Earlier this year the Amex Plat credit was triggered by a $56 fare difference on top of a $200 Delta e-cert and a $225 additional collection for a new ticket where I had used a credit from a refundable ticket. That one triggered the remaining $143 of the credit. Paying with some type of e-cert and then using the Amex for the remaining amount under $250 seems to do the trick.

That may be why someone in another thread today was asking about a cheap refundable ticket with no city in mind.

I recall from past attempts that refundable tickets are never cheap, and are all priced about the same for any domestic route @ just under $1K.

I think the trick with a cheaper refundable is to only purchase a one way fare. Especially on competitive routes out of SEA, there are deals to be had.

Doubtful; if you mean this thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...-any-help.html

they later said "to maintain Medallion gold" so it's unclear whether they thought they could earn MQMs without flying or if they just meant they aren't sure yet whether they need to do a mileage run.

Either way that thread was probably not related to fee reimbursements.

So far the search alone for that elusive usefulness has generated much needless spending, while not chipping away at the breakage of this "credit". Perhaps this outcome was the real objective of all the changes this year from both AmEx and their airline partners. The net result here is beginning to look similar to the Uber credit situation.

Yeah so I don't know what I did wrong or I'm just super unlucky. I used 2x$50 gift cards on a $303 flight and the remaining $204 posted as Airline - Travel with a ticket number and name. The meter did not move. Oh well.

So it turns out it did work, on the mobile app it said Airline -Travel but on the desktop website it said Additional Collection. My meter ended up going to zero today.

Purchased 7/8
Posted 7/10
Meter Moved 7/12

when was the transaction posted?

and btw, personally, i would do this with partial fare ranging from 50 to 100. Over 200 seems a bit risky.

Partial payment succeeded:

Purchased 7/8
Posted 7/10
Meter moved 7/12

It's interesting that it posted as an Airline - Ticket for you and as "additional collections" for others.

Disappointing that they closed the loophole - inability to credit GCs greatly diminishes value for me. I was going to cancel the PRG anyway but this just reinforces that decision, and I may cancel my Aspire too.

I did just apply existing GCs to two flight purchases that brought the leftover charge to <$200 on each, so I'll report back the classification once the charge posts.

LOL no.

Amex deciding to close a loophole and make people actually use this credit as intended is nothing like the struggles Uber is causing for people legitimately trying to use that credit exactly as intended.

The "narratives" in the 2 situations are different. But the net effects are virtually identical: people are spending more with Uber and the airlines just trying to figure out the appearing and disappearing loopholes. At some point AmEx customers need to wake up and realize that we're being gamed to behave exactly in this way.

That risk goes with the territory, right? I mean, if you are in the position of having to chase loopholes just to collect the value of the benefit. Personally I​​​​​ haven't spent any money on DL that I wouldn't have spent anyway, but I actually fly DL a lot.

I avoid the Uber credits headache by simply not using Uber at all. There's no rule that you have to squeeze every last cent out of everything.

If the risk is no longer palatable then switch airline affinity on the card, or stop chasing it. And in turn if losing the $200 credit means the value proposition of the card isn't there for you anymore, then cancel it. Seems simple enough.

Correct, that was the implicit point. Some comments seem to go in the direction that we should desperately try to find a useless expense just to trigger a credit. For many including myself, it would actually be most cost effective to cancel the high-AF cards at renewal time.