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, 10:26 am
#1531
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, UA Silver
Posts: 2,272
Of course Amex knows about this. They knew about it all along. Amex doesn't bother dealing with an issue like this when its a relatively small group of people, but when you get a bunch of bloggers writing about it over and over again in December an January suddenly its not a small group and amex is losing money so they react. Its pretty clear that if this occured it was likely because of the extreme amount of attention bloggers brought to this, because it drastically increased the number of people doing it which increased the cost to amex which may have gotten them to act.
Feb 12, 2019, 10:44 am
#1532
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,953
.... In 2016, I purchased GCs from aa.com using this card on multiple occasions. In early 2016, they coded the standard, non-descript way on the card account. In April, they coded explicitly as a GC (same $ amount, by the way). By Fall, it was back to a generic code. So I would not give up entirely here.[/LIST]
Feb 12, 2019, 11:32 am
#1533
Join Date: Apr 2017
Programs: UR, MR, LM
Posts: 2
And here I was thinking that I should get my Plat reimbursement done and out of the way early this year. Guess I just need to hurry up and wait again...
Feb 12, 2019, 4:43 pm
#1534
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 21
Does anyone have the FNBO Travelite Amex card and tested AA gift cards?
Feb 12, 2019, 4:47 pm
#1535
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,953
First National Bank of Omaha TravElite card - refreshed April 2017.
Feb 12, 2019, 5:05 pm
#1536
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NY
Programs: DL Sil, AA Gld, WN A-List, HH Gld, Bonvoy Gld, Nat'l Exec
Posts: 12
500-mile upgrade purchase: AMEX Platinum statement credit?
Hello all-
As the title suggests, I'm wondering if I can purchase 5 500-mile upgrades for $200 on my American Express Platinum card and receive my $200 statement credit. The official policy says that it doesn't apply to upgrades, but I know it comes down to how the airline codes it. Has anyone had any success with this in the past?
Thanks for your advice!
As the title suggests, I'm wondering if I can purchase 5 500-mile upgrades for $200 on my American Express Platinum card and receive my $200 statement credit. The official policy says that it doesn't apply to upgrades, but I know it comes down to how the airline codes it. Has anyone had any success with this in the past?
Thanks for your advice!
Feb 12, 2019, 6:17 pm
#1537
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 31
I bought a $100 AA GC using my Amex gold on 2/4, it was reimbursed on 2/8.
Feb 12, 2019, 6:46 pm
#1538
Join Date: May 2014
Programs: AA Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 245
Feb 12, 2019, 7:29 pm
#1539
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: CT
Programs: Marriott-LT Titanium; AA-LT Gold/Currently Plat Pro
Posts: 208
Bought two $100 gift cards on Jan 28-reimbursed on Feb 1. Coded as Document Type: MISCELLANEOUS TAX(S)/FEE(S)
Feb 12, 2019, 8:31 pm
#1541
Senior Moderator and Moderator: American AAdvantage & TravelBuzz
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 10,415
Let’s move this over to the American Express forum for further discussion. Thanks. /JY1024, AAdvantage forum co-moderator
Feb 12, 2019, 9:04 pm
#1542
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 28
Purchased (2) $100 AA gift cards with personal AMEX Plat on 2/8/19. Unfortunately, coded as "Gift Certificate". No reimbursement as of 2/12/19. Will update you in a few days but I'm pretty confident this trick may be coming to an end. TPG reported on this today: https://thepointsguy.com/news/potent...ne-fee-credit/
Feb 12, 2019, 9:15 pm
#1543
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Bye Delta
Programs: AA EXP, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Hyatt Plat, Marriott Plat, Nat'l Exec Elite, Avis Presidents Club
Posts: 16,269
Most reports seem to say no, with a possible exception for purchasing from a kiosk at the airport.
Last edited by mia; Feb 13, 2019 at 5:49 am Reason: Add quotation for context after merge.
Feb 12, 2019, 9:29 pm
#1544
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 10
Purchased AA Gift Card Amex Aspire No Reimburse yet
I purchased an AA gift card online for $100 with Amex Hilton Aspire on January 31. Still no reimbursement (Feb 12). Coded as Misc. Fee/taxes. Should I worry?
Feb 12, 2019, 10:16 pm
#1545
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 2
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?