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 13, 2019, 10:18 am
#1561
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat; Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime Elite;Hyatt Globalist; HHonors Diamond; United Silver
Posts: 8,302
Try this and see if it works
1. Find flight ticket, let's say it costs A.
2. Buy gift card worth B, ensure A-B is around 100 or less (amex reimbursement mechanism seems to be number based)
3. Apply the gift card, put the remainder balance on amex and it will then be credited for the amount of A-B.
1. Find flight ticket, let's say it costs A.
2. Buy gift card worth B, ensure A-B is around 100 or less (amex reimbursement mechanism seems to be number based)
3. Apply the gift card, put the remainder balance on amex and it will then be credited for the amount of A-B.
Feb 13, 2019, 10:36 am
#1563
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,952
Feb 13, 2019, 10:44 am
#1564
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 52
This would be a bummer. AMEX allows cards from other countries to be directly reimbursed from airline tickets.
Feb 13, 2019, 10:51 am
#1565
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
No, it doesn't. On Delta, it shows as an "additional collection" (not as a ticket) and can/does get reimbursed for small denominations. I've had success with under $200 and no success with a much larger amount when applying gift cards to a ticket purchase.
Last edited by Diplomatico; Feb 13, 2019 at 11:02 am Reason: Clarification of which airline
Feb 13, 2019, 10:59 am
#1566
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Programs: Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards
Posts: 191
Purchased 2 x $100 GCs and 1 $50 GCs on 1/31 (jackpot), not reimbursed yet. Purchase on Platinum on 2/4.
Edit: for got to include dates.
Feb 13, 2019, 11:01 am
#1567
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
Edited my original post to clarify the airline in question.
Feb 13, 2019, 11:27 am
#1568
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,952
Benefit terms vary by market because competitive circumstances are different. How is this relevant to American Express USA which has always explicitly excluded tickets and gift cards from reimbursement?
Feb 13, 2019, 2:36 pm
#1569
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
Programs: Milege+, SkyMiles, AAdvantage, HHonors Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,685
Doctor of Credit has a report that AA gift cards no longer code as miscellaneous taxes, but say gift certificate on the receipt now. So AA g.c. may be kaput for the Amex reimbursement.
Feb 13, 2019, 2:38 pm
#1570
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: FL, USA
Programs: AA Plat, Hyatt Explorist, Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriot Gold
Posts: 1,666
Saw that and I am glad I wasted no time first week n January, grabbing GC from all three cards.
Feb 13, 2019, 3:03 pm
#1571
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: lax
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Diamond, Hilton Gold
Posts: 389
Feb 13, 2019, 3:04 pm
#1572
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA USA
Programs: Piggly Wiggly "Shop the Pig!" Preferred Shopper
Posts: 57,041
Possibly, but as mia mentioned, we need to see if smaller GC amounts get coded differently. Maybe someone here can do a test with $75 or even $40.
Feb 13, 2019, 3:38 pm
#1573
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 7,027
Feb 13, 2019, 3:40 pm
#1574
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: OR
Posts: 1,534
$50 and $100 are coded as gift certificate
Feb 13, 2019, 4:10 pm
#1575
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,932
Except that as mia posted upthread, this already happened once before (in 2016), and eventually went back to posting normally (though that time it took months if I understand correctly). So it's not clear yet if this was intended to be a permanent change this time or not, and we may not know for quite a while perhaps.
