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)
#1891
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: CLT
Programs: AA EP, AA AC
Posts: 4,268
Perhaps what the poster is referring to regarding "playing games" would be for Amex to align with their primary competition, Chase and Citi, and simply make it a "travel credit" that just works and doesn't require any of this nonsense in order to utilize the benefit.
Regards
Regards
#1892
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 57,075
I doubt Amex had anything to do with these changes. It’s certainly a possibility but if Amex wanted to stop allowing giftcards Delta and SWA would be dead as well.
This has happened before where American GC started coding differently and it reverted back after a while.
#1893
Interesting, my "pending" charge for the Personal Platinum for two $100 virtual GCs purchased on 6/15 was identical to the AA ARC one I posted earlier from my Personal Gold. Category is travel. Charge just got posted and reverted to:
AMERICAN AIRLINES
4333 AMON CARTER BLVD
FORTH WORTH
TX
76155
UNITED STATES
Category is "Travel - Airline".
AMERICAN AIRLINES
4333 AMON CARTER BLVD
FORTH WORTH
TX
76155
UNITED STATES
Category is "Travel - Airline".
I’m working under the assumption that these won’t get reimbursed, but if I do end up getting the reimbursement I will report back.
#1894
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,955
Do you mean that the Gift Certificate code is visible when you view the transaction on americanexpress.com, but not when you use the American Express mobile app?
#1896
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: PHL
Programs: AA ExP, Marriott Amb, National EAE, Hilton Diamond, SPG Plat (RIP), US CP (RIP)
Posts: 2,379
When your statement pdf generates the Gift Certificate becomes visible even while the transaction history in the app doesn’t.
#1897
Join Date: Mar 2018
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP. Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,134
$50 test GC bought on my Aspire on the 14th posted today, similarly marked as GIFT CERTIFICATE with the Ft Worth address. Benefits meter on hasn't moved off of the $250. Will see if something happens as a far as a credit but I'm thinking these reports were a myth. AA GCs and Amex are still dead as dead.
#1898
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,955
They may be exceptions, but I do not doubt that they occurred. It may also be that there is a variable in the purchase process that matters. In the case of Delta, gift cards purchased with a mobile device are no longer reimbursed, but purchases made with a PC are. There may be a similar variable that accounts for the different AA experience.
#1899
Join Date: Mar 2018
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP. Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,134
They may be exceptions, but I do not doubt that they occurred. It may also be that there is a variable in the purchase process that matters. In the case of Delta, gift cards purchased with a mobile device are no longer reimbursed, but purchases made with a PC are. There may be a similar variable that accounts for the different AA experience.
Now I'm off to apply my $50 GC to an upcoming flight I was going to buy anyway...
#1900
I looked at my PDF statement from May and my GC purchase came up as "Document Type: GIFT CERTIFICATE" so no reimbursement.
With that said, is the AA status challenge being reimburse?
With that said, is the AA status challenge being reimburse?
#1901
Join Date: Jan 2016
Programs: AA, Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton
Posts: 501
I thought about that, but with the flood of test buys those of us have made across the spectrum of cards (and platforms no doubt) you'd think that we'd have uncovered something. What is there- one, two claimed DPs of a reimbrusement? If anything it was a fluke in how a batch was processed, maybe someone bought during an IT upgrade and the transaction wasn't coded as a GC and it slipped through. All evidence now suggests this is nothing more than a once off occurence in a small window of time, not a larger trend.
Now I'm off to apply my $50 GC to an upcoming flight I was going to buy anyway...
Now I'm off to apply my $50 GC to an upcoming flight I was going to buy anyway...
#1903
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: PHX
Posts: 623
This may be a silly question, but I'm wondering if AA will sell gift cards at the airport (either at the ticket counter, service desk, or club) that may code as something else with Amex?
#1904
Join Date: Mar 2018
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP. Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,134
Out of curiosity how did you buy it? Mobile or desktop browser & platform? Time of day? Logged in to aa.com or not? How did the pending charge show up- like it used to with only the Ft Worth address? Wondering about some sort of variable that might have caused it to slip by..
#1905
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: DC
Programs: AA PPRO, HH Diamond, National EE
Posts: 603
I have four purchases in right now. $75 Plat, $100, $100, $50 Aspire Right now everything is pending as AA ARC out of Tulsa. I will update when able. I need to buy tickets anyway so I figured to test all in one big shot.
Update: All of the purchases switched over to the Dallas Address and are now coded as Gift Certificates once it went from pending to posted. O well, guess it's back to food and luggage costs to drop the money.
Update: All of the purchases switched over to the Dallas Address and are now coded as Gift Certificates once it went from pending to posted. O well, guess it's back to food and luggage costs to drop the money.
Last edited by hawkfan7314; Jun 20, 2019 at 7:30 am Reason: Update