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)
#901
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 7
I activated the card, selected the airline, and immediately went to american airlines site and purchased after i enrolled. Yeah, I'm guessing that was the issue, its probably good to wait a bit before making a purchase to make sure your enrollment in the benefit is activated
#902
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 27
Great observation! I'm waiting on $50 eCG purchase but saw that $50 was already deducted from my $200 credit!
Bought 1 $100 AA e Gift Card from giftcards dot aa dot com using Gold Card (PRG) on 10/12.
Reimbursed 10/16.
Original Purchase posted as below and on the dashboard in benefits was seeing the message before reimbursement
"You have used all of your $100 Airline Fee Credit for this year. It will renew again starting Jan 2019" .
So was fairly confident that the reimbursement would happen.
4333 AMON CARTER BLVD
FORT WORTH
TX
76155
UNITED STATES
800.433.7300
Additional Information: 20181013 AA.COMAMERICAN AIRLINES
Reference: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Category: Travel - Airline
Reimbursed 10/16.
Original Purchase posted as below and on the dashboard in benefits was seeing the message before reimbursement
"You have used all of your $100 Airline Fee Credit for this year. It will renew again starting Jan 2019" .
So was fairly confident that the reimbursement would happen.
4333 AMON CARTER BLVD
FORT WORTH
TX
76155
UNITED STATES
800.433.7300
Additional Information: 20181013 AA.COMAMERICAN AIRLINES
Reference: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Category: Travel - Airline
#903
Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Fulltime travel/mostly Europe
Programs: UA 1.7 MM;; Accor & Marriott Pt; Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 17,831
Purchased $100 gc 10/15. Credited 10/18.
#904
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 2
Had $148.xx remaining travel credit. Purchased 1x $150.00 GC on 10/14. Was reimbursed $148.xx on 10/17.
Would probably purchase 3 x $50 next time though.
Would probably purchase 3 x $50 next time though.
#905
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 2
American Express Platinum
So I messed up and bought 4 x 50$ gift cards from American Airlines on one transaction.
So naturally it posted on Oct 15th for $200.00. I chalked it up as a loss and purchased a $50 gift card on my Hilton Aspire card instead.
So this morning (Oct 18th), I check my bank and nothing. After work I check and boom. Both transactions were reimbursed with the annual credit.
So I registered today to share with you all that $200.00 transaction did get reimbursed for me. Good Luck!
So naturally it posted on Oct 15th for $200.00. I chalked it up as a loss and purchased a $50 gift card on my Hilton Aspire card instead.
So this morning (Oct 18th), I check my bank and nothing. After work I check and boom. Both transactions were reimbursed with the annual credit.
So I registered today to share with you all that $200.00 transaction did get reimbursed for me. Good Luck!
#906
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Truth or Consequences, NM
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, UA Silver, Mobile Passport Unobtanium
Posts: 6,192
So I messed up and bought 4 x 50$ gift cards from American Airlines on one transaction.
So naturally it posted on Oct 15th for $200.00. I chalked it up as a loss and purchased a $50 gift card on my Hilton Aspire card instead.
So this morning (Oct 18th), I check my bank and nothing. After work I check and boom. Both transactions were reimbursed with the annual credit.
So I registered today to share with you all that $200.00 transaction did get reimbursed for me. Good Luck!
So naturally it posted on Oct 15th for $200.00. I chalked it up as a loss and purchased a $50 gift card on my Hilton Aspire card instead.
So this morning (Oct 18th), I check my bank and nothing. After work I check and boom. Both transactions were reimbursed with the annual credit.
So I registered today to share with you all that $200.00 transaction did get reimbursed for me. Good Luck!
When purchasing multiple gift cards with the Plat, as in 4 x $50, the initial "pending" charge generally displays as a single $200 transaction. However, when the charge(s) actually post, they post as four separate $50 transactions with four separate $50 statement credits (this is the norm when purchasing Delta gift cards.)
When the charges actually posted to your account, did they post as a single $200 purchase or as 4 x $50 purchases? Were you reimbursed with a single $200 statement credit or with 4 x $50 credits?
#907
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 2
Yeah, except it may have been 4 x $50 transactions that got reimbursed not a single $200 transaction.
When purchasing multiple gift cards with the Plat, as in 4 x $50, the initial "pending" charge generally displays as a single $200 transaction. However, when the charge(s) actually post, they post as four separate $50 transactions with four separate $50 statement credits (this is the norm when purchasing Delta gift cards.)
