Jan 4, 2017, 6:59 am
Last edit by: mia
CAUTION: In February 2019, American Airlines changed the coding of gift card transactions. Although there are a few successful data points since, in general, Gift Card purchases are now explicitly identified, and no longer reimbursed by American Express.
Reminder: you must enroll and select your airline BEFORE making a reimbursable purchase. http://www.americanexpress.com/airlinechoice -or- "Call the number on the back of your Card to select a qualifying airline."
Data Points on automatically reimbursed incidentals since 2017:
Admirals Club Memberships: Admirals Club Passes:
Wifi is provided by one of three third-party providers and is thus not eligible for the incidental credit.
* For items not automatically reimbursed but which are not excluded by Amex, you can try and request manual reimbursement from American Express; however, you may need to wait 14-28 days first.
To review AA reimbursement reports from 2011-2016 as well as information on gift cards, click HERE.
Reminder: you must enroll and select your airline BEFORE making a reimbursable purchase. http://www.americanexpress.com/airlinechoice -or- "Call the number on the back of your Card to select a qualifying airline."
Data Points on automatically reimbursed incidentals since 2017:
Admirals Club Memberships: Admirals Club Passes:
- Yes - Hilton-gold, moe8555
- No - ShrinkTheGlobe, canesfan, jasmians, soy
- Yes - Dedicated, Rakibullslam, tsmith12, lotrbfme, mia, GTITAN, cdoobiest
- No - Alex_I, exmike, jb0506, fangtl, nall, javabytes, chitink
- Mixed - PatrickTM, Visconti, iahphx
- No - cubs105, prhocky2607
- No - PatrickTM, mileshound
- Yes - LuizMiranda, fotoflyer88, nk15, joshvworld, Hilton-gold, captaink, JCN, aftortoriello, nall
- No - pubsmeister
- Yes - jvel
- Yes - JDiver
- No - AUSINSIGHT
- No - mrlemm
- Yes - Segments
- Yes - wireless_999, saunders111, mosfet, Budoka, sdsearch
- Mixed - inevitability
Wifi is provided by one of three third-party providers and is thus not eligible for the incidental credit.
* For items not automatically reimbursed but which are not excluded by Amex, you can try and request manual reimbursement from American Express; however, you may need to wait 14-28 days first.
To review AA reimbursement reports from 2011-2016 as well as information on gift cards, click HERE.
Airline fee $250/$200/$100 reimbursement reports: AA only (2017-2019)
Feb 12, 2019, 10:35 pm
#1546
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
I dont know what is taking so long. My aspire credit cleared from Jan just fine and it coded that way. Maybe with February being a shorter month there is a delay in processing. All you can do is wait.
Feb 12, 2019, 10:38 pm
#1547
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
The transaction was classified as "Travel - Airline" and the document type was "MISCELLANEOUS TAX(S)/FEE(S)" the detail had a passenger name, a date of departure, and a ticket number.
Still no reimbursement as of today, almost 30 days now. Should I buy another $100 eGC or should I chat with Amex to find out?
Still no reimbursement as of today, almost 30 days now. Should I buy another $100 eGC or should I chat with Amex to find out?
Feb 12, 2019, 10:39 pm
#1548
Join Date: May 2016
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium, UA Silver
Posts: 2
Purchased $250AA eGC 02/01 coded as misc, reimbursed 02/05
Purchased $250AA eGC 02/09 coded as gift certificate, counter still full.
Still too early for credit to post but not keeping hopes up.
Guessing the change happened around 02/06 to 02/09. Will post with updates if any.
Purchased $250AA eGC 02/09 coded as gift certificate, counter still full.
Still too early for credit to post but not keeping hopes up.
Guessing the change happened around 02/06 to 02/09. Will post with updates if any.
Feb 12, 2019, 10:43 pm
#1549
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
Purchased $250AA eGC 02/01 coded as misc, reimbursed 02/05
Purchased $250AA eGC 02/09 coded as gift certificate, counter still full.
Still too early for credit to post but not keeping hopes up.
Guessing the change happened around 02/06 to 02/09. Will post with updates if any.
