American Express Platinum $200 Airline Incidental Reimbursement – No Longer Being Triggered By Gift Cards?

One of the benefits of the American Express Platinum card (which currently has a 100,000 MR points after $3,000 in spend offer) is that it comes with an annual $200 reimbursement for airline incidentals (e.g baggage, inflight entertainment/food). You’ve been able to purchase gift cards (even though they are specifically excluded in the fine print) with varying levels of success in the past and the reimbursement usually posted within 2-4 days.

 

There are a lot of data points on Flyertalk threads that this is no longer the case, each airline has it’s own Flyertalk thread with this information which can be viewed below:

It seems like gift card purchases made after (or even slightly before) August 20th are not being reimbursed, whereas other charges from that same time period have been reimbursed which makes me think it’s a policy/IT change rather than it just taking longer for the reimbursements to post.

This is pretty big news if it’s a true policy change as it was one way people were able to extract a lot more value out of their Platinum cards (especially because the credit is per calendar year rather than card member year – meaning you can pay the annual fee once and get it at least twice). I certainly value airline gift cards a lot more than being reimbursed for fees that I usually don’t pay anyway.

Please share your data points below. I’d also recommend holding off on purchase gift cards if your intent was to be reimbursed until we know more.

This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: DO NOT CALL AMERICAN EXPRESS IF YOUR CREDITS HAVEN’T POSTED. Gift cards are specifically excluded from the fine print, all you’re doing is drawing attention to the fact you’re trying to get credited when you shouldn’t, if this is just a delay in posting the reimbursement you risk having your transaction flagged as not qualifying.

If you’re looking for an alternative, then keep in mind the Citi Prestige offers a $250 Air Travel credit which specifically allows stuff like airfare and will trigger on any airline purchase from my experience (including gift cards).

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Tri n
Tri n (@guest_332899)
January 1, 2017 13:23

Anyone with a new dp re mpx/Amazon (or really any gc)? Thx.

Dave
Dave (@guest_214042)
January 4, 2016 15:15

Bought 3 Delta GC on Dec 31. The refund posted on january 3. GC refund still alive

Houstonmama
Houstonmama (@guest_213267)
January 1, 2016 19:22

Thanks for responding @Chuck!

Adam
Adam (@guest_212322)
December 29, 2015 09:29

So as of December 29th are these GC credits still alive?

Chuck
Editor
Chuck(@chucksithe)
December 29, 2015 12:26

AFAIK they are now working.

sunny morris
sunny morris (@guest_182098)
October 7, 2015 14:04

Are these gift cards purchased directly through the airlines website?

Not4Tyrone
Not4Tyrone (@guest_181626)
October 6, 2015 15:30

Despite the fact that this may benefit Tyrone, today I received my first Plat reimbursement for an AA GC purchased AUGUST (!?!?) 28. I have 2 others that were purchased in Sept that I haven’t received credit for (yet), but doing the math it appears that AmEx is about 5 weeks behind on posting the credit …

Harry
Harry (@guest_181006)
October 5, 2015 10:10

Bought SW gift card for 75USD on Sept 25. Oct 3rd Credit posted..!!

CD
CD (@guest_179876)
October 1, 2015 22:49

What is MPX/Amazon charge ?

Matt
Matt (@guest_179723)
October 1, 2015 15:38

MPX/Amazon charge of $100 made on 9/27 was reimbursed on 9/30. I was honestly surprised to see it, as I’m still waiting on a legit charge made on 9/3.

Based on reports on Reddit and FT, it looks like whatever was “broken” is now fixed, as reimbursements seem to be happening at a steady clip.

Tyrone
Tyrone (@guest_180919)
October 5, 2015 02:09

Are they really “fixed” if they are posting credits for some people and not others? On what basis do they decide who “deserves” it? I hope everyone will join me and call them to ask they implement the Gift Card part fairly to all, not just the privileged few. Thanks.

Harry
Harry (@guest_181045)
October 5, 2015 13:17

i guess they are fixed…I got a credit too

Bought SW gift card for 75USD on Sept 25. Oct 3rd Credit posted..!!

jo
jo (@guest_181050)
October 5, 2015 13:31

Dude let it go….

lost pand
lost pand (@guest_181059)
October 5, 2015 14:17

Thyrone, I think everyone is trying to tell you: it is not about who deserves these “rights”. Amex is not doing anything so personally. They have no idea who you are. They have so many card members. You sounds like a soccor player who got called on penalty with yellow card, and fought about it with the ref and now got a red card. Many are trying to say, dont be that parent in the little leagues who argues ref that was strike or ball, in or out. Those argue too much for their kids’ ‘rights’ never be able to see their kids shine in later time. It is probably in Amex’s system, your account may be flagged already becuase you called and said ‘weird things’ happening. I don’t even think alllll the rep are so aware why some got reimbursed and some didn’t. Don’t you think? I mean, if you did not get the credit, it is just too bad, but it is just this time. I am sorry, but that happenes. That must have happend to lots of Amex members as you can see in FlyerTalk, too. It is okay. You will get other kinds of rewards back somewhere else if you are staying to play this rewards game long enough. I understand your feelings, but you want to stay in the game, you just need to play along. If you keep playing fair, you will get rewarded somewhere else. I don’t know which gift certificate you bought, but you can still use that gift card value, so it is not lilke you lost anything, you just did not get that extra. I believe everyone is buying the gift certificate of their favorite (or most useful) airline so at least in case reimbursement didn’t happen, they can use the value later. It is not so bad. And if you fly on that airline within this year, you will get reinbursed for the fee you have to pay for that flight. There is still time. I came here to see what others are saying about getting reimbursed for the gift cards from Amex PRG. I just got the card in my hand, and I got so disapppointed about this card right away about $100 reinbursment is only towards selected airlines! And that list doesnt even have all the MR airlines! How crazy is that. I will get my spend bonus and won’t use it for anything else probably. I have better point cards to use for spends anyway. I will cancel before AF hit the account for sure. I can not even seem to use the 100$ credit for this year alone. I should have read fine prints before I apply. I wished Amex tells on the offers bullets with the list of airlines. All I thought was I can use it for bag fees of any airlines. I just wanted to tell you, you are not alone and there is nothing to be angry about. We can move… Read more »

t
t (@guest_173267)
September 16, 2015 19:55

I just spoke to a CSR with Frontier about reimbursing $50 of incidentals I incurred on a flight that were charged in with the ticket as one expense on my CC statement. The CSR did not even request proof of the incidental purchases; just credited my account right away at my word. If you are an immoral person, you could try to get unearned reimbursements using this method.