When the charges actually posted to your account, did they post as a single $200 purchase or as 4 x $50 purchases? Were you reimbursed with a single $200 statement credit or with 4 x $50 credits?
When purchasing multiple gift cards with the Plat, as in 4 x $50, the initial "pending" charge generally displays as a single $200 transaction. However, when the charge(s) actually post, they post as four separate $50 transactions with four separate $50 statement credits (this is the norm when purchasing Delta gift cards.)
When the charges actually posted to your account, did they post as a single $200 purchase or as 4 x $50 purchases? Were you reimbursed with a single $200 statement credit or with 4 x $50 credits?
#908
Got newly opened Gold Card last week.
Selected AA as my airline 2 days ago.
Purchased AA gift card online for $100 today.
Will post when it reimburses.
Selected AA as my airline 2 days ago.
Purchased AA gift card online for $100 today.
Will post when it reimburses.
#909
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 4
AMEX PLATINUM PERSONAL
10/15 Purchased $100 AA eGiftcard
10/18 Reimbursement airline credit posted - Will be doing another this week
10/15 Purchased $100 AA eGiftcard
10/18 Reimbursement airline credit posted - Will be doing another this week
Last edited by DNTravel; Oct 21, 2018 at 7:43 pm
#910
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: DFW (Highland Village)
Programs: AA Lifetime GLD, SPG Lifetime GLD
Posts: 384
AMEX PLT
10/17 $100 AA eGiftcard
10/20 $100 Airline Fee Reimbursement posted
10/25 Purchased a second $100 AA eGiftcard. Only $90.xx of credit remaining so I'm expecting to get that amount reimbursed.
10/29 $90.xx reimbursed
So I'm done for 2018 and will do again in January. This is a nice way to recoup $400 of the annual fee (at least in year 1 of the card)
10/17 $100 AA eGiftcard
10/20 $100 Airline Fee Reimbursement posted
10/25 Purchased a second $100 AA eGiftcard. Only $90.xx of credit remaining so I'm expecting to get that amount reimbursed.
10/29 $90.xx reimbursed
So I'm done for 2018 and will do again in January. This is a nice way to recoup $400 of the annual fee (at least in year 1 of the card)
Last edited by Illini_Fan; Oct 29, 2018 at 7:57 am Reason: added second transaction vs creating a new post
#911
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Denver
Posts: 451
I got the PenFed Pathfinder Rewards card. It's an American Express card, but isn't actually issued by Amex. It comes with a $100 airline fee credit, with the terms being worded much like the ones from the Platinum/Gold/Aspire, but doesn't require you to select a specific airline. So because of that I was skeptical whether gift cards would be reimbursed, but couldn't find any data points when searching. Decided to test it out myself.
10/18 $50 AA eGiftCard
10/19 $50 Airline Reimbursement posted
I know it's not as popular of a card, but for no annual fee and a $100 credit that can actually be used on GCs, definitely solid. I think I'll try the remaining $50 of credit I have left on another airline to (1) see if more than just AA works and (2) whether the credit can in fact be split between multiple airlines.
10/18 $50 AA eGiftCard
10/19 $50 Airline Reimbursement posted
I know it's not as popular of a card, but for no annual fee and a $100 credit that can actually be used on GCs, definitely solid. I think I'll try the remaining $50 of credit I have left on another airline to (1) see if more than just AA works and (2) whether the credit can in fact be split between multiple airlines.
#912
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 512
*Hilton Aspire*
$100 GC purchased on 10/19, credit posted 10/24 (backdated to 10/23)
I enrolled card with AA and purchased GC on the same day. Had planned on waiting a couple of days but shortly after enrolled I received an email confirmation from AMEX confirming my elections so I felt comfortable buying the same day.
$100 GC purchased on 10/19, credit posted 10/24 (backdated to 10/23)
I enrolled card with AA and purchased GC on the same day. Had planned on waiting a couple of days but shortly after enrolled I received an email confirmation from AMEX confirming my elections so I felt comfortable buying the same day.
#914
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 4
AMEX PLATINUM PERSONAL
Round 2 of $100 GC for 2018:
10/21 Purchased $100 AA eGiftcard
10/23 Reimbursement airline fee posted
Got card this month and maxed out 2018 - Will try again in 2019 for full $400 airline credit with only 1 $550 AF - Not bad!
Round 2 of $100 GC for 2018:
10/21 Purchased $100 AA eGiftcard
10/23 Reimbursement airline fee posted
Got card this month and maxed out 2018 - Will try again in 2019 for full $400 airline credit with only 1 $550 AF - Not bad!