Purchased $250AA eGC 02/09 coded as gift certificate, counter still full.
Still too early for credit to post but not keeping hopes up.
Guessing the change happened around 02/06 to 02/09. Will post with updates if any.
Feb 12, 2019, 11:16 pm
#1551
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
Wow. Thanks that is a great tip! Wish they just let you do it yourself, but if they will change it for me I'll take that.
Feb 12, 2019, 11:45 pm
#1552
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: DTW
Programs: TK E+, WY, Radisson R
Posts: 2,360
I made 2 identical purchases on Feb 3rd and Feb 8th of $50 GC.
Feb 3rd posted as miscellaneous and was credited, Feb 8th was posted as GC and still not credited, somewhere between these 2 dates AA changed the details of GC purchase.
Feb 3rd posted as miscellaneous and was credited, Feb 8th was posted as GC and still not credited, somewhere between these 2 dates AA changed the details of GC purchase.
Feb 13, 2019, 12:03 am
#1553
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
Does anyone know if Delta or Southwest is having the same issue or is this limited to AA for the moment?
Feb 13, 2019, 4:39 am
#1554
Join Date: May 2015
Location: LAX, BUR
Programs: AS,AA,JB, HH Gold, Starriott Titanium Elite, Hyatt Explorist, Global Entry
Posts: 1,930
Feb 13, 2019, 5:47 am
#1555
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 75
Try this and see if it works
1. Find flight ticket, let's say it costs A.
2. Buy gift card worth B, ensure A-B is around 100 or less (amex reimbursement mechanism seems to be number based)
3. Apply the gift card, put the remainder balance on amex and it will then be credited for the amount of A-B.
1. Find flight ticket, let's say it costs A.
2. Buy gift card worth B, ensure A-B is around 100 or less (amex reimbursement mechanism seems to be number based)
3. Apply the gift card, put the remainder balance on amex and it will then be credited for the amount of A-B.
Feb 13, 2019, 8:31 am
#1556
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 1,610
Try this and see if it works
1. Find flight ticket, let's say it costs A.
2. Buy gift card worth B, ensure A-B is around 100 or less (amex reimbursement mechanism seems to be number based)
3. Apply the gift card, put the remainder balance on amex and it will then be credited for the amount of A-B.
1. Find flight ticket, let's say it costs A.
2. Buy gift card worth B, ensure A-B is around 100 or less (amex reimbursement mechanism seems to be number based)
3. Apply the gift card, put the remainder balance on amex and it will then be credited for the amount of A-B.
Is this something you have successfully done or just asking the forum to be the data point?
Feb 13, 2019, 8:54 am
#1557
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 75
Asking, some in delta thread said they get reimbursed for ticket price around 100. So it may as well be that amex system will credit anything around or less than 100 from an airline. Worth a try if the AA GC is not an option.
Feb 13, 2019, 9:27 am
#1558
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 21
After my previous post of me doing a test on my biz Plat for $200 and getting reimbursed I went ahead and did the rest of my biz Plat and normal platinum card
Purchase 2/11 $200
Posted 2/13 coded as gift certificate
My previous coded as miscellaneous tax/fess, won't get my hopes up on this one I guess pay with point it is (don't know if I can) or P2 will be really upset that $600 went missing lol, maybe they fixed the $200 codes but the $100 or less are good. Should of done one at a time lol. I would wait for more DP to come in or do less.
Purchase 2/11 $200
Posted 2/13 coded as gift certificate
My previous coded as miscellaneous tax/fess, won't get my hopes up on this one I guess pay with point it is (don't know if I can) or P2 will be really upset that $600 went missing lol, maybe they fixed the $200 codes but the $100 or less are good. Should of done one at a time lol. I would wait for more DP to come in or do less.
Feb 13, 2019, 9:41 am
#1559
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 7,029
Feb 13, 2019, 9:45 am
#1560
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 21
Ya that's true sucks, but o well. Would love to see someone on here say they got reimbursed with the new coding, will bring hope to the world haha. If nothing happens in about a week going to bs my way into chat and see if I get a nice agent that will reimburse my dogs flying fees or really expensive seat assignments lol.