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)
Nov 28, 2018, 8:00 am
#1006
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,952
Scroll back to review recent posts with a few reports of larger transactions which have been reimbursed. Bear in mind that reimbursement of a $150 or $200 transaction does not necessarily mean that a $250 transaction will succeed.
Nov 28, 2018, 10:36 am
#1007
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: NY
Programs: AA: ExPlat & 3MM; UA: 1k; KL: Plat 4 Life; Hyatt: Plat; SPG, Marriott, Hilton: Gold
Posts: 2,707
Off topic but does AA allow for combining of multiple gift cards into 1 or using multiple cards for 1 ticket purchase?
Nov 28, 2018, 10:45 am
#1008
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Cote d'Ivoire
Programs: OW Emerald - HH Diamond
Posts: 3,413
Indeed, they do.
Nov 28, 2018, 1:36 pm
#1009
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,932
AA allows up to 8 gift cards to be used per ticket purchase, and since they have always been able to be at least $100 gift cards, that's way better than Delta, where no gift cards over $50 seem to trigger the Amex "incidentals" credit, and yet Delta only allows 3 gift cards to be used per ticket purchase.
Nov 28, 2018, 5:08 pm
#1010
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5
I have seen a screenshot of $250 reimbursement posted 2 days after purchased on Oct.
Nov 28, 2018, 5:59 pm
#1011
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 3
Average time for reimbursement
I bought a $50 aa card 2 days ago (Amex plat) and was wondering what the average time for reimbursement is? It seems like a lot of people see it within 2 days. My airline credit is still showing $200 unused.
update: my meter went down on the 29th with the credit showing on the 30th. Thanks!
update: my meter went down on the 29th with the credit showing on the 30th. Thanks!
Last edited by Amillman; Nov 30, 2018 at 6:42 am
Nov 28, 2018, 7:24 pm
#1012
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 16,871
AA allows up to 8 gift cards to be used per ticket purchase, and since they have always been able to be at least $100 gift cards, that's way better than Delta, where no gift cards over $50 seem to trigger the Amex "incidentals" credit, and yet Delta only allows 3 gift cards to be used per ticket purchase.
Nov 28, 2018, 7:42 pm
#1013
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 278
Bought $200 eGC on personal plat and MB plat on 11/20 and 11/24 respectively. Benefit page showed use about 3 biz days after transaction and credit appeared on card activity about a day or two after that.
Nov 29, 2018, 9:18 am
#1014
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 1
Purchased EGC with personal Gold on 11/25 and received refund on 11/29.
Nov 29, 2018, 12:28 pm
#1015
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 2
UPDATE ****
I have bought (2) 100$ AA cards and both have been reimbursed within 48hrs after buying!
I recently got a Amex Plat and also have this $200 credit. I haven't picked which airline to use it on yet since on the surface seems like a waste of a benefit. I did just book a AA flight a few days back. Can anyone confirm this is exactly what to do:
Apply credit fee to AA
Go to link in post to buy AA GC in (2) $100 increments with CC
In a few days this should show as a credit on my account??
Does that sound correct?
Apply credit fee to AA
Go to link in post to buy AA GC in (2) $100 increments with CC
In a few days this should show as a credit on my account??
Does that sound correct?
Nov 29, 2018, 12:43 pm
#1016
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,932
https://giftcards.aa.com/using.jsp
The only reason I know about the limit of 8 is because that website comes up first in a google search of "AA gift card usage", and that website says 8. I never come close myself, because I book AA flights often enough that I so far haven't had more than 2 or 3 AA GCs accumulated at any one time.
Nov 29, 2018, 5:25 pm
#1017
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5
Another single $100 GC was reimbursed within 3 days after purchased. But the Nov 20th $250+$200 GC still didnt trig the travel credit. Looks like they wont be reimbursed automatically in my case.
Nov 29, 2018, 9:17 pm
#1018
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: CGK/KOA
Programs: AA ExPlat HH Diamond
Posts: 1,682
Bought three gift cards three days ago. 1x50. 2x100. Credit showed today. (the day before the credit showed, the amount under benefits decreased from 250 USD to 0 USD).
Nov 30, 2018, 2:54 am
#1019
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 28
Bought one $100 gift card on Nov 25th. When I checked on Nov 28th, the credit didn't show in my activities, but the amount under benefits decreased by $100. When I checked again on 29th, the credit showed up.
Nov 30, 2018, 7:39 am
#1020
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 3
Aspire Card
Hey guys, I bought a virtual gc for 100 on the 27th, still nothing on the credit, does it take longer for the aspire card?
