no guarantee it will work for you, but it’s worth a try if you want to change airlines later this year and haven’t used the credit yet.

Generally speaking, you might assume that you should choose the airline you fly with most often. However, auto-selection of the main airline is not always the best choice. That’s because many fees are waived if you have elite status or a co-branded credit card with that airline, so credits to offset checked baggage or seat selection fees on that airline may not make sense.

The Best Credit Cards For Earning Airline Elite Status [2023]

For example, imagine you fly United most often and also have elite status on that airline, but you also fly American a few times a year. In this situation, you might be better off going with American Airlines for a payday loan. You can use this credit for things like seat assignments, extra legroom, bag fees, drinks or food. Remember that prior registration is required to use this benefit.

Designating one of these carriers as your airline of choice could be a smart strategy, as they charge extra for amenities that some other airlines provide automatically. This includes checked and carry-on bags, seats and snacks and drinks. Maxing out the Amex Platinum Airline Fee Credit should be very easy if you choose and fly with a carrier that charges a large number of surcharges.

In general, Amex Platinum credit will reimburse you for the following additional charges, as long as you make these purchases separately from the actual airfare (so the purchase will appear as a separate transaction):

As you can imagine, it’s not difficult for many travelers to use an airline fee credit in a typical year.

Amex Airline Credits: 9 Great Ways To Maximize Them In 2023

For example, you can select Spirit Airlines as your airline and then use the credit to purchase large front seats or snacks and checked bags. Additionally, if you are flying with your pet, based on pet fees on most (but not all) airlines, you can only use the airline fee credit for one or two flights with your pet.

If American Airlines is your airline of choice, see this post on American Airlines expenses triggering an Amex airline fee credit. And here’s a real-world look at what’s driving chargebacks on several airlines.

The airline must submit the charge with the appropriate merchant code and the required service or product identifier for the charge to be recognized as a contingency air travel charge. The policy says to wait six to eight weeks after each charge for the statement credit to post to your account (although in our experience it’s often sooner). If the credit has not been posted after this time, you can call the number on the back of the card to manually confirm a valid credit charge.

It’s also worth highlighting the bullet point about “fees not charged by the cardmember’s airline of choice.” If you book a ticket with your preferred airline but will be flying with a partner airline, expect that you won’t be able to use your random credits. Here is an example. Let’s say your airline of choice is United, you’re booking a flight through the United website, but you’ll actually be flying with Air Canada. When checking in at the airport with Air Canada, checked bag fees will be collected by Air Canada, not United, so you won’t be able to use your Amex Platinum credits here.

American Express: No Fee Changes/cancels American Airlines Flights

As with most things, there are clear cases where credit does and does not work, although there are some gray areas. For example, we’ve heard reports that airfare credit is charged when you pay for part of a Delta ticket with a gift card and then charge the balance to your Amex Platinum. This is because the remaining airfare becomes an “extra charge” and triggers the refund credit.

Sometimes the credit is triggered by other small airline ticket purchases and even taxes/fees on award tickets, as well as some purchases for smaller ($50) future airline travel credit amounts. For example, we’ve seen this happen with smaller United TravelBank purchases.

However, these are off-label uses that may change at any time. Also, remember that only purchases with the selected airline will activate the credit.

The Amex Platinum isn’t the only Amex card that offers an annual airline fee credit (up to a certain amount). Credits are also offered by the following Amex cards (prior application required):

My Delta Purchases That Did And Didn’t Work Towards Amex Platinum Airline Credit

Information for the Hilton Aspire Amex Card was independently collected by The Points Guy. The card issuer has not reviewed or provided the card information on this page.

The airline fee credit details on these cards and the Amex Platinum are similar. But the Business Platinum card has one important wrinkle. Business Platinum cardholders receive 35% off all points redeemed for business or first class travel on qualifying airlines when booking with Amex Travel (up to 1 million points back per calendar year) or using Pay With Points to book travel on their own airlines. preferred airline – the same airline associated with $200 in annual airline contingency credits.

Therefore, Business Platinum cardholders may want to choose an airline where they use points to purchase economy tickets for their annual airline credit, rather than one where they have to pay fees that the credit can offset.

The $200 Amex airline fee credit is one of those use-it-or-lose-it benefits that’s only worth what you get out of it.

Reasons To Upgrade From The Delta Skymiles Platinum To The Delta Skymiles Reserve Amex

It’s usually pretty easy to max out that airline fee credit if you understand how it works and have a plan for the coming year. At this point, you should have a good understanding of what does and doesn’t work with the Amex Platinum Card’s Airline Contingency Credits, and how you can use those credits even if you’re not flying right away.

Editorial Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. One advantage of American Express is $200 per year. an airline fee credit that will reimburse you for unexpected fees on one airline of your choice. If you can use credit, it’s a very significant way to offset the card’s $550 annual fee.

Are part of an affiliate marketing network and get paid for sending traffic to partner sites like CreditCards.com. This compensation may affect how and where links are displayed on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Regulations

Amex platinum $200 airline credit, amex platinum card airline credit, amex business platinum airline credit, amex platinum airline credit upgrade, amex airline credit seat upgrade, amex platinum airline credit lounge, amex platinum benefits airline credit, amex platinum airline credit united, amex airline fee credit seat upgrade, amex platinum 200 airline credit seat upgrade, amex platinum airline credit, amex platinum airline credit flyertalk