The new year has begun, and that means taking advantage of the annual travel credits on various credit cards. Most importantly, remember that gift card purchases no longer trigger Amex airline incidental credits. You might want to change your airline to one which you find yourself getting fees on (e.g. a low-cost carrier who charges for a lot fo things).
There are many annual card benefits which go based on the card anniversary year; below is a list of those that go based on the calendar year (or December statement closing). I’ve extracted this list from our Year-End Checklist which we posted at the end of 2019.
- Citi Prestige comes with $250 travel credit.
- Bank of America Premium Rewards comes with $100 airline incidental credit. Last I know, AA gc still works.
- Chase Ritz-Carlton card come with $300 airline incidental charges.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a $300 travel credit; those who got the card before May 21, 2017 are grandfathered into the old system where the travel credit renewal goes with the calendar year.
- Amex Platinum personal and business cards come with a $200 airline incidental credit.
- Amex Gold personal comes with $100 airline incidental credit.
- Amex Hilton Aspire comes with $250 airline incidental credit.
- Amex Green personal card comes with an annual $100 CLEAR credit and annual $100 LoungeBuddy credit.
- Barclay JetBlue Plus comes with $100 annual credit for JetBlue Vacations bookings.
- Citi Expedia+ Voyager card comes with $100 annual credit toward airline incidentals on qualified airlines, Wi-Fi carriers, or for the Global Entry application fee.
- CNB Crystal card offers a $350 annual incidental charges.
- FBNO Travelite card comes with a $100 airline incidentals credit.
- PenFed Pathfinder comes with $100 annual airline credit.
Likewise, there are a bunch of other things which have renewed now as well:
- $50 Saks credit twice-per-year on the Amex Platinum personal card.
- $100 Dell credit twice-per-year on the Amex Platinum Business card.
- The Citi Rewards+ card comes with a 10% rebate on redemptions, up to 10,000 points bonus per calendar year.
Anyone knows if the buying a $99 ticket on SW still triggers Amex Gold travel credit?
Thank you!
Bank of America Premium Rewards: I bought $100 AA GC on 1/3/20, and the credit posted today (1/16)
This was almost the same as my experience
*DELETE* (wrong thread)
$100 walmart gift card via MPX for penfed worked for me a few months ago.
$100 Delta GC triggered the Expedia credit for me
What do you mean? A booking on Expedia?
Yes, that’s what I meant. Thank you for clarifying.
I’m switching my platinum airline credit to AA and paying to keep my status for another year… I’ll report results in a few days
Does anyone know if the FBNO Travelite credit is still triggered by SouthWest GC purchase?
Worked for me last year. Haven’t tried this year yet. I hope so. 🙂
Me as well, but I did it before the whole AMEX ordeal with them no longer working. Not sure if the two are related. I have no use for the gift card other than holding onto them until perhaps one day a need arises.
I really would love to get the Amex plat again but only being able to use the airline credit on incidentals is really a deal breaker for me. What a shame…
The biggest issue is having to designate one airline. If it could be used across all airlines then I think most people would manage to use it all or at least most. If not then you’re realistically not the cards targeted demographic. But of course by forcing you to designate one airline Amex saves/makes money through breakage.
I’m seriously considering cancelling our Plat card and the Amex Gold Rewards because of this change. It’s just not worth the money they want. The other benefits just aren’t worth the expense. Amex is nuts to do this. The travel credit was the main reason I got these cards. And will downgrade my Hilton Aspire.
What airlines still work for GCs with Amex Plat and Amex Gold?
None.
NVM