Use Your Travel Credits For 2017 Sooner Rather Than Later

At the end of last year, I noticed a lot of readers in a mad rush to use up their travel credits on different premium cards at the absolute last minute. As we also saw last year, loopholes do get closed (e.g MPX no longer works for the American Express Platinum card) so I’d strongly recommend using your travel credits sooner rather than later.

What does/doesn’t trigger the airline credit varies by card. Across all cards airline incidentals count so if you frequently make these types of purchases then it’s worth saving your travel credit for those purchases.

Even if you don’t/can’t use these credits up early, I’d set yourself reminders for later in the year. Remember that the Chase Sapphire Reserve & Citi Prestige cards require that your transaction post to your December statement for 2017 (rather than being based on a calendar year) to be eligible so I’d set yourself a reminder for November to use up any credits to make sure they’ll post on your December statement.

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22 Comments
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Jared
Jared (@guest_335645)
January 8, 2017 16:50

Could I apply for the Sapphire Reserve this month, use the airline credit and still have the opportunity to use the airline credit again before my next AF?

caleb kurtz
caleb kurtz (@guest_333987)
January 4, 2017 15:36

Flyer talk is screwy today, FYI

Abey
Abey (@guest_333975)
January 4, 2017 15:14

Good stuff Although the AA link doesnt work

Credit
Credit (@guest_333959)
January 4, 2017 14:55

Do you know if Amex is still anal about not doing MS to meet the minimum spend? Especially on the platinum cards

DC
DC (@guest_333971)
January 4, 2017 15:08

Probably shared the wrong link. Follow the Alaska link and in the lower right of the FT wiki you’ll see links to the other airlines

DC
DC (@guest_333972)
January 4, 2017 15:09
  DC

Whoops, meant to reply to Sam instead.

Raul
Raul (@guest_333984)
January 4, 2017 15:33

Not anal at all, just got my second 50,000 MR points a few weeks ago. MSed all $15,000 of it then did the same for my platinum upgrade from gold.

Den
Den (@guest_333992)
January 4, 2017 15:57

The problem is in hidden financial review. Basically you don’t know if they run it. Even if you spent all the points they can took points back and your account can experience a negative point balance. This mean you will owe them points. I have not MSed, all organic spending, however they took 100k points back due to I closed the card before financial review was finished. They said that the points were frozen and they did not found any MS. They were going to return points but the card (not rewards account) was closed and they were unable to return points. So, be careful with AmEx.

Raul
Raul (@guest_334047)
January 4, 2017 17:20

So just use up the points and give them the middle finger. If they give me a negative ballance on my points ballance after I have drained the points I could care less. Simply move on. What are they gonna do?

Sam
Sam (@guest_333944)
January 4, 2017 14:41

Any reason the FT links for AA and UA are gone?

Eric
Eric (@guest_333940)
January 4, 2017 14:32

You wrote that MPX no longer works for Platinum travel credits. What about PRG?

Ike
Ike (@guest_333947)
January 4, 2017 14:44

It doesn’t work neither

Thomas
Thomas (@guest_333977)
January 4, 2017 15:19

No

j
j (@guest_333938)
January 4, 2017 14:30

United page no good…?

VM
VM (@guest_333936)
January 4, 2017 14:23

I already used $300 CSR, $300 Ritz and $100 Amex PRG for 2017. Only $200 Amex plat left which will be done soon

mr_jetpack
mr_jetpack (@guest_333934)
January 4, 2017 14:18

I found that because my December billing was on the 5th, I missed out on $49 of credits for my CSR 🙁