To each their own. I get exactly $200 of value from my Plat card every year without having to jump through any hoops or really even try, and on things I was buying anyway before I had the Plat.

And I do this as a DM (and previously PM) with all the customary fee waivers, etc. that come with that.

Funny how that works - to me the Gold is much easier to justify as the dining credit is very easy to redeem, and 4x dining and 4x grocery is significantly more useful to me than 5x airfare on the platinum. The Platinum is the one that is harder to justify, especially as almost all of the benefits are replicated elsewhere. The Uber and Saks credits are easy to redeem, so it is $250 net - but there is little reason to spend on the card outside of airfare (and I don’t buy that much of my own airfare).

At the end of the day I’ll probably keep both as long as I am engaged in Membership Rewards

Successful in getting two seat changes from Economy to Comfort+ credited as "seat selection fees" this month, although the credits did not appear manually and I had to contact Amex after 2 weeks to get it manually entered.

If everyone called AMEX to get an upgrade (that's what it is), changed to a so-called seat selection so they can have the CSR manually credit the transaction, that just gives AMEX another reason to critique all the other "additional collection" transactions. In doing so, there will be loopholes left!

Never call!

For the purposes of incidental fee credits, AMEX policy has been that movement from one seat to another within the same class of ticket (i.e., economy to "better" economy) is not an "upgrade", it is a seat selection fee. It may be marketed by Delta as an "upgrade" but for AMEX purposes an upgrade is from Y -> J or J -> F.

No harm in calling to ask AMEX to manually credit an allowable fee.

True, but DL has muddied the water by talking about the basic economy, main cabin, C+, PS, FC,and D1 "experiences", using different booking classes for C+, and referring to C+ upgrades. Even though there's no physical barrier in the aircraft, marketing suggests that it's a bit more than just a "better" economy seat like the preferred seats in coach.

The reasoning I was told was that if it's in the same "cabin" it's allowable. So main cabin -> comfort + is fine, even though the charge shows up as an "upgrade" from Delta (requiring manual adjustment to use the credit), but main cabin -> PS isn't, for instance.

This. By diplomatico's very definition, the way DL handles C+ would indeed be considered an upgrade, because DL specifically changes the ticket class (and even issues a new ticket) when someone buys up from MC to C+.

If we go by the "same cabin" definition, things get fuzzy. But arguably since DL is selling it as a different "experience", selling it in a different fare bucket, and physically segmenting out a separate and consolidated set of seats for it, it could be argued that it is indeed a different "cabin" in the sense of how airline seats are delineated.

Absolutely not. Economy is economy, no matter how the airline tries to massage your shoulder and rub your neck into feeling "special".

Using your definition, United E+ could be "argued" (your word) as a separate "cabin" since UA is selling it as a different "experience" and physically segmenting out a separate and consolidated set of seats for it. I doubt anyone would argue that United E+ is anything but a more expensive economy seat, just as Delta's are simply more expensive economy seats.

Airlines can claim whatever they want in their marketing pitches - doesn't make it true.

.....and AmEx makes the rules and decides how those rules will be interpreted.

Absolutely. I think we've now come full circle since, as previously mentioned, AMEX has long considered economy = economy = economy for the purposes of reimbursing seat selection fees.

Has anyone tried to purchase a physical DL gift card at the skyclubs and gotten the credit back? I ran in last night to grab a coffee before a flight and saw them at the counter and wondered if that may work.

To read recent discussion scroll back to 1852 and read forward. It seems the physical cards are displayed in the clubs, but paid for online.

I never said I personally disagree that C+ is functionally just a slightly different seat within DL's economy cabin (similar in some respects to an exit row).

But, companies are run by human beings, and currently DL uses the word "upgrade" to indicate a move from MC to C+. Amex uses the word "upgrade" to identify something that is explicitly excluded from the airline fee credit. It doesn't take a huge stretch to see a case where someone calls in asking for a credit to be applied to their "upgrade" and a human Amex agent reading the two things and denying it.

If I make a purchase now then close it before the reimbursement hits (annual fee already hit), do I still get the reimbursement?