As a CO Plat elite, seems to me the best use of the credit is to book a reward flight and pay the taxes / fees (try to keep them under $100 for the automatic processing), and have those fees refunded a month or so later after the statement closes and after the credit has been posted to the account by cancelling the reward flight (no fee redeposits of miles and refund of fees). Seems like AMEX is not taking away the credit after the refund of fees post. For example book a reward with a $25 tax/fee on June 1. AMEX then credits the $25 back to the statement on June 2. Statement closes with a $0 balance on June 30. Cancel the reward on July 5 and have refund of $25 from CO post on July 7. AMEX doesn't take away the $25 credit from June 2, effectively converting an airline credit into an everyday purchase credit of $25.

In the end it all comes out pretty even. As a frequent traveler I sometimes come across change fees or award fees or lounge fees etc. I'll need to spend money on these fees sometime this year and will probably spend $200 or more anyways. However, using the method above might free me from the stress/burden of remembering to use my amex platinum card in certain instances rather than my co pres plus or amex prem rewards etc. I'd rather have an AMEX credit to use on anything I want rather than have it be tied to travel-related expenses only.

Anyone else have a similar strategy or find anything flawed with my logic?

I used mine up within 1 month. Am UA 1k, signed up for UA, issued a bunch of international award tickets for family, all fees refunded, done.

possible to use towards annual economy plus?

if so, do you have to pick united for it before buying the annual economy plus?

its a bummer change fees can only be credited once charged. i canceled nonrefundable tickets, so UA zaps $150 per ticket out. because ill be applying the leftovers to another flight, there will never be a charge that can quality for amex credit.

For those using Continental
 

I may be mistaken, but does the Continental airline credit go through 12/31, or does it end when the partnership does in September?

I haven't seen too many responses about Continental. Are there any good strategies such as gift cards or should I just order drinks and food for everyone around me in-flight? :D

I posted about CO a bit ago. The CO airline credit should go through the calendar year, nobody has mentioned the credit partnership ending anytime soon, unlike the constant reminders of the points transfer partnership ending Oct 1.

You can get reward ticket fees refunded. I just got a ~$50 reward fee refunded about 3 days after the charge posted. I may have to change/cancel this reservation later, so I'm not sure if they will either add the $50 back to the airline credit, or if the $50 will post to my statement as a credit (effectively meaning I can use the $50 towards other things).

United
 

Any good strategies for United? I have gotten $5 here and there for award tickets, but I'm looking for an easy way to use up the rest of the $200 allowance. If nothing else, I might just pay for award accelerator or buy miles. Has anyone had success with those?

I just bought two, $75 Continental gift cards and was reimbursed almost immediately. ^

Gonna hold on to the last $50 to serve as a free PC/RCC lounge access should I need it. Otherwise it's going to one more gift card.

Good to know!

Do I understand correctly that continental gift cards can only be used via continental.com. Is it an e-gift certificate?

Thanks!

just wanted to follow up and confirm that I believe my strategy of converting the $200 credit into everyday credit has worked, but in order for it to work you have to be a CO Plat or other type of elite that redeposits reward booking taxes/fees fee-free. So I booked a reward ticket during last month's billing cycle with fees totaling $50. This month, after the billing cycle ended and the statement posted, I cancelled the reward ticket. As a CO Plat CO returns the fees for free. I just got the statement credit, essentially converting $50 in credit for continental airlines fees (charged $50 and credited $50 last month) into a $50 credit (credited $50 this month) I can use for whatever I want. ^

I wonder if this would work for DL? Buy a few INTL award tickets that have a decent amount of taxes, wait for the credits, then have DL re-deposit the miles. I'd be afraid AMEX would see the charges reversed/credited and take away their credit.

It works... and all for 1 Cent
 

I recently needed to reschedule one of 5 sectors on an International Continental flight, due to a change in the Overseas Taxes currency exchange rate, the cost went up a whole 1 cent..Continental had no way of avoiding charging me...So 1 cent is debited to my Amex Card..

A few days later as CO was my designated Airline Charges Carrier, Amex duly refunded the 1 cent charge.

Nice to know the system works^

It doesn't matter what name you put on the CO gift certs, they are usable by anyone for anyone as long as you have the cert number. I just used my name on both, sent "from" the email addresss on my CO OnePass Acct and "to" another email account I have. Two $75 CO certs were reimbursed within 24 hours of the charges hitting.

I am curious to know how they will be redeemeed after the CO/UA reservations systems are merged. They say they are valid for 5 years and redeemable only at continental.com. I rarely fly CO more than once a year, so continental.com could be history by the time I use them both.

I registered my Platinum card with United but when I check my registration on the Amex website it list my card as being registered with United/Continental Airlines. Now I'm wondering if that means I can purchase, and be reimbursed, for a Continental G/C instead of a United one? Anyone have any experience with this scenario?

United/Continental options?
 

I've used $5 worth on award tickets fees for CO, so I have $195 left, which I thought I might have to use on baggage fees or other incidentals, but that didn't happen and I don't think I'll be flying CO/UA until next year.

I saw in a previous post buying a gift certificate from Continental; does that work and should I buy it in some other denomination other than $195? (I was thinking $100, $50, $45). Or anything from UA I can buy?

I recently bought 2 x $100 Continental gift certificates a week apart. Both credited fine.