mathlete

Not exactly. For domestic flights, it shows "ticket exchange" as method of payment. In getting reimbursed by multiple places, I had one throw up a red flag at that and demand a credit card receipt. When I said it was a gift card, they let it through, but I don't know if I can count on that in the future. Hopefully just a single overzealous business officer.

Now, for international flights it shows nothing! I couldn't even print a receipt on AA.com. After a couple phone calls, AA says there is no way around this, although they did mail me a "receipt" with the fare breakdown. However, this was still missing some items and did not total what I actually paid! So it remains to be seen whether or not I'll be able to be fully reimbursed for this trip.

weinskkb

Saw them in Sacramento today (Exposition Blvd). Don't know if all the Costco stores in the area are carrying them.

Stripy

A surprisingly good thing happened today when I booked an international RT ticket with Gift Cards - they were ticketed within 10 minutes, a fact that was confirmed by the EXP desk when I called to grab the one available C upgrade.

If this continues it's great news for those of us who have had to wait up to 24hrs for gift card purchases to show as ticketed before we could grab limited C availability. I, for one, never enjoy looking at C 1 on EF while waiting for a gift card purchase to process fully.

Slightly OT: EF showed C 1 outbound and C 0 inbound but EXP desk grabbed upgrades both ways. It's been a good day!

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Congratulations! It's always a good feeling to get the ticket and upgrades confirmed.

On the front of gift card ticketing, I've been getting about 30 minutes to an hour for a while. 10 minutes is pretty fast though.

bobsagetti

In case anyone is wondering, there have been plenty in the downtown Seattle Costco the last 2-3 weeks.

Foady

There are plenty of gift cards at the SF Costco at 450 10th St as well.

EsquireFlyer

Doesn't the sales tax on the GC sale eat up most of the 10% discount?

JY1024

I can confirm that there's no sales tax on Costco gift cards in MA, VA, and GA. Doing a quick search for "sales tax" within this thread indicates that others in IL and CA also do not get charged sales tax.

Since a gift card is not the actual final "good/service" being rendered for the customer, I highly doubt that any state actually charges sales tax on a gift card. (But I'm not a tax expert nor do I play one on TV. )

deeseeel

No sales tax on the AA GCs in California... at least not when I bought them last.

Foady

I did not get charged sales tax yesterday.

Xero

No because you use the gift card to pay any tax. Even if you buy a $100 Target gift card you don't pay the taxes until you buy items at Target.

FWAAA

As others have noted, many jurisdictions do not charge sales tax on the purchase of gift certificates or gift cards. Could you share with us the jurisdiction you had in mind when you posted this? I'm not familiar with any jurisdiction that charges sales tax on the purchase of gift cards.

fanger

It surprises me a little that the Executive membership does seem to get the 2% rebate on these, but I would assume that this counts as some kind of cash equivalent for the Costco AMEX rebate, and thus does not count. Does anyone know?

josephstern

I charged mine on an SPG Amex and got full points for them.

RogerD408

I'm not familar with the terms of the Costco AMEX, but since you are actually prepaying for AA tickets and not really a cash card, so it just might qualify.

SPG AMEX is a different card altogether, but as stated above you're buying AA tickets so not surprised (especially since I have used my SPG AMEX too and no issues there).