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)
Sep 7, 2018, 12:42 pm
#826
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 4
AA gift cards used to work for me but in June 2018, I bought a $100 gc with my PRG and the charge appeared as AMERICAN AIRLINES instead of AA MISC SALE, and it was not reimbursed. A few months later, I tried a $50 gift card with the same results. Is there a way to make sure that the charge will have AA MISC? A special AA gift card site, perhaps? I still see people having success in doing this so I was wondering. I usually google "aa virtual gift cards" and go to the first page. Any information is appreciated.
Sep 7, 2018, 1:21 pm
#827
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Sep 7, 2018, 1:38 pm
#828
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 4
Thank you for your reply but this is exactly where I bought a $50 gift card recently. Do people use this site and the charges come in as AA MISC? If so, the site reacts differently depending on your card/location/date?
Sep 7, 2018, 1:45 pm
#829
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
To my knowledge that is the only American Airlines site that sells giftcards. Scroll back to around post 795 to see if the transaction description matches what you are seeing. If it does, that's not the problem.
Have you verified that AA is the selected airline on this specific card account?
Have you verified that AA is the selected airline on this specific card account?
Sep 7, 2018, 2:57 pm
#830
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 4
Yes, the transaction description matches what I see in my pending charge. And yes, AA is my selected airline. I will wait until the charge is posted and report back here. Thanks.
Sep 7, 2018, 5:27 pm
#831
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 140
purchase 2 AA $100 gc separately on 09/04/18. got credit for both on 09/07/18.
will try again in 2019.
will try again in 2019.
Sep 7, 2018, 6:15 pm
#832
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 32
Is this applicable to both personal and business platinum cards?
Sep 7, 2018, 7:43 pm
#833
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: FL
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Plat, IC Plat Amb, HH Diamond, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 1,299
Sep 9, 2018, 12:21 pm
#834
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 110
Change fees
I edited this because I found the answer to my question. The credit DOES cover itinerary change fees.
Thanks
Thanks
Last edited by detjason; Sep 9, 2018 at 12:38 pm
Sep 9, 2018, 12:38 pm
#835
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: FL
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Plat, IC Plat Amb, HH Diamond, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 1,299
Terms: " Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty free purchases, and award tickets are not deemed to be incidental fees"
Sep 12, 2018, 5:54 am
#836
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 32
People who got reimbursed, can you please tell me the document type?
Mine says as follows
Document Type: MISCELLANEOUS TAX(S)/FEE(S)
Mine says as follows
Document Type: MISCELLANEOUS TAX(S)/FEE(S)
Sep 12, 2018, 5:44 pm
#838
Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 4
I am reporting back about my post of 830. The charge was posted as American Airlines, instead of AA MISC, but it was reimbursed after a few days. Strange but worked. Thanks.
Sep 13, 2018, 5:34 pm
#839
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 17
A very weird experience:
At end of July I purchased 250 AA gc with my Aspire card, and 200 AA gc with a platinum card under my friend's name. We live in the same address. Both got reimbursed in several days. Early August, after checking that both cards were valid and had correct balances, I listed both on raise.com without knowing their 45 days hold policy for travel cards, but decided to just leave them on raise.com in pending status as was.
Yesterday, I actually wanted to use them, so I removed them from raise.com (both were still pending listing at that time), and then found that both cards were voided.
I called AA gc department, and was told that the bank (presumably Amex) called AA corporate security team, and said someone disputed the charge, or it's some sort of fraudulent charge, and asked for money back, so AA had to void the gift cards.
However, I have not received any communication from Amex regarding this, and I called Amex and was told by customer service agent that Amex did not contact AA. I did not ask to escalate to a manager because I did not want to draw attention of me purchasing AA gc for reimbursement. Despite the obviously contrary words, neither Amex or AA is willing to have a three party phone call. The Amex agent did offer me the option to dispute the charge and said it would be credited within 24-48 hours. Not sure what would happen to the reimbursement credit though.
Has anyone experienced similar things? Is Amex manually reviewing the charges, and decides to contact AA? but they could just reverse the reimbursement credit... Why contacting AA to void a third-party gift card?
What makes it weirder is that the same thing happens to two gift cards, and the other one was purchased with my friend's card (we do have the same billing address though). Both were listed on raise.com, but I called raise.com and they said both were still in hold/pending period, and they did not void the cards. Also based on what AA told me, it looks like it's not related to raise.com
I would report back if there is any update.
At end of July I purchased 250 AA gc with my Aspire card, and 200 AA gc with a platinum card under my friend's name. We live in the same address. Both got reimbursed in several days. Early August, after checking that both cards were valid and had correct balances, I listed both on raise.com without knowing their 45 days hold policy for travel cards, but decided to just leave them on raise.com in pending status as was.
Yesterday, I actually wanted to use them, so I removed them from raise.com (both were still pending listing at that time), and then found that both cards were voided.
I called AA gc department, and was told that the bank (presumably Amex) called AA corporate security team, and said someone disputed the charge, or it's some sort of fraudulent charge, and asked for money back, so AA had to void the gift cards.
However, I have not received any communication from Amex regarding this, and I called Amex and was told by customer service agent that Amex did not contact AA. I did not ask to escalate to a manager because I did not want to draw attention of me purchasing AA gc for reimbursement. Despite the obviously contrary words, neither Amex or AA is willing to have a three party phone call. The Amex agent did offer me the option to dispute the charge and said it would be credited within 24-48 hours. Not sure what would happen to the reimbursement credit though.
Has anyone experienced similar things? Is Amex manually reviewing the charges, and decides to contact AA? but they could just reverse the reimbursement credit... Why contacting AA to void a third-party gift card?
What makes it weirder is that the same thing happens to two gift cards, and the other one was purchased with my friend's card (we do have the same billing address though). Both were listed on raise.com, but I called raise.com and they said both were still in hold/pending period, and they did not void the cards. Also based on what AA told me, it looks like it's not related to raise.com
I would report back if there is any update.